Assesses television influences on infants six months of age at home. Sound only, picture only, sound plus picture, or a control stimulus of unpatterned sound plus picture conditions were designed. Findings demonstrate that infants attend to the naturalistic presentation of television stimulation and respond differentially to its visual and…

Examines whether role assignments to television sets (assignments of particular content to particular screens) influence what viewers think about what they watch. Finds that designating TV sets for specialized functions or uses results in more positive evaluations of the content, even when the TV sets and programming are identical. (SR)

Finds that soap operas analyzed in 1994 contain more frequent sexual incidence on an hourly average, both within the same soaps analyzed a decade earlier and even more so on two additional very popular soaps. Shows that the more frequent sex centers on physical intercourse, primarily among partners not married to anyone; and sexual activity is…

Finds that nature as a theme is completely absent in 80% and the outstanding theme in only 1.7% of television programming; not only less frequent, but separate from the dominant themes in prime-time; and treated as a sociopolitical "issue" (like "politics,""science,""religion," and "education").…

Tests recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling that marketplace forces will provide sufficient high quality broadcast programing. Finds that in the period 1981 to 1983, the amount of children's programing actually declined on commercial television stations and increased slightly on public broadcasting stations. Notes that cable…

Presents a systematic content analysis of more than 150 commercial characteristics of CLIO winners from the years 1975, 1980, and 1985. Finds that CLIO winners have different characteristics than do commercials proven to be effective in the marketplace. (RS)

Assesses the state of satellite news gathering (SNG) among commercial broadcast, nonsatellite stations in the United States. Finds that 75 percent of the stations set SNG feeds but that only 50 percent have their own SNG equipment. (RS)

Explores satellite news gathering (SNG) in the local television news room. Finds that SNG makes new demands on reporters and may result in less local news. (RS)

Examines which firms and products best predict media coverage of the oil industry. Reports that price variations in testing oil and gasoline correlate with the extent of news coverage provided by network television. (MM)

States that in an attempt to better understand the attributes of the "average" viewer, an analysis of data characterizing television nonviewers and extreme viewers was performed. Identifies a set of demographic variables as the strongest predictor of nonviewers and the combination of family-related and lifestyle/social activity-related…

Examines images of World War II invoked in two live, international music concerts (one rock, one classical) celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. Argues that Western television's choice of imagery represented the Wall's demise as a marker of the end of the Cold War rather than a vanishing monument of Germany's conflicted struggle with Holocaust…

Discusses changes that are needed in the perceptual, cognitive, and aesthetic principles governing the medium of television to compensate for the high-quality, filmlike picture produced by high definition television (HDTV), or improved definition television (IDTV). Topics discussed include changes in visual perception, cognitive processes and…

Analyzes the content of more than 1000 commercials sampled from ABC, CBS, and NBC. Finds that nostalgia was used by means of theme, copy or music about 10 percent of the time and that nostalgic references to family activities or to "olden days" were most likely to be used with food and beverage commercials. (PRA)

Finds support for the general notion of construct accessibility and its effect on judgments can help account for the influence of television viewing on social reality estimates. Shows that subjects who watch comparatively more television not only overestimate frequency or probability but also give faster responses to various types of cultivation…

Argues that aesthetic or literary approaches to television provide an essential corrective to recent emphases on the ideological dimensions of modern media. Defines television as a contemporary American instance of "consensus narrative," a cultural formation or institution in which society's central beliefs and values undergo continuous…