What is currently happening in China is similar to what happened in the United States in the 1950s and the Soviet Union in the 1970s--television is quickly becoming a mainstay of popular entertainment and news. The Chinese government has made substantial efforts to provide television service to all regions of the country, with importance attached…

The results of research on the amount of information retained by television viewers from weather broadcasts suggest that audiences retain little information on weather conditions even though they are interested in it, and that more information is retained when the report is presented via the spoken word than with extensive use of visuals. An…

A content analysis was performed on all of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Nine O'Clock News and ITV (Independent Television) News at Ten programs that were broadcast during Britain's year-long miners' strike--March 1984-March 1985--and a four-month sample of Channel 4 news to examine how television news covered a protracted story of…

Examines television viewers' interpretations of a particular narrative from the British soap opera "Coronation Street" after they had watched it unfold over some time in natural viewing circumstances. Identifies and discusses the interpretations of four clusters of viewers ranked in terms of their relative allegiance to the characters.…

The purposes of this survey of television viewers were to investigate their personal experiences with crime and perceived competence to deal with it, and to study their perceptions of the likelihood of crime and fears of personal victimization. Members of a London Panel maintained by the Independent Broadcasting Authority's Research Department for…

This summative evaluation of two educational television programs, "The Edge" and "The Fortesque File," was based on a sample of "white" and "colored" classified respondents in the Greater Cape Town (South Africa) area. The two samples, which were divided into small panel groups of six to eight respondents…

A controlled experiment was conducted to test the extent to which nonverbal behavior between a journalist and a politician in a televised interview influences the way in which they are perceived by a television audience. Nine test films were produced that showed different versions of an interview in which the participants exhibited aggressive or…

Collection of detailed data on normative overall patterns of television viewer behavior has been an ongoing effort of the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) in the United Kingdom. While their measurement system--self-completion viewing diaries in conjunction with electronic meters recording television set use--may register that an…

Focusing on the experience of New Zealand, this paper is a response to a 1978 essay which suggested that a study be done to compare the programming patterns of television in the developed countries of Australia and New Zealand. Significant differences between the two nations are presented, including conspicuous discrepancies in television…

A study examined attitude change for viewers of "Amerika," an ABC television miniseries about the takeover of the United States by Soviet forces. Subjects, 267 undergraduates in communication courses at Memphis State University, completed a pretest a week prior to the airing of "Amerika" and a posttest a week after. The…

Examines research methods and data related to television audiences in the United Kingdom. Topics addressed include defining the concept of an audience, time spent watching television and on other media activities, programs watched, audience composition and program scheduling, ways programing addresses audiences, audience research, audience…

In July 1984, British Channel 4 began televising Case on Camera, a series based on genuine arbitration of civil cases carried out by a retired judge, recorded as it happened, and edited into half hour programs. Because of the Independent Broadcasting Authority's concern for the rights to privacy, a systematic study of public reaction to the series…

This paper describes a study which compared an actual television schedule with an "abstract" schedule in order to determine what the forces are that forge a television schedule and how these forces interact. The report is presented in six sections: (1) a statement of the problem; (2) a discussion of the notion of the abstract schedule…

This paper begins with a review of the literature that addresses the broad concerns of youth and media, with particular focus on children and adolescents, then moves on to explain the purpose of this specific study, i.e., to determine the nature of Nigerian young people's access to/use of television and to the competing media of radio and…

Explores the relationship among media consumers, institutional economics, and cultural ethos and suggests that communication researchers must adopt a flexible methodology capable of considering all relevant forces. Uses the case of Norway's broadcasting of the U.S. television series "Dynasty" to help illustrate these premises. (MG)