Studies of newspaper reading in three communities in North Carolina were undertaken in light of the fact that newspaper reading has declined relative to population growth since World War II. In each instance, the respondents had available a relatively small local afternoon daily and a larger morning metropolitan daily. Results of the study showed…

The first of two articles in this report offers a survey of how community ties lead to various psychological needs that are the motivation for newspaper reading. It identifies three distinct audience segments: the traditional audience, with permanent bonds to the community, whose need for information, guidance, and community surveillance leads to…

To examine the ways in which aspects of foreign news content are linked together, an analysis was performed on the data collected during a content analysis of foreign news in major national daily newspapers and broadcast news programs over 12 days. The analysis included the identification of (1) up to four topics from an all-inclusive descriptive…

Discusses conceptual problems with the traditional approach to the study of news bias; reports on a study conducted with 73 college students, which yielded data supporting the thesis that what news consumers see as biased news is often material that is discrepant with what they already believe. (GT)

As part of an international study of world news flow undertaken by the International Association for Mass Communication Research, a content analysis was conducted of foreign news stories in the largest circulation newspapers in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, as well as in six papers in the United States, and of material from the files of…

Noting that recent emphasis in the New World Information Order debate has focused on the development of new structures for the production and exchange of news among Third World countries, this paper provides a qualitative and quantitative examination of three types of alternative news agencies. They include the second-tier Western agencies…

Coverage of two Third World countries, Mexico and Lebanon, by "Time" and "Newsweek" magazines was analyzed by comparing the cultural differences in meanings attached to words used in the magazines to describe the two countries. Stories were collected about the countries from each issue of the magazines published in 1979. The…

The agenda setting hypothesis of mass media effects, which maintains that the mass media set the agenda of public discussion and determine which items are to be discussed and which ignored, was tested. Agenda was defined as an attribute of individual respondents to be compared with those of various media. In a preliminary study, a group of 59…

This paper summarizes a series of studies undertaken by the United States Information Agency Service between 1970 and 1972 in Bolivia, Great Britain, Argentina, and Lebanon. The purpose of the research was to develop new techniques for analyzing the audiences of USIA periodicals. Survey respondents--all members of USIA priority audience…

A study was conducted to discover differences in foreign affairs news coverage in newspapers from countries with differing concepts of the role of the press. The study used data gathered in a content analysis of newspapers from 16 countries and the findings of an independent assessment of the relative freedom of press systems in those countries.…

Drawing from the findings of a lengthy study of international news conducted by the American Committee of the International Association for Mass Communication Research at the request of UNESCO, this paper provides information on the system by which news is distributed around the world, on the international news content of four Western news…

A study analyzed the content of "Pravda," the major newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party and "Vremya," the main evening news program of Soviet television for changes that could be attributed to Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev's policy of "glasnost" (openness). The "Pravda" sample consisted of 18…