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Objective. We revisit earlier studies investigating depictions of public service in children's literature, attempting to answer the question of how public servants are portrayed. Methods. We perform content analysis of 93 books & examine 868 characters for benevolence & competence. Results. We find that public servants are portrayed as no more incompetent or malevolent than other adults in children's literature. On a few dimensions, we find just the opposite. Women in general are portrayed as more benevolent than men, although the same patterns are not found between sexes when examining only those in the public service. Conclusions. If children are developing negative stereotypes of government officials & institutions, these stereotypes do not appear to be formed through their reading of children's literature. 4 Tables, 1 Figure, 1 Appendix, 20 References. Adapted from the source document.

Explores changing portrayal of civilian-sector employees and elected officials and depiction of themes involving governmental practices and performance in prime time television programming, and extent to which the public's increasingly negative attitudes might be formed by the programs; US. Based on a study of 9,588 characters in 1,234 programs, of whom 561 (6%) were either public officials or federal, state, or local civil servants.

Examines how TV news narratives convey meaning to viewers & work to construct a mythology of the existing social order, drawing on data from an investigation of Swedish TV news. It is shown that, although TV news functions at one level to broadcast information, at another level it operates to construct a mythic portrayal of the social order. This mythology consists of recurrent symbolic displays of the state & other social institutions as a coherent totality, a constant monitoring of social conflict & controversy in a way that renders them safe for public consumption & an invitation to viewers to establish personal loyalty to the social order. This mythology insinuates itself into the public consciousness through its resonance with the everyday life of viewers. It is concluded that scholars are quite right to be critical of the ideological work performed by the TV news, but they ought also to recognize the utopian dimension of this mythic function. D. Ryfe

"Transforming McLuhan explores the radical, humanist line of descent in interpreting Canadian media and culture theorist Marshall McLuhan's work, rejecting the dominant view of McLuhan as a conservative, uncritical herald of technological determinism and capitalism. This McLuhan is the oppositional critic of modernity, resisting uncontrolled technological change, who seeks new media forms with a human face. Contributors from diverse international and academic perspectives include Douglas Kellner, Nick Stevenson, Gary Genosko, Richard Cavell, Lance Strate, Glenn Willmott, Patrick Brantlinger, Donna Flayhan, and Bob Hanke." ""Marshall McLuhan was the first to theorize and to develop a concept of media, indicating their importance to all areas of society and culture. Today media are far more pervasive than in the 1950s and 1960s when he wrote. Yet his work has still not received its due attention. Transforming McLuhan will begin to correct this oversight."---Mark Poster, University of California-Irvine; Author of What's the Matter with the Internet? and Information Please" ""Transforming McLuhan re-reads the McLuhan phenomenon in light of today's media-saturated, 24/7 news and smartphone world. Here we meet again with the visionary Tiresias in the Underworld whose dark sayings once lit the late afternoon of the twentieth century. These critical readings create a time-out to question him again and to open space-time interstices for alternate thoughts and alternate actions." ---Michael Heim, Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles; Author of The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality and Virtual Realism" ""Transforming McLuhan offers a rich and textured reconsideration of Marshall McLuhan's ideas, demonstrating how McLuhan's work is a better match for current multi-dimensional and ambivalent understandings of media and culture than it was for the narrower conceptions that guided those who dismissed McLuhan in his own time. These provocative and well-written essays persuasively engage in what I have called ̀morphing' McLuhan with other key theoretical frameworks. As a resuit, Transforming McLuhan illustrates that cultural theorists have much to learn from McLuhanism, but that McLuhan's perspective also has much room for enrichment t from critical media studies." ---Joshua Meyrowitz, University of New Hampshire; Author of No Sense of Place: The Impact of Media on Social Behavior"--BOOK JACKET