Contributes to scholarship on the role of mass media in breast cancer coverage. Finds extremely high, significant correlations between numbers of medical-journal articles and newspaper, magazine, and TV coverage; a two-way concurrent relationship between breast cancer funding and media coverage, and between breast cancer incidence and TV coverage;…

Contributes to scholarship on attitudes toward the media's role in society by investigating public attitudes toward the use of investigative reporting. Finds that a large majority (84%) still approve of investigative reporting in general, while approval for specific investigative reporting techniques remains low (about one-third). (SR)

Finds that (1) each of three groups of variables (political, media schemas, and media use orientations) can predict the magnitude of third-person effects; (2) none individually has great predictive power; (3) the mechanisms by which different variables influence the magnitude of third-person effects vary; and (4) overall connections between…

Examines whether media use and civic participation are related among African-American professionals and nonprofessionals. Finds that local news media do not serve the civic information needs of African Americans, and when compared with local news media, interpersonal networks more strongly influence African Americans' civic participation. (SC)

Presents a historiographic essay surveying the past 25 years of historical research on images of women in American mass media. Places this work into four categories of scholarship (stereotypes approach, search for alternative images, examination of imagery as ideology, and "reading" of images as polysemic texts). Finds significant…

Examines the combined effects of on-air and online network news exposure, placing student and adult news consumers in broadcast news, online news, and telewebbing conditions. Indicates that perceptions of network news credibility are affected by channel used. Offers evidence for the existence of a synergy effect between on-air and online news. (PM)

Notes that in 1997, a system of television ratings was instituted to label objectionable television content for parents. Explains that this study gathered ratings use data from parents of preschool and school-age children. Concludes that parents most likely to use the ratings are those who already mediate television viewing. (PM)

Examines three potential factors that might mediate the relationship between reading women's magazines and body shape and size concern. Finds that health and fitness magazine reading by college-aged women was linked directly to body shape concerns, indirectly through beliefs about men's thinness expectations. Explains that beauty and fashion…

Explores how the framing of environmental communication influences attitudes and environmentally responsible behaviors. Finds that communication that discussed losses (rather than gains) to the current (rather than future) generation gave rise to the most positive responses and the highest levels of intent to participate in…

Contributes to research on news media impact on presidential elections. Examines relationships of exposure and attention to various news media with information learned about the issue positions of 1996 presidential candidates; level of interest in this election campaign; and intention to vote. Finds statistically significant associations only…

Identifies factors that might have influenced individual newspapers' coverage of the suffrage movement, including the personal positions of publishers and editors, political affiliations, the demographic characteristics of the readership area, circulation size, place of publication, and sources of the stories. Finds that these examples of the…

Finds that the nontraditional media of television talk shows and morning network shows did not contribute significantly to greater knowledge of candidate issue positions, greater intention to vote, or higher levels of interest in the 1992 presidential election campaign. (SR)

Contributes to scholarship on sexual content and gender portrayals in advertising by assessing images of women and men in magazine ads in 1983 and 1993. Finds both genders were portrayed more explicitly and through more sexually intimate contact in 1993; images of men were more explicit in the 1990s; and portrayals were most explicit in women's…

Investigates the third-person effect of pornography on the Internet. Notes that congruent with the third-person effect, students from a major Singapore university judged pornographic material on the Internet to have a greater impact on others than on themselves. Reveals evidence for a perceived social distance corollary with children to be more…

Finds that the agenda-setting hypothesis was supported for the issue of pollution from 1970 to 1990; real-world conditions and the public agenda were not correlated for this issue; despite the overall reduction in pollution, media coverage has increased; and for waste pollution, there was a positive correlation between the media agenda and…