Examines the current state of empirical research on religious television, discusses some of the implicit difficulties in exploring this phenomenon and its viewership, and suggests avenues for future research. (MS)

How to improve the design of research on the effectiveness of media." (Editor)

A discussion of some basic research questions for learning and television. (HB)

A study compared the organizational styles of television station program directors (PDs) against indicators of market and department size, personnel stability, job satisfaction, and productivity. Researchers used the four types of management styles used by Likert: exploitative authoritarian, benevolent authoritarian, consultative, and…

A study was conducted in which half-hour segments of prime-time network dramatic programing were tabulated for such violence-related items as: the seriousness and significance of violence, the number of violent actions in the program, and the duration of violence. Other factors considered were: audience size, share of audience, program duration,…

Noting that television network coverage of hostage crises tends to emphasize the same topics while depicting them in similar ways, and that networks may be unwittingly granting legitimacy to terrorist grievances, a study investigated the nature of "NBC Nightly News" coverage of the Trans World Airline (TWA) hostage crisis. Specific…

Present the results of a study conducted to determine the correlation between children's selection of television programs and aggression. The regression analysis suggests that the relationship between viewing and aggression may be attributable to selective exposure rather than the reverse viewing-causes-aggression sequence. (Author/JVP)

Reviews the scientific and public-opinion debate on the impact television violence in America has on aggression and violence. Research supports the view that television violence contributes to children's level of aggressiveness and subsequent violence and criminality. Describes attempts to improve the quality of television programming for children…

The public receives a large percentage of its information about mental health issues from media sources. Research has shown that the portrayal of occupational roles is often distorted and unrealistic. Cultivation theory predicts that television's version of reality helps influence or "cultivate" viewers' beliefs about the world. This cultivation…

This paper argues that the proliferation of videocassette recorders in the United Kingdom, especially England, has altered the terms of all electronic--and possibly cinematic--viewing in that country, with the exception of areas where communal viewing is the dominant practice, where broadcast is the dominant distribution mode, and where cinema is…

The aim of this study was to provide quantitative measurement of the degree of identification, or lack of identification, that takes place between the viewers of television and the television roles they like and view regularly and those they dislike and view infrequently. Participants in the study were asked to keep a Television Viewing Diary and…

Summarizes data from five studies on the viewing and impact of the series "Roots." Findings compared and contrasted studies for frequency of viewing, perceived entertainment, emotional response, relevance to racial relations, and information. (JEG)

Analysis of major network television announcers' commentary shows that white players get more praise and less criticism than do comparable black players. (KS)

Argues that texts may be especially rhetorically effective when the content, the medium used to convey the content, and the real life experiences that make the content relevant are formally or structurally similar. Suggests that formal linkage creates rhetorical effect, and uses Burke's theory of forms to explain the effect of formal links. (MS)