This paper provides an overview of the development of sponsors for primary and general election debates at the presidential level and considers the various sponsorship alternatives for future debates. From a historical perspective, the paper discusses the major role that the broadcasting industry played in the early presidential debates and…

A study focused on the results of the gatekeeping process which determined the nature and quantity of images of the Vietnam War that the American public saw in "Life Magazine" before and after the Tet offensive of January 1968. The study examined the content of these photographs and looked for significant changes. In addition, the study…

A study examined 20 New Jersey daily newspapers to assess the impact of readability on circulation. It was hypothesized that the circulation of a newspaper would be inversely related to the readability level of its contents; that is to say, as reading material becomes harder to read, fewer people will read it. News pieces (divided into hard news,…

A study investigated audience news comprehension, focusing on objective knowledge questions measuring "acquaintance with" as contrasted to "knowledge of" as indexed by cognitive complexity and the frames of cognitive structure. A single continuing story--the Tax Reform bill that was moving through the United States Congress at…

When a survey of public relations practitioners showed no statistically significant correlations between prestige and 15 areas of public relations specialization, a small scale study examined the career expectations and goals of public relations students. Thirty university juniors and seniors majoring in public relations completed a questionnaire…

An exploratory study of horizontal organizational structure investigated how the tasks in a public relations department are apportioned and why the structure is as it is. J. E. Grunig and T. Hunt's taxonomy of horizontal structures, which served as the framework for the research, suggests that the following structures are typical: by public, by…

Noting that the choice of people for the covers of weekly news magazines can yield much information about the kinds of people a society finds influential and powerful, and because it has been found that women are under-represented on news magazine covers, a study analyzed the women presented on the cover of "Time" magazine between 1923…

This examination of the topic of research in educational technology addresses four major areas: (1) why research is conducted in this area and the characteristics of that research; (2) the types of research questions that should or should not be addressed; (3) the most appropriate methodologies for finding answers to research questions; and (4)…

Questionnaires were sent to 114 of the 228 editorial page editors at newspapers in the United States with daily circulations greater than 50,000 for a study that compared (1) the editor-publisher relationship existing at chains to that found at independent papers, and (2) the 1984 presidential endorsements made by chains to those by independent…

Noting the lack of a dispute mechanism for determining whether an advertising practice is truly deceptive without generating the costs and negative publicity produced by traditional Federal Trade Commission (FTC) procedures, this paper proposes a model based upon early termination of the issues through jointly commissioned behavioral research. The…

A study was conducted to determine (1) the effect of educational level on knowledge gain about energy conservation, and (2) whether media use is associated with differential gain in knowledge across educational levels. Telephone surveys were completed by 333 single-family homeowners in a northern state, many of whom were retired and living on…

Assessing the demand for journalists educated and trained in graphics and photography, a study surveyed 172 editors and managing editors of newspapers ranging in circulation from less than 5,000 to more than 50,000. Surveys were administered to a stratified random sample of 420 newspaper editors in July 1986, with a 41% overall response rate.…

Shared conventions of the modern radio industry should allow radio announcers and other producers of radio content to distinguish "good radio" from "bad radio." To help in making this distinction, a study delineated some of the basic conventions used in the production of radio content and analyzed the frequency of their…

To instruct journalism/mass communication students in the use of quantitative research skills, a case study guided students through scientifically designed readership studies of three trade magazine audiences. The readership studies surveyed students for three consecutive years at a large midwestern university to compare characteristics of readers…

To find out whether the portrayal of mothers in young adult novels reflects real-life mothers and the many social and political changes of the past 20 years, a study examined 33 books selected from Booklist. The books had to have realistic and contemporary settings and include a characterization of a mother. They were examined for attributes that…