For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study Supermarket Tabloids

By Elizabeth S. Bird and S. Elizabeth Bird

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2001 Bird is not a former tabloid "insider," but an academic: assistant professor of humanities and anthropology at the University of Minnesota. She discusses tabloid history, beginning as far back as oral "folklore" and urban legends. She interviewed tabloid editors, writers, and readers for this book, and analyzes tabloid stories within the context of folklore theory. She claims that tabloid readers are savvier and better-educated than is assumed, that they "interact and contribute" to with what they read (through gossip and fantasy), and that working class readers (as much as upper class readers) realize that many tabloid stories are false or exaggerated. Released in 1992, by the University of Tennessee Press. An easy read, despite its academic author and publisher.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870497294
• ISBN13: 9780870497292
• Release Date: April 1992
• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Tabloids as interactive cultural folklore

Bird is not a former tabloid "insider," but an academic: assistant professor of humanities and anthropology at the University of Minnesota. She discusses tabloid history, beginning as far back as oral "folklore" and urban legends. She interviewed tabloid editors, writers, and readers for this book, and analyzes tabloid stories within the context of folklore theory. She claims that tabloid readers are savvier and better-educated than is assumed, that they "interact and contribute" to with what they read (through gossip and fantasy), and that working class readers (as much as upper class readers) realize that many tabloid stories are false or exaggerated. Released in 1992, by the University of Tennessee Press. An easy read, despite its academic author and publisher.