Argues that the major studies supporting the Principle of Relative Constancy in consumption of mass communication products were statistically defective. Presents updated tests of data suggesting that the principle is actually of doubtful predictive value. (MS)

Presents results of a study of 300 magazine advertisements assessing the level at which the ads are objective and informative. Discusses how these ads are communications designed to influence consumer behavior to the extent that they correspond to the facts, are relevant, comprehensive, adequately supported, intelligible, and logical. (JMF)

Discusses how new video media affect patterns of exposure to television and explores how these changing patterns of consumption may be related to larger issues of the medium's social impact. (JD)

This discussion of the influence of advertising on the development of new media covers ways in which advertising uses the media and the implications of new information technologies for consumers and marketing activities. The first of four sections describes how television advertising has been altered by the development of new technologies--cable,…