It was hypothesized that if perceived reality is an important factor in determining children's reactions to television, radical differences in the structure of perceived reality should lead to radical differences in its functioning as well. Questionnaires were answered by 153 children from first, third, and sixth grades in a suburban Wisconsin…

The objective of this study was to compare an information processing based measure of television program form to a measure of form based on the perception of the organization of program production elements. Three hypotheses were set up to test the presumption that the two program measures are related to the same underlying dimension: show scores…

A survey of 900 residents of Gainesville, Florida, conducted in April and May 1974 assessed their opinions on a number of statements regarding advertising and programing on children's television shows. Of the 14 statements used, 6 were worded so that the television advertiser might be regarded as a "good guy" or his "commercial as hero." The other…

This paper is a case study of a documentary produced by WHAS-TV entitled "Louisville: Open City?" The purposes behind the documentary are examined, and an attempt is made to evaluate whether these purposes were achieved. More importantly, this paper illustrates the social and political changes which can result when a locally-produced…

In order to test the effects of high camera angle on credibility, high- and low-camera-angle versions of a televised speaker were recorded on videotape. Semantic differential ratings of the speaker were obtained from 176 college students randomly assigned to high- or low-camera-angle treatment groups. Factors identified as dynamism, competence,…

Television situation comedies have been criticized for their portrayal of dysfunctional family behavior. An exploratory content analysis study assessed the extent of relationship-enhancing communication skills in family-oriented, prime-time situation comedies, a genre frequently targeted for both scorn and praise. Three episodes each of five shows…

A study investigated whether adolescents' schemas about contraceptive use would influence their perceptions that a soap opera couple used birth control during sex. The study also examined the effects of increasing explicitness of characters' conversations about contraceptives on viewers' perceptions of the couple's contraceptive use. Thirty-six…

A review of federal court decisions in the area of cable television and First Amendment rights reveals an early, unified perception of cable's First Amendment status that has given way in the past decade to fragmented and often contradictory positions among lower level courts. This makes the problem before the courts today one of choosing from, or…

This paper, (observing that socialization about, interactions with, and influences of the mass media are interrelated in important and understudied ways), briefly reviews the notion of "self" as defined through socially constructed matrices, and discusses evidence supporting the influence of social cognition as a factor in human…

A study analyzed six prime-time television shows--"The Cosby Show,""Cheers,""Dear John,""Designing Women,""Golden Girls," and "Roseanne"--to examine group communication as it is portrayed on a daily basis in these shows, or how groups interact in the sitcom genre. One episode of each of…

Contrary to the prevailing view that 1952 was the year of the first nationally televised political conventions, only 32 states had TV stations at that time; nor did the term "TV candidate" originate in the Kennedy (1960) or Nixon (1968) campaigns. In fact, it is Dwight Eisenhower and the campaign of 1956 that deserve this recognition.…

Network television news has often been accused of inciting and prolonging incidents of public violence, whether riots or terrorism, and in South Africa this type of thinking has led to increasingly stringent restrictions on both domestic and foreign media covering the violent unrest there. A study determined a chronology of events and analyzed the…

Expectancy effects--the unconscious shaping of receiver behavior by signalling sender expectations--while recognized in science, have not been documented extensively from a communication perspective, nor are nonverbal aspects of expectancy effects fully known. Expectancy is a function of three elements, the sender's predisposition (including…

This study uses content analysis of "Network East," an ethnic television program aired on British television, to identify the major concerns of the South Asian community in Britain. Most South Asians, comprised of Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Sri Lankans, live in the urban centers of London, Birmingham, Leicester, and Bradford.…

While contemporary communication perspectives often make a distinction between reality and the televised presentation of reality, viewers may find this distinction difficult to maintain. Television is imbued with perceived objectivity. The use of recreations in popular television programming requires a reconceptualization of how viewers perceive…