ABSTRACT
In 1980, Children and the Faces of Television: Teaching, Violence, Selling was published by Academic Press. This collection of readings was edited by Ed Palmer and Aimée Dorr, and consisted of 21 chapters equally divided among these three areas. The title and contents reflected the multifunctional nature of this communication medium that has both positive and negative aspects, giving it a potential that can both alarm and enthuse critics, academics, and practitioners. Place this medium with the concept of the child and childhood and you get a heady mix indeed that produces no end of dispute and debate. Faces was not on its own, of course, and there were plenty of authors, writers, and polemicists who recognized the interest from both the public and professional audience in reports and writings in this area. But the writers in the 1980 volume never fell victim to pandering to public sentiment, and the level of scholarship and the standing and reputation of the contributors was never in doubt.
