Students in a children and television course wrote their "television autobiographies" (that is, their relationship with TV). Forty-three students at a mid-size upstate New York college participated. The autobiographies corroborated the results of previous quantitative and qualitative research, but added a personal, more in-depth look at the…

Video is an effective educational tool in English Literature classes when the teacher is creative in its application. Video has five specific properties which make it an effective instructional device: (1) condensing or expanding an experience; (2) making the invisible visible; (3) taking the viewers where they could not go; (4) eliciting…

Compares the effects of different kinds of visual presentations, and music alone, on university nonmusic students' affective and cognitive responses to music. Separate groups of students listened to classical music excerpts, either by themselves, or with video accompaniment. They rated the music on Likert-type scales and responded to open-ended…

A study was conducted to determine if audience-tailored videotapes and the format of follow-up discussions can change audience attitudes. Sixth-grade students in Taiwan were given a survey on their attitudes toward elderly people. Scripts for videotapes were written based on the data obtained from the survey. Children found to have a negative…

A study extended a previous study (Sparks and Spirek, 1988) by examining children's individual differences in coping with stressful mass media. The investigation proposed that scores on the Children's Coping Measure (CCM) are related to the intensity of negative affect children experience while watching a frightening program. Eighty-two fifth and…

The 1992 presidential campaign put the idea of the electronic town meeting firmly on the political scene, and each of the presidential debates during that campaign experimented with the town meeting format. This paper reviews the tradition of town meeting democracy in the United States and proposes ways to carry that tradition on with the help of…

Boys are especially active users of media, and researchers have suggested that the cumulative impact of media, such as television, movies, and music videos, may make them some of the most influential forces in boys' lives. This report presents the findings of a national poll of 1,200 young people (ages 10 to 17) and focus groups in which boys…

Asserts the necessity of developing a U.S. audience educated to appreciate classical music. Discusses a number of innovative programs across the country designed to increase audience participation and appreciation. Proposes implementing outreach and education courses in professional music schools. (MJP)

Describes a study of high school students that examined responses to a music video dealing with teenage pregnancy. Students' motivations for viewing music videos, experiences with sex and pregnancy, and family communication patterns are related to the cognitive activities of thinking about the video content and relating it to their own lives. (20…

Compares visual processing of televised information by 85 Japanese and 111 U.S. kindergarten and grade 4 students. As predicted, Japanese children use a more visually oriented television processing strategy in understanding program content. U.S. children score higher on a comprehension test, perhaps because of cultural differences in testing…

The Society and Mass Media section of the proceedings contains the following 16 papers: "The Relationship of Mass Media and Interpersonal Channels to Societal and Personal Risk Judgments" (Cynthia-Lou Coleman); "Freedom of Expression: How Much Will the Public Tolerate?" (Daniel Riffe and Charles F. Aust); "Economic…

Intended for researchers and students in mass media theory, this paper examines the development of the concept of meaning in media studies. It considers the epistemological and sociological roots of the concept, arguing that such an analysis is pivotal in understanding the differences in current research perspectives. The notion of meaning in…

Uses oral theory to examine the relationship between cognition and orality. Analyzes how the electronic media mimic the kind of interaction between speaker and audience characteristic of preliterate cultures. Argues that Ronald Reagan's effectiveness on television stems from his use of rhetorical structures characteristic of preliterate oral…

Reports on a study of 815 elementary and secondary students and adults on the types of evidence referred to in art historical interpretation. Finds that participants referred to four general types of evidence: (1) artist; (2) viewer; (3) culture; and (4) perception. (CFR)

Data gleaned from the 1982, 1985, and 1992 Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPAs) were used in this analysis of participation in the arts via television, radio, and sound recordings. The arts examined were jazz, classical music, opera, musicals and operettas, plays, dance, and the visual arts. Selected findings are as follows: (1)…