Norma Pecora has written a critical, readable, and impressively thoughtful book that lays bare the economic and political interests that structure children's entertainment. Refusing the myth of 'innocent' entertainment that is often used to describe the media industries, Pecora reveals in sharp detail how the laws of profit and exchange work to undermine children's popular culture in an attempt to market not simply an endless stream of toys and goods, but kids' desires as well. Accentuating how the circuits of power work through children's entertainment, Pecora has written a book that should be read by every educator, parent, and concerned citizen in this country. This is a masterful work. --Henry Giroux, Waterbury Chair Professor, Pennsylvania State University
The Business of Children's Entertainment is a sharply focused roadmap, laying out the route by which little people's fun turned into big people's profit. In revealing how a growing array of business interests became the drivers of children's media, Pecora's cautionary tale helps us to anticipate the likely outcomes: creativity and empathy for the real needs of young people are in the vulnerable passenger seat. --David W. Kleeman, Executive Director, American Center for Children's Television
-_x000D_Recommended reading for anyone concerned over the exploitation of the nation's children for profits....Belongs in every library, especially those in colleges of education.--Business Library Review International, 3/8/2002ff One finishes this book amazed at the variety of economic models that define the interrelationships of toys and television....By bringing the economic framework of children's entertainment to the foreground, Pecora creates a novel approach to her examination....Her conclusions reveal the depth of corporate culture involvement in the business of children's entertainment. --Journal of Communication, 3/8/2002ff While most research on children's media grapples with ideological issues, Pecora, with relentless objectivity, reveals the nitty-gritty economics of the children's market....It is a relief to read a book that explains the economics of children's media without sentimentalizing children as 'TV victims' or imploring readers to kill their televisions. --American Journal of Sociology, 3/8/2002
