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)

A study examined the effects of several structural and individual variables on the perceived role of the media by media representatives and the general public. The focus of the study was on public perceptions of the media as "watchdog," but the images of the media as "guide dog,""rabid dog,""lap dog" and…

Contributes to scholarship on mass media's role in generating public confidence. Discusses the current crisis of confidence, confidence as "faith-together," varied routes by which media confer status, and ways both journalistic expose and public debate can generate cynicism and undercut public confidence. Sketches three types of civil…

On a daily basis, American television and radio audiences are subjected to a stream of broadcast Public Service Announcements (PSAs), each promoting "some kind of social or economic action deemed beneficial" (Stridsberg, 1977). Often, these announcements employ humor as a presentational device to help stimulate the behavioral change…

A study used disproportionate exemplar distributions to create a spiral of silence effect for a morally loaded issue. The effect of perception of public opinion on willingness to express an opinion was also examined. Three video news stories were created that would represent either a supporting, balanced, or opposing stance on the prayer in school…

Analyzes the alternative media and their reporting up to the February 1986 revolution in the Philippines. Shows that they broadened the context in which key events could be interpreted, and influenced those segments of the audience that provided new leadership. (MS)

Evidence from 34 studies published since a 1983 review of 58 earlier studies underscores knowledge inequalities as an enduring phenomenon and emphasizes that interest in the knowledge gap phenomenon is accelerating. All 10 studies which varied "media publicity" supported the hypothesis. Eleven of 12 studies which varied some aspect of…

A study analyzed the quality of reporting of public opinion polls in six selected newspapers during the final 65 days of the 1988 presidential campaign. The eight disclosure standards used were based upon the latest version of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) code of Professional Ethics and Practices. The newspapers…

This paper presents a typology of terrorism which is grounded in how media differentially cover each type. The typology challenges some of the basic assumptions, such as that the media "allow" themselves to be exploited by terrorists and "encourage" terrorism, and the conventional wisdom about the net effects of the media's…

Presents a mathematical model to explain the public's issue priority by integrating media agenda-setting and social interaction. Finds that the public's issue priority was influenced by both media and social interaction. (RS)

Comparing United States television news coverage of the Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories before and after press restrictions were introduced in March 1988, a study examined whether Israel's press clampdown (restricting particularly the activities of camera crews, and apparently begun in response to negative foreign opinion…

The topic of agenda setting has been one of the most researched fields in mass communication since its introduction in 1972. M. E. McCombs and D. L. Shaw (1972) began a research collection of over 200 projects by upholding the hypothesis that the media cannot tell viewers what to think but it can tell them what to think about. The question arises…

This paper argues that Dwight Eisenhower's use of television in the political campaign in 1956 helped mark the rise of the centralized presidential campaign strategy. To determine the impact of television on this campaign and describe the campaign's inner workings, the paper recounts (1) the Republican dilemma over the use of television and the…

Focuses on reasoning processes people used to decide whether to support President Reagan during the Iran-Contra Affair and the role of the media in that reasoning process. Finds that the media framed the affair as a valence issue rather than a position issue, and that highly sophisticated people demonstrated a higher level of complex reasoning…

Reviewing the historical development of media agenda-setting theory suggests that topics emphasized by the mass news media become the topics people think are most important. The vast majority of agenda-setting studies, however, rely on aggregate measures of media and public agendas, and produce very little support for the original theory as there…