Reference no: EM133660189

Assignment:

Critcher, Making waves

1. Critcher discusses four media which were of concern to parents and society before the introduction of television. What are they?

2. Why did the 19th-century politician Anthony Comstock object to inexpensive cowboy and detective novels commonly read by children?

3. At the beginning of the 20th Century, what objections did critics have to children's going to the movies?

4. Drotner (1999) proposed that movies were different from any earlier medium in five ways. Name them.

5. What was critics' primary worry about children's experience of dramas on the radio?

6. What were some of the objections the psychiatrist Fredric Wertham had to superhero comics (as opposed to crime comics or horror comics)?

7. Name four early concerns about the effects television had on children.

8. How early were researchers able to assure parents that TV did not have such dramatic effects, and that individual differences and social context were important factors?

9. Reading Critcher's section on television, would you say that the findings of these early researchers effectively ended criticism of television? Please explain.

10. How was Postman's critique of children's television similar to one of the critiques of movies cited by Drotner?

11. What was Kline's primary criticism of children's television?

12. Critcher identifies three views shared by Winn, Kline and Postman. What are they?

13. How are critiques of video games similar to early critiques of film and TV?

14. How were early critiques of children's computer use similar to critiques of film and TV?

15. What is a "moral panic"?

16. Critics of electronic media have often compared media culture to print-based literary culture. Name three dichotomies (opposing characteristics) used in these comparisons. For each of the three, tell whether or not you agree with the dichotomy proposed, and explain why.

17. What were "Saturday matinees"?