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

Develops and tests a mathematical model that estimates the impact of home video recorders on the transience of television broadcasts. Concludes that home video recorder use has the potential to affect program longevity, but that the potential remains unfulfilled. (PD)

Investigates uses and gratifications of the World Wide Web and its impact on traditional mass media, especially television. Identifies six Web use motivations: entertainment, social interaction, passing of time, escape, information, and Web site preference. Examines relationships between each use motivation and Web affinity, perceived realism, and…

A study examined the use of cable television in the context of general patterns of media use and habits of media users. Data came from telephone interviews with approximately 600 household heads, a third of whom did not subscribe to cable television. Information gathered included respondents' use of newspapers, television, and radio. Cable…

A study was conducted to explore the relationships between sensation seeking--a multidimensional personality trait--and categories of leisure activity choices, mass media uses and gratifications, and television program preferences. It was hypothesized that low sensation seekers would find vicarious media such as television to be attractive leisure…

A study examined the extent to which the availability of cable television service in a household diverted viewers from local television channels. Questions concerning media use were included in three comprehensive market surveys conducted in three diverse areas. Approximately 1,000 telephone interviews were conducted in the three areas. The…

An Indiana survey of the media use of 108 older adults yielded information about their radio, television, and newspaper preferences. The results suggest that education, income, and sociability exerted as much, or more, influence on how the sample used the media than did their status as senior citizens. (GT)

The question of whether adolescents turn to arcade video games for gratifications similar to those met by television viewing was investigated with 244 children 10 to 14 years old, who were attending a statewide summer sports camp. A questionnaire required subjects to rate the importance of 17 need statements and provide basic demographic…

Designed to assess the motivations viewers have for watching public television (PTV), the gratifications they derive from programs they enjoy, and their expectations of PTV, the pilot study described was conducted to provide information for program decision-making and efforts aimed at attracting different types of audiences. The research strategy…

Concluded that the children in this study (ages 10-14) played video games in arcades for some of the same reasons they watched television: (1) escape; (2) a sense of personal involvement in the action; and (3) a source of or substitute for companionship. (PD)

Using a discrepancy model, this study contrasted the gratifications sought from television in general with the gratifications that respondents perceived they obtained, or would obtain, from public television (PTV). Information was gathered through telephone interviews of a random sample of heads of households, both viewers and nonviewers of public…

Reports the results of two studies revealing that, except for television viewing, there was little mass media use by patients in a mental hospital and that patients' television viewing was of a passive nature. (GT)

Hypothesizes that instrumental media motivation, selectivity, attention, and involvement are positive predictors of satisfaction, parasocial interaction, and cultivation effects from watching daytime television serials; avoidance, distraction, and skepticism were seen as negative predictors. Finds support for these expectations through three path…

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…