Dr. Conrad Kottak
(Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan and
The Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Life)
"Media in the Middle: Work, Family and
Media Use in a Middle Class Midwestern Town"
Wednesday, February 28th, 2001, 3:00 p.m.
In today's United States, the media provide contradictory images
of the family/work interface. One radio call-in host tells women
their children need full-time, stay-home moms, while another
suggests that employment provides needed diversion and stimulation.
TV sitcoms portray an array of family/work arrangements. Ads
celebrate both "on-the-go" modern families and homes where a
stay-home mother sees to her family's every need. How do parents
interpret these diverse messages? Research in a middle-class
community in Michigan shows how people use (and avoid) media
images and information in evaluating and justifying their own
family/work responsibilities.
How do middle class families balance the competing
tasks of their own paid labor and child care? How do adults
in such families think and feel about the arrangements they
have come to, whether by choice or necessity? How do various
media (books, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, television,
radio) influence these processes?
The paper presents results of research in progress,
using a K-2 public elementary school in a small middle-class
community in southeastern Michigan as a base. The research involves
interviewing local child care professionals and parents, along
with ethnography in homes, including observation of how parents
cope with work and family demands and of their media consumption.
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Conrad Kottak is Professor and Chair, Department
of Anthropology, University of Michigan and the President Elect
of the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological
Association. He has done fieldwork in Brazil, Madagascar and
in the United States. He is the author or coauthor of numerous
articles and ten books including Anthropology: The Exploration
of Human Diversity, On Being Different: Diversity and
Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream.; Assault
on Paradise: Social Change in a Brazilian Village; Mirror
for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology;
Prime-Time Society: An Anthropological Analysis of Television
and Culture; Researching American Culture: A Guide for
Student Anthropologists; and The Past in the Present:
History, Ecology and Cultural Variation in Highland Madagascar.
Prof. Kottak is currently a core faculty member of The (Sloan)
Center for the Ethnography of Everyday life at University of
Michigan.
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The MARIAL Center
Emory West, 4th Floor, Room 415E
Open to the public
Refreshments will be served
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DIRECTIONS TO THE MARIAL CENTER
The MARIAL Center is located on the 4th floor
of the main building of Emory West, 1256 Briarcliff Rd. There
is ample parking close to the building. Alternatively, you may
take the Emory shuttle (Route W). The shuttle leaves every half
hour from the main campus and is a 10-minute ride. Route W shuttle
stops are located at the corner of Asbury Circle and Pierce
Drive, along Pierce Drive, and in front of the Administration
Building.
Please tell the receptionist at the front window
that you are here for the MARIAL Center lecture.
