The Benevolent Bureaucrat: Political Authority in Children's Literature and Television

AuthorThomas R. Marshall
Published date01 September 1981
Date01 September 1981
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/106591298103400306
Subject MatterArticles
THE
BENEVOLENT
BUREAUCRAT:
POLITICAL
AUTHORITY
IN
CHILDREN’S
LITERATURE
AND
TELEVISION
THOMAS
R.
MARSHALL
University
of
Texas
at
Arlington
POLITICAL
REGIMES
and
political
visionaries
since
Plato
have
sought
to
socialize
their
youth
into
acceptable
political
beliefs.
In
contempor-
-A-
ary
American
society
parents
and
schools
are
the
most
commonly
ac-
knowledged
agents
of
political
learning.
Yet
the
mass
media
also
compete
for
children’s
and
adolescents’
attention.
Some
forms
of
the
media -
textbooks,
newscasts,
and
political
documentaries
-
are
openly
concerned
with
politics;
these
have
received
the
most
attention
from
scholars.’
So
far,
however,
scholars
have
paid
less
attention
to
two
other
media -
children’s
literature
and
&dquo;normal&dquo;
(non-newscast)
television.
While
these
media
are
seldom
overtly
political,
their
omission
from
socialization
studies
is
both
curious
and
unfortunate.
Children’s
books
and
television
are
widely
read
and
viewed
by
children
and
adolescents.
Studies
of
television
viewing
suggest
that
children
watch,
on
the
average,
20
to
25
hours
weekly.2
Pre-
schoolers
watch
even
more -
averaging
nearly
30
hours
weekly.3
Although
television
viewing
is
apparently
more
common
than
reading,
children’s
books
and
stories,
too,
reach
a
substantial
fraction
of
America’s
youth.4
4
NOTE:
The
author
would
like
to
acknowledge
Billie
Ann
Babb,
Michele
Bock,
Marget
Hagen,
John
Hylick,
Grady
Long,
Denise
Parker,
and
Renaldo
Stowers
for
assistance
in
data
collection
and
analysis.
This
research
was
funded
by
the
Organized
Research
Fund
of
the
University
of
Texas
at
Arlington.
1
For
an
analysis
of
American
social
science
textbooks,
see
Bryon
Massialas,
"American
Govern-
ment :
We
Are
the
Greatest,"
in
Charles
Cox
and
Bryon
Massiales,
eds.,
Social
Studies
in
the
United
States
(New
York:
Harcourt,
Brace,
and
World,
1967),
and
Francis
Fitzgerald,
"History
Textbooks,
I-III,"
New
Yorker
55,
February
26,
March
5,
and
March
12,
1979.
For
a
discussion
of
network
newscasts,
see
Gary
Wamsley
and
Richard
Pride,
"Television
Network
News:
Re-Thinking
the
Iceberg
Problem,"
Western
Political
Quarterly
25
(Sep-
tember
1972):
434-50;
Richard
Pride
and
Barbara
Richards,
"Denigration
of
Authority?
Television
News
Coverage
of
the
Student
Movement,"
Journal
of Politics
36
(August
1974):
637-60;
and
Richard
Pride
and
Barbara
Richards,
"The
Denigration
of
Political
Authority
in
Television
News:
The
Ecology
Issue,"
Western
Political
Quarterly
28
(December
1975):
635-45.
Political
documentaries
are
reviewed
in
Michael
J.
Robinson,
"Public
Affairs
Tele-
vision
and
the
Growth
of
Political
Malaise:
The
Case
of
’The
Selling
of
the
Pentagon’,"
American
Political
Science
Review
70
(June
1976):
409-32;
and
Edith
Efron,
The
News
Twis-
ters
(Los
Angeles:
Nash,
1971).
The
literature
on
the
impact
of
the
media
on
adolescents
is
growing
rapidly;
to
date,
however,
most
studies
focus
on
the
impact
of
television
network
news.
For
examples
see
Neil
Hollander,
"Adolescents
and
the
War:
The
Sources
of
Socialization,"
journalism
Quarterly
48
(Autumn
1971):
472-79;
Steven
Chaffee,
L.
Scott
Ward
and
Leonard
Tipton,
"Mass
Communications
and
Political
Socialization,"
Journalism
Quarterly
47
(Winter
1970):
647-60;
F.
Christopher
Arterton,
"Watergate
and
Children’s
Attitudes
Toward
Political
Authority
Revisited,"
Political
Science
Quarterly
90
(Fall
1975):
493,
n.
19;
and
Dean
Jaros
and
John
Shoemaker,
"The
Malevolent
Unindicted
Co-Conspirator:
Watergate
and
Ap-
palachian
Youth,"
American
Politics
Quarterly
4
(October
1976):
492-95.
2 Lotte
Bailyn,
"Mass
Media
and
Children:
A
Study
of
Exposure
Habits
and
Cognitive
Effects,"
Psychological
Monographs
(1959):
1-48;
for
a
more
recent
review,
see
Sidney
Kraus,
"Mass
Communication
and
Political
Socialization:
A
Reassessment
of
Two
Decades
of
Research,"
Quarterly
Journal
of
Speech
59
(December
1973):
390-94.
3
Marie
Winn,
The
Plug-In
Drug
(New
York:
Viking,
1977).
4 Research
on
reading
suggests
that
few
children
are
able
to
read
independently
before
the
age
of
five
or
six.
Formal
reading
instruction
usually
begins
in
American
schools
at
the
age
of
six
or
six-and-a-half
years.
Prior
to
beginning
school,
however,
most
children
can
at
least
recognize
capital
letters
and
can
match
letter
forms,
indicating
some
rudimentary
famil-

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