Explores viewing of reruns from four eras, and identifies rerun viewer types from a sample of 489 people aged 15 to 92. Reports that rerun viewer types are heterogeneous in terms of rerun eras and content preferences. Finds that younger groups watch reruns from past eras more than older viewers. (MM)

Analyzes 521 "TV Guide" cover stories from 1970-1979, examining their power to influence television audiences. Asserts that, although viewer options increased substantially throughout the 1970s, "TV Guide" failed to keep pace with those changes. (MM)

Examines the content of daytime serial dramas to determine how the narrative structure promotes a sense of involvement in viewers. Competing plot lines, the lack of a concrete sense of resolution, the pattern of episodes, and the audience's awareness of information kept secret from characters all contribute to audience involvement. (JMF)

Investigates questions of what the New London Group calls "multiliteracies." Looks carefully at various texts associated with the television show "Felicity" and considers what they have to say about contemporary popular literacies. Considers how "Felicity" acts as a kind of core sample, extracted from the broader soil…

Examines specularity (the pleasure derived from looking at television) in the context of sports. Argues that televised sports' popularity reflects: (1) fetishism (motivation by fascinated desire); (2) voyeurism (uninvited viewing); and (3) narcissism (identification with athletes). Describes a study of sports telecast viewing. Argues against…

This article challenges contemporary religious educators to take notice of some of the competitive aspects of media, not to scapegoat the technological changes of twenty-first-century life, but to address the concerns of a people who feel overwhelmed by media's game plan yet long to work for a more invigorated future of American religious…

Contrasts the development of daytime serial dramas on television with prime time series in terms of production costs, content, and format. (JMF)

Examines television rerun viewing motives and sociodemographic characteristics to predict frequent, occasional, and infrequent rerun viewing habits. Indicates that demographic and social variables are not major determinants, while motives are reliable predictors. (SR)

This paper addresses the television program "Cheers" and demonstrates one way of interpreting the complexity of messages within the program. The interplay of visual messages within the "Cheers" programming is referred to as intertextuality, or the relation of one text to another to express an idea. Two basic types of…

Evaluating the impact of the changing media environment on television programming, a study examined inheritance effects--the percentage of one television program's audience that also watches the program immediately following--in network prime time programming between 1976 and 1985. Inheritance effect was calculated as the correlation between a…

Designed to indicate the reasons behind viewer program preferences, this report presents results of a survey which asked 1,576 television viewers (monitors) to evaluate programs they liked, did not like, and/or new programs. Tables summarize the findings for why programs were chosen, their technical quality, content realism, overall quality, and…

The discussion in this paper is based on three conclusions drawn from a professional lifetime in the media: that limited to a choice from among information, persuasion, or entertainment, the purpose of the mass media is entertainment; that given a choice between technology and content, technology such as cable TV predominates; and that faced with…

Suggests that mass communication studies accept the critical challenges posed by fringe television--the programing that surrounds the prime-time domain of the three major networks. Identifies and maps various fringe sectors appearing on today's broadcast and cable schedules, and surveys critical imperatives involved in future studies of fringe…

Documents the range and extent of family life configurations in prime-time television over a six-year period (1979-1985). Reveals that prime-time network television tends to reinforce conservative to moderate models of family life, while also presenting a diversity of nonstandard interpretations of family which are framed in the nonthreatening…

Warns that schools must make sure that students are aware of the relationship between reality and image, particularly the image presented by television. (JL)