After critiquing the usual estimates of the importance of television as a source of news, the national audience for television news over a two-week period is identified from the 1974-1975 W.R. Simmons study (which uses a diary technique for gathering data). Analysis showed that, in the two-week period, 49% of the adult population did not watch a…

A study tested the utility of the viewing intention application of the transfer discrepancy model--a model attempting not only to identify the key program attributes that alter beliefs, but also to identify those that transfer this belief change into changes in viewer behavior. To promote cross-population examination, the study focused on network…

Found that viewers who were cued to pay particular attention to the following evening's network news were able to recall significantly more news items and in more detail than viewers who were not, but neither group as a whole recalled more than 25 percent of the stories. (PD)

Evidence in recent years has linked a heavy dependence on television news with lower levels of knowledge about various aspects of the political system and negative evaluations of that system (political malaise). Three different sources of data on audience dependence on television news were used (1) to examine more closely the shift toward…

Finds that the better- and the less-educated members of a telephone survey recalled nearly the same amount of details from television newscasts, supporting the "knowledge-leveler" model of television as an educational medium for the general population. (RL)

Telephone interviews with 118 adults in the Gainesville, Florida, area were used to determine the relationships between the number and diversity of social problems mentioned by cable television subscribers versus nonsubscribers, socioeconomic status (SES), and media use. Media use was found to be associated with the type and number of problems…

Examined gratifications sought and obtained from television news programs in an attempt to predict news program choices. (PD)