Newspaper editors in two Ohio communities cooperated in a counterbalanced design field experiment to test whether proportions of news items in seven content areas transmitted by wire services served to cue editors as to proportions that should be selected from each category. (FL)

Reports the findings of a survey conducted to determine the level of understanding of the news business by the general public in a midwestern community. Concludes that the respondents knew more about television news than about newspapers. (FL)

Reports data that link media use to knowledge of public affairs and this knowledge to voter behavior in local elections. (FL)

Reports findings of surveys of people's evaluations of press behavior during the Watergate period; concludes that the most important determinants of press criticism were in support of Nixon, party affiliation, and ideology. (GW)

One of the most difficult problems facing scholars interested in conducting empirical research concerning the gratification that audience members seek or receive from the media is measurement of gratification itself. This paper outlines the strategies commonly used by researchers and describes some of the limitations of each. Particular attention…

A study conducted in Columbus, Ohio, assessed the importance of voter uncertainty in motivating media use and use of specific campaign information. Data were collected from a telephone survey of 540 persons registered to vote in Columbus or surrounding Franklin County. Decisional difficulty, likelihood of vote change, and knowledge about the…

Most of the research on motivations and media use has assumed that there is some general motivation that directs habitual media behavior. Recent work on motivations, however, suggests that it may be valuable to distinguish between general needs and more specific needs, both of which may direct media behavior. For example, regular media use might…

A study examined the use of cable television in the context of general patterns of media use and habits of media users. Data came from telephone interviews with approximately 600 household heads, a third of whom did not subscribe to cable television. Information gathered included respondents' use of newspapers, television, and radio. Cable…

Secondary analyses of data gathered in a national study of United States journalists yielded information about variables that predict professional and organizational commitment. The factors selected for analysis were found to explain organizational commitment better than professional commitment. (GT)

An earlier phase of a research project proposed a theoretical model linking the key concepts of community commitment, media use, knowledge about community, community evaluation, and community pride as well as a series of social locator variables. The present phase of the study concerned itself with the central part of the model, ignoring the…

A survey of 548 male and female household heads in Columbus, Ohio, was conducted in 1977 to discover the effects of dependency on different media on levels of trust toward government, knowledge about government, and perceived knowledge about government at both local and national levels. It was hypothesized that newspaper dependency is positively…

A four-month investigation was conducted of media coverage of two controversies involving government officials in Detroit, Michigan. Data were gathered from three sources: journalists involved in covering the stories, people involved in the stories, and the printed stories. Using public documents, the history of one of the controversies was…