One of a series of guides to the teaching of writing at the elementary and secondary levels, this publication focuses on teaching the importance of audience and subject. An introductory statement on the need to make students aware of the audience for whom they are writing is followed by a brief overview of the research concerning audience/subject…

This is one of several papers presented at a Federal Trade Commission Symposium on Media Concentration. It analyzes trends in the development of one-newspaper cities. Some of the trends noted are that face-to-face competition has declined considerably over the last five decades, going from 90% of the circulation in 1923 to 30% of the circulation…

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES, THE POPULATION EXPLOSION, INCREASING LEISURE, RISING EDUCATIONAL LEVELS, AND EXPECTATIONS, AND THE GROWING COMPLEXITY OF PUBLIC ISSUES AND OTHER FACETS OF MODERN LIFE HAVE DIRECT IMPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY ADULT EDUCATION. ALTHOUGH THE ADULT EDUCATIONAL ROLE OF LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES AND JUNIOR COLLEGES WILL,…

This study explores the dimensions of credibility in newspaper and television news and compares the dimensions of media credibility with those of interpersonal source credibility. Subjects, 401 Kent State University undergraduates, were given a 12-page questionnaire designed to assess attitudes toward the following: newspaper national and…

Students of writing can learn the principles of writing for an audience through giving speeches and lectures. This paper offers pointers to guide students in organizing and delivering oral presentations. When organizing an oral presentation, students are urged to make it short, to make the organization obvious, to make the ideas simple and vivid,…

Several studies in media viewing have examined the hypothesis that alienation correlates with the consumption of escape-type content from the mass media. In order to interpret this result, alienation was considered as a process beginning with difficiulties in situation definitions. It was assumed in this study that heavy information of the mass…

In research reported in this paper, an attempt was made to isolate arousal components due to the "form" of a television program from arousal components due to the "content" of the program. The following hypotheses were formulated: (1) emotional arousal will take place in programing segments depicting violent acts, (2) arousal due to the cognitive…

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…

In developing a case for the acquisition and use of the video tape recorder (VTR), this paper examines four questions: (1) Can VTR be used as a teaching machine? (2) Is there justification for using VTR in the whole school? (3) Can VTR be used with remedial groups? and (4) Are there proven methods of effective use of VTR in speech classrooms? The…

This paper urges the curriculum developer to assume the accountability for his decisions necessitated by the actual ways our society functions. The curriculum developer is encouraged to recognize that he is a salesman with a commodity (the curriculum). He is urged to realize that if he cannot market the package to the customers (the various…

Who watched "Sesame Street" and with what frequency at different socioeconomic levels? This utilization study provides answers to the question by compiling data from national ratings, special surveys commissioned by the Children's Television Workshop, and unsolicited, independently conducted surveys which were brought to the Workshop's…

This study investigated the effects of Expected Audience Response (EAR) and Perceived Audience Response (PAR) on speaker attitudes, tested the predictability of cognitive balance theory in a communication feedback setting, and provided a comprehensive review of the experimental literature on feedback. Speakers were given an expectation of the…

The objective of this study was to compare an information processing based measure of television program form to a measure of form based on the perception of the organization of program production elements. Three hypotheses were set up to test the presumption that the two program measures are related to the same underlying dimension: show scores…

This study was designed to test the validity of Darnell's clozentropy procedure as a measure of monolignual international communication comprehension. The study investigated two major subject (audience) variables, "educational level" and "prior familiarity level" with the specialized (idiosyncratic) content with which the subjects were presented,…

If the scope of current cable television (CATV) content could be broadened to include interactive television services, it is conceivable that these new services would provide reasonable substitutes for the interactive communications that people miss when their surroundings change from a small community to a large urban community, and would thus…