A study investigated whether selective attention to a particular television modality resulted in different levels of attention to and memory for each modality. Two independent variables manipulated selective attention. These were the semantic channel (audio or video) and viewers' instructed focus (audio or video). These variables were fully…

A study gathered information from "Variety" about production costs and final 32-week season ratings for prime-time series in order to determine what effect ratings have on whether a program is cancelled. The cancellation threshold against which these series could be judged was based upon final regular-season Nielsen ratings information.…

It would be to the advantage of cable operators to identify, in advance, those subscribers who have a high probability of voluntarily disconnecting their service, in order to develop strategies to anticipate and address the factors that might potentially lead to disconnection. A study developed a method for identifying likely disconnecters.…

Anticipating government relaxation of guidelines for public affairs programing on television (the Federal Communications Commission--FCC--has already deregulated radio programing), researchers analyzed 1978 programing data for commercial television stations to determine percentages of informational (news plus public affairs), local, and…

A study was undertaken to ascertain what difference if any there is in viewer reaction to television news shows done in a traditional way as contrasted with news done in a chatty "happy talk" manner. It was hypothesized that happy talk viewers should feel significantly more entertained, happier, less depressed, less concerned, less…

The television camera is selective in the information in conveys. Since the effect image size has on receiver behavior is important, television production texts perpetually include discussions of camera shots and refer to close-ups as providing the most information. Yet none of the surveyed research has systematically controlled and examined the…

This paper is an initial examination of prime time television's response to the events of September 11, 2001. Based on a review of the 2001-2002 television season's prime time programs, the study identifies 15 programs (out of 65 that ran the entire season) that incorporated September 11th elements. Themes of these programs are discussed as are…

In 1970, the Federal Communications Commission passed the Prime Time Access Rule, which directly affected the participation of the three commercial television networks in the production, transmission, and syndication of prime time programs. The result of this decision, as modified over the years since 1970, has shaped the television industry with…

Investigating persons viewed on local television news (other than anchors and reporters), a study examined 810 local television news stories from 1986 to 1987 from a national sample drawn from the files of a news consultant, and 543 stories (34 newscasts) from Cincinnati, Ohio, network affiliate newscasts in the summer of 1987. The unit of…

A study compared the organizational styles of television station program directors (PDs) against indicators of market and department size, personnel stability, job satisfaction, and productivity. Researchers used the four types of management styles used by Likert: exploitative authoritarian, benevolent authoritarian, consultative, and…

A study that examined consonance among the three major television networks' evening news programs for the period 1973 through 1981 used multiple criteria to assess long-term patterns of network similarity in news selection and treatment. A random sample was drawn, using one constructed week of five weekdays per quarter of the nine years and…

On the premise that a gap has developed between the newsworthiness of the national political party conventions and the television network resources allocated to cover them, the three major networks' coverage of the 1980 Democratic and Republican national conventions was analyzed to document patterns that influence the networks' portrayal of party…

A study was initiated to answer questions concerning television programing during "people's time" in a medium-sized market. "People's time" is defined as local prime time from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. as contrasted with prime or network time and is considered a time when local broadcasters have an opportunity to serve their audience's…

A great deal of research has examined the effects of the racial composition of advertisements on their acceptance by the black consumer. From this literature two antithetical findings have emerged: (1) television commercials that use black models are more meaningful to black viewers than are those using white models, and (2) black models in…

Data from three representative national surveys were studied to determine to what extent profiles of television viewers of different levels of viewing frequency fit with expectations based on theory and earlier research. A group of 4,552 respondents were surveyed in 1975, 1976, and 1978 by personal interviews and were classified as to status as…