Extends previous applications of expectancy-value theory to gratifications research in a study of student exposure to television news. Findings suggest that expectancy-value and gratification-seeking orientations are highly related but distinctly different judgments. Discusses issues in research on emotion-cognition and problems in attitude…

Analyzes "ABC Evening News" coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign with a rhetorical analytic technique and a computerized text analysis technique. Compares results and considers three possibilities: (1) the role of technique in research results; (2) different aspects of a phenomenon; and (3) the degree of confidence of results. (JMF)

Presents a cognitive-functional explanation of television's influence on Anglo-American, Native American, and Hispanic adolescents' acceptance of values. Finds that adolescents accepted values observed in television when they recognized them (a measure of learning) and when they evaluated the values to be important in "being successful" in the…

Tests G. Armstrong's and B. Greenberg's model of the effect of background television on cognitive performance, applied to reading comprehension and memory. Finds significant deleterious effects of background television, stronger and more consistent effects when testing immediately after reading, and more consistently negative effects resulting…

Shows that the biologically rooted individual difference behavior variable of temperament was consistent and moderately strong causal factor in forming television use motivations among undergraduate students. Finds distinct patterns of relationships between temperament and all television use gratifications supporting the uses and gratifications…

Examines the relationship between exposure to stereotypical media messages regarding race/ethnicity and subsequent social judgments among undergraduate students. Investigates the association between Whites' evaluations of self and other (Latino) as a result of varying media content pertaining to criminality stereotypes. Notes that the findings…

Offers a brief overview of V. Turner's syntactic and semantic framework for analyzing pilgrimage social drama. Uses this framework to examine the structure of the JFK assassination anniversary news stories and specials, as well as the fixed symbols which mark the pilgrimage routes from beginning to end. Discusses the individual, societal, and…

Discusses interest in studies of media and the family; the creation of social meaning for media consumption; and in children's interpretation of television. Notes that the emergence of qualitative investigations represent a challenge to the assumption that the paradigm of media consumption is an individual viewer positioned before a screen in a…

Compares the abilities of six gratification models to predict satisfaction with television news. Provides support for a combined expectancy-value/gratifications-obtained approach to explaining and predicting media satisfaction. (PD)