The study presented here addresses the question of how time spent viewing and playing with PBS KIDS educational, non-commercial media at home, in family settings, can foster positive outcomes for children and parents/caregivers. The study focused on PEG+CAT, a first-generation transmedia program designed to promote children's mathematics and…

The study presented here addresses the question of how time spent viewing and playing with PBS KIDS educational, non-commercial media at home, in family settings, can foster positive outcomes for children and parents/caregivers. The study focused on PEG+CAT, a first-generation transmedia program designed to promote children's mathematics and…

A short review of the development of cable television in New York City, a brief description of wiring patterns, a history of public access, and some statistical data on public channel usage are provided in the first portion of this report. The second major part describes the Public Access Celebration, a three-day informational event held in July…

The originators of municipal radio station WNYC foresaw radio as a means of extending city government and an instrument to educate, inform, and entertain the citizens. Because the municipal radio concept emerged in the early 1920s, before the medium's industrial structure was entrenched, an opportunity existed to develop an innovative model of…

A public television station in New York, WNET, conducted a survey of its potential audience. The purposes of the study were to determine: (1) the demographic characteristics of the station's members, non-member viewers, and non-viewers; (2) the image that the station conveys to the public; (3) the perceived importance of premiums as an inducement…

A study of four public television stations was conducted in 1972 as part of a Ford Foundation research project. The major focus of the study was on WNET-TV, a very high frequency (VHF) station. The viewer population was sampled by random telephone dialing. In 5025 interviews, questions were asked concerning viewer characteristics, viewing hours,…

This study examines the relationship between public television and the urban community in three cities--New York, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta--from 1952 to 1975. Analysis of the results indicates that, between 1952 and 1966, there was virtually no interaction between the urban black community and educational television, the predecessor of public…

A description is provided of the New York City cable television (CATV) project carried out by the Center for Analysis of Public Issues for the Fund for the City of New York. The purpose of the project was to analyze and, if possible, to determine in the light of direct experience what might be done to encourage the development of public access…

In 1970, three studies were conducted for the Children's Television Workshop in the ghetto areas of Bedford Stuyvesant and East Harlem in New York City and Washington, D.C. The Bedford Stuyvesant study was designed to establish a reliable reading on the penetration of Sesame Street in low income areas and to determine whether or not the program…

A review is presented of the first two years of free public access programing on New York City's cable television (CATV) systems. The report provides some background information on franchising, public access to CATV in New York City, and Federal Communications Commission regulations. It also deals with the public access programing developed; it…

The findings of a 1973 study covering the performance of Sesame Street and The Electric Company in ghetto communities are reported briefly. The steps taken to repeat the methodology of earlier Sesame Street studies are described. Data are given on: penetration of Sesame Street among preschool children in Bedford Stuyvesant, East Harlem, Chicago,…

Three major themes dominated the results of a 1973 survey conducted for the Children's Television Workshop in ghetto areas of New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. First, comparison of survey data with data from studies conducted in 1970 and 1971 showed that Sesame Street had become an institution with ghetto children, its penetration and…

As a follow-up to a 1970 study, interviews were conducted in 1971 in four ghetto communities (Bedford Stuyvesant, East Harlem, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) to determine the extent to which Sesame Street was reaching preschool age children as compared to the previous year. The program's success was demonstrated by continued growth in audience,…

In February 1993, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting commissioned focus groups with Hispanic viewers to determine the perceptions of public television by Hispanics. The project was conducted by Norman Hecht Research and included Hispanic viewers and non-viewers in four cities--New York, Miami, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. The topic for…