Investigates the role of television in the satisfaction of various psychological needs in the viewer. Through the Q-sort method and subsequent factor analysis, six viewer typologies are identified. (JVP)

Suggests that mass communication studies accept the critical challenges posed by fringe television--the programing that surrounds the prime-time domain of the three major networks. Identifies and maps various fringe sectors appearing on today's broadcast and cable schedules, and surveys critical imperatives involved in future studies of fringe…

Examines television news coverage of the first days of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. Discovers patterns that reinforce terrorist strategy by focusing causation for the crisis on institutional targets and suggesting that military intervention would reestablish control. Suggests that media portrayals of terrorist events support the rhetorical…

Reports on a study using data from 13,395 young people to investigate displacement of book reading by television viewing. Found no general displacement of time from one activity to another. (ARH)

Indicates that (1) both younger (four-five years) and older (seven-eight years) children were significantly less likely to discriminate commercial from program content when the host-selling format was viewed, and (2) older children are more favorably influenced by the same commercial content when it is seen in a host-selling presentation than in a…

Documents the range and extent of family life configurations in prime-time television over a six-year period (1979-1985). Reveals that prime-time network television tends to reinforce conservative to moderate models of family life, while also presenting a diversity of nonstandard interpretations of family which are framed in the nonthreatening…

Contrasts the demographic properties--gender, race, and age--of the perpetrators and receivers of antisocial and prosocial acts on prime-time network television. Concludes that antisocial activity has declined and that a White, middle-class male is now most likely to be the perpetrator or recipient. (MM)

Describes "gestalt" coding procedures that concentrate on the meanings conveyed by audio-visual messages rather than on coding individual pictorial elements shown in a news story. Discusses the totality of meaning that results from the interaction of verbal and visual story elements, external settings, and the decoding proclivities of…

Argues that the FCC prefers an unregulated marketplace for children's programing, but that it has not been shown that the marketplace will work for this program type. (FL)

Reports that television viewing ranked lowest on the preferred activity lists for busy mothers, but that the use of television as a "babysitter" is extensive. (FL)

Presents a fantasy theme analysis of the nuclear war issue derived from a comparison of personal statements and the film "The Day After" and its resulting complex rhetorical vision. Notes the vision's irony and discusses its implications for the nuclear war issue. (JD)

Reviews three major roles identified for the press in the foreign policy process: observer, participant, and catalyst. Claims that these roles circumscribe the structural relationship of media to foreign policy and provide a framework for some general propositions against which the particulars of the Iran case may be interpreted. (JD)

Presents a model to ascertain the "critical mass" in ratings points required to facilitate renewal of prime-time network programs aired between 1971 and 1985. Emphasizes a financial model incorporating revenue levels needed to offset program costs--advertising agency commissions, affiliate compensation, network overhead--and program…

Offers a clarification of the original uses of the word "stereotype" and argues that the current failure to account for evaluative and historical aspects of stereotypes has diluted the usefulness of the concept for critics and teachers. (MS)

Compares minutes of TV coverage of natural disasters outside the U.S. to the number of deaths officially reported in the country affected. Finds that Western European disasters receive most coverage and Asian disasters receive least. (MS)