The Televiewing Audience

Robert Abelman (PhD, University of Texas-Austin) is Distinguished Professor in the School of Communication at Cleveland State University. His scholarship has focused on the cognitive psychology of mass communication and, more specifically, television literacy - that is, how children learn to watch and comprehend television programming and develop critical viewing skills that distinguish reality from fantasy and educational fare from entertainment. Dr. Abelman has been recognized as one of the «Top 100» most prolific scholars in communication since 1915 by Communication Quarterly and «Top 100 Researchers in the Field of Communication Studies» by Communication Monographs; Dr. Abelman's work with intellectually and artistically gifted children and learning disabled children has been honored with three «Excellence in Research» awards from the International Mensa Education and Research Foundation. He serves as a program consultant for numerous television production houses.
David J. Atkin (PhD, Michigan State University) is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. His scholarship has focused on the uses and effects of new media as well as communication policy and telecommunication (where he respectively ranked among the two most prolific scholars during the 20th century). Dr. Atkin has been recognized as one of the «Top 100» most prolific scholars in communication since 1915 by Communication Quarterly and «25 most prolific since 1995» by Communication Research Reports. He has done grant-supported work on the adoption, use, and regulation of new media, and received the field's Krieghbaum «Under 40» award, granted annually to a junior scholar for distinction in research. His other books include Communication Technology & Society (2007) and Communication Technology and Social Change (2002).

"A welcome addition to a crucial area of media literacy activism! With her intriguing basis in myth and focus on Otherness, Debra Merskin presents an exciting, novel approach to her grounded critical analyses of media portrayals of minorities, and her engaging balance of scholarly style and conversational manner offers students and professors a genuine textbook that is accessible and relevant." (Mary-Lou Galician, Head of Media Analysis & Criticism, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Arizona State University)