This report discusses the background, advantages, and disadvantages of the televised presidential press conference, citing the opinions of numerous newspaper and magazine writers. After presenting a brief overview of the presidential press conference from the administration of Theodore Roosevelt to that of Eisenhower, the report discusses the type…

The advent of electronic mass communications in the 1920s forever altered the rhetoric, the audience, and the echoes or responses of the State of the Union Address. Presidents thereafter would use the occasion to speak primarily to the public and secondarily to the Congress. The echoes of the speech that reverberate within the Congress, among the…

A study compared the three major American television networks' early evening newscast coverage of 1984 vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro's financial status, specifically examining the emphasis placed on the story and seeking to determine whether coverage was objective or biased. Early evening network newscasts (excluding weekends) for…

This book presents a history of journalism in the United States. The opening chapters discuss the European roots of American journalism and cover the time-span ending with the Civil War; the primary concern is an exposition of the principles of the American press. The remaining chapters examine the mass media--newspapers, television, radio,…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the status, function, and perceived needs of journalism in the high schools of West Virginia; (2) environmental pollution news coverage; (3) a critical history…