This article presents a list of 16 topics which can form the backbone of a curriculum for a college level course in the use of instructional television (ITV). They were selected from a unit of ITV which is part of an educational course taught in the College of Education of the University of Texas at Austin. (Author)

The new Writing for Television Program at Morgan State University (suggested by Warner Brothers at a summer seminar) has added new courses each semester: (1) basic 200-level courses in the "Fundamentals of Writing for Television" and "Introductory Script Writing"; (2) more specialized 300-level courses in "Episodic…

This paper suggests that teachers and students take a serious look at the career opportunities being offered by industrial television. A video utilization survey of 380 U.S. corporations revealed that 25% of the corporations maintained their own television studio production facilities, and that another 12% had definite plans for establishing one.…

A wide variety of media subjects are discussed in an introductory mass communication course at Southern Arkansas University, and one of the most popular instructional sections with students is "infomercials." This paper acquaints students with the history, scope, and controversy surrounding the infomercial genre. It first explains that…

This paper discusses a class project in which a broadcast education professor's students at Southern Arkansas University produced campus news stories for the local NBC affiliate--the affiliate ran the stories once a week on their newscasts. The paper begins with a short explanation of course requirements for Advanced Electronic News Gathering and…

In 1990, Warner Brothers Television made a bold decision to recruit new, young writers from outside the Los Angeles (California) area. The method they first chose was a contest for East-coast Baltimore (Maryland) area. The writers with the reward of an opportunity to receive additional training in Los Angeles. Since this approach was expensive,…

This paper presents a redefinition of the term "television," examines problems of determining the effects of television on children, reviews research on possible effects of TV on children, and concludes by focusing on prosocial, educational programming. The argument is made that because we are immersed in the phenomenon of television, we…

Selected findings of a recent national study of participants in a televised college-credit drama course (Classic Theatre: The Humanities in Drama) are reported. Information was obtained through 24 institutions offering the course; through questionnaires administered to samples of students, faculty members, and administrators; and through site…

Defining the externship as an internship hybrid, an away-from-campus one-day experience which faculty build into the required assignments of many upper-division courses, this paper discusses a particular externship at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville which is a regular part of a 300-level broadcast news course. All of the students in…

The complete text and pictures of a slide/tape and videotape presentation explain Prime Time School Television (PTST), a non-profit organization, with emphasis on the active role of participants in utilizing prime time programs in everyday teaching-learning situations. PTST encourages teachers to recommend and use evening television programs as…

Before teachers can effectively use television technology in the classroom, many of their fears and uncertainties regarding the medium must be eliminated. For example, there are no studies indicating that television is nurturing a generation of dependent, passive watchers. Nevertheless, because children do spend one-sixth of their time between…

This study surveyed the specific assignments in the television production courses at 175 United States colleges and universities. The following conclusions were drawn from the analyses of the data collected: Television production courses involve the students with television production formats identical to those found in the broadcast industry.…

Do textbooks matter in an ever-changing field of broadcast journalism? Are some teaching materials irrelevant or out of touch with equipment needs, or lack thereof, at small institutions? Noting that these questions need to be considered when evaluating broadcast or mass communication writing and production textbooks by national companies, this…

Noting the difficulties communication departments have in providing students with television production opportunities, this paper proposes the use of cable television public access channels as a means of overcoming those difficulties. After defining and differentiating between local origination and public access programing, the paper discusses the…

Today, with the influx of media production courses across the country, students can intimately experience the differences between acting for the stage and acting for the screen and learn to shape their performances for a two-dimensional image. Such a course in video and film acting was introduced at the University of Arkansas. Students enrolled…