N E W S S O U R C E
Topic: Society and the mass media: America's cultural celebration of the "holiday season"
Source: Linda Holtzman, Associate Professor, Department of Communications, Webster University, St. Louis, Mo., E-mail: [email protected]
Contact: Christine Wells, media relations coordinator, Webster University, (314) 961-2660 ext. 7624, or Sara Mortimer, Halstead Communications (212) 734-2190
Date: November 28, 2000
"Merry Christmas!!!"
No escaping the excitement and anticipation of December 25th--but for those who don't celebrate Christmas, the day often can't be over soon enough.
"For Christians, this may seem like either an overcommercialization of a deeply religious holiday or wonderful examples of holiday spirit," writes Linda Holtzman. "For non-Christians, the media saturation may be disturbing and disorienting. Some non-Christians may feel almost invisible during the month of December."
In her new book, "Media Messages: What Film, Television and Popular Music Teach Us About Race, Class, Gender, and Sexual Orientation" (M.E. Sharpe: New York, 2000), Linda Holtzman invites readers to take a quiz that will identify how multi-cultural their values and views really are. The results are not surprising: 90 % of those taking the quiz found out just how strongly they live a unicultural existence.
Holtzman is an associate professor of communications at Webster University in St. Louis, and her new book is an outgrowth of her study and personal experience on the influence of mass media on its audiences. In the book, she analyzes biases promoted by entertainment and media. What separates this book from others is that it 1) contains scores of self-diagnostic tests that individuals can use to learn more about their own biases, 2) is rich with Professor Holtzman's personal experiences about how she discovered her own biases and how she has dealt with them, and 3) cites eye-opening examples from television, film and music to support her research.
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