Explores the psychological origins of media gratification by examining how pertinent psychological variables help explain television viewing motivation. Finds that parasocial interaction, anxiety, creativity, sensation seeking's disinhibition dimension, and television affinity and exposure, helped to predict viewing motivation. (PRA)

Tests G. Armstrong's and B. Greenberg's model of the effect of background television on cognitive performance, applied to reading comprehension and memory. Finds significant deleterious effects of background television, stronger and more consistent effects when testing immediately after reading, and more consistently negative effects resulting…

Analyzes the content of 16 hours of children's cartoon television programs. Finds that (1) all programs contained some violence, but especially those programs linked with toy merchandisers; (2) such programs used more theme music; and (3) few Black characters were shown, whereas males predominated and females were victims more often than were men.…

Examines the congruence between the view of marriage identified in content analysis and that rated by college students. Finds that students rated most marriages as "traditional," and rated traditional marriages as the most realistic. Notes that the amount of television exposure was unrelated to television marriage ratings. Discusses implications…

Examines relationship between television viewing, holding idealistic expectations about marriage, and intentions to marry among undergraduate students. Finds overall television viewing has a negative association with idealistic marriage expectations; romantic genre programming was positively associated with high expectations; and expectations were…

Shows that the biologically rooted individual difference behavior variable of temperament was consistent and moderately strong causal factor in forming television use motivations among undergraduate students. Finds distinct patterns of relationships between temperament and all television use gratifications supporting the uses and gratifications…

A study examined the impact of TV viewing motivations on 126 Asian students' psychological and sociocultural adjustment. Subjects were enrolled in a midsize university in the New England area. TV viewing motivation was measured by A. M. Rubin's TV Viewing Motivations Scale. Psychological adjustment was measured by W. Zung's Self Rating Depression…

A study examined the effects of television on dyadic interaction. Subjects, 41 dyads (mostly same sex dyads) consisting of a student in an introductory communication course (students were given extra credit for participation in the research) and a friend, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions and were videotaped by a hidden…

Finds an inverse relationship between the amount of media exposure to campaign information and television audience ability to name the candidates. (RB)

Based on the associational nature of memory, the distinction between episodic and semantic memory, and the notion of memory strength, a model was developed of the role of emotion in the memory of television commercials. The model generated the following hypotheses: (1) emotional commercials will more likely be recalled than nonemotional…

The concept of the agenda setting function of the mass media holds that apart from any influence they may have on voter attitudes or behavior, the mass media apparently influence voters' perceptions of the importance of the issues. The agenda setting function of the mass media is analyzed for significance in this investigation. A panel study of…

Universities contain powerful blocs of resistance to new educational technology, perhaps especially to television. University attitudes and structures as well as faculty ignorance, apathy, and resistance affect the development of cable television. No one seems to speak with great confidence and precision about the educational potential of cable.…

This research examines two information theoretic measures of media exposure within the same sample of respondents and examines their relative strengths in predicting self-reported aggression. The first measure is the form entropy (DYNUFAM) index of Watt and Krull, which assesses the structural and organizational properties of specific television…

Viewing television requires mental effort. Among the findings in this study, results indicated that more mental effort was required to process simple video and auditory information than complex information because the cognitive system is activated to a higher degree by complex messages and thus processes information more efficiently. (PD)