The agenda setting hypothesis of mass media effects, which maintains that the mass media set the agenda of public discussion and determine which items are to be discussed and which ignored, was tested. Agenda was defined as an attribute of individual respondents to be compared with those of various media. In a preliminary study, a group of 59…

Personal interviews were conducted with 353 eligible voters in Madison, Wisconsin, in October 1976, and repeated with all but 30 after election day to examine the correlation between voters' age, paper reading (especially public affairs), and television watching (especially public affairs), and the amount of behavioral volatility (voter…

It was hypothesized in this study that media supporters would be more persuaded by messages delivered through media sources than would media critics. An experimental Persuasion study was conducted in which persons were asked to give their personal evaluations of news media performance. Then they were exposed to a persuasive message delivered…

A sample of 558 communication specialists and nonspecialists was drawn for this study of the future role of mass media in Florida. The Delphi technique was used in four rounds of mail questionnaires, though response rates dropped from 29% of the total sample in round one to 8% in round four. Social, legal, and economic events affecting the future…

William Stephenson's ludenic newsreading theory, which asserts that the newsreading situation is not one in which information is passed from a communication source to a receiver, but one in which the individual plays with communication, is examined in this study. Four postulates from the theory are tested in relation to student newspaper demands:…

The focal points of this study are the role perceptions and the environments of women's page editors from daily and weekly newspapers across the United States. In the role perception areas, equal rights, discrimination, and the role of women in journalism are examined. Salaries, education, college major and minor, and years in the profession are…

Advocates of the "new politics" have argued that the use of television for political campaigning can be effectively utilized to encourage and enhance the probability of split ticket voting. Derivation and analysis of seven perceived dimensions of political campaign communication among registered voters finds television unrelated to…

Individuals engage in media behavior several times daily. If a medium is actually used, that decision is one of a series of points which constitute a media behavior unit. The media behavior unit is used in several ways. First, by looking at particular attributes, researchers can determine whether an individual is consistent in medium…

The focus of this paper is on three questions: Who are the professional women on newspaper staffs? How do they feel about their jobs? What are their job expectations? Questionnaires were sent to each of Wisconsin's 35 daily newspaper editors (all men), a brief form for the editor and a longer form for each woman on his news-editorial staff.…

There is a conflict between the traditional concept of journalism education--characterized by devotion to the five "w's," the inverted pyramid news story form, the style book, and copy reading symbols--and a newly emerging, philosophy of communicologist-dominated journalism schools--characterized by increasing specialization in space exploration,…

Questionnaire responses from 259 college students were employed to determine how eight media were used in the satisfaction of ten needs. It was found that television was the most generally satisfactory medium, averaged over the ten needs, and that film was the most need specific. Television and radio paralleled each other in their ability to…

Offers summaries of research dealing with (1) judges' perceptions of the fair trial-free press issue, (2) ethical journalism, (3) media agenda setting with environmental issues, (4) local predictors of basic and pay cable television subscribership, and (5) restaurant critics. (FL)

Summarizes research dealing with a number of topics, including the following: (1) political communication and voter volatility, (2) daily newspaper publishers' preferences on reporter decision making, (3) media use by foreign students, and (4) coverage of discrimination cases in the "New York Times." (FL)

Presents summaries of research dealing with (1) foreign correspondents in Washington, D.C., (2) legal protection for magazine article ideas, (3) the influence of training on taking and judging photographs, (4) the impact of cable television on library materials borrowing, and (5) the law that first led to a free press. (FL)

Concludes that the coverage of health issues in the British press is modest and lacking in information, making health less of a concern than illness among the public. (FL)