A study examined the source of important voter perceptions during the 1984 presidential election and their impact on the choice between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale--specifically perceptions involving the effects of either a Reagan or a Mondale victory on the American economy. The origins of these economic perceptions were sought in…

The paper examines the role the mass media play in the functioning of black families. Emphasis is on the perspectives and images of black families that are presented via commercial television, newspapers, and magazines. Divided into four parts, the paper discusses the following: (1) the theoretical framework around which the paper is centered,…

Defining agenda-setting as the ability of the mass media to influence the level of the public's awareness and perceptions of political issues, a study was conducted to examine the agenda-setting power of the black periodical press in the United States. Survey responses collected by the University of Michigan Center for Political Studies were…

Comparing the Nigerian press during the colonial period of British rule and the post-independence period, a case study examined two press laws: the Newspaper Ordinance No. 10 of 1903, and Decree No. 4 of 1984 (Public Officers Protection against False Accusation Decree). Using qualitative research methodology, the study investigated how the…

To illustrate the relevance of critical communication history and theory to media ethics, this paper examines a crucial episode in the history of public relations: the American electrical industry's cooperative advertising and public relations efforts in the 1920s to sell the "electrical idea" to consumers. The paper first enumerates…

Reflecting and influencing foreign policy, the mass media are important, if nontraditional, diplomatic channels. The role the news media assume, ranging from neutral to participant, depends largely on the society within which it operates. Journalists in authoritarian governments, for example, who rely on press releases and briefings of foreign…

The debate over the role of the press in the Third World has largely ignored questions of public perception of media roles and performance. To investigate whether an audience perceives the fundamental difference between development journalism (where the state has significant involvement in news decisions) and a free press, and whether that…

Telephone interviews with 389 people were conducted by undergraduate students to test the hypothesis that attention to economic news in the media would result in more beliefs about the economy, and that both news media attention and beliefs would lead to the holding of stronger attitudes toward the current administration's economic policy.…

A study was conducted to examine news coverage of the U.S. withdrawal from Unesco. News reports distributed by the Associated Press, United Press International, New York Times News Service, and Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service were studied to determine how adequate a foundation they were providing Americans for independent judgment…

A study was conducted to segment the mass media audience on the basis of basic needs and media satisfactions. Two hundred undergraduate journalism students completed lengthy questionnaires rating their media use before and during the New York newspaper strike of 1978, along with their basic needs, media satisfactions, and a variety of other…

This report of the investigation into East European newspaper treatment of the accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the spring of 1979 focuses on the Czech and Slovak media, particularly on the Slovak Communist Party's daily newspaper, "Pravda." The response of the media of other East European countries to…

Senators of the Eighty-third Congress were studied to ascertain what factors were most highly correlated with press coverage for each individual senator. This information was then correlated with an earlier study of the Eighty-ninth, Ninety-first, and Ninety-third Congresses to see what differences might exist which could indicate the development…

A longitudinal study was conducted to test whether the degree of campaign issue conflict portrayed in newspapers is linked to frequency of issue coverage in setting the agendas of prospective voters regarding important campaign issues. The research replicated and expanded agenda setting models of media effects, using 487 Indiana University…

The basic premise in the study of the mass media and media credibility was that the medium is a major factor in the determination of the credibility of information by receivers. Relationships between media credibility and sociolinguistic theory were explored, and the factor analysis was used to organize patterns of perception of media credibility…

Using stepwise multiple regression, voting behavior was predicted from semantic differential scale evaluations of the winning candidate in four voting situations: the 1972 Presidential race in Illinois and Missouri and the gubernatorial races in the two states. "Image" was defined in terms of the semantic differential scales, and "image voters"…