An emerging consensus is that investigations of media effects should focus on the most basic political function of the media. Attempting to move out of the usual modes of conceptualization and analysis, this paper concentrates on three major points: the reconceptualization of political knowledge to encompass the respondent's subjective…

The papers in this edited volume on the directions in mass communication research deal with two broad questions: What is the current state of knowledge with respect to the area in question? And what might be the most fruitful directions for future research? The nine articles include: (1) an attempt to structure the field of mass communication; (2)…

Reconstructing media research so that generalizable knowledge can be produced requires an increased emphasis on attributes of media which interact with individual differences to effect learning. In order to accomplish this, media researchers must make a distinction between research "with" media and research "on" media. Privious efforts to…

This annual report of the Director, Community College of Vermont, for Fiscal Year 1973, is comprised of 10 sections. These sections are as follows: 1. Report of the Director--Goals, Accomplishments, and Highlights of FY 1973; 2. The Learning Support System and Degree Programs; 3. Planning Services; 4. Planning Programming Budget System; 5. The…

In order to enlarge the sample of educable mentally retarded children used in the evaluation of media at the Computer Based Project, a number of classes were transported by bus to the project site. The investigator questioned whether observed differences in manifest anxiety might affect responses to the media being evaluated. A study was made to…

A study was made to determine whether or not educable mentally retarded students at the primary and intermediate levels attend to and gain knowledge from filmstrips, or if, in fact, their test performance variance is distributed randomly. The subjects are individually shown a tape-synchronized filmstrip; they are administered both a pretest and a…

The Aspen Program on Communications and Society represents a major attempt to bring together men, ideas, and institutions to pioneer in the communications field, to identify the main communications issues confronting society, and to develop effective programs to implement these policies. This handbook was compiled as a result of an Aspen program…

The Guidelines Manual produced by the Media Guidelines Project consists of five major sections, the first of which is a checklist offering a roster of criteria related to media training programs and against which planners and evaluators can develop concepts, gather information, construct specifications and make judgments. The second part of the…

As a part of Project TAPE (Tactics for Applying Programs in Education), sponsored by the National Science Foundation and implemented by the University of South Dakota, mass media channels (television, newspapers, radio, educational journals, and directed mailings) were used to create awareness for new National Science Foundation-supported…

During its seven year history, "Sesame Street" has maintained high popularity while introducing such innovations as new cognitive curricula, new characters, bilingual elements, and affective and social education. Early goals emphasized 40 predominantly cognitive objectives aimed at helping the disadvantaged child. Additions have included…

The relationship between patterns of learning ability and the amount learned under different instructional conditions was studied. Scores for each of 44 Air Force trainees were obtained on several standardized tests of achievement and ability. Each subject then participated and was tested in five learning situations: (1) listening to taped…

A study of 150 residents of a small southern Illinois city suggests that there are significant correlations between local daily newspaper content and what people in the community report reading and talking about, but that there are only nonsignificant partial correlations between the newspaper's and the residents' agendas about local news. (GW)

Reports on an analysis of front page photographs in six major newspapers in 1936, 1956, and 1976; the study examined photographs with respect to size, subject, source, location on the page, racial and sex composition, and whether accompanied by an article. (GW)

Chronicles the revival of media research during the 1960s and 1970s, and briefly discusses the stimuli for this revival. Outlines six proposals from Katz's report to the British Broadcasting Corporation on areas for further social research on broadcasting concerning problems of "media" and problems of "message." (JMF)

Describes three National Science Foundation supported projects designed to study the use of two-way cable in the delivery of social services and to generally explore the social effects of interactive communications technologies. (JMF)