Through television, many different images of ethnic, cultural, and ability groups are presented. Different people perceive these images in different ways. These perceptions affect how people value themselves and judge and interact with others. This article first summaries research on TV images and people's meaning and reaction to them. Second, it…

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.…

Examines how changes in the method of news story presentation affect information recall and viewer evaluation. States that, as story complexity increased (in terms of production elements), overall recall decreased significantly. In addition, as story complexity decreased, positive evaluations of the story increased. (MM)

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)

This annotated bibliography on religious broadcasting contains 23 references of articles in the ERIC database. The first section of this FAST Bib lists sources which relate to the historical development of religious broadcasting. The next section looks at the role that television plays in religious broadcasting. A section on the Christian Right…

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)

Surveys personal computer (PC) ownership and traditional media use habits. Finds that PC owners were more affluent than non-PC owners and read the local morning paper more, but the two groups differed little in television news viewed. Concludes that PC ownership did not lead to radical changes in use of traditional news media. (SR)

A content analysis comparing gender portrayals in 2,209 network television commercials was conducted. Many earlier studies treated television advertising's portrayal of men as unproblematic and excluded ads aimed specifically at men from the study sample. To address this shortcoming, the sample was chosen from three different day parts: (1)…

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 television rerun viewing motives and sociodemographic characteristics to predict frequent, occasional, and infrequent rerun viewing habits. Indicates that demographic and social variables are not major determinants, while motives are reliable predictors. (SR)