This study explores the use and presentation of information and research on education by the news media. Using content analysis, this study compares four types of think tanks--contract research, academic, advocacy, and mixed academic and advocacy--and shows how the news media represented each one as a source of research, facts, and figures on…

Finds substantial agreement among major media as to the mix of various news topics but substantial disagreement as to which specific stories should be used. (FL)

Details a study showing that government sources in the United States are less credible than they were shown to be in a study conducted 19 years ago. (Author/FL)

Indicates that the assumption that scientists have no experiences with the press is invalid. Concludes that most scientists surveyed would welcome contact with journalists. (FL)

Defines mobilizing information (MI) as any information that allows people to act on the attitudes and desires they already have. Concludes that MI is missing in news of political controversy at least in part because journalists decided to withhold it. (FL)

Concludes that the editorial presentation of a story can have significant effects on an audience's perceptions of a story's target. (FL)

The establishment of a regional news agency for Latin America to improve the balance of news flow and increase the transmission of news more applicable to regional problems has often been proposed. Despite wide acceptance of the concept, the birth of the Third World's first regional news agency, Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion (LATIN), has…

Examines local newspaper coverage of a city legislative body to provide some systematic evidence on the source-media relationship in a nonelection agenda-setting context. (FL)

A study examined how statehouse reporters covering the 1982 session of the Indiana General Assembly used information sources. Specifically, it focused on reporter reliance on key senate leaders, on the visibility of those senators in published stories, and on the institutional images transmitted in stories in which those and other senators were…

A study was conducted to determine the images of the media held by members of a state legislature. Specifically, it examined the legislators' perceptions of differences in print and broadcast news media performance, and differences in coverage of the legislature in the home district and on a statewide level. Questionnaires containing demographic…

A study was conducted for the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island to analyze coverage of the accident by ten news organizations: two wire services, three commercial television networks, and five daily newspapers. Copies of all stories and transcripts of news programs during the first week of the accident were examined from…

Concludes that the processes involved in gathering information can of themselves affect some of the assessments that journalists make of their sources. (FL)

A study of the diffusion of news about the Mormon Church's approval of Blacks for the priesthood revealed that "shocking" good news can ignite the interpersonal communications system, that news has more credibility when obtained from media than when obtained interpersonally, and that people use mass media to verify news obtained…

A truly diverse press not only takes seriously its political role of fostering robust debate but stands committed to its cultural role of providing a distinctively local context for the issues and discussions it reports. However, what contributes to the diminution of press diversity remains a controversial question that continues to attract…