Business Of Children's Entertainment » (1st Edition)

Norma Odom Pecora, PhD, teaches in the School of Telecommunications at Ohio University. Her areas of interest include issues of gender and childhood; topics that inform the courses she teaches and her research work. She is currently working on the contribution of popular culture to the construction of identity in young girls.

For the past 20 years, toy manufacturers have subsidized the development of children's television programming. The result has been the increased commercialization of children's popular culture; the creation of a "material world" of childhood characterized by brand-name toys, games, clothing, and television characters. Drawing upon historical and economic data and case studies of the media marketplace, this book examines how children have been developed into both an audience and a consumer group.

Booknews

Analyzes the material world of childhood in terms of the profit motive. Starting with the child as consumer and as audience, the issues considered include the structure of entertainment and toy industries, programs and products that demonstrate changes in the market, new alliances that continue the consumer-oriented trends, and expansion into the international marketplace. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.