In 1992, a communications researcher had the opportunity to spend seven months as a visiting professor at the University of Haifa in Israel. From the standpoint of an observer of media coverage, the timing and location of her stay was fortuitous. Israelis were conducting an election off schedule, and at the same time the United States was…

Using the methods of cultural criticism to analyze the images of Blacks prevalent in American popular culture, this book examines possible connections between the finite and often distorted range of depictions of Blacks, especially prevalent in the mass media, to the treatment that they receive in contemporary society. The book looks at the way…

Examining the factors that influence the distribution of technologies in developing countries should provide new possibilities for organizations engaged in international communication and audience research to understand, and respond, to potential audiences. Five critical elements influence the distribution of media technologies in developing…

A study investigated children's attitudes, information sources, and interest toward the 1992 presidential election. Focus groups were conducted one week before the 1992 presidential election with 13 fourth- and fifth-grade elementary school children. Results indicated several themes: (1) overall, the children's knowledge of abstract concepts like…

The Media and Technology section of these proceedings contains the following six papers: "The Effects of Tabular and Graphical Display Formats on Time Spent Processing Statistics" (James D. Kelly); "Program Choice in a Broadband Environment" (Steven S. Wildman and Nancy Y. Lee); "Visual Crosstabs: A Technique for Enriching Information Graphics"…

This paper examines educational applications of computer-based communications to identify unique tools for learning provided by this medium and to identify key features of successful text-based computer mediated communications (CMC) projects. A review of CMC programs provides guidelines for designing effective teacher training programs in CMC.…

Although multimedia technologies offer a great potential, educators and decision makers need to see evidence regarding the instructional effectiveness of multimedia in order to integrate it into the educational processes. The main purposes of this paper are: (1) to identify and discuss the main criticisms of media research, including the research…

Section B of the Media and Law Section of these proceedings contains the following 12 papers: "Media Access to Civil Court Records" (Bill Loving); "Radio and TV Marti: Search for a First Amendment Theory of Government Expression in the Marketplace of Ideas" (Tim Gallimore); "Freedom of Expression and the American Mind:…

The Technology and the Media section of the proceedings contains the following 18 papers: "What's Wrong with This Picture?: Attitudes of Photographic Editors at Daily Newspapers and Their Tolerance toward Digital Manipulation" (Shiela Reaves); "Strategies for the Analysis of Large-Scale Databases in Computer-Assisted Investigative…

The China and the Media section of the proceedings contains the following seven papers: "Impact of U.S. Culture on Political Attitude of Students from People's Republic of China" (Xinshu Zhao and Yu Xie); "Facsimile in Revolution and Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'" (Kurt Kent and Xuejun Yu); "Newspaper Photography in…

In the first of four symposium papers, Clark reviews the research on learning from media and uses his argument that media comparison studies show no differences in learning attributable to any one medium over another to dispute recent research on computer-assisted instruction. He also takes the position that the media attribute argument (i.e.,…

A two-part radio communications survey was conducted to test the effect of the government owned and operated radio station on Pohnpei, a Micronesian island state. The first phase was conducted in the capital city, while the second phase was conducted in rural areas of the state. The purpose of the survey was to determine the extent of radio and…

The purpose of the pilot study described in this paper was to produce a set of video report cards for the parents of a small group of college journalism students and then to determine the perceived effectiveness of such cards. Fifteen students at San Diego State University volunteered to participate in the study. Questionnaires were distributed to…

A study examined the responses of Canadian and American subjects in their approval of, and attraction to, specific television and film characters exhibiting aggressive behavior, and in their evaluation of the realism and saliency of the characters and situations observed. Subjects, undergraduate students at the University of Windsor in Windsor,…

Tobacco companies have the ability to target their products to segmented audiences by advertising in specialty magazines. Segmentation is a means of providing audiences with ads appropriate to their behavioral, demographic, and psychological characteristics. Through a content analysis of cigarette advertising in 10 popular magazines, a study…