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…

This study tested the claim that television viewing reduces preschoolers' perseverance, increases their impulsivity, and induces restlessness. In the first of two laboratory visits with a parent, 328 5-year-olds were given the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. During the second visit, the parent completed the Parent Temperament Questionnaire and…

To assess the quality of local news programs, a News Quality Index was develped for a study that consisted of three parts: a content analysis of local television news, an audience analysis of the kinds of news stories that are most important, and an outside the market viewer analysis of the way in which anchors for news, sports, and weather are…

A study was conducted to investigate the extent to which local television stations exhibited diversity in newscast content within three midwest broadcast markets. A second objective was to describe the nature of the news content characteristic of local news stories that were broadcast by only one station within a market (or unique news stories). A…

Studies focusing on televised presidential primary debates include four prespectives. From a historical perspective, televised presidential primary debates have increased slowly from 1956 through 1980. With the 1975 Federal Communications Commission ruling that independently sponsored campaign debates were news events exempt from "equal…

A study examined the impact of remote control devices, videocassette recorders, and cable television on inheritance effects (the tendency for viewers to continue watching a channel at the conclusion of a program). Inheritance effects were measured by calculating the correlation between program share and lead-in program share for all primetime…

The purpose of this study was to identify conflict resolution strategies used by siblings when they chose television programs to watch and to examine differences in strategies associated with sex of child, the age interval between siblings, and their ordinal position. Children, 116 pairs of siblings in first through sixth grade, were interviewed…

A study examined the treatment and portrayal of political parties on Soviet and American television. The content of six newscasts of "World News Tonight" and "Vremya" during June of 1984 were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The overall results suggest that 15 stories (24% of the total allotted time) pertaining…

Noting that perceived violence in society has been found to be positively and significantly related to television viewing and especially related to the viewing of highly violent television, a study examined the relationship between MTV (Music Television) viewing and perceived violence in society. Subjects, 116 seventh grade students and 107…

Three typical television news reports broadcast on the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" in early 1987 were analyzed (1) to test the validity of the assumption that news reports of this type are persuasive and therefore can be classified as rhetoric and (2) to gain insights into the message structure of the reports. The three reports…

This study explores children's understanding of television commercials that feature the same primary characters as those in the adjacent program content, a commercial technique known as "host-selling." Responses of children 4 to 5 and 7 to 8 years of age to identical commercials presented in both a host-selling and normal viewing…

Examples from the data of a study of television programing for adolescents in Sweden illustrate some of the differences in the ways programs address their male and female viewers. Whereas boy and girl characters in television programs are roughly equal in number, the distribution changes when only leading roles are considered. A marked imbalance…

A study reexamined survey data collected in late October 1984 in order to test the validity of the generalization that people are influenced more by television ads than they are by television news. Sampling was based on random digit dialing in Dane County, Wisconsin, and 416 interviews conducted by telephone. Data analysis indicated that the…

Television research suggests that three major television networks are following a policy of standardization and that a high degree of consonance in prime-time network programing results from constraints within the networks' organizational, economic, and ideological frameworks. A study further explored these results by examining a list of all…

To measure Denver viewers' parasocial tendencies (inclinations to establish vicarious relationships) with TV news personalities, a study conducted a telephone survey in the Denver metropolitan area in October and November, 1987. The study examined viewer reactions to four local stations'"news teams" and individual news…