The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach About Diversity

by Cortes, Carlos E.

• ISBN13: 9780807739372
• ISBN10: 0807739375
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

Carlos Cort#xE9;s has been a first-hand observer and participant in the growth of multiculturalism and multicultural education from their birth in the social movements of the 1960s to the present day. In this unique collection of essays about diversity, society, and education, he provides readers with valuable insights, both from his own life story and from some of the most thought-provoking articles he has written over the past three decades. In many ways, Cort#xE9;s's personal and professional story is the story of the multicultural movement itself, and this volume gives witness to the struggles and successes that Cort#xE9;s and many others have experienced while striving to create a place for the voices, values, and visions of racial and ethnic groups in our culturally diverse nation and shrinking world.

Author Biography

Carlos E. Cortes is a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Riverside.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword	xi
James A. Banks
Preface	xv
Prologue: It Began with the Gypsies	1	(6)
Part I: An Introduction in Two Episodes
Holly and Melissa's Multicultural Curriculum	7	(10)
Shirley Temple	9	(1)
The Lion King	9	(3)
Pocahontas	12	(2)
O.J.	14	(1)
Romance	15	(1)
The Learners	16	(1)
The Societal Curriculum	17	(14)
The Societal Curriculum	17	(2)
Mass Media and Schools	19	(2)
From Teaching to Learning	21	(1)
Entertainment Media as Education	22	(1)
A Global Issue	23	(1)
Parents as Media Gatekeepers	24	(1)
Parents as Spin Doctors	25	(2)
Conclusion	27	(4)
Part II: The Mass Media as Multicultural Curriculum
Mediamakers as Multicultural Curriculum Developers	31	(21)
Content Creators: The Media Writ Large	32	(2)
Content Creators: Media Industries	34	(2)
Content Creators: Individual Mediamakers	36	(2)
Limits on Mediamakers	38	(5)
Commercialism	43	(2)
Tradition	45	(2)
Convention	47	(4)
A Life of Their Own	51	(1)
Media Products as Multicultural Textbooks	52	(18)
Single Group Analyses	52	(1)
Absence of Comparative Context	53	(1)
Short-term Analyses	54	(1)
Information	55	(3)
Organization of Ideas	58	(3)
Values	61	(4)
Expectations	65	(2)
Models for Behavior	67	(2)
Mass Media Curriculum as Message System	69	(1)
Mass Media and Multicultural Learning	70	(23)
News vs. Entertainment	71	(2)
The Media Impact Debate: Polarization and Pomposity	73	(3)
Media-based Learning: An Empirical Perspective	76	(2)
Uses and Gratifications	78	(1)
Agenda-setting	79	(1)
Reception Analysis	80	(2)
Unobtrusive Empiricism	82	(2)
Media-based Learning: A Projective Perspective	84	(1)
The Cosby Show	85	(1)
The Godfather Disclaimer	86	(1)
Media-based Learning: A Theoretical Perspective	87	(3)
Conclusion: Omnipresence of Media-based Learning	90	(3)
Part III: Media and Education in Contemporary Perspective
October 1997: A Multicultural Media Journal	93	(20)
Let the Media Curriculum Begin	94	(1)
Talk Radio Weighs In	95	(1)
It's Just Entertainment	96	(1)
Game Day	97	(1)
Promises, Promises	97	(3)
We're Off to See the Wizard	100	(3)
Meanwhile, Back in Riverside	103	(2)
Back on the Road Again	105	(1)
Red-eye Time	106	(2)
The Home Stretch	108	(4)
Postscript	112	(1)
The Contemporary Media Curriculum as School Context	113	(20)
Pervasiveness	113	(1)
Themes	114	(2)
Patterns	116	(1)
Perspectives	116	(3)
Ideology	119	(4)
Media and Learning	123	(1)
Limits of Content Analysis	124	(2)
The Children Now Report	126	(1)
A Potential Impact Paradigm	127	(3)
Conclusion	130	(3)
Part IV: Schooling in a Multiculturally Mediated World
Mass Media, Multiculturalism, and Schools	133	(13)
Scholarly Relationships	133	(2)
Premises	135	(1)
School Educator Responses	135	(4)
Areas of School Engagement	139	(6)
Conclusion and Preview	145	(1)
Struggling with Stereotypes: Uses and Abuses of a Critical Concept	146	(16)
Generalizations	146	(1)
Media as Generalizers and Stereotypers	147	(2)
Schools, Generalizations, and Stereotypes	149	(2)
Labels	151	(1)
Depictions	152	(2)
Mass Media and Stereotypes	154	(4)
Depictions versus Stereotypes	158	(1)
Schools versus Stereotypes	159	(1)
Conclusion	160	(2)
Multicultural Education in the Cyberspace Era	162	(8)
Cyberspace as Mass Media Democracy	164	(1)
Intergroup and Intragroup Communication	165	(3)
Schools, Cyberspace, and Diversity	168	(1)
Conclusion	168	(2)
Epilogue: She's Black, I'm White	170	(3)
References	173	(17)
Index	190	(12)
About the Author	202