Analysis of the relationship of ten characteristics to item readership revealed that page number and length of story were major determinants. (KS)

Concludes that liberal opinion magazines have far more mobilizing information than do either conservative opinion magazines or news magazines. (FL)

For South African media and its audiences, as well as news researchers, the democratization developments in South Africa since April 1994 also offer new opportunities in the field of news flow studies. To answer the question "How are South African mass media portraying Africa and the rest of the world in the post-apartheid era through the…

Describes an experimental study which demonstrates that science and technical writing can be written to maximize audience interest and appeal. (RB)

Concludes that newspaper lifestyle pages--the new version of the "women's pages"--still devote most of their coverage to food, fashion, and romance. Notes that rural newspapers are the most likely to follow this pattern and metropolitan newspapers the least likely. (FL)

Throughout most of the 1970s, the two major competing syndicated services measuring consumer magazine audiences utilized different methodologies in gathering magazine audience measurements and released somewhat differing figures. A study was conducted to explore the historical developments of W.R. Simmons and Associates Research, Inc. (Simmons),…

Points to characteristics that differentiate the college press from commercial media, mentions trends in past research on college publications, and discusses three areas in which there is a need for further research: readership, reader preference, and content trends. (GT)

The basic arrangements and practices of American broadcast audience research and measurement were established during the first decade (1920-29) of the field's existence, and were motivated by commercial and competing institutional concerns within the broader context of evolving forms of imagination and expression. A review of the evidence found in…

Several studies in media viewing have examined the hypothesis that alienation correlates with the consumption of escape-type content from the mass media. In order to interpret this result, alienation was considered as a process beginning with difficiulties in situation definitions. It was assumed in this study that heavy information of the mass…

Examines Kurt Lewin's theory of gatekeeping and the methods used by David Manning White in transposing Lewin's concept to communications situations. Reports on a study indicating that news magazine gatekeeping with respect to the population/family planning issue faithfully mirrors the perceptions of society. (GT)

Five one-hour broadcasts of KPIX Eyewitness News (San Francisco) were analyzed to provide examples of a signification process and to understand both how humorous instances arise in the newscast and their likely meaning for the viewer. One general finding was that the amount of humor or attempted humor is quite small. Banter between anchorpersons,…

Although psychological studies of the mass media have been dominated by cognitivist and psychodynamic concepts, a study of the mass media using a behavior analysis method may be used to analyze the content of the mass media. By applying that analysis to fictional teacher-learner interactions an interpretation of those relationships can be made and…

Typically, research concerning media presentations of women has involved six types of analysis: (1) content analysis (what is said), (2) cultural and social analysis (why it is said), (3) control or gatekeeper analysis (by whom it is said), (4) audience analysis (to whom it is said), (5) media analysis (in which channel), and (6) effects analysis…

A study tested the hypothesis that highly unrepresentative news stories about foreign nations would have a more damaging effect on the accuracy of inferences formed by United States audiences if the stories concerned developing countries than if they were about developed nations. Subjects, 76 college students, answered questions concerning a…