Folklore in a Box by Lance Morrow. Originally Printed in Time (September 21, 1992, pages 50-51).

Morrow's article was written over fifteen years ago. Do you think his argument was valid then and is valid now? Go to the Assignments section and lets talk about "storytellers."

"If it sounds like a risky move to dress up 7-Eleven as the animated store that is frequently held up, sells expired hot dogs and once displayed a senior citizen in its freezer section, it is. But management is betting that by showing it gets the joke made in nearly every episode in the past 20 years, "Simpsons" and Kwik-E-Mart fans will become 7- Eleven fans much the way Subservient Chicken and the King gave social currency to Burger King.

'When you're the industry leader, others may want to stereotype or poke fun at you,' Doug Foster, 7-Eleven's chief marketing officer, said in a statement. 'We get the joke and want to have a little fun with our customers and fans of The Simpsons.'"

The Other Parent by James Steyer, Chapter 1.

"For me, as a parent of three young children and as a longtime teacher, the loss of innocence at too early an age is perhaps the highest price that American kids pay in this new media environment. Ever since the Hays Office began monitoring Hollywood morals in the 1920's, Americans have worried about the media's impact on "family values."

But before our mass-media culture became so explicit and so pervasive, before large media companies began to realize huge profits by pushing sex and sensationalism, things were different. Parents were much better able to control what their children learned about and when."

Steyer recommends parents monitor and control their children's media consumption. But he also recommends they organize advocacy groups, contact government leaders, and boycott media outlets that target children with inappropriate content.

The New York Times - "Shaping Cultural Tastes at Big Retail Chains"

"The growing clout of Wal-Mart and the other big discount chains - they now often account for more than 50 percent of the sales of a best-selling album, more than 40 percent for a best-selling book, and more than 60 percent for a best-selling DVD - has bent American popular culture toward the tastes of their relatively traditionalist customers.

"They have obviously reached the Bush-red audience in a big way," said Laurence J. Kirshbaum, chairman of AOL Time Warner's books unit, referring to the color coding used on television news reports to denote states voting for President George W. Bush during the last election. "It has been a seismic shift in the business, and to some of us in publishing it has been a revelation."

But with the chains' power has come criticism from authors, musicians and civil liberties groups who argue that the stores are in effect censoring and homogenizing popular culture. The discounters and price clubs typically carry an assortment of fewer than 2,000 books, videos and albums, and they are far more ruthless than specialized stores about returning goods if they fail to meet a minimum threshold of weekly sales."

The Nieman Journalism Lab -"How viral culture is changing how we learn, share, create, and interact."

"he thoroughly and persuasively argues that most of what we see, read, and discuss with one another is disposable by design, and ultimately corrosive."

Mainici Newspapers - "Japan re-thinking decision to import foreigners"

"Arrangements such as special Japanese classes for newcomers are ad hoc and understaffed. Many of the foreigners aren't entitled to pensions or the same health benefits as Japanese workers because they're hired through special job brokers.

Above all, the differences are cultural and rife with stereotypes: Latinos playing music late on weekends; teenagers congregating in the streets at night, alarming police.

'We have people who don't follow the rules,' said Mayor Hasegawa. 'So then we have a lot of cultural friction.'"