Contends that increased coverage of certain sports has led to increased ritualization and professionalism of amateur sports thereby undermining intrinsic participation motivations and satisfactions. (MH)

Discusses the agenda-setting research model and suggests that an extension of this model presents a relevant theory of social change. (MH)

Stresses the need for alternative information networks to offset the oppressive effects of the institutionalized public media and cites a program for acquiring "information literacy." (MH)

Discusses lifestyles, attitudes and beliefs of Australian families who have chosen not to own a television set. (MH)

Explores the rock music phenomenon as an indicator of the concerns, anxieties, and motives of the youth culture of the 1960s. (MH)

Discusses how new video media affect patterns of exposure to television and explores how these changing patterns of consumption may be related to larger issues of the medium's social impact. (JD)

Compares the uses of mass media and informal social networks in opinion formation among women from three varying population density groups. Results indicate that the degree of urbanity and education mediate choice of information source. (JMF)

Explores how different forms of mediated communication including telephonic and two-way radio, alter the processes of constricting social action and social relationships. (MH)

Presents a mathematical model to explain the public's issue priority by integrating media agenda-setting and social interaction. Finds that the public's issue priority was influenced by both media and social interaction. (RS)

Argues that research in environmental communication should look at communication-related linkages between society and the environment, and that biosocial theory presents a useful conceptual framework. Suggests five empirical generalizations about mass communication's possible roles in the interactions between people and the environment, drawn from…

Contends that Finnish mass communication systems contribute to rather than decrease information inequality and suggests that legislative changes to alter the communication structure and the ownership relations of the media are necessary. (MH)

Examines the contributions of Jacques Ellul to the area of communication research through his principle of "la technique," which offers a primary focus for theoretical considerations of modern communications media and their role in human society. (JMF)