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Author Banet-Weiser, Sarah, 1966- author.

Title Kids rule! : Nickelodeon and consumer citizenship / Sarah Banet-Weiser
Published Durham : Duke University Press, 2007

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 276 pages) : illustrations
Series Console-ing passions: television and cultural power
Console-ing passions.
Contents 1. "We, the people of Nickelodeon" : theorizing empowerment and consumer citizenship -- 2. The success story : Nickelodeon and the cable industry -- 3. The Nickelodeon brand : buying and selling the audience -- 4. Girls rule! : gender, feminism, and Nickelodeon -- 5. Consuming race on Nickelodeon -- 6. Is Nick for kids? : irony, camp, and animation in the Nickelodeon brand -- Conclusion : Kids rule : the Nickelodeon universe
Summary "In Kids Rule! Sarah Banet-Weiser examines the cable network Nickelodeon in order to rethink the relationship between children, media, citizenship, and consumerism. Nickelodeon is arguably the most commercially successful cable network ever. Broadcasting original programs such as Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Rugrats (and producing related movies, Web sites, and merchandise), Nickelodeon has worked aggressively to claim and maintain its position as the preeminent creator and distributor of television programs for America's young children, tweens, and teens. Banet-Weiser argues that a key to its success is its construction of children as citizens within a commercial context. The network's self-conscious engagement with kids--its creation of a 'Nickelodeon Nation' offering choices and empowerment within a world structured by rigid adult rules--combines an appeal to kids' formidable purchasing power with assertions of their political and cultural power. Banet-Weiser draws on interviews with nearly fifty children as well as with network professionals; coverage of Nickelodeon in both trade and mass media publications; and analysis of the network's programs. She provides an overview of the media industry within which Nickelodeon emerged in the early 1980s as well as a detailed investigation of its brand-development strategies. She also explores Nickelodeon's commitment to 'girl power, ' its ambivalent stance on multiculturalism and diversity, and its oft-remarked appeal to adult viewers. Banet-Weiser does not condemn commercial culture nor dismiss the opportunities for community and belonging it can facilitate. Rather she contends that in the contemporary media environment, the discourses of political citizenship and commercial citizenship so thoroughly inform one another that they must be analyzed in tandem. Together they play a fundamental role in structuring children's interactions with television."--Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-257) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Nickelodeon (Television network)
SUBJECT Nickelodeon (Television network) fast (OCoLC)fst00783088
Subject Children's television programs -- United States
Child consumers -- United States
Young consumers -- United States
Television and children -- United States
Children's mass media -- United States
Child consumers.
Children's mass media.
Children's television programs.
Television and children.
Young consumers.
United States.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2007014054
ISBN 9780822390299
0822390299
0822339765
9780822339762