The academic community in the United States for the most part has failed over the past decade to focus its attention on the preservation and improvement of the American public broadcasting system, either through institutionally cooperative, sponsored research or independently generated work. That public broadcasting research has been neglected…

The viewer's perception of television pictures is different from the perception of pictures generated by other visual media. The research findings on the subject reveal that there are four major areas under which the study of television picture perception can be grouped. The "light through" as opposed to the "light on" theory…

Challenges television research which presents an overly critical view of the effects of television viewing on its audience. (JJD)

Based on a review of television's influence on social reality beliefs, a model is proposed to examine how individuals use television to construct such beliefs. Evidence suggests that television has some influence on attitudes related to violence, sex, old age, and family values and structure. Twenty-two references are cited. (Author/MER)

Research on children and media has generally focused on the negative impact of media on developing minds. However, a theoretical framework is proposed for thinking about the role of television for American children from a developmental perspective. Instead of focusing on television's effects, television viewing can be examined as is any other…

This paper reviews the role of television in the lives of blacks and suggests approaches on how to improve the quality of communication research. Portrayals, exposure patterns, attitudes and motives, and effects of blacks on television are discussed. It is suggested that future research should emphasize interpretive analysis or assessment of the…

Research has shown that producers and consumers of television programs are still uncertain about the nature of the "grammar" or "lexicon" that makes up the language of television. Although attempts have been made in experimental television ("video art"), systematic studies on the idiosyncratic nature, unique features,…

Argues that television has unique educational characteristics that separate it from other media and have implications for teaching and learning. Discussion of distributional and social, control, and symbolic (audiovisual) characteristics is based on published surveys and on research carried out at the Open University. Thirteen references are…

Discusses differences between the primary functions of the cerebral hemispheres, notes differences between conscious and subconscious responses of subjects in several research studies, and stresses the need for a whole series of questions (so far largely unasked) about how unconscious meanings are made from media. (GT)

Recent research has focused on the faulty implications emitted by factual television accounts of real events, while television news has been described as a pseudo-reality created from the ongoing flow of events. Furthermore, the convenient metaphorical language of television news often creates images of reality in such a way that the reality and…

A review of research on television's major compositional factors was undertaken to determine the status of such research and to note the major variables involved in the structure of television pictures. It was found that such research could be grouped in four categories--lighting and color, staging, editing, and sound--and that these areas covered…

Describes activities of the Developmental and Social Research Unit of the American Broadcasting Companies. Holds that the television industry (and the general industry sector) can collaborate with the academic community on research to provide mutual benefits for both groups. Discusses how such collaboration might be most effectively carried out.…

Research in audience analysis has generally lumped together members of ethnic groups under a broad category of "nonwhites" and has ignored different orientations of these minority groups toward television and mass media. Despite increasing research interests in minority audiences, specific oriental populations have largely been ignored in regard…

Discusses questions of central importance to researchers interested in educational computing, namely long-range, cumulative effects of computer use; cumulative effects on cognition, emotion, and behavior; identification, conceptualization, and study of computers' capabilities carrying the most educational promise; transfer of learning; and…

A human ecological approach to the study of children's television viewing raises questions that researchers have largely neglected. Does television influence the interaction patterns of socializing agents with children and with one another? Are there long-term, psychological consequences of unintegrated and competing influences from television and…