Examines uses and gratifications of college-age respondents regarding media use. Finds that (1) respondents rely on the media to fulfill basic human needs but that the media are only moderately helpful in accomplishing this; (2) respondents do not always trust the media; (3) young adults have not abandoned the newspaper; and (4) television was…

This document presented by the National Citizens' Committee for Broadcasting at a 1976 press conference provides an assortment of materials concerned with violence in television. Among the materials included are "Who Sponsors the New Fall Violence?" by Nicholas Johnson, a description of and rationale for the study of advertisers who…

Most devices designed to monitor the part of a visual display on which a subject's eyes are focused are cumbersome and expensive. It is proposed that areas of the display screen designated by the production unit as important to some decision be isolated on one television monitor and the remaining area of the screen be isolated on a second monitor.…

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

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:…

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…

Concludes that people who are older, more educated, and have a high surveillance need are more likely to be newspaper subscribers than are other types of people. (FL)

Emerging videotex news services--systems for distributing textual information on television screens that permit direct competition with pulp newspapers--are presently rooted in a limited theory of newsreading. The first of two rival theories of newsreading applicable to electronic newspapers is "uses and gratifications" research--the…

Analysis indicates that the appropriate time lag between cause and effect--between presentation of a press agenda and learning of issue saliences--is from two to six months, with a four-month lag being generally acceptable for newspaper agenda-setting. A shorter lag appears more appropriate for television agenda-setting. Within the framework of…

The first article in this report discusses how psychographic measures can be used to describe newspaper readers' life styles and to distinguish readers of different newspapers in a market. It reports the findings of a study revealing that in three markets, different psychographic profiles emerged for readers of morning and afternoon newspapers.…

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)

This study investigated college students' use of and attitudes toward traditional and nontraditional news media, and the role of cable news network (CNN) and its integration into evolving news consumption patterns. Results indicate later college years are associated with heavier consumption. CNN viewers are heavier users of traditional media.…

Uses log linear analysis to show that political activity is a potent predictor of media use. (FL)

Argues that most public-opinion research results from an implicit metaphor of citizens as "political consumers" and media messages as "hypodermic injections." Offers an alternative "conversational" metaphor. Describes a focus group project examining the relationship between television and public opinion. Presents…

Uses and gratifications research involves a critical appraisal of conceptual and theoretical issues in mass communication and is concerned with what audience members do with the media. Activation theory understands people as active manipulators of their environment. (Activation refers to that level of psychological and physiological excitement an…