The recent proliferation of reality-based television programs highlighting cosmetic surgery has raised concerns that such programming promotes unrealistic expectations of plastic surgery and increases the desire of viewers to undergo such procedures. In Study 1, a survey of 170 young adults indicated little relationship between cosmetic surgery…

Residents in a southern California city were surveyed by telephone about their attitudes toward the telecast of the motion picture "Academy Awards" presentations. Of the 141 respondents, 71 had not watched the telecast, 42 had watched some of the broadcast, and 28 had watched all of it. Less than one third of the survey questions were specifically…

Reports on a study which compared communication attitudes and mass media behavior among Blacks and Latinos (Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans). Interviews with subjects provided data about television viewing and newspaper reading, which were found to be differentially correlated with such variables as age, sex, and education. (SW)

Discusses the subjective meaning of television news watching in terms of five factors: surveillance-reassurance, cognitive orientation, dissatisfactions, affective orientation, and diversion. (JMF)

Results of interviews with children on their likes and dislikes in television programing. (CH)

Sutton-Smith's games typologies were applied to television viewing preferences in order to construct a television classification based on Sutton-Smith's three types, and ascertain whether or not 204 adolescents designated as potents, strategists, and fortunists could be distinguished in terms of their games involvement, attitudes to sport, and…

Preliminary data from a study-in-progress support the view that public information campaigns may have greater efficacy than shown by previous research. To evaluate the public impact of the Advertising Council's "Take a Bite Out of Crime" campaign, which was aimed at promoting greater citizen involvement in crime prevention activities,…

Two hundred fifty residents of a southern California city responded to a telephone survey designed to assess audience interests in and preferences for local television newscasts. The respondents were asked to rank, in order of their preference, six major news catagories: issues, unexpected events, entertainment, sports, weather, and banter between…

Concludes that perceptions of causes of crime vary markedly depending on which news medium is used most. (FL)

A study examined the effects of factors (including television, family, peers, age, and socioeconomic status) on consumer socialization, the process by which individuals develop consumption-related cognitions and behaviors. The specific criterion variables studied included consumer affairs knowledge, puffery filtering, consumer finance management,…

A 1981 nationwide study of awareness of public broadcasting, viewing, and listening habits for public television and public radio, and reactions to on-air fund raising by public broadcasting stations are described in this report. Information on the survey and the analysis of the results have been organized into two sections, one presenting results…

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…

Approximately 600 telephone interviews were conducted in a study that investigated attitudes toward television and radio programs and program preferences of different audience groups. Findings indicated that younger subjects tended to like rock music and were more concerned with international news than were older subjects. Little difference was…

A study was conducted to determine the relationships between three variables related to the assimilation process of immigrants to the United States-familiarity with English, degree of identification with the new culture, and degree of attachment to the homeland--and three variables related to media needs--the need for information, the need to…