Presents the first investigation of the effects of experience with a particular program series on children's subsequent television viewing behavior and comprehension. Notes three- to five-year-old regular, experienced viewers of "Blue's Clues" were compared to new, inexperienced viewers. Suggests that a television series can teach children a style…

Assesses the prevalence and context of violence in prime-time television programming using a random, representative sample. Shows that, regardless of the time of day, viewers are likely to encounter violence in roughly 2 out of 3 programs. Identifies specific channel types and genres that feature potentially harmful depictions of violence during…

States that television has been a "single-station medium" in Israel since 1968, and that cable television is a recent innovation for that country. Describes an experiment that compared houses with cable to ones without, and found that houses with cable had markedly different viewing habits. Concludes that these findings suggest a…

Examines relationship between television viewing, holding idealistic expectations about marriage, and intentions to marry among undergraduate students. Finds overall television viewing has a negative association with idealistic marriage expectations; romantic genre programming was positively associated with high expectations; and expectations were…

Demonstrates that television news is a relatively weak overall predictor of long-term information gain. Shows that newspapers remain America's premier source of public affairs information and more specialized cable programs such as the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour and C-SPAN have come to rival newspapers and news magazines as suppliers of long-term…

Examines the perpetrators of violence on American television in terms of their chronological age. Compares the amount and nature of violence committed by child and teen characters to that committed by adult characters. Suggests that younger perpetrators are depicted in several ways that pose risks for the child viewer. (SG)

Reports the results of two sets of large-scale national studies on the effectiveness of television as a means of acquiring news information. Concludes that those who derive news information from television have less comprehension of events and issues reported than do those who obtain information from other sources. (SG)

Explores the differences in techniques, strategies, narratives, and symbols used in 1,213 television issue ads and image ads from 13 U.S. presidential campaigns. Concludes that although the majority of both types of ads were positive, negative appeals dominated a higher percentage of issue ads as compared with image ads. (SG)

Compares identical studies of the uses of leisure, culture, and communication in Israel in 1970 and 1990, to infer possible long-run effects of the introduction of television broadcasting. Finds a drop in attendance at "spectacles" of all kinds (whether theater or sports) and a rise in activities that are interactive, time flexible, and…

Describes how values are portrayed on prime-time network television. Looks at the prominence of values incidents in a story line and at how fully the values are explained. Examines how values incidents are structured and linked. Concludes that values incidents play an integral, if not principal, role in television programs. (RS)

Investigates differences observed among German students regarding amount of television viewing. Finds a significant negative effect of need for cognition on viewing amount. Interprets this as a manifestation of individual-psychological escapism in which the lower viewers' need for cognition is, the less pleasant they feel when they have nothing to…

Studies how network television news responded to three 1983 news stories on the nuclear threat: (1) the theory of nuclear winter; (2) the fictional film "The Day After"; and (3) discussion by members of the Reagan administration of the possibility of fighting and prevailing in a limited nuclear war. (MS)

Finds that the private dialog between parents and children closely approximated the public dialog about TV family portrayals by focusing on TV family realism, structure, and relationship models. Shows that a social learning model was implicit in participants' arguments, and that most participants argued that family portrayals affect expectations…

Uses content analysis of television characters in all occupations across 30 seasons to test the argument that television entertainment depicts business negatively. Reaffirms that television stigmatizes the occupation of business, independently of economic factors. Notes that these results pose a challenge to mass communications theory that…

Examines the differences in how Black and White viewers process messages based on the race of television characters representing five occupations. Notes that findings from male college students suggest that Black viewers have better recall of Black occupational characters than White characters on television. Reveals evidence that both Black and…