Efforts to discover what variables affect news media content have taken many approaches during the past 35 years. These approaches have emphasized psychological factors, sociological factors, cultural and social forces, and economic factors. Evidence exists that all these forces play a role in determining what becomes news. To examine how these…

The history of the Federal Communications Commission's content regulation of broadcasting is a history of policymaking in a vacuum. A review of the literature reveals that no one has yet attempted to show whether the Fairness Doctrine results in poorer or better broadcast journalism. To remedy this, content regulation should be explored from…

Former presidential press secretary Larry Speakes' confession that he manufactured a quote for President Reagan at the November 1987 summit in Geneva, Switzerland, created a firestorm which cost Speakes dearly, raised serious problems about the ethics of public relations practitioners, and contained broad implications for the profession. A study…

This paper suggests how educational researchers should approach interactive video in order to avoid errors found in traditional research on newly-developed instructional media. A distinction is made between research on interactive video and research with interactive video. Research on interactive video is divided into research which attempts to…

A cohort analysis of data gathered in three national election surveys (1956, 1968, 1980) was used to study the effect of media use on political knowledge, which was divided into knowledge of issues, personalities, and political parties. Knowledge levels were calculated by creating indices from open-ended questions about why a person liked or…

Black Americans' use of and belief in the credibility of the mass media is no less extensive than that of the general population. In fact, television and radio use by blacks exceeds that of whites and research shows the broadcast media to be particularly important sources of information for blacks on consumer and political affairs. But many…

In 1928, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) developed a voluntary code of ethics to reduce public criticism of radio. Critics claimed that these NAB efforts at self-regulation were either too lenient or so strong that they posed antitrust problems. Still others focused on the issue of accountability in the code making process,…

The basic arrangements and practices of American broadcast audience research and measurement were established during the first decade (1920-29) of the field's existence, and were motivated by commercial and competing institutional concerns within the broader context of evolving forms of imagination and expression. A review of the evidence found in…

William Hard was a creative and prolific writer of popular magazine journalism who used a rich variety of literary styles and techniques to tell his stories. His best work, which appeared in "Everybody's Magazine" from 1907 to 1911, shows characteristics that support the suggestion that Hard be considered among those writers Tom Wolfe…

An examination of the ways in which United States postal policies affected the development of the magazine industry before Congress passed the second-class mail category in 1863 reveals how a medium is shaped at least in part by the technology, policy, and politics of its delivery systems. In the nineteenth century, magazines depended on the mails…

A critical review of literature focusing on some theoretical and methodological issues that have been generally neglected in past studies of the press's role in the making of United States foreign policy reveals that some external and internal factors may limit the capability and initiative of the press in the foreign policy area. These…

Acknowledging inadequacies of press coverage of black Americans during this century, a study examined how a medium sized Ohio daily newspaper covered blacks before, during, and after the civil rights movement. Items concerning blacks in 66 issues of the Youngstown "Vindicator" from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were studied, and the…

This paper examines how the new communication technology is challenging the "old" media, which includes radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and motion picture. The paper first provides an operational functional description of each of these media. Next the paper suggests another way to look at existing media. The paper then…

Despite gains in recent years, women still win political office much less frequently than men do. One reason might be that women may not receive the same response from the media as do their male counterparts. The research study explored this possibility by investigating: (1) differences in the methods used by the mass media to portray male and…

In order to determine the nature of foreign news coverage in the Arab Gulf states, a study examined six newspapers in these states (one in each country) in regard to the volume, news sources, and kinds of news (both subject categories and regions covered). Data were selected from 12 issues (one from each month) in 1986 from the following…