Children and the Movies: Media Influence and the Payne Fund Controversy

by Garth S. Jowett, Ian C. Jarvie, Kathryn H. Fuller

Overview

Children and the Movies analyzes the first and most comprehensive study of the influence of movies on American youth, the Payne Fund Studies. First published in 1933, these studies—reproduced here in their entirety—are intrinsically important for their insights and conclusions regarding the effects of movies on behavior. They are, moreover, an important landmark of modern social science research, demonstrating the rapid evolution of this discipline in American academic institutions over the first three decades of the century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521482929
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/26/1996
Series:	Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	450
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.14(d)

Table of Contents

About the authors; Foreword George Gerbner; Acknowledgements; Dramatis Personae: biographical sketches of participants in the Payne Fund studies; Introduction: the Payne Fund studies and their continuing significance for communications research; Part I. History of the Payne Fund Studies: 1. Social science as a weapon: the origins of the Payne Fund studies, 1926–9; 2. Movie made social science: the enterprise of the Payne Fund studies researchers, 1928–33; 3. Aftermath: the summaries and reception of the Payne Fund studies; Part II. The Unpublished Payne Fund Material: 4. The lost manuscript; 5. The Intervale study; 6. Student movie autobiographies and 'movies and sex'; Appendices; Notes; Bibliography; Index of names; Index of subjects.

Editorial Reviews

"...a wealth of unpublished Payne Fund material....This excellent, timely study is meticulously researched and clearly written." Choice

"It is a work of careful research meant for the serious scholar...valuable for fleshing out an important part of the history of sociological study concerning children and the movies." Harry Eiss, Journal of American Culture

"This is a remarkable book....They make for fascinating reading and should prove valuable for future generations of social scientists and historians who are doing their own research on youth subcultures in twentieth-century American cities....The authors and Cambridge University Press should be commended." David Nasaw, American Studies

From the Publisher