Approximately 1,200 adults were interviewed in a study designed to determine the identity of the nonviewers of television news, the differences between local and network news nonviewers, the sources of news used by nonviewers, and the attitudes of nonviewers toward keeping informed of the news. The findings revealed that about one-third of the…

This report statistically aggregates 230 studies on the effects of television viewing on social behavior. All empirical studies that measured a social behavior or attitude of subjects who had seen a non-educational television film or videotape and which had a program comparison group were considered appropriate. Pre-post comparison studies and…

Television archiving is a new field involving the tasks of sorting, preserving, and filing in order to make records available to future historians. Only 5% of all television programing since 1948 exists today on tape or kinescope. Prior to 1968, not even the networks kept a comprehensive file of news shows. Although the DuMont Television Network…

Of 219 people interviewed within a week of the broadcast of the miniseries "Roots," 104 people were reinterviewed one year later to determine the program's long-term effects, including its perceived and experienced impact on race relations in the United States and its stimulation of viewers to search for their own roots/heritage and to…

All of the television camera shots in the three Ford/Carter presidential debates were studied according to type, frequency, and duration to determine whether the images presented by the camera could have influenced the audience's perception of the candidates. According to the debate rules, each candidate was allowed three minutes to answer a…

This paper applied findings from studies using the kind of viewing measures used by social scientists, to the relationship between programing and viewership when viewership is measured by means used by producers. Total aggregate viewership and the relationship of viewers' ages to viewership was concentrated on. Effects of competing programs on…

This study examined the effects of heavy versus light television viewing on the degree to which children possess sex role stereotypes. Reference was made to content analyses of children's television programs, prime time dramatic programs, and commercials, to show that traditional sex role stereotypes are present in most aspects of television…

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) programing is often criticized by standards or criteria that are out of date and misrepresented in terms of the audience response. There is a need for the development and application of critical standards that recognize and utilize the unique characteristics identified by Marshal McLuhan. Television audience…

A time lapse camera loaded with Super 8 film was employed to photographically record the area in front of a conventional television receiver in selected homes. The camera took one picture each minute for three days, including in the same frame the face of the television receiver. Family members kept a conventional viewing diary of their viewing…

This study was designed to test the effects of speech analysis (television commentary) on audience responses to televised political speeches. Six hypotheses on the so-called instant analysis phenomenon were tested. Subjects for the study were 115 adults drawn from the Fort Collins, Colorado, community. While it was concluded that instant analysis…

This study systematically analyzed all public access channel programing on a New York City cable television system in an attempt to answer two basic questions: (1) What was the content of the programing for the initial two year period of operation? and (2) What initial directions, if any, did the programing take during the first two-year period?…

Based on previous research findings and original data from school children in grades 3-6, this study examines children's perceptions of reality in television as an intervening variable between exposure to the medium and the effect of television messages. The specific focus of the current research was to isolate and identify factors which have…

To enhance knowledge of television content, a prosocial code was developed by watching a large number of potentially prosocial television programs and making notes on all the positive acts. The behaviors were classified into a workable number of categories. The prosocial code is largely verbal and contains seven categories which fall into two…

A random sample of U.S. television news directors was surveyed by mail in the spring of 1973 concerning hiring practices, the college training they felt was helpful for potential employees, and specific reasons they had for hiring personnel during the past year. The directors also were asked to report the ratings of their evening newscast and to…

In the Spring of 1973, American television news editors were surveyed for data on staff size, operating budgets, work roles, camera equipment, portable VTR equipment, wire services, mobile equipment, and number of newscasts. The data obtained are reported in five levels of operating budgets with a summary of the statistics for each area of news…