Most members of the American public will never read this article. Instead, they will obtain much of their information about education from the news media. Yet little academic research has examined the type or quality of education research and expertise they will find there. Through the lens of gatekeeping theory, this mixed-methods study aims to…

Reports the findings of a survey conducted to determine the level of understanding of the news business by the general public in a midwestern community. Concludes that the respondents knew more about television news than about newspapers. (FL)

Concludes that in Michigan, reporters focused on covering the governor and that state representatives received more coverage than did senators. (FL)

Examines the reliability of the preseason rankings of NCAA Division I-A football and basketball teams prepared by the two wire services as predictors of performance. Concludes that the polls seldom correlate with end-of-season results. (FL)

Shows that complexity of news stories influences the effect of deadlines on news judgments. (Author/FL)

A descriptive mail survey extended two earlier studies done in the 1970s on "all-news" stations (or "news radio") and compared characteristics of stations using all-news with those of stations using extended news or news/information formats. Specifically, the previous studies were updated by exploration of how the following…

Shows evidence of media leadership of audience behavior that is consistent with the direction of coverage of a community controversy. (FL)

Case studies of a wire service bureau and a radio station revealed that information overload had less effect than anticipated on news processing procedures. (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)

Analyzes the effects of both structural factors (demographics, economic conditions, and competition) and discretionary factors (content, design, and marketing techniques) and concludes that it is the former that determine a newspaper's circulation. (FL)

Concludes that organizing information in news stories by candidates as opposed to issues is more effective in political decision making. (Author/FL)

Noting that past local media coverage of environmental topics, including those dealing with radiation topics, has often been superficial, a study assessed press coverage of the radon problem in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania during the first nine months of 1985. The study explored whether local media coverage of radon--a colorless,…