The TV viewing situation involves an active transaction between the child, the TV, and the TV viewing environment. The TV viewing transaction is a blend of passive and active cognitive activities. Children begin to watch TV systematically at around 2 1/2 years of age because at that time they have the cognitive ability to aappreciate the meaning…

Evidence in recent years has linked a heavy dependence on television news with lower levels of knowledge about various aspects of the political system and negative evaluations of that system (political malaise). Three different sources of data on audience dependence on television news were used (1) to examine more closely the shift toward…

The characteristics of 69 award-winning television commercials from 1948 through 1958 were compared to those of 58 award-winning commercials from 1976 and 1977. The examined characteristics were type of storyline used, selling strategies, use of humor, live action versus animation, production techniques, and the depiction of blacks, women,…

A study compared the relative effects and functions of a live versus a televised presentation of a political message. Specifically, the study examined whether (1) the audience for a live political speech differed from the audience for a similar televised speech, (2) a live political speech produced more positive attitude change regarding the…

This paper discusses effective parenting and how television can be used to stimulate communication between parent and child. Research on viewing habits, and social statistics on teenage pregnancy and drug and alcohol use provide a background for examining parent-child communication and lead into a discussion of Kohlberg's theories of moral…

To understand how children respond to and make use of portrayals of the sexes on television, 192 third and eighth grade students participated in a study to determine what they notice and how important these distinctions are to them. The study obtained children's same/different paired comparisons of eight concepts--me, my mother, an average woman,…

This paper contains partial data from an investigation of adults and television conducted for the Canadian Royal Commission on Violence in the Communications Industry. The first section of the paper offers a discussion of the viewing behaviors of adult Canadians derived from interview data, while the second section examines the "mean world…

Second and fifth graders viewed one of two edited versions of a commercial action-adventure television program portraying an aggressive action associated with antisocial motives and punishing consequences. The versions differed only in the amount of time elapsing between the focal action and the motives for that action. Children's comprehension of…

This study investigated what changes in the television-personality and presidential images of the candidates would occur among first-time young voters due to the first presidential debate. Subjects, 116 18- or 19-year-old students at Purdue University, completed semantic differential forms, before and after the debate, which rated the concepts of…

This study was conducted to test the relationship between dogmatism and agreement with the television character Archie Bunker among adult Canadians. It was hypothesized that highly dogmatic Canadians would demonstrate the same identification with Archie Bunker that highly dogmatic viewers from the U. S. demonstrate, and it was also hypothesized…

Three studies carried out in 1975 with the assistance of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting examined use of public television by black viewers. Results from statewide telephone surveys in Mississippi and North Carolina indicated that significantly fewer blacks than whites watched public television. However, most of the differences disappeared…

The ongoing controversy over whether to permit television cameras to cover courtroom trials has generated a variety of responses from the judiciary, the bar, and the media. In an attempt to determine whether individuals are affected by the awareness that they are being televised, this study, while maintaining experimental control, simulated some…

Documents the range and extent of family life configurations in prime-time television over a six-year period (1979-1985). Reveals that prime-time network television tends to reinforce conservative to moderate models of family life, while also presenting a diversity of nonstandard interpretations of family which are framed in the nonthreatening…

A study examined the impact of TV viewing motivations on 126 Asian students' psychological and sociocultural adjustment. Subjects were enrolled in a midsize university in the New England area. TV viewing motivation was measured by A. M. Rubin's TV Viewing Motivations Scale. Psychological adjustment was measured by W. Zung's Self Rating Depression…

Children's television programs broadcast on Saturday mornings (7:00am-12:00pm) on CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox networks were examined for gender and ethnic representation. For a sample of programs during the 1995/96 television season, raters counted the number of males and females, and the number of Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans,…