A set of surveys was conducted among elementary school students to provide basic information on exposure patterns to television newscasts on the local and national level. (Author/STS)

Among the findings from a survey of 435 third-through seventh-grade children is that substantial numbers of children watch television news in formats designed for both adults and children, that children believe news is produced to serve a number of different functions, and that they receive different patterns of gratifications from viewing. (GT)

Studies the relationship between children's perceptions of the news and learning, and the effect of televised news story context on their perceptions. Explores the effect of news story context on learning through perceptual variables: liking the story, liking the program, believing the story, and understanding the function of the story. (JMF)

Reports that young children characterized as high or medium news watchers, probably watch the news with their parents, watch more as they grow older, have a fairly good idea of the scope and usefulness of television news, prefer stories about topics appearing in popular entertainment programs, and tend to see television news as being about bad or…

Presents brief reports of research conducted in the following areas: media credibility, network television news audiences, influences of television newscasters' on-camera image, Blacks in introductory advertisements, children's television preferences, messages in Depression-era photographs, and journalism education issues covered in two…

Presents a study of the effectiveness and believability of male and female newscasters among children and shows that newscaster sex does not effect believability ratings. Girls, however, learned more from a male than from a female newscaster. Newscaster sex did not affect retention of the newscast by boys. (JMF)

The bibliography on analyses of television programing provided in this paper indicates the types of content analyses that have been conducted on television programing over much of the last 30 years. Compiled after a review of relevant books and the back issues of "Journal of Communication,""Journal of Broadcasting," and "Journalism Quarterly," the…

News media hold significant power and responsibility in focusing public attention on child-related issues. This document summarizes a study of news coverage of children in national media in 1994 and reports on the follow-up conducted in 1998. The follow-up study was based on a sample of national news coverage collected throughout November 1998…