Online learning environments offer new opportunities for learning and over the last decade or so a variety of online learning environments have been developed by researchers to facilitate collaborative learning among students. In this paper we will present a case study of a successful collaborative learning design. This involves a near synchronous…

Examines all network prime-time television aired from 1963 through 1985 to determine the effect of available program options on inheritance effects. Indicates that a strong lead-in increases audience share, especially when the program is new, of the same type as the preceding program, or one of few viewing alternatives. (JD)

It would be to the advantage of cable operators to identify, in advance, those subscribers who have a high probability of voluntarily disconnecting their service, in order to develop strategies to anticipate and address the factors that might potentially lead to disconnection. A study developed a method for identifying likely disconnecters.…

Indicates that prime-time television presents a remarkably consistent portrayal of the world across program genres and that it offers few scheduling alternatives to avoiding violence-laden adventure programs. Finds that the average viewer has little opportunity to exercise any kind of choice in viewing. (JD)

Indicates that (1) less affluent, less educated, and divorced and separated respondents are more inclined than others to watch television to avoid the negative moods that often coincide with solitude and unstructured time; and (2) personality dispositions and internal states are more likely to dictate media use than vice versa. (JD)

Uses a quasi-experimental design to test the effects of exposure to the miniseries "Amerika" on attitudes about communism and United States/Soviet relations. Finds that viewers of the miniseries believe that Americans should guard against a very real communist threat by supporting a strong military defense, including the development of…

A study examined the impact of viewing context on the evaluation of televised content, specifically whether viewers of the final episode of M*A*S*H who watched it at a party evaluated it differently from those who watched it in their usual manner. A group of 181 students, categorized according to the viewing context, were asked to rate program…

Explores viewing of reruns from four eras, and identifies rerun viewer types from a sample of 489 people aged 15 to 92. Reports that rerun viewer types are heterogeneous in terms of rerun eras and content preferences. Finds that younger groups watch reruns from past eras more than older viewers. (MM)

Indicates that respondents preferred private ownership of a cable television system, but notes that the results may reflect a lack of awareness on the part of respondents about their options. (FL)

This paper analyzes the state of competition in the pay cable industry. The analysis conceptualizes competition in pay cable and discusses the current structure of the pay cable industry and the competition for subscribers and programming. The competition for audiences that pay cable faces from both pay-per-view services and the video cassette…

A study investigated the influence of television program type and scheduling characteristics on patterns of program choice. The problem to be explored was the relative contribution of program content to patterns of audience flow. Soap operas were scheduled on competing channels with the assumption that audience duplication between pairs of these…

Identifies the significance of the long-running debate among religious broadcasting professionals and religion practitioners regarding the size of the audience for religious television. (MS)

Deals with an open-government innovation that many cities are adopting: television coverage of city council meetings. Survey data show that less-educated, lower-income, and minority individuals watch the coverage at least as much as the more-advantaged segments of the community. Reasons for television viewing are explored. (PD)

Examines college students' responses to the program "Cops" to better understand how viewers construct meaning and pleasure from the televisual texts of reality-based programming. Finds that humor guides the viewers' interpretations of the text and is a major source of pleasure, but the audience's search for the comic both deviates from…

This document consists of abstracts for two papers which discussed television audience research and public policy. The first, "News Audience Research and an Informed Electorate" (Mark Levy), examined more than a dozen studies over the past 20 years concerning the flow of news and information to the public. None of these studies found…