Journal Evaluation - Harry Potter and Popular Culture

APA Citation
KIDD, D. (2007, February). Harry Potter and the Functions of Popular Culture. Journal of Popular Culture, 40(1), 69-89. Retrieved July 23, 2008, doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2007.00354.x

Strategy for finding the Journal
I went to the Chadwyck-Healey's Literature Online database and searched for "harry potter" in the keywords search box and "popular culture" in the subjects box. (I used "popular culture" instead of other, more relevant terms such as "sexism" and "racism" because those terms were yielding less results. I reasoned that important social issues may be discussed in an article about pop culture.) This search yielded four entries, one titled "Harry Potter and the Functions of Popular Culture." This particular article was published by the Journal of Popular Culture, a peer reviewed journal.

Rationale for selection of the article
I selected the article because I thought that social issues may be considered an important part of popular culture in academia. I hoped that the article would contain some analysis of Harry Potter's impact on popular culture, especially in areas of social issues (or at least, how readers of Harry Potter may now think about social issues).

General Evaluation of the article
The article is from a scholarly and peer reviewed source. The subject at hand in the article is an analysis of popular culture, using one small aspect (Harry Potter) as a guide to understanding the mechanisms, the inner workings, of popular culture. The article was printed in February of 2007, so it is relatively current. Most of the Harry Potter books had already been released at the time the article was published.

Example strategies used to search within the article
I read the first six (of twenty-two) pages in the article, and then I skimmed the rest until I found the part where the author began to actually use Harry Potter in his discussion on popular culture. I read the portion of the article about Harry Potter, and found that the author used HP as a tool to back up his analysis of popular culture. One aspect that could relate to my research question was a paragraph about how Harry Potter causes social interaction between avid readers/fans.

Brief summary of information yielded
Harry Potter may be analyzed as a representative slice of popular culture in its treatment by consumers and in the effects it may have in establishing community among people with similar interests.

Revised research question
No revision is needed.