Public Broadcasting Service Research Articles

Little Founders on the Small Screen: Interpreting a Multicultural American Revolution for Children's Television

From 2002 to 2004, the children's animated series Liberty's Kids aired on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the United States' public television network. It runs over forty half-hour episodes and features a stellar cast, including such celebrities as Walter Cronkite, Michael Douglas, Yolanda King, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Neeson, and Annette Bening. Television critics generally loved it, and there are now college students who can trace their interest in the American Revolution to having watched this series when they were children. At the turn of the twenty-first century, it is the most extended and in-depth encounter with the American Revolution that most young people in the United States are likely to have encountered, and is appropriately patriotic and questioning, celebratory and chastening. Although children certainly learn a great deal about multiculturalism from popular culture, the tropes and limitations of depicting history on television trend toward personification, toward reduced complexity and, for children, toward resisting examining the darker sides of human experience. As this essay suggests, the genre's limits match the limits of a multicultural history in its attempt to show diversity and agency during a time when “liberty and justice for all” proved to be more apt as an aspiration at best and an empty slogan at worst than as an accurate depiction of the society that proclaimed it. This essay is not an effort to be, as Robert Sklar put it, a “historian cop,” policing the accuracy of the series by patrolling for inaccuracies. Rather, it is a consideration of the inherent difficulties of trying to apply a multicultural sensibility to a portrayal of the American Revolution.

Historionics: Neither Here Nor There with Historical Reality TV

“I think we’re really in our ancestors’ shoes, but these shoes suck!” cries nine-year-old Conor Clune to the camera. Conor, his brother, sister, cousin, and parents comprise one of three families picked to live as homesteaders for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary Frontier House. The Clunes and their neighbors, the Brooks and Glenn families, spend five months living in an environment carefully prepared to replicate as closely as possible the conditions of settlers in Montana in 1883, with one notable exception: the cameras. The cameras are supposed to capture “what life was really like” for viewers of the miniseries, including house raising, milking cows in a freak June blizzard, bartering for supplies with the Chinese merchant, and holding a pioneer wedding.2 Frontier House and a host of other historical reality television (HRTV) shows purport to embody (literally) a unique and vitally important new perspective on the past by “putting the flesh on a small chapter of human history.”3 Viewers are meant to apprehend history in a vicarious physical and emotional way, through the experiences of ordinary present day people placed in “the past.” The programs feature a reality TV/documentary format, painstaking facsimile replicas of historical environments, and the casting of regular contemporary people as the main subjects of the programs, relying on the dynamic of reenactment for their content. Reenactment has emerged since the 1970s as a preeminent format for

More like a Painting – The War : A Ken Burns Film : An Interview with Roger Spiller

More like a Painting – The War: A Ken Burns Film: An Interview with Roger Spiller Frank J. Wetta (bio) and Martin A. Novelli (bio) The following interview with military historian Roger Spiller has two purposes: first, to examine aspects of the making of the Ken Burns documentary and, second, to discuss the role and ethics of the historian as film advisor. Roger Spiller, now George C. Marshall Professor, emeritus, of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, is the author of An Instinct for War: Scenes from the Battlefields of History (2005) and is an editor of the two-volume anthology Reporting World War II (1995–2007), among other works. A collection of his essays entitled In the School of War is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press. From 2004 to 2007, Spiller served as an advisor for The War: A Ken Burns Film (PBS Home Video) as well as The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945 (New York: Knopf, 2007), a companion volume written by Geoffrey C. Ward. Directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, the series is a fifteen-hour television documentary on World War II first seen on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network in September 2007. Burns is best known for his PBS series The Civil War: A Ken Burns Film (1990)—one of the most influential documentaries in film history. The Civil War was truly unique in its creative innovations and the popular reaction to it (over forty million viewers). [End Page 1397] If his latest work does not achieve the extraordinary success of the Civil War documentary, this “intimate” story of the American civilian and military experience of World War II, with its revelations about the common man (no generals here) and its uncompromising images of the battlefield, is compelling in its own right. What led Burns to invite you to join the project? Was he familiar with your work? At what stage did you become involved? What, exactly, did he ask you to do? Paul Fussell recommended me. I don’t think Ken had read any of my stuff before then, but I think he did later on, especially the pieces having to do with the experience of combat, the soldier’s life, “shell shock,” and such. Lynn Novick asked if I would join the board of advisors as the military historian. I thought at first that my role would be limited to the military history of it only, but as the project went along the team involved me in just about every aspect of the production—the concept; the design; the content; the scope of the episodes; the sound effects, and even the music. One of the reasons I was attracted to this offer was the prospect of learning something about film making in general, and historical documentaries in particular, and I was certainly not disappointed. What I did not anticipate at all was that I would learn a great deal more history as well. The other advisors include historians Lizabeth Cohen; David Kennedy; William Leuchtenburg; religious scholar Martin E. Marty; and the former editor of American Heritage, Richard Snow. Samuel Hynes and Paul Fussell appear in the series as well as serving as advisors. What was your particular contribution? What interaction, if any, did you have with the other advisors or participants in the project? I think I must have been the last, or one of the last, advisors to be invited to participate. When Lynn told me who else was on the board, I was excited—and relieved—to learn that several of the others knew a great deal of military history themselves. Paul Fussell, Sam Hynes, and Richard Snow and I were already acquainted. Paul and I had met in the early ‘eighties. Sam and I had worked on a couple of projects for the Library of America, and Richard had recruited me in the early ‘nineties as a contributing editor for American Heritage. Others, like William Leuchtenberg, I certainly knew by their very fine reputations, and I felt privileged to be able to work with them. Although we each had our specialties, we were all engaged in the widest possible...

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction: Geographies of Genocide

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes The full text of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is available online at http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html ‘100 days of slaughter: a chronology of U.S./UN actions’ (Public Broadcasting Service) (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/etc/slaughter.html; accessed 13 July 2007).

Teaching and Learning Guide for: The Neglected Social Psychology of Institutional Racism

Teaching and Learning Guide for: The Neglected Social Psychology of Institutional Racism

Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

Unnatural Causes, a documentary series scheduled for release this fall, will present for the first time on American television an investigation of the sources of our huge and alarming socioeconomic and racial disparities in health. The seven-part, 4-hour documentary series will be available on DVD from California Newsreel (www.newsreel.org ) and will be broadcast in the United States by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) during the first half of 2008. The video clip linked on this page offers a sneak peek at the series' opening episode.

Conversation with William L. White

Conversation with William L. White

Technology for Technology's Sake

USING NEW electronic technologies in education continues to provide the structural support needed in order to bring meaning to core subject areas. Integrating these new technologies into the classroom and allowing students to explore them can provide young people with a roadmap to the future. But what about technology education itself? As teachers introduce design and problem-solving activities, students learn the range of possibilities that can flourish in the field of engineering. The following websites give just a glimpse of the kind of hands-on teaching that uses technology to teach about technology. http://quest.arc.nasa.gov NASA Quest is a website that sponsors a teachers' guide that provides accurate information about rocket technology. This website offers activities in math, science, and technology, including an in-depth glossary and links to other NASA resources. For fall 2006, NASA Quest is featuring a Lunar Research Station Design Challenge that asks students in grades 5 through 8 to design and build a model Earth-based research station to support living adaptively and working efficiently on the Moon. http://library.thinkquest.org/C002942/home.shtml This site was created in 2000 as an entry in Oracle's ThinkQuest. It represents the efforts of a pair of students from Bulgaria and their coach and showcases the most significant inventions in history. Your students can now research inventions of the past and trace their progress into the present. Some of the most interesting information concerns the site's creators. But their work isn't perfect, and the students are aware of that fact and solicit feedback from users. www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig The Public Broadcasting Service provides an interactive learning laboratory for technology education students. This resource provides a hands-on environment where students are given the opportunity to take part in the construction of virtual bridges, skyscrapers, domes, and other structures. http://edheads.org/index.htm Edheads is sponsored by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation. The goal of the site is to provide a simple approach to understanding difficult concepts, and the lessons offered coincide with national and state standards of learning. Edheads offers hands-on experience that enables educators to integrate technology into the classroom. And hip surgery has never been so much fun. www.iteaconnect.org Serving as the largest technology education association, ITEA provides a bottomless glass of technology resources. …

Food-Related Advertising on Preschool Television: Building Brand Recognition in Young Viewers

This study used content analysis to explore how much and what type of advertising is present in television programming aimed at toddlers and preschool-aged children and what methods of persuasion are being used to sell products and to promote brands to the youngest viewers. Four randomly selected, 4-hour blocks (9 am to 1 pm) were recorded in spring 2005 from each of 3 stations airing programming aimed specifically at toddlers and preschool-aged children (Public Broadcasting Service, Disney, and Nickelodeon). All content that aired in the spaces between programs was examined. Data recorded for food-related advertisements included the primary appeals used to promote products or brands, whether advertisements were aimed at children or adults, whether advertisements used primarily animation or live action, whether advertisements showed food, and whether licensed characters were used. In 96 half-hour blocks of preschool programming, the 3 stations had a total of 130 food-related advertisements (1.354 food advertisements per half-hour). More than one half of all food advertisements (76 of 130 advertisements) were aimed specifically at children, and the majority of those were for fast food chains (50 advertisements) or sweetened cereals (18 advertisements). The primary advertising appeals used associated products with fun and happiness and/or with excitement and energy. Fast food advertisements in particular seemed to focus on building brand recognition and positive associations, through the use of licensed characters, logos, and slogans. The majority of child-oriented food advertisements viewed seemed to take a branding approach, focusing on creating lifelong customers rather than generating immediate sales. Promotional spots on advertisement-supported (Nickelodeon) and sponsor-supported (Public Broadcasting Service and Disney) networks took similar approaches and used similar appeals, seeming to promote the equation that food equals fun and happiness.

Film beyond boundaries: film, migrant narratives and other media

Film beyond boundaries: film, migrant narratives and other media

The Transmission of Political Critique after 9/11: “A New Form of Desperation”?

The Transmission of Political Critique after 9/11: “A New Form of Desperation”?

WWW.Cell Biology Education: Evolution Web Sites

WWW.Cell Biology Education: Evolution Web Sites

Getting Funky with the Civil Rights Movement

This quotation from legendary music innovator James Brown presents another example of civil rights doctrine outside the canonized works of recognized leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. Employing song rather than the traditional rhetorical style perfected by King, James Brown—among many other soul, rhythm and blues, and funk artists—created a wealth of commentary expressing lyrical interpretations of African American sentiments during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. To take advantage of America's rich musical legacy, the Public Broadcasting Service's Teacher Source has compiled in its American Masters collection a lesson plan designed to entice students in grades 9–12 to explore and analyze the civil rights movement through the seemingly unlikely personage of James Brown. This web site, <http://pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/education/lesson31_overview.html)>, provides students with an opportunity to experience the interdependence of history, music, and culture. The PBS web site also provides helpful background information on James Brown. Simply select the artist's highlighted name on the “Overview” page of the lesson plan to reach a briefbiography, including obstacles Brown faced throughout his humble upbringing in South Carolina. Surrounded by poverty and debilitating conditions, Brown's early life exemplifies consequences of the inhumane Jim Crow legislation. The exclusion of southern Blacks from prosperous positions in the workplace relegated young James to cotton picking, street performing, and eventually theft, which resulted in his imprisonment. The site also discusses his first music industry appearance in the mid-1950s and his meteoric rise to the iconic status of “Godfather of Soul” and “Minister of the New Super Heavy Funk.” This colorful chronology of Brown's experiences will aid in students' overall comprehension of the lesson plan. For further information, be sure to investigate the “Career Timeline,” “Additional Footage,” and “Filmaker Interview” tabs near the top of the biography page. The film segments on the “Additional Footage” page are particularly captivating, furnishing commentary from prominent African Americans regarding Brown's longevity in America's musical and cultural spheres.

EHPnet: POV’s Borders: Environment

Vol. 112, No. 17 EnvironewsOpen AccessEHPnet: POV’s Borders: Environment Erin E. Dooley Erin E. Dooley Search for more papers by this author Published:1 December 2004https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.112-a987Cited by:4AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has long been known for the quality of its programming, which runs the gamut from children’s shows to revealing documentaries. Now PBS is taking its talents to the Internet with an award-winning series, POV’s Borders. An outgrowth of PBS’s long-running television series POV, each yearly installment of the online series seeks to challenge visitors’ preconceptions about everyday aspects of our existence. The latest installment in the online series is POV’s Borders: Environment. Located at http://www.pbs.org/pov/borders/2004/index.html, the multimedia presentation uses a plethora of tools to explore how people relate to the three essential elements of our existence: air, water, and the soil that grows our food.According to the Air section of the website, there are 31 million vehicles in California serving a population of 36 million people. This portion of the website looks at what drives Californians’ auto purchasing choices. There are video and print interviews with people who purchased electric and hybrid cars, an online chat room that allows visitors to voice their opinion about which type of vehicle is best for the environment, and a mini-documentary about the first service station in California to offer alternative fuels.The Water section examines the debate in the United States over drinking bottled water versus tap water. Among the issues in this debate is the amount of plastic piling up as a result of bottled water consumption. In this section, one man tells how he reuses his water bottles. There is also a portion on America’s most polluted waterway, Newtown Creek, which runs between Brooklyn and Queens in New York City. A short film describes how children have worked to help clean up this desolate waterway and reclaim it as a natural space. The site includes tips to help visitors do their own waterway mapping and links to other sites that focus on water quality, such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s volunteer monitoring page.The Earth section looks at the ground as a source of food. Two interactive features in this section teach visitors about heirloom varieties of plants and about saving seeds. There is also an interview with photographer and pasta maker Douglas Gayeton about the Slow Foods movement in Italy. This movement is trying to conserve traditional processes of raising animals and plants as well as producing food products.Gayeton is also featured in Border Talk, one of three complementary sections of the site. The Border Talk section presents essays by artists, scientists, and others whose work is related to the environment. The For Educators section of the site provides six free lesson plans to accompany the Air, Water, and Earth pages. The PDF- and HTML-format lesson plans are suitable for middle school and high school classes. Finally, the Resources section provides a convenient index by category of all of the websites referenced throughout the site.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by Iglesias V, Steenland K, Maisonet M and Pino P (2011) Exposure to Lead from a Storage Site Associated with Intellectual Impairment in Chilean Children Living Nearby, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 10.1179/oeh.2011.17.4.314, 17:4, (314-321), Online publication date: 1-Oct-2011. Weisskopf M, Proctor S, Wright R, Schwartz J, Spiro A, Sparrow D, Nie H and Hu H (2007) Cumulative Lead Exposure and Cognitive Performance Among Elderly Men, Epidemiology, 10.1097/01.ede.0000248237.35363.29, 18:1, (59-66), Online publication date: 1-Jan-2007. Posser T, de Aguiar C, Garcez R, Rossi F, Oliveira C, Trentin A, Moura Neto V and Leal R (2007) Exposure of C6 glioma cells to Pb(II) increases the phosphorylation of p38MAPK and JNK1/2 but not of ERK1/2, Archives of Toxicology, 10.1007/s00204-007-0177-6, 81:6, (407-414), Online publication date: 1-Jun-2007. Roux K and Marra P (2007) The Presence and Impact of Environmental Lead in Passerine Birds Along an Urban to Rural Land Use Gradient, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 10.1007/s00244-006-0174-4, 53:2, (261-268), Online publication date: 1-Aug-2007. Vol. 112, No. 17 December 2004Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 December 2004Published in print1 December 2004 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey (review)

Reviewed by: Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey Edward Komara Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey. Edited by Peter Guralnick, Robert Santelli, Holly George-Warren, and Christopher John Farley . New York: Amistad/ HarperCollins, 2003. [ 288p. ISBN 0-06-052544-4. $27.95.] Illustrations. One of the highlights of the fall 2003 Public Broadcasting Service television season was Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues (henceforth The Blues), a series of seven films broadcast on consecutive nights in late September. There had never been such an extensive television presentation of the blues, so the series was notable even to viewers familiar with this music. The group of films did not attempt to give a chronological account of the blues, perhaps partly due to the scarcity of film footage of blues shot before 1960, and perhaps also due to criticism of the 2000 Ken Burns series Jazz (see for example Steven F. Pond, "Jamming the Reception: Ken Burns, Jazz, and the Problem of 'America's Music'," Notes 60, no. 1 [September 2003]: 11-45). Rather, the director of each of The Blues films concentrated on one aspect of the music: Martin Scorsese on African antecedents of the blues; Charles Burnett on blues and its associations with social concepts of sin; Richard Pearce on the chitlin circuit blues in Memphis and north Mississippi; Wim Wenders on Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, and J. B. Lenoir; Marc Levin on Chicago and Chess Records; Mike Figgis on the British blues scene of the 1960s; and Clint Eastwood on piano blues. Celebration, not documentation, appeared to be the mission, and on assuming that, I found each film at least watchable, a few enjoyable, and the Pearce, Wenders, and Figgis offerings the best. The occasion for producing the film series, its companion book, and other related materials is the Year of the Blues (YOTB) 2003, marking the centennial of the estimated year when "Father of the Blues" W. C. Handy heard a blues slide guitarist for the first time at a Tutwiler, Mississippi, railroad station. The Year of the Blues was declared by the 107th United States Congress on 1 August 2002, promoted by periodicals such as Living Blues and Blues Revue, and monitored by the Experience Music Project, Seattle, and the Blues Foundation, Memphis. Since its initial television broadcast, The Blues series has been available on DVD in longer edits than those originally aired (Sony Music Video 55808). The Experience Music Project (EMP) coordinated an educational outreach campaign with the series and prepared a teacher's guide with an illustrative compact disc, of which twenty-five thousand hard copies were distributed to American high schools; these materials are accessible electronically through the Web site http://www.pbs.org/theblues/classroom.html (accessed 20 May 2004). A set of soundtrack compact discs was issued by Universal Musical Enterprises and Sony/Columbia/Legacy, along with a historical compilation on five compact discs and a series of twelve compact discs, each presenting individual artists from Bessie Smith to Keb' Mo'. (For a complete bibliography and discography, see also http://www.theyearoftheblues.org [accessed 20 May 2004].) The companion book reflects the films. It is a sumptuously prepared volume that crisply reproduces vintage and contemporary photographs laid out on variously colored pages. When the closed square volume is opened, the resulting rectangle represents the letterbox-shaped format of the films, and the structure is based on the seven episodes, accompanied by a thirty-seven [End Page 104] page essay "A Century of the Blues" by Robert Santelli. The prose texts, some newly written for this volume, others selected, edited, and reprinted from classic writings, are broadly grouped according to the types of blues styles featured in each film. Like the film series as a whole, the book does not aim to give a chronological account of the blues; as the series editor Alex Gibney writes in the book's foreword (p. 9), "Neither [the films nor the book] intends to be the last word on the subject. Rather, they are 'first words,' agents provocateurs meant to stir audiences and readers to explore the emotional territory of the blues on their own." To give a variety of "first words...

Young Brains Don't Distinguish Real From Televised Violence

Young Brains Don't Distinguish Real From Televised Violence

Rapid Response Educational Efforts: Keeping Cooperative Extension Ahead of the Curve

Today's fast paced and technology-enriched lifestyles require that many traditional educational seminars and workshops be transformed into “sound bites” of “edu-tainment” if Extension is to keep pace with clientele needs for specific and timely information that's useful and straight to the point. To remain a viable source of timely research-based information, Extension can stay ahead of this curve by utilizing today's technology to inform and educate the public on current issues or outbreaks. This presentation will highlight two such cases where technology delivery systems were utilized to maximize audience size and create an informed public in as short amount of time as possible. Public Service Announcements (PSA's) televised over New Jersey's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), New Jersey Network (NJN), addressed water conservation and landscape issues during the recent northeastern drought. The potential viewing audience is over eight million people, including all of New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, and Connecticut. The second case study will highlight a fully interactive CD-ROM on the Asian Long Horned Beetle (ALB) that was created within 12 months of the pest's discovery in Jersey City, N.J. This CD-ROM, containing curricula, PowerPoint presentations and evaluative tools, is currently being used throughout the northeast and in Canada for the most recent infestation of ALB. Filming for both Rapid Response efforts was done with a Sony DSR-500 DV Cam Camcorder and a Canon XL-1 Camcorder. Digital editing was completed on an Apple G4 running OS X with Avid Express Meridian Non-Linear Editing Software version 4.5 with 3D effects, Apple Final Cut Pro 3.0, Adobe After Effects 5.5, and PhotoShop 7.0. Stills were taken with a Sony Mavica and Nikon CoolPix digital cameras.

Model Americans, Quintessential Greeks: Ethnic Success and Assimilation in Diaspora

To tell stories of ethnic success is to speak about the nation in all its benevolence and generosity. National ideologies such as the American Dream, mobility, openness, and inclusiveness come to life any time the nation’s Others claim socioeconomic achievement. Stories of success turn the ethnic into the national as the former partakes of, and legitimizes, narratives of the latter. Alternatively, the ethnic can, on occasion, command the attention of the nation through the notion of success. The blockbuster status of the independent film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, released in 2002, is a case in point: the representation of an ethnic group within popular culture is such a hit that it generates a metadiscourse in the media about the film’s unprecedented popularity, and that, in turn, becomes its own kind of ethnic success story. The 1998 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary The Greek Americans provides yet another example of ethnicity’s impact on national cultural production. Indeed, the immense popularity of the documentary, largely framed as a tribute to Greek-American “success,” led PBS executive producers to launch a new series, “Homelands,” and to select Greece and Greek Americans as the first case study for this “new concept” that explores the transnational ties of American ethnic groups (“Return to the Homeland”). Ethnic accomplishment becomes a privileged metric for the national ranking of ethnicities, thereby raising many interesting questions: What is the cultural work of identity narratives that center on ethnic success? What kinds of issues does the success of popular representations of ethnicity raise? Furthermore, how do narratives of achievements by assimilated “white” ethnic groups intersect with the “assimilation” of racial minorities such as Asian Americans? And what are at the social and political stakes when “white” ethnics script their identities around achievement?

Branding Public Service

In recent years, U.S. public television, an ostensibly noncommercial system founded on public service principles, has become increasingly integrated into the commercial broadcasting industry. This article examines the new, market-oriented business practices within American public television that emphasize the building of brand identity. Since the mid-1990s, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has sought to extend its brand beyond broadcast television and cash in on consumer loyalty to PBS. This branding strategy targets an audience of consumers, and it sells both "content" and an image to these consumers. This is part of a broader strategy aimed at leveraging the PBS brand to create new revenue streams by licensing the PBS logo, selling new forms of advertising, and developing several PBS brandname product lines. After mapping the contours of this new strategy, the article explores the consequences of the brand-building approach for the future of public service broadcasting.