More and more, advertising revenue, not circulation or concern for the underdog, seems to be determining the content of American newspapers. As Americans moved to the suburbs, suburban newspapers sprang up, taking readers and advertising revenue away from metropolitan dailies. "Counterattacks" by metropolitan papers such as zoned…

Examines the current state of empirical research on religious television, discusses some of the implicit difficulties in exploring this phenomenon and its viewership, and suggests avenues for future research. (MS)

Presents a brief overview of the history of recorded music, focusing on the dynamics between production and consumption. (JD)

There has been little valid and reliable research of the motion picture audience. Specific reasons for the movie industry's own inattention to audience research include the early popularity of films and the fact that since the industry does not sell advertising it does not need to account for its audience size and preferences. Some researchers…

The first of two articles in this report offers a survey of how community ties lead to various psychological needs that are the motivation for newspaper reading. It identifies three distinct audience segments: the traditional audience, with permanent bonds to the community, whose need for information, guidance, and community surveillance leads to…

Of all the mass media, radio is the most abundant, both in terms of the number of radio stations in operation and the number of radio receivers in use. Unfortunately, given the dynamics of a competitive market and the Federal Communications Commission's reluctance to interfere with a licensee's discretion in the choice of format, format…

Responds to criticism of the uses and gratification model by proposing a modified model integrating the dependency perspective. Suggests that this integrated model broadens the heuristic application of the earlier model. (MS)

This paper focuses on the experimental findings of Shanto Iyengar with regard to media agenda-setting and a theory of priming, summarizing his work across time. Following an introduction, the next section briefly reviews five of Iyengar's experiments on agenda-setting and priming, giving an overview and conclusions for each. The final section, a…

Discusses four conceptual issues in the uses and gratifications approach: the nature of the active audience; the role of gratification orientations in mediating effects; the social origins of media needs and uses; and the shared interest of audience members in perceptions and cognitions about mass media content. (JMF)

The emergence of frequency modulation or FM radio signals, which arose from the desire to free broadcasting of static noise common to amplitude modulation or AM, has produced the controversial development of stereo broadcasting. The resulting enhancement of sound quality helped FM pass AM in audience shares in less than two decades. The basic…

Historically, radio broadcasting has been affected by innovational, social, technological, and economic change. For instance, FM (frequency modulation) radio emerged out of a desire to free broadcasting of static noise common to AM (amplitude modulation) signals. The eventual response by AM was to improve the technology of the signal. The inquiry…

The basic arrangements and practices of American broadcast audience research and measurement were established during the first decade (1920-29) of the field's existence, and were motivated by commercial and competing institutional concerns within the broader context of evolving forms of imagination and expression. A review of the evidence found in…

Terrorists seek recognition for their cause by using violence to create public fear which will force the government into repressive counter-measures. The mass media play a vital role in this strategy. News reports of terrorism may magnify the climate of fear, thereby augmenting the public's overreaction. Moreover, broadcast of terrorist acts may…

Reviews the recent literature on mass media campaigns and communication approaches promoting drug abuse prevention aimed at four target audiences: youth, parents, women, and the elderly. Cited the importance of audience analysis, of segmenting audiences into subgroups, and of designing customized presentations as critical across all target…

Library historians and historians of literacy have been more creative than journalism historians in using individual-level historical data such as deeds, wills, depositions, surveys, and census figures to study reading behaviors of the past. For example, the series of family cost of living surveys conducted in the United States by state and…