Many studies have examined representations of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. media. Yet they have centered on portrayals of adults or teenagers. This investigation considered a potential LGBT population that has been neglected in media research, namely gender-variant, preadolescent children. Surveying the U.S. media at large but with an emphasis on television, the article reveals that gender-creative youth are nearly invisible. When depictions of gender-variant kids do appear, they often focus on either children who express extreme gender dysphoria or in some way signify the "tragic queer" motif (or both). The implications of these findings are discussed.

This Author Meets Critics conversation focuses on Tony Kelso's book The Social Impact of Advertising: Confessions of an (Ex-)Advertising Man (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Kelso meets with other advertising experts from several fields to discuss the following topics: what is meant by the social impact of advertising, the wealth of social and cultural topics covered in the book, using personal reflections in a textbook, the importance of history in understanding advertising, the effectiveness of digital advertising, the applicability of the book in teaching various survey courses, the ideologies and values supported by advertising, and advice for professors and industry practitioners. The book covers a brief history of modern advertising in the United States, advertising's influence on the so-called non-advertising content of the media and digital surveillance, the ideological themes advertising inadvertently delivers, how advertising can privilege or marginalize various social constructions of identity, the controversial practice of targeting children, and how corporations often use advertising to present a positive face while masking some of their profoundly darker sides.

No abstract

Various scholars have noted connections between traditional Protestantism and advertising in the United States. Not only did the two institutions inform one another as modern advertising emerged and matured, but, arguably, the two systems also exhibit parallel rhetorical formats and functions today. In this qualitative study, it is suggested that a shift in emphasis, from advertising’s relationship to explicit religion to its interaction with implicit religiosity, could provide fresh insights. This framework was explored through focus group interviews, participant journal entries, and one-on-one, in-depth interviews with Protestants from three mainline congregations. The findings show that some of the participants can, on occasion, touch the spiritual realm through transactions with advertising. Indeed, it is contended that, although they belong to formal religious organizations, these respondents can also engage in practices associated with implicit religion. At the same time, the interviewees also indicated they have little awareness of how advertising perpetuates the economic status quo. Displaying hegemony at work, they are seemingly able to pursue both explicit and implicit religious experiences and support their market-driven culture without bearing significant cognitive dissonance. The paper makes the case that advertising can sometimes function as a vehicle for helping to reconcile this apparent conflict.

De Zengotita, Thomas. Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005. 291 pp. Cloth $22.95, ISBN 1-58234-357-8, Paper $14.95, ISBN 1-59691-032-1. Mitchell, Jolyon P. and Sophia Marriage, eds. Mediating Religion: Conversations in Media, Religion and Culture. London: T. & T. Clark, 2003. 407 pp. Cloth $130, ISBN 0-567-08867-7. Paper $49.95, ISBN 0-567-08807-3. Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005. 256 pp. Cloth $23.95, ISBN 1-57322-307-7. Paper $14.00, ISBN 1-59448-194-6.