DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Televisual Teens: Equipping Them With the "Write Stuff"

Children, Teens, Families, and Mass Media: The Millennial Generation
By Rose M. Kundanis. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2003. xiv + 184 pp. Paper, $22.50; Cloth, $45.00.

Dedicated to daughter Zoe and spotlighting the millennial generation, this book sets out to explore the vast spectrum of children, teen, and family relationships to home-based media, notably radio, television, and the Internet. Up front she informs us that the work is not intended for reviewers, media scholars, or general audiences. It is geared specifically to the "millennial folks" who graduated from high school in 2000 or thereafter. Her ambitious goal is to provide college students with an introductory foray into the world of media, acquainting them with the informed use of televisual media while exposing them to a range of research-based academic writing styles. Moving silently and subtly from one style to another, Kundanis provides extended quotes from literary works and interviews as well as the more formal journalistic style format. All of this expository range is tucked within the framework of academic citation and referencing. And at the end of the reader°s journey, the work seeks to have developed a discriminating consumer of media with the tools and the capabilities to research and write effectively and–equipped with these tools–to become citizens and leaders who work to foster the egalitarian definition of "public interest."