Examines the stability-reliability of two of the gratification constructs--surveillance and communicatory utility--to provide evidence on the convergence of several of the indicators used in previous research and to examine the interrelationships between the constructs. (FL)

Proves the influence of three variables on election outcomes and demonstrates the potential utility of the panel design for detecting causality in analyses of political data. (RB)

Outlines five types of studies that seem most significant and discusses problems of and proposals for future news media research. (PD)

Surveys measures of press behavior; reports on the testing of J. Galtung and M. Ruge's theory about the structure of news. Concludes that there are three major dimensions to press response to events: the decision to record the event, and considerations regarding space allocation and reader attention. (GT)

Drawing on 2 months of intensive research in a network-affiliate newsroom, this paper describes how the researcher coped with studying newswork by qualitative and quantitative methods within a naturalistic paradigm and addresses methodological issues facing the naturalistic researcher. The paper discusses the following five methodological issues:…

Uses an Israeli incident to illustrate the value of exchange theory in understanding the relationship between protest group leaders and reporters. (FL)

Researchers have put forth the idea that the mass media have an "agenda setting" function, that the more coverage an issue receives, the more important the public perceives that issue to be. A study tested the hypothesis that the campaign agenda presented by the media would have a stronger agenda setting effect than the aggregate media…

The literature implicating the media as responsible for the contagion of terrorist violence has grown rapidly, but, under scrutiny, it appears to contain no credible supporting evidence and fails to establish a cause-effect relationship. Some students of terrorism have borrowed conclusions from the literature about the effects of televised…

To derive a model for testing, research questions were formulated which asked how long news coverage viewed in the past continues to influence the perceived salience of issues and the rate at which the influence drops off. To do this, some common factors that have been shown to affect public perceptions of issue salience, such as the prominence of…

Suggests that press values for various periods might be assessed through a study of objective journalistic behavior and self-identified interests, and proposes a method of collecting data for such an approach. (RB)

In 1972, M. McCombs and D. Shaw introduced the idea that the mass media have the ability to tell the public which issues are of major importance in a political campaign by virtue of the amount of coverage they give each. This they termed the "agenda setting" function of the media. A study was conducted to investigate various aspects of…

Reports on a study that tested the applicability of drive-reduction and exposure learning models for gratifications received across three sources of political information. Concludes that the exposure learning model was more efficient for both newspaper and television news. (FL)

An emerging consensus is that investigations of media effects should focus on the most basic political function of the media. Attempting to move out of the usual modes of conceptualization and analysis, this paper concentrates on three major points: the reconceptualization of political knowledge to encompass the respondent's subjective…

Describes measurement of the concept of media credibility in previous research and reports results of a national survey that treated credibility as a multidimensional concept. Concludes from factor analysis that credibility scores for newspapers and television news were correlated. (FL)

Describes a study which randomly sampled Gainesville, Florida, residents to determine whether free and aided recall is greater for videotex news stories or television newscaster stories; for stories with or without graphics; and for videotex or television newscaster stories accompanied by a nonredundant crawl. (MBR)