Details the development and testing of the "News Direction Scale," which is designed to measure the negative-positive dimension of news. Reports the scale to be highly reliable. (FL)

Reviews United States Supreme Court decisions since 1900 to show that free speech decisions often rest on the circumstances surrounding the speech. Indicates that freedom of speech wins out over privacy when social or political function but not when personal happiness is the issue.

Examines major episodes in the reporting career of Paul Y. Anderson, Washington, D.C., newspaper correspondent and magazine columnist, to see how he helped maintain the practice and standing of enterprise journalism in the 1920s and 1930s. (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)

Argues that press attention paralleled the rise and fall of popular radio priest, Charles E. Coughlin. (FL)

Analysis of eight magazine articles on tropical rain deforestation indicates that almost half the pertinent information concerning the subject is missing. (FL)

Reports on diffusion studies following major and minor papal encyclicals. The results suggest that the relevance and salience of the information is more predictive of diffusion than is news value. (TO)

Discusses the question of defining government documents as property and the consequent conflict with the First Amendment rights of the press. (TO)

Reveals that content analysis shows that media coverage of the environment tends to deal with problems of a community at a distance rather than with local issues. (TO)

Presents a critical discussion of two news value indices and makes some suggestions for considering social psychological variables in the development of such indices. (TO)

Reports a study devising a constructive treatment for news of violence that has higher reader interest than a conventional straight-news approach. (TO)

Compares the reactions of photojournalists and the public to hypothetical ethical dilemmas confronting press photographers. Concludes that the two groups disagree significantly in their reactions to 17 of 19 ethical situations. (FL)

Concludes that the kinds of stories about native Alaskans are similar in general circulation and native operated newspapers, but that the emphasis is much less in the general papers. (FL)

Concludes that audiences tend to evaluate a radio newscast more positively and to perceive it as more immediate when it contains words that suggest timeliness. (FL)