An examination of the portrayal of women in popular magazine advertising from 1942 to 1945 suggests that the mass media played a major role in calling women out of the home and into the factory and machine shop to assist in the war effort. Discouraged from working during the Depression years when jobs were scarce, in the 1940s women were eagerly…

Approximately 500 people were interviewed in a study designed to assess the effectiveness of and response-motivation to a public action campaign in a developing country. It focused on Nigeria's voter registration drive conducted in preparation for that country's first political elections in more than 13 years and explored some factors that…

In a 1978 followup to a 1977 survey of Louisiana legislators' perceptions about news media coverage of the annual legislative session, the legislators ranked the four major news media (daily/weekly newspapers, television, and radio) in terms of ten coverage factors. These factors included alertness, completeness, fairness, accuracy, interest,…

The phenomenon of the close relationship between communication and public opinion is shown in this book to have played a major role historically in the measurement of support for political policies, officials, and candidates. The communications media influence public opinion and are subject to it; yet the precise nature and definition of public…

Two questions were the focus of this study. Do television network presentations of the same event significantly vary in their use of nonverbal production techniques? If they do differ, what effect do these differences have on receiver's attitude toward the object of that network coverage? Phase 1 of the study examined the speeches of Ted Kennedy…

This study reports the results of a national survey of the attitudes of five demographic groups toward freedom of the press. The groups are newsmen, state legislators, high school teachers, high school students, and the general public. The survey is broken into two parts, the first dealing with general principles (e.g., support for a law against…

A survey conducted with a cross section of the national population produced the following findings. First, not only has television grown to the point where only 2% of American homes receive fewer than three channels, it has also grown in public esteem. It has become the number one source of news and the most credible and frequently used medium. In…

Examines linkages between media use and attitudes from a survey of Soviet and American teenagers. Finds that all youths show a great concern about the possible effects of nuclear war, with heavy media users in both countries more optimistic, but the relation was stronger among Soviet students. (MS)

The Mass Media Effects section of this collection of conference presentations contains the following 13 papers: "The Nature of the Public's Objections to Television Programs: An Examination of Third-Person Effects" (Guy E. Lometti and others); "An Examination of the Relationship of Structural Pluralism, News Role and Source Use with…

A "collective voluntarism" framework can be used to achieve greater analytical precision and improve theoretical development of the landmark "knowledge gap hypothesis" which has stimulated considerable research and debate about the nature and existence of socially structured public affairs knowledge. The original knowledge gap…

A study examined the relationships between the media, public opinion and the Medicare Catastrophic Act of 1988 which was repealed in 1989. Using the NEXIS electronic database, 11 years (1977-89) of news articles, opinion pieces, editorials, and letters to the editor were harvested in random sequence from the Associated Press news wire, the…

This paper discusses the issues involved and presents an overall picture of attempts to censor the April 11, 1938 issue of "Life" magazine featuring a four-page spread of 35 pictures from the film "The Birth of a Baby." It examines contemporary news accounts from newspapers published in New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, New…

The attention of Americans and their mass media to the lengthy hostage-taking episode known as the "Iran Hostage Crisis" was unprecedented, especially in light of the apparently limited significance of the hostage-taking as a geo-political event. A study used fantasy-theme analysis of print news coverage (news stories, editorials,…

This research review explores the propaganda model proposed by E. S. Herman and N. Chomsky (1988) as an alternative way of looking at the American news media. The study begins with a review of the theoretical assumptions and the supporting empirical findings highlighting the propaganda framework, following which is a synthesis of research…

Researchers have determined that the lay public makes risk judgments in ways that are very different from those advocated by scientists. Noting that these differences have caused considerable concern among those who promote and regulate health and safety, a study examined media coverage of the accident at the Robert E. Ginna nuclear power plant…