The Communication Theory & Methodology Division of the proceedings contains the following 14 papers: "Interaction As a Unit of Analysis for Interactive Media Research: A Conceptualization" (Joo-Hyun Lee and Hairong Li); "Towards a Network Approach of Human Action: Theoretical Concepts and Empirical Observations in Media…

Summarizes a wealth of evidence establishing a causal relationship between television viewing and violence. Outlines a series of corrective measures available within the fields of media literacy, public policy, and education. Briefly discusses related issues such as government versus self-regulation, and First Amendment protections. (MJP)

Examines fictional television representations of Black middle class success in "The Cosby Show" and nonfictional representations of Black urban poverty in a CBS news documentary. Suggests that these representations operate intertextually to produce an ideology which explains both by privileging individual attributes and middle class…

Investigates the viewer perceptions of female and male television characters as a result of viewer sex and sex role orientation, based on the responses of 677 young adults to the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Viewer gender had an impact on the rating of female characters. (FMW)

Discusses parent-child television coviewing and describes the results of a study that examined coviewing of television series featuring families via questionnaire responses from second, sixth, and tenth graders and their parents. The paper and pencil instruments that were administered are described, and dependent and independent variables are…

In light of "Mr. Bubbles," a case of a preschool operator who was accused and vindicated of sexually assaulting children, this study examined the public image of child care in western Sydney, Australia. Prime time television was reviewed for 1 week, with all channels monitored at least 5 hours per day, concentrating on prime time day and…

A study was conducted to determine if classroom discussion of Channel One broadcasts would increase student knowledge of current events. Channel One is a news program designed for middle school and high school students and is shown to participating schools across the United States. The program is free to schools that receive use of a satellite…

This report is a summary of a variety of educational services offered by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) supported television stations as reported in CPB's annual Station Activities Survey (1998). Highlights from the data include: 141 stations (80% of all CPB supported stations) provide educational services to elementary or secondary…

The impact of television on the development of preschool children is considered, and some popular programs are reviewed. After a review of the literature on the effects of television, a rating scale was prepared and applied to a number of broadcast (noncable) television shows aimed at children. Ratings were compared with those of 60 parents of…

A series of studies are underway at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Audience Research Facility to examine the impact of interactivity on informational and entertainment based television viewing. In order to examine the learning of spatial skills from videogames, the first study compared the learning of spatial content from interactive…

Two news audience surveys were conducted--one in Great Britain with 489 subjects and one in the United States with 447 subjects--to assess the ability of various types of television news stories to induce learning. The central objective of the research was to identify attributes of specific news stories that had been well or poorly comprehended.…

This discussion of the evolution of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SSR) begins with a report issued in 1953 by a federal commission which strongly influenced the first 15 years of Swiss television. Noting that the Swiss government adopted most of the proposals made in the report, this paper indicates some of the decisions that the Federal…

A foreword by Arthur M. Sullivan and an introduction by Jon P. Baggaley introduce the 12 conference papers included in this collection. The papers are as follows: (1) "Research on 'Sesame Street': Designing the Educational Context" (Rodney Dennis); (2) "'Sesame Street' in Labrador" (Graham Skanes and Lorne Taylor); (3)…

Designed to reflect the diversity of approaches to persuasion, this annotated bibliography cites materials selected for their contribution to that diversity as well as for being relatively current and/or especially significant representatives of particular approaches. The bibliography starts with a list of 17 general textbooks on approaches to…

A study was conducted to compare the relative importance of several different variables from different theoretical perspectives in explaining how children understood the advertising on commercial television. Sixty-seven first and third grade students were interviewed individually to assess their current stage of logical operations and role taking,…