In this paper, we discuss a little-studied means of communicating about or teaching the nature of science (NOS)--through fiction television. We report some results of focus group research which suggest that the American sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" (2007-present), whose main characters are mostly working scientists, has influenced…

The significant increase in televised intercollegiate athletics over the past couple of decades presents institutions with a set of powerful opportunities to reach external constituents in ways that translate into donations and applications. Given the broad reach of television and its power in developing a university or college as a brand, it may…

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 whether role assignments to television sets (assignments of particular content to particular screens) influence what viewers think about what they watch. Finds that designating TV sets for specialized functions or uses results in more positive evaluations of the content, even when the TV sets and programming are identical. (SR)

Assesses the effectiveness of two reality explanations on children's reactions to frightening programs. Shows that neither influenced younger children's emotional or cognitive reactions, whereas the special tricks explanation reduced older children's emotional responses with no impact on their interpretation. Shows that the real life explanation…

States that contrary to previous reports of "grazing," most viewers only used their remote control devices (RCDs) once or twice every half hour. Claims that the dominant RCD operation was direct channel punching, as opposed to dial turning. Concludes that most RCD activity did not take place during a program, thus voiding industry…

Examines psychophysiological and cognitive processing of television events to see what kinds of contextual information might be stored as a result of both real and fictional television events and mediated and unmediated television events. Examines decision processes that use this information. Suggests that television may result in contextual…

Finds that, among college students, (1) both related and unrelated cuts resulted in cardiac orienting responses; (2) processing unrelated cuts required more capacity than processing related cuts; and (3) memory was better for information presented after related cuts, with this effect greater for visual memory than for audio memory. (SR)

Eye movement of six subjects (three with deafness) was recorded as they watched video segments with and without captions. The addition of captions to a video resulted in major changes in eye movement patterns, with the viewing process becoming primarily a reading process. (Contains six references.) (Author/CR)

Explores the effects of nonverbal reactions of a talk show host and studio audience members to arguments presented by a talk show guest on a low-involvement topic. Suggests that positive audience or host reactions can enhance persuasive influence; however, if those cues are incongruent, persuasive influence may be negated. Addresses implications…

Examines the visual attention of undergraduate students to the television screen. Finds that varying relatedness of episodes, for which strategic inertial processes should vary in strength, produces a corresponding difference in inertia of looks crossing boundaries. Suggests that results previously interpreted as reflecting nonstrategic processes…

Examines adolescents' television viewing motives, activities, and satisfaction, in an attempt to integrate the audience activity construct into the uses and gratifications model. Suggests that more strongly motivated viewers engage more actively in various audience activities throughout the viewing process and receive greater viewing satisfaction…

A study involving 111 adults with blindness examined the impact of watching television science programs with and without audio description. Results indicate respondents gained and retained more information from watching programs with description. They reported that the description makes the program more enjoyable, interesting, and informative.…

Examines violence in music video programming. Reveals that 15% of music videos feature violence, and most of that aggression is sanitized, not chastised, and presented in realistic contexts. Discusses the findings in terms of the risk that exposure to violence in each channel and genre may be posing to viewers' learning of aggression, fear, and…

Many studies have shown that children of various ages learn from educational television, but the studies have not explained how children extract and comprehend educational content from these television programs. This paper proposes a model, the "capacity model," that focuses on children's allocation of working memory resources while…