This report describes the yearlong case study based on participant observation at a school which used ThinkAbout, a series of 60 15-minute instructional television programs designed to strengthen the reasoning skills of fifth and sixth graders, and to review and reinforce language arts, mathematics, and study skills. Discussion covers the patterns…

This paper reports on an experiment to determine: (1) the effects of two different styles of television program format on the ability of preschool children to recall program content and (2) the cumulative effect of sustained viewing of particular programs upon spontaneous play behavior. Three groups of preschoolers (totaling 58) were exposed to…

Summaries of research and production activities for "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company" are provided in this quarterly report, as well as information on the Children's Television Workshop's community education services, public affairs, personnel, and merchandise products. A table indicating foreign countries in which…

Investigations of the growth of children's communicative behavior and ability, in terms of their interactions with media and their communication with other people, are described in this book. The first chapter presents an overview of the studies, explains the developmental perspective that characterizes them, and identifies some issues fundamental…

The articles comprising this bulletin report the status of research methods in the English language arts and indicate promising directions for further effort. Ralph C. Staiger discusses the range of language arts research and points out the strengths and weaknesses of various research techniques. Theodore Clymer examines the essential…

A broad search of the scientifically relevant literature on television and human behavior began in the fall of 1973 and extended over a year; the search concentrated on the literature since 1960, although it attempted to include all significant earlier works. In addition, special emphasis was placed on obtaining very recent, hard to locate, and…

Three studies examine the impact of different types of television content on the social behavior of children at various ages. The studies represent research into the interrelated problem of the processes involved in media effects and age-related differences. In the first study an action-adventure program, in which a character's reputation and…

Psychosocial adaptations are sometimes affected by experiences that are ordinarily considered to be amusements. In 1974, a field study was undertaken by the Program on Psychosocial Adaptation and the Future to determine if it is possible to measure the effect of television on adult viewers. A sample of 260 couples, controlled for demographic…

This study evaluates the impact of the first year of "Sesame Street" on preschool televiewing audiences in five sites (Boston, Mass., Durham, N.C., Phoenix, Ariz., suburban Philadelphia, and northeastern California). Chapter I introduces evaluational questions and the research strategy. Chapter II presents sampling procedures for pretest…

In order to determine whether Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL) had the capacity to produce a TV series of technical quality and whose content meets criteria designed for the selection of children's television programs, two pilot tapes were produced by AEL and submitted for rating to seven early childhood education specialists from seven…

The articles comprising this bulletin report the status of research methods in the English language arts and indicate promising directions for further effort. Ralph C. Staiger discusses the range of language arts research and points out the strengths and weaknesses of various research techniques. Theodore Clymer examines the essential…

This pamphlet contains a descriptive list of projects funded in Fiscal Year 1973 by the Research and Evaluation Division of the Children's Bureau, Office of Child Development. In addition, a few projects are included which were funded in earlier years but are still ongoing due to an extension of the grant period. The projects are arranged by these…

The current state of disarray in mass communication research can be cleared up by the orderly application of more careful media research procedures. Semiotics and structural analysis promise some advances in media studies, but these methods are limited when applied to peculiar qualities of time in film and television. A more fruitful approach…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by the media in the 1972 U.S. Senate election in Virginia during the Scott and Spong campaigns. Its primary interest is the use of television, particularly the intense blitz by the Scott organization, which is viewed as a significant variable in the Scott victory. The case study seeks to…

Since the study of human communication has emerged as a discipline more quickly than the development of its own channels of communication, this volume, first in a series, offers a status report on work currently attracting the attention of mass communication researchers. Contributors present review chapters on selected aspects of communication…