Greg [email protected]/225-3809www.journalism.wisc.edu/~gdowneyJ201Introduction to mass communication“mass communication”processespurposes“mass media”producerstechnologiesproducts“mass society”effectsaudiencesculturesWhat might we talk about in a mass communication class?•Can you identify any current events or issues linked to mass communication that we might use as case studies in a class like this?The most critical mass communication issue of our ageThe most critical mass communication issue of our age•Anne Wood (founder) and Andy Davenport (scriptwriter) of Ragdoll Productions •1997: premiered on BBC (UK) •1998: premiered on PBS (US)•2003: seen by one billion children in 120 countries across four continents•Filmed on location in England, adapted to USTeletubbies!Why Teletubbies?•Targets a previously-untapped audience: one-year-olds•Wood: “babies are growing up in a technological world, so we wanted to make a world that was safe and also in some way technological.”•“play technology [...] supplies their every need” (no adults like Sesame Street)•“tummies become TV screens that light up” (cyborgs)•Now even has an interactive web site - http://pbskids.org/teletubbies/teletubbyland.htmlResearch behind the Teletubbies•“little children watch television in a radically different way than older children and grown-ups watch.”•“We employ full time testers [...] and our research goes on all the time.”•“when children are watching television, they are not vegetating”•“We never teach children to say 'Eh-oh!' - that's just the way the Teletubbies say it.”•1999: American Academy of Pediatrics advised parents to not let children aged 2 and under watch any television •1999: “Spanish police arrest[ed] fifteen men who had set up a fake Teletubbies doll manufacturing business”•1999: Fundamentalist Christian leader Jerry Falwell wrote that Tinky Winky was a “gay role model” •Today: Google Video, YouTube, and Teletubbies fan remixes ...Teletubbies in troubleCan the study of mass communication help us make sense of all
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