More than 500 television news directors were surveyed in a study of the effects of three factors--multiple ownership of stations, newspaper crossownership, and cable television use--on the quality of local news programing. For purposes of the study, "quality" was defined in terms of expenditures for news programing (greater expenditures…

A survey examined: (1) the needs classroom teachers seek to fill with instructional video; (2) the design features best suited to meeting those needs; and (3) whether current productions possess such features and meet such needs. Ninety-seven instructors (out of 275) from eight Colorado high schools responded to the survey. Initial attitudes…

A study explored the relationship between gender and talk show viewing motives. Students (109) from 6 randomly selected introductory communication classes in a midwestern university, 30 people belonging to a non-traditional student organization called "Oasis," and 8 residents of a retirement home were given Rubin's instrument to assess…

A study addressed two issues: the degree to which television accurately reflects, lags behind, or exaggerates the presentation of divorce; and whether or not a cultivation effect influences estimates about divorce rates among couples. A questionnaire was designed for administration to participants, 175 undergraduate students in an introductory…

The purposes of this survey of television viewers were to investigate their personal experiences with crime and perceived competence to deal with it, and to study their perceptions of the likelihood of crime and fears of personal victimization. Members of a London Panel maintained by the Independent Broadcasting Authority's Research Department for…

This paper addresses the question of whether video recorders and cable television, which are both primarily entertainment media, are in functional competition with one another. Some initial answers are provided based on the results of an extensive two-year research project conducted in the Federal Republic of Germany. This study found that: (1)…

A study focused on audience selectivity and involvement before and during television exposure. Two types of selectivity were considered: program selection before exposure and changing channels while viewing. The study included four indications of audience involvement: intentionality, or anticipating TV viewing; attention or focused cognitive…

In an effort to discover the effects of mass media on viewer perception of candidates' positions, tests were administered to 10 to 12 families at each of five locations across the country immediately following each of the 1976 Carter-Ford debates. Sixteen statements were drawn from the presidential platform of each party and each statement was…

In July 1984, British Channel 4 began televising Case on Camera, a series based on genuine arbitration of civil cases carried out by a retired judge, recorded as it happened, and edited into half hour programs. Because of the Independent Broadcasting Authority's concern for the rights to privacy, a systematic study of public reaction to the series…

This paper begins with a review of the literature that addresses the broad concerns of youth and media, with particular focus on children and adolescents, then moves on to explain the purpose of this specific study, i.e., to determine the nature of Nigerian young people's access to/use of television and to the competing media of radio and…

This research project used a conceptual framework to study television viewing as a process of communication rather than as a one way transfer of information from the set to the person. Children's own definitions of experience of television viewing/behavior were used to shape the direction and concerns of the project. As background to, and in…

This report on a study conducted in Iceland to determine the relationship between mass media--especially television--and the attitudes of preadolescents and adolescents toward foreign countries begins by reviewing the following topics: (1) the history of television from its start in 1966 to the present in Iceland; (2) the origins of Icelandic…

This test of Marshall McLuhan's claim that increased exposure to television will develop a perception of the world as a "global village" used estimation of cognitive distance as an operational definition of the global village concept. The first phase of the study tested the hypothesis that "heavy" television viewers' estimates…

Two studies used multidimensional scaling to uncover viewers' spontaneous, largely implicit interpretations of Dallas (American) and Coronation Street (British), two soap operas in a genre of social realism that explicitly aims to parallel or directly contribute to the symbolic world of the viewer. The results bear upon the discipline of social…

This paper provides both a preliminary analysis of a survey on media education in India, and reviews of the research on media education in the western world, the limited media education research already done in India, and the more extensive research that has been done on the sociology of Indian youth and the media. The purpose of the survey was to…