Contends that the effect of television can best be understood as part of the overall attempts by social scientists to understand the effects of the mass media. Argues that symbolic interactionism is the most viable theory for bringing together the pure and the applied aspects of this issue. (LLL)

Argues that texts may be especially rhetorically effective when the content, the medium used to convey the content, and the real life experiences that make the content relevant are formally or structurally similar. Suggests that formal linkage creates rhetorical effect, and uses Burke's theory of forms to explain the effect of formal links. (MS)

Discusses the nature of motion media (i.e., film and television) and describes a theoretical model of communication, the Iconic Phenomena Communication Model. Topics discussed include types of imagery; symbolic representations; motion media and the mind; and semiotics in the study of film and television. (four references) (LRW)

Analyzes the portrayal of teachers in fictional television programs and films. Claims that fictional treatments of teachers in the media are distorted and stereotyped. Considers the possible effects of such distortions and proposes ways of counteracting them. (HB)

Introduces special issue on the topic of mental health and the media. States that there is no single answer about the impact of the media. Suggests that articles attempt to encourage counselors to think critically about the role of the media in influencing individual mental health and in shaping public perceptions of mental health issues.…

The proposition advanced by media critics John Fiske and John Hartley, that television provides the experience of "defamiliarization" (the demand that viewers "negotiate" a response to the ideological frameworks that television presents), is considered by the Russian Formalist critics and the structuralists who elaborated and…

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)

Defines pornography, the aspect of sexuality which evokes most attention from the media, and discusses findings of the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography and of psychologists who have recently found that exposure to a portrayal where violence and sex are coupled does increase subsequent aggression toward a female. (MBR)

Outlines five types of studies that seem most significant and discusses problems of and proposals for future news media research. (PD)

Drawing on 2 months of intensive research in a network-affiliate newsroom, this paper describes how the researcher coped with studying newswork by qualitative and quantitative methods within a naturalistic paradigm and addresses methodological issues facing the naturalistic researcher. The paper discusses the following five methodological issues:…

Examines forms of media in today's electronic environment including television, microcomputers, video games, and music television, and considers these media forms and their effects on cognitive processing. Implications for teachers and instructional designers in achieving curricular balance between print and electronic media are discussed. (MBR)

The immediate, direct effects of the mass media upon individuals are obscure but the indirect effects are substantial. (Author)

Explores how motion pictures, television, and computers manipulate and rearrange the content and processes of communicated experience, thereby shaping how the audience perceives and interprets the physical and social reality depicted. Suggests that these media are fourth removed from reality (behind the Platonic Ideal, the actual, and art and…

Offers a synthesis of media, communications, cultural studies and sociology literature on globalisation that suggests that there is multi-directional causality between media and culture in the process. Suggests that academic theorizing and social policy-making in which global media (particularly television) and local culture are characterized as…

Objectivity, truth, freedom, and social responsibility--key principles in contemporary media ethics--fail to provide a practical, coherent code for responsible journalism. During the initial television coverage of Watergate on June 19, 1972, for example, the three television networks all observed these standards in their reporting, yet presented…