Three studies were conducted to replicate and extend research on advertisements for children on Saturday morning television, and during children's programs at other times. Resarch focused on amount and frequency of advertisements, as well as the types of products advertised. Study 1 concerned the Saturday morning time period, when children…

A content analysis of selected print media examined press coverage of the shuttle Challenger explosion. Press sources identifying and explaining technological causes were tabulated for two major newspapers, three popular newsmagazines, and one trade magazine, during the 30 days following the event. Results revealed (1) a failure to provide timely…

A study examined the effectiveness of messages to stockholders in the annual reports of four Chief Executive Officers (CEO's) representing corporations that are struggling to recover from financial losses or declining profits. The examination first considered each CEO's syntax and diction, then each CEO's awareness of audience and clarity of…

This paper analyzes the state of competition in the pay cable industry. The analysis conceptualizes competition in pay cable and discusses the current structure of the pay cable industry and the competition for subscribers and programming. The competition for audiences that pay cable faces from both pay-per-view services and the video cassette…

To determine children's "dramatic literacy" and the modal sources of their inferences, a study interviewed 45 Kansas third graders in regard to a theater production of "Monkey, Monkey." Two-thirds of the children reported that third graders in another city would enjoy this production "a lot." A majority found the play…

Towson State University (TSU) conducted a public debate series within the Maryland State Penitentiary, that state's maximum security lockup. Following delays due to an escape and subsequent lockdown that preceded the first scheduled debates, the prison program began in 1983 with TSU students debating the right to privacy. The continuing prison…

Shakespeare's genius as a creative playwright can be judged both subjectively and objectively. Cognitive psychology uses specific behavioral measures to assess performance. A product is marked by latency, quantity, and quality. When college students engage in tests of originality, these measures support many theories of creativity. A similar…

This discussion of the roles portrayed by blacks in media begins by describing stereotyping in pre-television film and radio, and examining television shows from the 1950s until the early 1980s which included black characters to show that this stereotyping has continued until very recently. The shows covered in this context include "Beulah,""Make…

This publication reports the findings of research carried out in recognition of the need for an in-depth analysis of the U.S. jazz music audience in order to identify and assess ways to shape the future of jazz as part of the "Survey of Public Participation in The Arts" conducted in 1982. The research problem was to learn the size,…

A study surveyed newspapers that print religious news to determine the kinds of coverage their religion journalists provide and to determine the type of audience for which they write. Mail surveys were completed by 141 daily newspapers with circulations ranging from under 10,000 to over 100,000. All but 13 respondents provided a working definition…

Aristotle rejects a world vision of changing reality as neither useful nor beneficial to human life, and instead he reaffirms both change and eternal reality, fuses motion and rest, and ends up with "well-behaved" changes. This concept of motion is foundational to his world view, and from it emerges his theory of knowledge, philosophy of…

A study suggested that audience feedback plays a central role in determining the types of television programs shown on the air and that two major ways series are adopted are through imitation of popular series and through a gradual, evolutionary process. Through an analysis of the prevalence of programs in six genres, these hypotheses were…

The best art experience has often been characterized as a kind of balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the expected and the unexpected, the easy and the hard. Good directors and actors have the artistry to be able to play on the orientation reactions of the audience. They know how to structure a production or performance so that it…

To understand better how reviewing and other forms of evaluative journalism influence audiences and to test a proposed model, a series of experiments on 410 undergraduates assessed how initial film-viewing interest level (low, medium, high) and review direction (negative, mixed, positive) affected interest in film attendance. First, an extended…

To help business writers and writing teachers think more specifically about problems of writing collaboration, a study examined and analyzed a group writing project in the Auldouest Insurance Company (pseudonym) Department of Corporate Communication. The collaborative writing of the two page executive letter of the company's annual report involved…