Some critics of broadcasting assert that the authoritarian dimension of entertainment television encourages viewer passivity and the uncritical acceptance of negative social values on the part of some viewers. This paper reviews the research on this topic and presents two new studies that tested the authoritarian impact of entertainment…

A study investigated the differences between television news programming in Canada and the United States in three areas: ownership (public versus private), language (French versus English), and nation of origin (Canada versus the United States), in order to determine basic differences in network TV news content Canadian viewers may experience,…

The highly rated television program series, "All in the Family," was used to test the relationship between attitudes espoused by televised characters and attitudes held by viewers of this type of television programing. On the basis of survey questionnaires, it was condluded that people who hold dogmatic and, especially, racist beliefs find…