Children and the Movies
Media Influence and the Payne Fund Controversy

An analysis of the first and most comprehensive study of the influence of movies on American youth, the Payne Fund Studies.

Garth S. Jowett (Author), Ian C. Jarvie (Author), Kathryn H. Fuller (Author)

9780521482929, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 January 1996

450 pages, 14 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.77 kg

'A thoroughly worthwhile and instructive re-appraisal of the Payne Fund Studies and their legacy.' Graham McCann, The Times Literary Supplement

An analysis of the first and most comprehensive study of the influence of movies on American youth, the Payne Fund Studies. First published in 1933, these studies are intrinsically important for their insights and conclusions regarding the effects of movies on behaviour. They are, moreover, also an important landmark of modern social science research, demonstrating the rapid evolution of this discipline in American academic institutions over the first three decades of the century. Based on more recently discovered primary sources, whose contents are published here for the first time, this volume also reproduces the long-missing first Payne Fund study in its entirety.

About the authors
Foreword George Gerbner
Acknowledgements
Dramatis Personae: biographical sketches of participants in the Payne Fund studies
Introduction: the Payne Fund studies and their continuing significance for communications research
Part I. History of the Payne Fund Studies: 1. Social science as a weapon: the origins of the Payne Fund studies, 1926–9
2. Movie made social science: the enterprise of the Payne Fund studies researchers, 1928–33
3. Aftermath: the summaries and reception of the Payne Fund studies
Part II. The Unpublished Payne Fund Material: 4. The lost manuscript
5. The Intervale study
6. Student movie autobiographies and 'movies and sex'
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index of names
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK], Films, cinema [APF]