Al Hester's communication model sees news flow as being primarily dependent upon national rank in the hierarchy of nations, dominance and weakness of nations, and economic and cultural factors. A sample of 37 newspapers was content analyzed in a study extending this international news flow concept to the intra-national level to determine whether…

A study examined the uses and functions of broadcast sports programming as compared with in-person attendance of sporting events by focusing on the motivations, behavior, and attitudes of audiences toward such activities. Subjects, 219 students from a major western university, completed a survey instrument. Findings indicated that: (1) sports…

Studies the accuracy of science reporting by comparing original research reports with their treatment in the popular press. Finds that most media reports, in the process of making science lively and acceptable, introduce some errors of omission, emphasis, or fact. Discusses potential effects on the credibility of scientists and scientific…

A study examined instructional television (ITV) to determine the differences in the affect domain existing among three concurrent environments: the face-to-face environment, defined as the site from which the message originates; the on-site location, defined as a location in close proximity to the origin of the message; and the off-site location.…

This paper analyzes the similarities and differences between the French and American presidential election campaigns of 1988, focusing in particular on the processes of political communication. After discussing the framework of law, tradition, and climate of opinion within which political campaigns take place in these two countries, the paper…

Although communication research in China is in an early stage of development, an increasing number of training/research activities exist in universities and institutes. The 1982 Beijing Audience Survey, the first large-scale communication field study in China, reports how mass media audiences (newspaper, radio, and television) are rapidly…

This paper examines the unresolved epistemological and theoretical problems in comparative communication research. The first section examines what "comparative" means by reviewing various fields in the social sciences. The second section provides an overview of epistemic assumptions of comparative communication research and suggests that in the…

The purposes of this paper are to compile and describe the published empirical studies that have examined nonverbal visual production variables, to offer a critique of the lines of inquiry, and to suggest some areas for continued research. The studies are presented in two major sections: intravisual and intermedia. The intravisual section…

A study investigated the perceived source credibility of organizations that produce health messages. Manipulated versions of a health advertisement were generated to represent three types of organizational sources: a nonprofit source, a for-profit source, and a combination of for-profit and nonprofit sources. The advertisements were then produced…

A study examined the role of the mass media in the development of people's conceptions about a neo-Nazi march planned for Skokie, Illinois, in 1978. The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not and in what respects different types of people had developed common conceptions about the event and what role the mass media played in that…