Examines the relative influence of six communication modalities on voters' perceptions of lesser-known candidates during contested presidential primary campaigns. Indicates that interpersonal communication dominates all modalities in influencing voters' perceptions in the "distant phase" and persists into the "localized phase."…

Discusses the simultaneous establishment of legal rights to censor film and proscriptions on particular racial representations. Describes several changes in the Hays Code that demonstrate a change in the censor's theory of the image. Suggests that these changes substituted the censorship of race-related images with a new prohibition on racial…

Examines the tensions surrounding the introduction of wirephoto into United States newspapers in the 1930s. Demonstrates that American journalists resisted the new pictorial technology by denouncing, disembodying, and deflating the technology. Suggests that journalism missed the challenge of adapting to photography by not fully considering its…

Finds that the agenda-setting hypothesis was supported for the issue of pollution from 1970 to 1990; real-world conditions and the public agenda were not correlated for this issue; despite the overall reduction in pollution, media coverage has increased; and for waste pollution, there was a positive correlation between the media agenda and…

Presents the background, rationale, and implementation prospects for an international system of monitoring media coverage of global problems such as peace and war, human rights, and the environment. Outlines the monitoring project carried out in January 1995 concerning the representation and portrayal of women in news media. (SR)

Analyzed images of aging presented in five television programs of 1989 most watched by the elderly: "Murder, She Wrote,""The Golden Girls,""Matlock,""Jake and the Fatman," and "In the Heat of the Night." Reveals earlier stereotypes of the elderly have been replaced by more positive stereotypes of them as powerful, affluent, healthy, active,…

Discussion of the relationship between education and broadcasting in the United States focuses on a historical review of periodical literature published between 1919 and 1924 relating to the educational use of radio, and literature published between 1937 and 1974 relating to the educational use of television. (35 references) (LRW)

Finds that lay readers respond to the risk implicit in news stories involving science and technology along four factors: (1) the proposition that science and technology are expensive and risky; (2) the idea that science and technology can have negative effects; (3) concerns associated with control and dependency; and (4) fear that science and…

Nonsuicidal college students (n=119) viewed suicide, violent, or neutral film. Measured perceptions of appropriateness of suicide and level of emotional arousal before and after films. Both suicide and violent film groups showed increases in arousal scores after films. Results suggest that arousal became linked to cognitions specific to film…

Finds an inverted-U shaped relationship between frequency of exposure to rock and popular songs and affect toward the songs among undergraduate students. Finds no support for the hypothesis that subjective novelty and complexity interact with exposure in determining affective evaluations. (SR)

Discusses the trend toward the electronic media among college students resulting in less reliance upon newspapers. Asks what social locator and technology use variables can best explain newspaper readership trends. Provides data from a study of college students in 1992 regarding newspaper readership and other media. (HB)

Explores a view of audience behavior that lies between the extremes of a passive audience expected to be influenced by communication messages and an active audience expected to make rational decisions about what media content to accept and reject. (RS)

Argues that the study of media economics should stand at the core of the field of communication. Describes central concerns to be addressed, such as economic influence and effect, economic structure and conduct, and analysis of performance. (SR)

Compares and contrasts two studies representing diametrical approaches (Romanticism versus Realism) toward the issue of agency and media effects: P. Willis's "Common Culture" and W. A. Gamson's "Talking Politics." Argues that both studies find that people make their own uses of media. (SR)

Investigates the relationship between individual differences in "arousability" and the tendency for college students to report enduring negative reactions from exposure to frightening media. Finds that arousability was related to both enduring and immediate fright reactions. Notes that physiological indicators were associated with arousability for…