Focusing on issues in mass communication, the six articles in this journal issue cover many facets and approaches to the topics. The first article offers a review of recent developments in the field and some comments about its future. The second article reviews feminism in comedies from the 1930s and in a current film, and the third analyzes the…

A gestalt approach to theatrical design seems to provide some ready and stable explanations for a number of issues in the scenic arts. Gestalt serves as the theoretical base for a number of experiments in psychology whose findings appear to delineate the principles of art to be used in scene design. The fundamental notion of gestalt theory…

The design of a program for teaching audience awareness proceeds in a clear and logical order so that it can be incorporated into any writing syllabus concerned with traditional matters of form. The program begins with a brief questionnaire designed to elicit student problems with and feelings about audience. Class discussion of the questionnaire…

A unit is described for teaching audience analysis in a high school expository writing course. The five main sections of the unit are (1) an analysis of audience as part of writing, (2) the writer as a decision maker, (3) testing audience reaction during the composing process, (4) post-communication audience reaction assessment, and (5)…

This selected, annotated bibliography for the Audio-Visual Media Research Group of the Open University includes sections on (1) general bibliographies and literature reviews, (2) experimental studies, (3) BBC audience research reports, (4) miscellaneous items, (5) radio in less developed countries, and (6) Audio-Visual Media Research Group…

This discussion of the necessity for promoting a vigourous, prosperous, and free press addresses several areas of journalistic concern: the growing tendency toward disinterest in reading in a population that is nearly 100% literate; the decline of reading habits and motivation to read as reading skills improve; and the inability of newspaper…

This report proposes that people often plan their speech acts to affect their listeners' beliefs, goals, and emotional states and that such language use can be modeled by viewing speech acts as operators in a planning system, allowing both physical and speech acts to be integrated into plans. Methodological issues of how speech acts should be…

As counterexamples to J. E. Grunig and J. B. Disbrow's probabilistic theory of communication behavior, which assumes that receivers have almost total control over communication behavior and that the only control possible for communicators is to limit communications to those publics most likely to be communicating with them, this paper cites…

There is evidence that violence in motion pictures viewed by children on screen or television can contribute to violence in real life, although the movies can rarely be blamed as the sole cause of anti-social conduct. Clinical reports cite instances of the effect on "susceptible" youngsters; e.g., emotionally disturbed individuals. Long-term…

This booklet is designed to give the adult educator a brief overview of 24 group methods and techniques that have been used to good advantage by many groups and organizations: audience reaction teams; brainstorming; buzz sessions; case study; colloquies; committees; conferences; conventions; discussion groups; demonstrations; field trips or tours;…

In order to examine whether the relationship between Spanish speaking Americans in five southwestern states and Spanish language commercial radio stations reveals evidence of media colonialism, a survey of 41 Primary Spanish Language Radio (PSLR) stations was conducted. The survey focused on ethnic identity of the station owner, percentage of…

In this Masters Thesis, the message effectiveness and cost effectiveness (in terms of costs and monetary benefits) of two interpretive audio messages were evaluated. Ninety-nine randomly selected visitors to a Central Ohio interpretive museum were exposed to one of two audio tape recorded messages. One message used interpretive technique; the…

Because the many definitions of rhetorical situation, genre, and movement have been based on differing conceptions of rhetorical motive, there is a need for fresh inquiries into the meaning of these terms. This paper first examines the varying usages of situation, genre, and movement in the contemporary literature; discusses the confusion that…

It is difficult to develop a measure of diversity in broadcast programing, and it is equally difficult to measure the value of a broadcast to its viewer. Similarly, attempts to measure viewer preference functions have resulted in categorizations so vague as to be meaningless. In the face of such ambiguity, attempts by the Federal Communications…

A long-range Swedish research project is attempting to describe the role of broadcast media in society as seen by both communicator and receiver. The first section of the study, now taking place, is examining television audiences to determine what they watch, why they watch it, what they think of what they see, and what kind of audience, in terms…