Many television viewers construct their social reality from media content as well as from sensory and interpersonally communicated information. One aspect of this media-influenced social reality is television viewers' estimates of crime in society, or their fear of criminal victimization. Several media-effects studies have demonstrated the…

A formative evaluation was conducted of the instructional television program "What Next?" from the Career Aspirations unit of "On the Level," a series of 12 lessons designed to aid secondary school students in dealing with personal and social growth. A total of 127 students in 8 Chicago public school classes viewed the program.…