Refutes a study originally published by Edith Efron which contended that network television news coverage of the 1968 presidential campaign was biased, concluding that campaign coverage was positive for both presidential candidates. (RB)

The concept of news perspective bias necessitates the creation of an empirical standard by which to judge that bias. A study defined and tested a real life referent applicable to planned, sustained news events that have identifiable and accessible participants. The study compared the television news coverage of court ordered busing to achieve…

Three empirical studies focused on viewer reactions to ethical issues in television news, and on actions audience members felt were appropriate to control possibly unethical behaviors in television broadcasting. The first study was a 12-minute telephone survey of 293 randomly selected adults in Minneapolis-St. Paul (Minnesota) in 1989 to determine…

Suggests avenues to close the schism between research methodology and theory in mass communication. (RB)

A survey of 379 adults was used to assess the extent to which television news credibility scores were a function of researcher operationalizations of the concept. Underlying this effort were published reports suggesting that single item measures of television news credibility were either biased or inadequate indicators of a more complex…

Describes methodology and results of a study which elicited local news directors' comments to determine whether respondents thought technology has helped or hurt local news. Results indicate news gathering technology may have a negative effect on local television news content and on the autonomy of news directors. (Author/MBR)

Briefly summarizes the research on television-viewing behavior relevant to news watching. Suggests ways in which research can be conducted to learn more about these habits as well as about active information processing. (JD)

Fourteen statements relating to the surveillance, diversion, and social interaction uses of media were drawn from a review of uses and gratification research and applied to the viewing of local and national early evening news and nighttime local news television programs. A telephone survey of 543 adults elicited information concerning demographics…

Concludes that television viewers seek and obtain more personal, entertaining, and humanistic elements from "Good Morning America" than from "Today." (FL)

Recent research has focused on the faulty implications emitted by factual television accounts of real events, while television news has been described as a pseudo-reality created from the ongoing flow of events. Furthermore, the convenient metaphorical language of television news often creates images of reality in such a way that the reality and…

This study examined the effects of pictorial changes on recall of spoken text in a television news broadcast viewed by adolescents and adults. Adult recall of spoken text was impaired by mid-sentence picture editing while adolescents' recall was enhanced so long as accompanying pictures were relevant to verbal text. (MBR)

Based on preliminary interviews with 40 adults, an instrument was devised for assessing voters' uses and gratifications of viewing television news about presidential campaigns. When this instrument was used to survey 226 persons of voting age, an analysis by orthogonal rotation of the data produced a six-factor solution accounting for 52.6% of the…

Discusses methodology and results of a study focusing on improving television's informing process by examining effects of combining visual and captioned information with a reporter's script. Results indicate redundant pictures and words enhance learning, while adding redundant print information either had no effect or detracted from learning. (MBR)

Discusses methodology, results, and implications of a study testing three hypotheses and investigating perceptions of social, political, and economic conflicts (organized according to complexity, intensity, and solvability) as they occur in society and as portrayed by television news. Findings indicate viewers are able to differentiate between…

The bibliography on analyses of television programing provided in this paper indicates the types of content analyses that have been conducted on television programing over much of the last 30 years. Compiled after a review of relevant books and the back issues of "Journal of Communication,""Journal of Broadcasting," and "Journalism Quarterly," the…