Contributes to scholarship on attitudes toward the media's role in society by investigating public attitudes toward the use of investigative reporting. Finds that a large majority (84%) still approve of investigative reporting in general, while approval for specific investigative reporting techniques remains low (about one-third). (SR)

Supports the hypothesis that political caricatures are not static but can evolve over a relatively short period of time to reflect more positively or negatively on the person being caricatured. (RB)

Presents a content analysis of Chinese newspapers before and after the Tiananmen Square protest. Shows that top leaders manipulated symbols given to the media and that these symbols rigorously highlighted the dominant ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and isolated participants of the 1989 Student Movement to legitimize the military…

Finds that base-rate information (general statements about the range or importance of a problem) had little impact whereas exemplars (less valid but more vivid individual cases) had a strong effect on the perceived distribution of public opinion about news story problems, and also had a moderate impact on undergraduate students' personal opinions…

Finds that the journalist and the public frequently differ on issues regarded as important to the well-being of the press and society. (RB)

Explores the possible relationship among issue involvement, argument strength, and the third-person effect. Finds that undergraduate students tend to believe that "others" will be more affected than themselves by a persuasive message that contains weak argumentation but that "others" will be less affected than themselves by a…

Uses psychological theories about how people process information to examine the influence of variance in question wording on public support for the Reagan defense build-up. Concludes that source cues influence the public but that such influence is overwhelmed when the public is simultaneously exposed to relevant policy information. (TB)

Uses Ross Perot's campaign for president in 1992 as a case study in how two key political institutions--the conventional political press and the party system--mediate the effects of political communication. Finds that reporters allocated positive and negative coverage to Perot according to the same rules that they normally follow. (TB)

Concludes that the New York press was not responsible for Canada's anti-Northern attitude following the Civil War. (RB)

Concludes that high media users consider themselves less informed, view themselves as less serious, and prefer less personal solutions to problems. (RB)

Standard histories of public relations privilege the field's association with business enterprise, and traditionally place the origins of the field in the press agentry of the 19th century and in the rise of corporate concern with public opinion in the first decade of the 20th century. However, the roots of public relations reach both farther and…

Concludes that the press may not be successful in telling people what to think, but it is successful in telling its readers what to think about. (RB)