Youth Audience Research Articles

Bringing “The Real Cost” to Life Through Breakthrough, Evidence-Based Advertising

Building on the success "The Real Cost" campaign has already achieved requires the constant development of new audience insights, novel ideas, and unconventional ways of bringing the campaign to life. This article provides a high-level overview of the campaign's approach to developing and testing breakthrough advertising that has proven effective in preventing smoking initiation among a skeptical, hard-to-reach, at-risk youth audience. This approach is informed by evidence-based communication best practices for youth behavior change campaigns; insights from published literature and subject matter experts with decades of experience in youth health marketing and tobacco prevention; and findings from formative research studies conducted as part of the campaign development process. The paper also explores two campaign advertisements to showcase the research-based creative development process in action. This article is a collaboration between federal government officials, campaign managers, ad agency creatives, and researchers, and thus provides a unique, multidisciplinary examination into the research and creative processes that go into creating a national health communication effort. SUPPLEMENT INFORMATION: This article is part of a supplement entitled Fifth Anniversary Retrospective of "The Real Cost," the Food and Drug Administration's Historic Youth Smoking Prevention Media Campaign, which is sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Evaluation of the digital medicine perception by the youth consumer segment

The purpose of the study is to assess the perception of various aspects of digital medicine by the youth segment of consumers, the degree of readiness to consume its services and the level of involvement in this process. The last few years have become a turning point for medicine, if we talk about the number of new directions, emerging techniques and the introduction of digital technologies. Digital medicine uses information and communication technologies to solve health problems of different groups of patients. Its capabilities help doctors and patients to analyze the development of the disease, calculate health risks. The segment of medical gadgets of digital medicine offers consumers a variety of products. Artificial intelligence and wearable devices are becoming common means of organizing the treatment process and monitoring the human condition. Young people, as a rule, more actively perceive any novelties and include еthem in their daily life. Is it really so? If we consider Russian young consumers, since foreign experience indicates their rather high interest.Materials and methods of research. The presented study of the perception of the youth audience and readiness to use digital medicine is based on the methodology, proposed by the venture Fund Rock Health, dedicated to digital health. This Fund conducts research, aimed at improving the quality, safety and accessibility of modern medicine. The study is conducted by online survey of consumers who have access to the Internet at home, at work or through cell phones. The questionnaire was adapted for the Russian target audience. The results of the research of the consulting company Accenture, which regularly studies the trends in the consumption of medical technologies with the use of artificial intelligence, robotics and gadgets for self-diagnosis, were used as a factual basis. Data of research of the analytical company CB Insights, forming annual forecasts about the changes in healthcare, and also materials of joint research of the company Econsultancy and the developer of IT technologies for medicine Adobe are considered. The article presents some data of the report of the American company Change Healthcare, which has a strategic partnership with Google Cloud.Results of the research on the one hand, show the high involvement of young people in the field of digital technologies. The survey includes 380 respondents, 89% are smartphone users and 83% regularly visit social networks. However, they are quite wary of digital medicine, requiring the control of personal data. They trust their doctor more than mobile apps and Internet resources; they are reluctant to buy wearables, little understanding of what is telemedicine. They are limited to searching for medical information on the Internet only about services, doctors, medicine and treatment technologies to find out general information.Conclusion. The content analysis shows that digital medicine is becoming a popular trend in the development of modern healthcare. New technologies are being introduced, the key areas of development of which are focused on the Internet of things for medicine (IoT), artificial intelligence, mobile apps, genome editing, telemedicine, blockchain projects and cloud computing. The Russian market is slowly developing. Young consumers are not yet active in the consumption of digital health services and products. The key reasons for this are low awareness of the benefits and concerns about the security of the personal data.

Making sense of the public service mission in media: youth audiences, competition, and strategic management

ABSTRACTOur study examines how the public service mission in media is being redefined as a strategic issue in legacy public broadcasting firms. Our research interest particularly focuses on the challenge of competition for youth audiences. The study investigates perceptions and responses among strategic managers (N = 16). The authors use a blended framework of two theories: dominant logic and sense-making. Content analysis of interviews in Finland (Yleisradio [Yle]), Germany (Norddeutscher Rundfunk [NDR] and Radio Bremen [RB]), and Sweden (Sveriges Television [SVT]) clarifies correspondence and contradictions among strategic managers of legacy mass media firms as they struggle to adapt their organisations to the demands of today’s digital media environment. Findings indicate continuing commitment to legacy public service ideals that are perceived as beneficial but also pose complications in fulfilling the universal service mission’s historic mission today. The dominant logic of heritage broadcasting is juxtaposed with the logic of digital communications in the management work required to balance countervailing pressures for change and continuity in pursuit of digital transformation.

Авангардные детские журналы и газеты 1920–1930-х годов в Сибири

The purpose of this article is to analyze the magazines and newspapers for children and youth issued on the territory of Siberia in 1920s – 1930s. A great many children’s books were issued that years, moreover, the approach to design of that books and to the contents of writings for children changed significantly: the topics had to be actual, associated with the construction of the new society. At the same time, exactly in children’s press in 1920s, the new principles of book graphics were formed. There are a large number of magazines and newspapers aimed at youth audiences were published in Siberia in the 1920s and 1930s, but they did not have a long history. Some of them appeared only once or twice, after that they closed. But all the more interesting is the study of these rare publications as experiments that influenced how the Soviet children’s and youth magazine was formed. Viewing magazines and newspapers allows you to observe how the rubrication and the genre system of Soviet publications for children evolved, as well as identify trends that have become a definite “sign of the times”. The article explores archive materials and examines the contents of printed issues, peculiarities of the approaches to the inner composition of the material and design techniques, discovers the features of the “Soviet avant-garde” development in children’s and youth periodicals. It indicates that the majority of the Siberian Children’s and youth magazines issued within that period has demonstrated a strongly demonstrated ideological overtone, claiming its purpose raising the new type of human and orientation on the “iterature of fact”. The article covers the peculiarities of the illustration techniques in Siberian post-revolutionary magazines. The article marks that up to the mid – late 1920s, the children’s and youth periodicals design became composed of such elements as insets, plane drawings based on a contrast combination of black and white, photography and photographic compilation. Furthermore, it describes a number of self-presentation techniques, developed exactly by the avant-garde art. As can be seen from the above, it can be stated that Siberian children’s and youth journalism acquired the avant-garde trends of the first third of the 20th century, however, they haven’t been gradually and fully realized.

Interactive multimedia library products: forming skills of technology while preparing bachelors of library and information activities

Currently, the range of information products and services provided remotely is developing and expanding. Modern library users often prefer remote services to traditional forms. The real communication is inferior to virtual one, the popularity of electronic information products is growing. Libraries transform popular traditional products and services into electronic formats. So traditional quizzes, which are popular in libraries, are moving into a new form, become a dynamically developing electronic product. The popularity and demand of multimedia products for modern users led to emerging a wide range of such products in the library practice. Multimedia capabilities combine different forms of information and provide visibility, visual appeal and increase interest among users. The most original of them are the products with interactive features that provide the opportunity to dialogue with users and implement active actions. The most popular are such interactive multimedia products as an electronic interactive exhibition, a multimedia interactive quiz, a video with interactive elements. Libraries can also develop such products without extensive software, hardware and human resources. To ensure the quality of the created interactive multimedia products, it is necessary to study the technology of their preparation. Based on the interactive multimedia works created by students the author considers their features, cases of interactive opportunities realization; characterizes the experience to form of skills of technology of their preparation at bachelors of library and information activity. Actively developing of remote library services using information-communicating technologies, transforming traditional forms into multimedia format contributes to the development of interactive multimedia forms, as well as allows attracting users and increase the demand for documents. Game forms of work with readers are especially relevant for children and youth audience. Development and implementtation of multimedia interactive product is economically less labor-intensive process than the traditional library event.

Strategies to Increase Latino Immigrant Youth Engagement in Health Promotion Using Social Media: Mixed-Methods Study.

BackgroundGenerating participant engagement in social media applications for health promotion and disease prevention efforts is vital for their effectiveness and increases the likelihood of effecting sustainable behavior change. However, there is limited evidence regarding effective strategies for engaging Latino immigrant youth using social media. As part of the Avance Center for the Advancement of Immigrant/Refugee Health in Washington, DC, USA, we implemented Adelante, a branded primary prevention program, to address risk factors for co-occurring substance use, sexual risk, and interpersonal violence among Latino immigrant adolescents aged 12 to 19 years in a Washington, DC suburb.ObjectiveThe objectives of this study were to (1) characterize Adelante participant Facebook reach and engagement and (2) identify post content and features that resulted in greater user engagement.MethodsWe established the Adelante Facebook fan page in October of 2013, and the Adelante social marketing campaign used this platform for campaign activities from September 2015 to September 2016. We used Facebook Insights metrics to examine reach and post engagement of Adelante Facebook page fans (n=743). Data consisted of Facebook fan page posts between October 1, 2013 and September 30, 2016 (n=871). We developed a 2-phased mixed-methods analytical plan and coding scheme, and explored the association between post content categories and features and a composite measure of post engagement using 1-way analysis of variance tests. P<.05 determined statistical significance.ResultsPosts on the Adelante Facebook page had a total of 34,318 clicks, 473 comments, 9080 likes or reactions, and 617 shares. Post content categories that were statistically significantly associated with post engagement were Adelante program updates (P<.001); youth achievement showcases (P=.001); news links (P<.001); social marketing campaign posts (P<.001); and prevention topics, including substance abuse (P<.001), safe sex (P=.02), sexually transmitted disease prevention (P<.001), and violence or fighting (P=.047). Post features that were significantly associated with post engagement comprised the inclusion of photos (P<.001); Spanish (P<.001) or bilingual (P=.001) posts; and portrayal of youth of both sexes (P<.001) portrayed in groups (P<.001) that were facilitated by adults (P<.001).ConclusionsSocial media outreach is a promising strategy that youth programs can use to complement in-person programming for augmented engagement. The Latino immigrant youth audience in this study had a tendency toward more passive social media consumption, having implications for outreach strategies and engagement measurement in future studies. While study findings confirmed the utility of social marketing campaigns for increasing user engagement, findings also highlighted a high level of engagement among youth with posts that covered casual, day-to-day program activity participation. This finding identifies an underexplored area that should be considered for health messaging, and also supports interventions that use peer-to-peer and user-generated health promotion approaches.

Tales of the far north; Dr William Gordon Stables and the Arctic adventure story in the late Victorian era

AbstractDr William Gordon Stables (1837–1910) was perhaps the most prolific author of juvenile works during the second half of the 19th century, publishing more than 130 full-length novels, in addition to offering regular contributions to juvenile magazines. His writings covered a diverse range of subject areas, spanning all regions of the globe, and offered lively tales of adventure often coupled with moral guidance and imperialistic overtones. However, it was juvenile tales of adventure set in the far north that were his favourites and among his most frequent selections. Drawing upon his own first-hand Arctic experiences, Stables provided a knowledgeable view of the northern regions, offering vivid and realistic depictions of life and work in the Arctic, as well as its peoples, natural history and natural wonders. The challenges of survival in the harsh environment of the Arctic fostered a physical approach to manliness and maturity in Stables’ young heroes, who served as powerful role models for his youthful audience. Stables’ works enjoyed widespread popularity among impressionable juvenile readers and helped to shape their perceptions of the Arctic regions and impart character values on their path to adulthood. This article examines Stables’ contribution to Arctic storytelling in the late Victorian era.

Opera director Armen Kaloyan: his handwriting in art

The article covers a new name in the modern opera theatre of Ukraine – opera director Armen Kaloyan outlining his search for his own creative style. Since 2016, he has held the position of Chief Director at Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University. Leading opera directors’ influence on his creative growth is revealed. His teacher was Alexander Barsegyan, Ukrainian director, general director at the Kharkiv’s Pushkin Academic Russian Drama Theater. Before taking on that position, Barsegyan had been working for three years as the head of Kiev Operetta Theater. Kaloyan’s work as an assistant of Stanislav Gaudasinsky, opera director at the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg (Russia) and the head at the creative opera studio at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, became an extremely interesting school for him. An example of the joint work of Armen Kaloyan with another well-known opera director is the 2017 th project of the production on the Kharkiv stage of the beautiful opera by G. Bizet “The Pearl Seeker”, where he has worked in a team of Dutch designers led by director Marc Krone. Marc Krone has staged around 300 operas around the world and has his own theatrical school. He worked as an actor for ten years and he is familiar with current trends in the theatrical life of the world’s theaters. He witnessed experiments that determined the theatrical modernity of Western Europe. He has always given a lot of attention to performers’ stage movements, historical fencing and stage fights, and in 2001 received a diploma in the summer school in Sofia, Bulgaria, for performing arts in Rudolf Laban’s technique and contact improvisation in the Monika Koch classroom (London, UK). Among Kaloyan’s students are actors of the trendy elite theater group “Beautiful Flowers” (Kharkiv), which defines itself in new futurological theatrical techniques, in particular plasticity. Relevance of the study. In recent years, Kaloyan has seen through a number of remarkable opera projects, making him the talk of not only the opera community and journalists, but also ordinary audiences. In recent years, A. Kaloyan is seen through a number of remarkable opera projects and has become an object of publications not only in the opera community but also in journalistic circles. He causes delight in ordinary viewers. Such a bright turn in his career makes me look more closely at the figure of the young director, which is briefly covered in the media and largely outside the context of the development of the modern opera house. Armen Kaloyan’s performances have gained considerable popularity with the public, in particular with youth audiences. His success also grew after the guidance of such projects at the opera house as “Night in the Opera”, “Student Night”, Gaudeamus “Opera”, and open air performances: “Taras Bulba” by M. Lysenko in the square in front of Kharkiv Opera House, “Mazepa” in the village of Kolomak within the framework of the festival of Hetman glory. It is rather surprising that no reviews from professionals followed on these bright theatrical events. Nevertheless, every new work of A. Kaloyan’s provokes an active interest in the ordinary audiences and connoisseurs of operatic milieu: to a lesser extent, among the academic music community and music lovers, and much interest among the supporters of modern art. Access to the director’s “backstage” of Armen Kaloyan gives an idea of the nuts and bolts of the work done in his creative workshop. This understanding makes this scientific research really relevant. Main objective of the study. The purpose of the article is to comprehend the creative searches of director Armen Kaloyan in the array of opera performances he created while his artistic personality was being formed, and to identify the peculiarities of his idiosyncratic directorial techniques, or “handwriting”. Methodology. The opera “Carmen” by G. Bizet and “Mazepa” by P. Tchaikovsky are put under investigation. In “Сarmen”, plastic directorial leitmotifs were discovered, which allowed us offering a new reading of this usual opera. In the opera “Mazepa”, a detailed analysis of the libretto is made in terms of changing the concept of the opera in connection with its translation into the Ukrainian language. Conclusions. Armen Kaloyan’s creative search continues, he keeps on doing his studies, as now it is all about self-education and self-improvement in his profession. However, today it can be argued that the young director has found his unique “handwriting”. A. Kaloyan has his own concept of Opera Theater. He is a supporter of the acting theater. A. Kaloyan skillfully makes use of the stage space, thanks to a clearly pre-arranged stage sets and moves. In some cases, when a director comes to the musical scene who is experienced in the drama theater or in the cinema, the results are disappointing. In the case of Armen Kaloyan, on the contrary, opera is enriched, being given a new dimension.

SKAM som social utopi

In this article I discuss the Norwegian teen drama series Shame, broadcast by the public service broadcaster NRK 2015-2017. In the Scandinavian countries the series was targeted to a young audience around 16 years old but it became extremely popular among viewers of all ages, among men and women, and moreover, streaming made it available globally. The article discusses TV production for a youth audience within a public service and a commercial media system. The argument is that the series, expressing the ethos of social responsibility of Scandinavian public service broadcasting, represents a social utopia and that it in several ways has much in common with the long tradition for Scandinavian realistic drama production for young audiences. Thus, the article argues that the drama series of Shame is based on a narrative of inclusion – in contrast to popular TV-shows for a young audience on commercial channels, for instance reality gameshows, which are often based on a narrative of exclusion. The theoretical framework draws on Erving Goffman’s micro-sociological considerations of the social dramaturgy of face work, and is inspired by the theory of recognition by Axel Honneth. Analytically, the face work and interactions of the main characters of the Shame-series are used to exemplify how the drama series creates a narrative of inclusion while addressing critical issues such as face loss, emotional rejections, and shame. In conclusion, the series is an example of successful public service programming that is able to address young people.

Promoting Physical Activity Via Cooperative Extension

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate factors associated with physical activity (PA) promotion efforts via the cooperative extension (CE) system. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey distributed to Family and Consumer Science listservs across land grant institutions from all 50 states. RESULTS: Among responders (N=806), 625 (77.5%) completed > 95% of survey questions and are included in this analysis. Respondents span the age categories of 18-29 (14.4%); 30-39 (18%); 40-49 (19.5%); 50-59 (27.9%); > 60 (20.2%) and have been working with CE for 10.7 + 9.5 years, and most (64.1%) spend > 20% of their time working with government nutrition assistance education programs (SNAP-Ed and/or EFNEP). Most are county-based (73.2%) and work predominately in rural areas (60.1%). All agree or strongly agree that engaging in PA is important, however, only 40.5% and 50.6% personally meet or exceed the PA recommendations for muscle strengthening or aerobic activity, respectively. Forty-five percent implement PA as part of nutrition education lessons for youth or adult audiences, while 8.3% and 19.8% lead stand-alone youth or adult PA programs, respectively. Nearly 60% are engaged in PA promotion efforts in school and community settings. Only 50.6% have attended trainings related to PA promotion and (43.6%) agree or strongly agree that CE leaders provide support for PA training opportunities. While 63.7% agree or strongly agree that CE leaders endorse PA promotion as a role and responsibility of CE personnel, only 44% and 40% respectively, report PA promotion efforts are a component of outcome and impact reports, or a documented expectation in extension position descriptions. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of CE personnel across the U.S. engage in a variety of PA promotion and programming efforts, but gaps exist in training and administrative support or documentation of these efforts. Trainings to address PA promotion efforts and impact/outcome assessment are needed.

Sujeito, mídia e “consumo de experiência” nas celebridades juvenis: afetos e proximidade na relação da escritora Paula Pimenta com suas fãs

Com 18 livros publicados e mais de 1,2 milhão de exemplares vendidos, Paula Pimenta é um fenômeno de vendas do mercado editorial nacional. Tendo em vista sua expressividade como celebridade juvenil, partiu-se de um estudo de caso sobre a relação da escritora com suas fãs, que extrapola o ambiente midiático e a interação via redes sociais, configurando-se como uma relação próxima e pessoal, na qual afetos e estados de subjetividade são vivenciados na tênue fronteira entre ficção e realidade. Pretende-se investigar aspectos de “consumo de experiência” identificados nessa relação, assim como compreender o impacto desses mecanismos na constituição de identidades juvenis contemporâneas. Foram analisadas matérias publicadas na mídia sobre a autora e suas obras, assim como a interação entre Paula Pimenta e suas fãs, nas redes socias online.

A Cultural Study of Diversity of Pop Music Appreciation—A Case Study of Youth Audiences Since the New Era

A Cultural Study of Diversity of Pop Music Appreciation—A Case Study of Youth Audiences Since the New Era

“Two Birds with One Stone”: Transmedia Serialisation in &lt;em&gt;Twin Peaks&lt;/em&gt;

“Two Birds with One Stone”: Transmedia Serialisation in &lt;em&gt;Twin Peaks&lt;/em&gt;

Gilligan and Captain Kirk have more in common than you think: 1960s Camp TV as an alternative genealogy for Cult TV

Abstract A number of mid-1960s prime-time television programmes such as Batman (1966–69) and The Monkees (1966–68) seemed to not just allow, but encourage viewing practices that transcended the infantilized conceptualization of that era’s television audiences. This article argues such programmes constitute a significant and unhistoricized set of predecessors to contemporary Cult TV. Analysing audience interpretive practices and the set of textual characteristics that facilitated and encouraged such participatory and interpretive activities, we also identify a relatively cohesive group of programmes, all of which premiered in that period, that we retrospectively nominate as ‘Camp TV’. These shows’ distinguishing narrative elements, namely the surreal humour of Green Acres (1965–71), satire of Get Smart (1965–70), exaggerated clichés of Batman (1966–69) and anarchic character of The Monkees appealed to a youth audience and lent themselves to multiple readings and viewing practices similar to those that would come to greater fruition with the later development of Cult TV.

РАЗВИТИЕ МОЛОДЕЖНЫХ ИНТЕРНЕТ-ИЗДАНИЙ ВО ВЬЕТНАМЕ

Transformation processes are taking place in the modern Vietnamese society associated with the development of virtual space and the emergence of electronic newspapers and magazines. This transformation also affects the youth audience, more receptive to everything new. Due to the fact that electronic publications have a greater impact on the youth audience than traditional newspapers and magazines, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as prospects for development, are considered. The author studies the most popular online publications in Vietnam - Vietnamnet, Vnexpress, 24h.com, Thanhnien.com.vn, Tuoitre.com. The paper analyzes their content in terms of significance for the youth audience.

A Content Analysis of How Sexual Behavior and Reproductive Health are Being Portrayed on Primetime Television Shows Being Watched by Teens and Young Adults

ABSTRACT Television is a leading source of sexual education for teens and young adults, thus it is important to understand how sexual behavior and reproductive health are portrayed in popular primetime programming. This study is a media content analysis of the 19 top-rated scripted English-language primetime television shows aired between January 1, 2015 and May 31, 2015, and viewed by American youth audiences 12–24 years of age. The purpose of this study is to assess how sex/sexuality and reproductive health are being portrayed in a popular medium that reaches many adolescent and young adult audiences. Themes used for this analysis include youth pregnancy/parenting, mentoring/guidance of youth regarding sexual behavior, sex/sexuality, body image/identity, sexual violence/abuse/harassment, gender identity/sexual orientation, and reproductive health. Themes have been classified in one of the following six categories: visual cues, brief mentions, dialogue, minor storylines, major storylines, and multi-episode storylines. Our findings indicate that narratives providing educational information regarding the risks and consequences of sexual behavior were missing from the television shows we analyzed and that storylines promoting low risk sexual behavior were rare. Sexual violence and abuse, casual sex among adults, lack of contraception use, or no portrayal of consequences of risky behaviors were common. Compared to prior research, we found an emergent theme normalizing non-heterosexual gender identity and sexual orientation. Our findings have important implications as exposure to popular media shapes the perceptions and behaviors of teens and young adults. This study has the potential to shed light on the need to create stories and narratives in television shows watched by American teens and young adults with educational messages regarding the risks and consequences of sexual behavior.

Accounting for youth audiences’ resistances to HIV and AIDS messages in the television drama Tsha Tsha in South Africa

Theoretical debates and literature on E-E efforts in Africa have largely focussed on understanding how and why interventions on HIV and AIDS are effective in influencing behaviour change among target communities. Very few studies have sought to investigate and understand why a substantial number of targeted audiences resist the preferred readings that are encoded into E-E interventions on HIV and AIDS. Using cultural studies as its conceptual framework and reception analysis as its methodology, this study investigated and accounted for the oppositional readings that subaltern black South African youths negotiate from Tsha Tsha, an E-E television drama on HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Results from the study show that HIV and AIDS messages in Tsha Tsha face substantial resistances from situated youth viewers whose social contexts of consumption, shared identities, quotidian experiences and subjectivities, provide critical lines along which the E-E text is often resisted and inflected. These findings do not only hold several implications for E-E practice and research, they further reflect the utility of articulating cultural studies and reception analysis into a more nuanced theoretical and methodological framework for evaluating the ‘impact’ of E-E interventions on HIV and AIDS.

Transphobic Tropes and Young Adult Fiction: An Analysis of Brian Katcher’s Almost Perfect

Transphobic Tropes and Young Adult Fiction: An Analysis of Brian Katcher’s Almost Perfect Barbara Pini (bio), Wendy Keys (bio), and Damien W. Riggs (bio) The growing number of representations of trans people in the sociocultural realm are not produced exclusively for adults, but are also made available for youth audiences (Sandercock; Norbury). One of the vehicles through which trans people have been incorporated into youth culture is via the Young Adult novel. The premise of this article is that the increased production of such texts demands scholarly attention. Despite recent growth, trans representation remains sparse across youth literature. As such, the genre can provide an educative role for trans youth, allowing them to see their experiences and concerns reflected back at them (Pini, Keys, and Marshall). Further, such novels can contribute to a trans pedagogy that challenges dominant discourses of gender and sexuality by educating students, teachers, and parents about the lives of youth with diverse genders and sexualities (Bach). Alongside their positive potential, however, novels featuring trans youth may also be oppressive for trans young people, and used as a pedagogic tool to reify hegemonic categories of sexuality and gender. As Keegan has insightfully argued, the proliferation of trans representations is not indicative of a “move to transgender equality,” for such representations can be used to “enforce” normativity. In this paper we build on Keegan’s (2013) contention through a critical reading of a youth novel featuring a trans protagonist, that is, Brian Katcher’s Almost Perfect. The text explores the relationship between a cisgender (i.e., non transgender) white male, Logan Witherspoon, an eighteen-year-old senior at a high school in the small town of Boyer, Missouri, and a new arrival to town, a female trans character, Sage Hendricks. As the novel opens we learn that Logan has broken up with Brenda, his girlfriend of three years, after she cheated on him. An air of mystery surrounds Sage. [End Page 57] She has been home schooled and her parents do not allow her to date. Despite her parents’ stance, Sage goes on a few dates with Logan. After they kiss she tells him that she was assigned male at birth and previously lived as such. Logan reacts very negatively to this news, but later tells Sage he still wants to see her. Sage and Logan later attend a frat party at Missouri University while visiting Logan’s sister Laura, and have sex. Upon his return to Boyer Laura rings Logan to tell him about Sage’s gender history. Concerned about what others will think of him, Logan breaks up with Sage. The following week Logan receives a frantic telephone call from Sage’s younger sister Tammi. He learns that Sage had gone on a date and been beaten up after disclosing her “secret.” Logan visits Sage in the hospital where she tells him she is going to live life as a man and leave Boyer. Soon after, Logan heads to college. Katcher’s (Almost Perfect) text is a particularly important one to examine for two key reasons. The first is its status as a Stonewall Book Award Winner. Inaugurated in 1971, the award is sponsored by the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table. Like other prestigious children’s book prizes, the Stonewall Book Award affords a text prominence, sales, and longevity (Kidd and Thomas). A second reason why Katcher’s (Almost Perfect) book demands attention is that it continues to be recommended in the academic literature for its positive trans representation (see Rockefeller; Miller). Costello and Reigstad and Parsons discuss using the text with preservice teachers, while Hayn et al. suggest it as appropriate in secondary English classrooms. Even a recent analysis of award winning LGBTQI youth fiction by Clark and Blackburn, which highlights some of the book’s shortcomings in terms of the portrayal of violence, asserts that the text is valuable in that it “disrupts homonormativity by including a transsexual character, Sage” (884). As we demonstrate in our argument below, this is a problematic assertion given that the mere presence of a trans character does not challenge homonormativity. Reading and Analysing Trans Youth Fiction We began our analysis with...

Verse-atility: The Novel in Verse and the Revival of Poetry

Verse-atility:The Novel in Verse and the Revival of Poetry Michelle Ann Abate (bio) Crystal Sands, in an article titled "Why Children Need Poetry," observed: "Poetry is a form of expression that we all seem to love as young children. The rhythms in poetry are exciting to small children who love to dance and move to rhythms and sing rhymes" (par. 1). Indeed, childhood is filled with poetry. In examples ranging from Mother Goose and Shel Silverstein to Dr. Seuss and Edward Lear, the writers that many boys and girls encounter first—as well as the ones that they enjoy the most—are poets. While poetry is a favorite genre among young children, this situation changes drastically for most when they grow older. As Sands reports, "by the time we're adults, something has happened to our love of poetry. A national poetry survey in the mid 2000s indicated that 9 of 10 American adults do not enjoy poetry" (par. 1–2). The experiences that kids have with verse in classroom settings are often responsible for this shift. Especially amid the rise of standardized testing, poetry no longer represents a venue for encountering fun linguistic rhythms, playful word rhymes, and clever rhetorical arrangements. Instead, it becomes a realm for engaging in prescribed forms of analysis in order to obtain the "correct" interpretation. Through this process, poetry shifts from being a source of pleasure to a source of dread; from a locus of verbal exploration to one of rote memorization; and from a site of boundless creativity to one of rigid conformity. The end result is that, by the time young people enter high school, they have gone from loving poetry to loathing it. Given the antipathy toward poetry among middle-grade and young adult readers, the rise of the verse novel—or "novel in verse"—during the 1990s is especially astounding. As the name implies, this genre is already a narrative paradox or literary oxymoron in its own right. After all, it uses poetry to compose a type of text that is commonly written in prose. While the roots or origins of the verse novel date back to at least the nineteenth century in [End Page v] the West,1 these books increased both in their frequency and in their popularity during the closing decade of the twentieth century. In examples ranging from Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust (1998) and Ellen Hopkins's Crank (2006) to Thanhha Lai's Inside Out and Back Again (2011) and Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming (2014), verse novels enjoyed both laudatory reviews and equally impressive sales. By the second decade of the new millennium, in fact, they constituted one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful genres in Anglo-American children's literature. This special issue of The Lion and the Unicorn gives much-needed critical attention to this vibrant but currently understudied area of children's and young adult literature. As the essays in the pages that follow demonstrate, not only is the verse novel a rich and innovative genre in its own right, but it is also reinvigorating enthusiasm for poetry. Whereas young people in middle school and especially high school previously avoided verse, they are now voluntarily as well as eagerly reading it. In so doing, verse novels are not simply getting youth audiences excited about reading; they are helping to revive audience interest in poetry as a whole. Moreover, as Julie Fogliano's recent article explains, verse novels can also be a rich, fertile, and productive venue for discussing issues of social justice. Both fiction and nonfiction works can help to foster empathy, generate compassion, and address trauma. The issue opens with three essays that are expanded versions of presentations from a panel about the verse novel at the Modern Language Association Convention in 2016: Richard Flynn's "Why Genre Matters: A Case for the Importance of Aesthetics in the Verse Memoirs of Marilyn Nelson and Jacqueline Woodson," Mike Cadden's "Rhetorical Technique in the Young Adult Verse Novel," and Karen Coats's "Finding the Poetry in Middle Grade and Young Adult Verse Novels: Form as Metaphor." These essays examine the genre from an aesthetic...

Wenn eine Band lange Zeit lebt: Puhdys, Politics, and Popularity

This article examines the rise of the East German rock band the Puhdys, focusing primarily on the songs collected in their eponymous first album. Such an examination provides a long overdue reappraisal of the Puhdys’ early years, establishing not only that they benefitted from fortuitous timing, but also that their early music and lyrics conveyed sophisticated multivalent messages that helped them reach a youthful rock audience without running afoul of the authorities. This article also reveals the degree to which East German radio and the West German record industry fostered the rise of “DDRock” and later cemented its place in the East German cultural arena.