View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

aThe phenomenal success of Nickelodeon reveals a great deal about the changing nature of the modern media, and about changing conceptions of childhood. Nickelodeon Nation offers a comprehensive account of the channelas evolution, providing fascinating insights into production and programming, and the responses of children themselves.a
--David Buckingham, Institute of Education, University of London

aWith both dispassionate market analyses and insidersa personal accounts, Nickelodeon Nation covers the channelas history and evolving philosophies thoroughly--like a bucket of Nick's signature green slime! Even aNickspertsa will find new insights and understanding.a
--David W. Kleeman, Executive Director, American Center for Children and Media

Nickelodeon is the highest rated daytime channel in the country, and its cultural influence has grown at an astounding pace. Why are Nickelodeon shows so popular? How are they developed and marketed? And where do they fit in the economic picture of the children's media industry? Nickelodeon Nation, the first major study of the only TV channel just for children, investigates these questions.

Intended for a wide range of readers and illustrated thorughout, the essays in Nickelodeon Nation are grouped into four sections: economics and marketing; the production process; programs and politics; and viewers. The contributors--who include a former employee in Nick's animation department, an investigative journalist, a developmental pyschologist who helped develop "Blue's Clues," and television and cultural studies scholors--show how Nickelodeon succeeds, in large part, by simultaneouslysatisfying both children and adults. For kids, Nick offers gross-out jokes and no-holds-barred goofiness, while for adults it offers a violence-free world, ethnic and racial diversity, and gender parity. Nick gives kids the fun they want by gently violating adult ideas of propriety, and satisfies adults by conforming to their vision of "quality" children's programming.

Nickelodeon Nation shows how, in only twenty years, Nickelodeon has transformed itself from the "green vegetable network"--distasteful for kids but "good for them," according to parents--into a super-cool network with some of the most successful shows on the air. This ground-breaking collection fills a major gap in our understanding of both contemporary children's culture and the television industry.

Contributors include: Daniel R. Anderson, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Henry Jenkins, Mark Langer, Vicki Mayer, Susan Murray, Heather Hendershot, Norma Pecora, Kevin S. Sandler, Ellen Seiter, Linda Simensky, and Mimi Swartz.

A riveting, blow-by-blow account of how the network broadcasts of the 1968 Democratic convention shattered faith in American media.   “The whole world is watching!� cried protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention as Chicago police beat them in the streets. When some of that violence was then aired on network television, another kind of hell broke loose. Some viewers were stunned and outraged; others thought the protestors deserved what they got. No one—least of all Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley—was happy with how the networks handled it.   In When the News Broke, Heather Hendershot revisits TV coverage of those four chaotic days in 1968—not only the violence in the streets but also the tumultuous convention itself, where Black citizens and others forcefully challenged southern delegations that had excluded them, anti-Vietnam delegates sought to change the party’s policy on the war, and journalists and delegates alike were bullied by both Daley’s security forces and party leaders. Ultimately, Hendershot reveals the convention as a pivotal moment in American political history, when a distorted notion of “liberal media bias� became mainstreamed and nationalized.   At the same time, she celebrates the values of the network news professionals who strived for fairness and accuracy. Despite their efforts, however, Chicago proved to be a turning point in the public’s trust in national news sources. Since those critical days, the political Right in the United States has amplified distrust of TV news, to the point where even the truest and most clearly documented stories can be deemed “fake.� As Hendershot demonstrates, it doesn’t matter whether the “whole world is watching� if people don’t believe what they see.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

aThe phenomenal success of Nickelodeon reveals a great deal about the changing nature of the modern media, and about changing conceptions of childhood. Nickelodeon Nation offers a comprehensive account of the channelas evolution, providing fascinating insights into production and programming, and the responses of children themselves.a
--David Buckingham, Institute of Education, University of London

aWith both dispassionate market analyses and insidersa personal accounts, Nickelodeon Nation covers the channelas history and evolving philosophies thoroughly--like a bucket of Nick's signature green slime! Even aNickspertsa will find new insights and understanding.a
--David W. Kleeman, Executive Director, American Center for Children and Media

Nickelodeon is the highest rated daytime channel in the country, and its cultural influence has grown at an astounding pace. Why are Nickelodeon shows so popular? How are they developed and marketed? And where do they fit in the economic picture of the children's media industry? Nickelodeon Nation, the first major study of the only TV channel just for children, investigates these questions.

Intended for a wide range of readers and illustrated thorughout, the essays in Nickelodeon Nation are grouped into four sections: economics and marketing; the production process; programs and politics; and viewers. The contributors--who include a former employee in Nick's animation department, an investigative journalist, a developmental pyschologist who helped develop "Blue's Clues," and television and cultural studies scholors--show how Nickelodeon succeeds, in large part, by simultaneouslysatisfying both children and adults. For kids, Nick offers gross-out jokes and no-holds-barred goofiness, while for adults it offers a violence-free world, ethnic and racial diversity, and gender parity. Nick gives kids the fun they want by gently violating adult ideas of propriety, and satisfies adults by conforming to their vision of "quality" children's programming.

Nickelodeon Nation shows how, in only twenty years, Nickelodeon has transformed itself from the "green vegetable network"--distasteful for kids but "good for them," according to parents--into a super-cool network with some of the most successful shows on the air. This ground-breaking collection fills a major gap in our understanding of both contemporary children's culture and the television industry.

Contributors include: Daniel R. Anderson, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Henry Jenkins, Mark Langer, Vicki Mayer, Susan Murray, Heather Hendershot, Norma Pecora, Kevin S. Sandler, Ellen Seiter, Linda Simensky, and Mimi Swartz.

The rise of right-wing broadcasting during the Cold War has been mostly forgotten today. But in the 1950s and '60s you could turn on your radio any time of the day and listen to diatribes against communism, civil rights, the United Nations, fluoridation, federal income tax, Social Security, or JFK, as well as hosannas praising Barry Goldwater and Jesus Christ. Half a century before the rise of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, these broadcasters bucked the FCC's public interest mandate and created an alternate universe of right-wing political coverage, anticommunist sermons, and pro-business bluster. A lively look back at this formative era, "What's Fair on the Air? "charts the rise and fall of four of the most prominent right-wing broadcasters: H. L. Hunt, Dan Smoot, Carl McIntire, and Billy James Hargis. By the 1970s, all four had been hamstrung by the Internal Revenue Service, the FCC's Fairness Doctrine, and the rise of a more effective conservative movement. But before losing their battle for the airwaves, Heather Hendershot reveals, they purveyed ideological notions that would eventually triumph, creating a potent brew of religion, politics, and dedication to free-market economics that paved the way for the rise of Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority, Fox News, and the Tea Party.

The rise of right-wing broadcasting during the Cold War has been mostly forgotten today. But in the 1950s and '60s you could turn on your radio any time of the day and listen to diatribes against communism, civil rights, the United Nations, fluoridation, federal income tax, Social Security, or JFK, as well as hosannas praising Barry Goldwater and Jesus Christ. Half a century before the rise of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, these broadcasters bucked the FCC's public interest mandate and created an alternate universe of right-wing political coverage, anticommunist sermons, and pro-business bluster. A lively look back at this formative era, "What's Fair on the Air? "charts the rise and fall of four of the most prominent right-wing broadcasters: H. L. Hunt, Dan Smoot, Carl McIntire, and Billy James Hargis. By the 1970s, all four had been hamstrung by the Internal Revenue Service, the FCC's Fairness Doctrine, and the rise of a more effective conservative movement. But before losing their battle for the airwaves, Heather Hendershot reveals, they purveyed ideological notions that would eventually triumph, creating a potent brew of religion, politics, and dedication to free-market economics that paved the way for the rise of Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority, Fox News, and the Tea Party.

Many parents, politicians, and activists agree that there's too much violence and not enough education on children's television. Current solutions range from the legislative (the Children's Television Act of 1990) to the technological (the V-chip). Saturday Morning Censors examines the history of adults' attempts to safeguard children from the violence, sexism, racism, and commercialism on television since the 1950s. By focusing on what censorship and regulation are and how they work-rather than on whether they should exist-Heather Hendershot shows how adults use these processes to reinforce their own ideas about childhood innocence. Drawing on archival studio material, interviews with censors and animators, and social science research, Hendershot analyzes media activist strategies, sexism and racism at the level of cartoon manufacture, and the product-linked cartoons of the 1980s, such as Strawberry Shortcake and Transformers. But in order to more fully examine adult reception of children's TV, she also discusses "good" programs like Sesame Street and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. Providing valuable historical context for debates surrounding such current issues as the V-chip and the banning of Power Rangers toys in elementary schools, Saturday Morning Censors demonstrates how censorship can reveal more fears than it hides. Saturday Morning Censors will appeal to educators, parents, and media activists, as well as to those in cultural studies, television studies, gender studies, and American social history.