Despite the prevailing vulgarity of its most notorious programming, television today has moved toward more traditional values. As a result of market realities, TV programming has become more diverse politically and thematically in recent years, and that has opened the door for traditional values to return to the nation's TV screens and even…

U.S. adults watch television (TV) for an average of 5 hours per day, an amount associated with increased obesity risk. Studies in children have found bedroom TV sets, which result in greater time spent by watching TV and shorter sleep durations, both of which increase a child's odds of becoming overweight. The authors examined associations between…

Objective: This article describes how using media depictions of psychotherapy may help in teaching psychiatric residents. Methods: Using the HBO series "In Treatment" as a model, the authors suggest how boundary transgressions and technical errors may inform residents about optimal psychotherapeutic approaches. Results: The psychotherapy vignettes…

This paper deals with current questions in revitalizing the regional language Latgalian, one of the varieties native to Latgale, a region located in the eastern part of Latvia. It first provides an overview of domains where Latgalian is used and highlights recent changes in these. Based on linguistic landscape data as well as interviews with…

"Sesame Street" is broadcast to millions of children globally, including in some of the world's poorest regions. This meta-analysis examines the effects of children's exposure to international co-productions of "Sesame Street", synthesizing the results of 24 studies, conducted with over 10,000 children in 15 countries. The results indicated…

Each new demographic shift and economic or social change bring seemingly new issues into popular and political focus--questions, debates, and policies about the role of language in education and society and the recent claims that transnational migrations and globalization are resulting in unprecedented forms of ethnolinguisic…

The paper suggests that phenomenology, the anthropology of the senses and of embodiment, performance theory and multi-modal pedagogies offer a rich set of theoretical ideas with which to consider children's expressive repertoires as overlooked forms of social participation and critique. Four case studies in relation to children's photography,…

This article discusses initial findings from a study exploring the pedagogical functions of popular culture. The study was framed by a neo-Gramscian theoretical framework which connects adult education and cultural studies, and asserts that culture underpins important informal adult learning. We used two television shows, "Grey's…

This review of research offers a synthesis and analysis of research studies that address issues of language and literacy practices and learning in transnational contexts of migration. We consider how theoretical concepts from transnational migration studies, including particular Boudieusian-inspired concepts such as transnational social field,…

Reality television programming has become a pervasive part of popular culture. Although such programming may seem to be mindless entertainment, it can serve as a tool to introduce political lessons in the classroom. This article examines how the concepts of alliance behavior and strategic voting can be explored by using the television program…

BBC ALBA is the first dedicated Gaelic-medium television channel in history. It launched in September 2008 and, in late 2010, announced that it would be carried on Freeview, in addition to Sky, Freesat, and BBC iPlayer, thereby widening access to Gaelic throughout Scotland. The channel is a BBC-licensed service that is presently operated as a…

Vocabulary acquisition associated with watching high-quality educational television has been documented in a number of studies. One lingering question is whether adding strategically placed onscreen print to a program can enhance vocabulary acquisition beyond those effects attributable to viewing educational content alone. The present study was…

The current study investigated the impact of a German television program on changes in 4th-semester German students' reflections on cultural perceptions over the course of 1 semester. Sixty-nine students at the University of Texas at Austin watched 4 episodes of the popular German television program "Lindenstrasse". After viewing,…

Many commentators have noted that the 2010 Supreme Court term was without the "fireworks" of recent years and, therefore, this year the Court garnered limited media attention and national interest. Contributing to this limited attention was the fact that the term ended with no retirements or looming confirmation battles. In addition, the term's…

Because of its potential for humor and drama, job interviewing is frequently portrayed on television. This article discusses how scenes from popular television series such as "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Friends," and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" can be used to teach effective job interview skills in business communication courses. Television…