A study of news refraction was conducted to determine how well the press has functioned in popularizing scientific views and findings on a subject with direct implications for a controversial social issue. In reporting the marijuana question, the press produced a certain amount of refraction or news-slanting. For example, science articles…

The result of an exhaustive review of literature on the subject of film audiences, this bibliography is intended to provide film scholars with a reference tool, to act as an impetus for renewed research interest in the often neglected areas of film audience uses and gratifications, and to provide an update to UNESCO's 1961 bibliography concerning…

In an audience research study, 64 high school students responded to a questionnaire concerning their movie attendance habits and the importance of ten variables to their decision-making process when choosing a movie to see. The results indicated that 26.6% attended movies once a month, 23.4% twice monthly, 6.3% three times a month, 4.7% four times…

A study was conducted to examine the relationship of advertising exposure to a variety of cognitive and affective variables in a nonprofit charity campaign. The study also tested the transactional model of advertising effects, which combines exposure, motivations, and gratifications for viewing. A sample of 350 adults was randomly selected and…

The agenda setting hypothesis of mass media effects, which maintains that the mass media set the agenda of public discussion and determine which items are to be discussed and which ignored, was tested. Agenda was defined as an attribute of individual respondents to be compared with those of various media. In a preliminary study, a group of 59…

A study was designed to investigate the consequences of various coding strategies on the semantic differential as a function of responses to an ideal source in the prediction of overall credibility and homophily. The study was also intended to provide additional evidence for the disconfirmation of the underlying extremity assumption of the…

Personal interviews were conducted with 353 eligible voters in Madison, Wisconsin, in October 1976, and repeated with all but 30 after election day to examine the correlation between voters' age, paper reading (especially public affairs), and television watching (especially public affairs), and the amount of behavioral volatility (voter…

A fourth quarterly report completes one year of the Educational Policy Research Center's (EPRC) analysis and assessment of the Education Satellite Communication demonstration. Activities and accomplishments during the period April 11, 1975-July 10, 1975 are listed and described. The report also includes cost data from the Appalachian Educational…

Abstracts of research papers presented at the annual conventions of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology during the years 1970-74 are collected with an introductory statement and listing for each year. The name of each presenter is given along with title and mailing address. Papers are collected in the order in which they…

It was hypothesized in this study that media supporters would be more persuaded by messages delivered through media sources than would media critics. An experimental Persuasion study was conducted in which persons were asked to give their personal evaluations of news media performance. Then they were exposed to a persuasive message delivered…

This paper presents a conceptual analysis of bias and outlines the complexity and subtlety of the questions engulfing bias by sorting out views of bias that have been implicit in debates about the media, assessing the scientific value of these competing views in identifying and understanding bias in the media, offering an alternative view which is…

A sample of 558 communication specialists and nonspecialists was drawn for this study of the future role of mass media in Florida. The Delphi technique was used in four rounds of mail questionnaires, though response rates dropped from 29% of the total sample in round one to 8% in round four. Social, legal, and economic events affecting the future…

Because of limited access to technical systems used to train men to maintain complex electronic equipment, an instructional format employing low-cost slides and photos was used to provide students with simulated experiences. Five experimental instructional blocks were developed and tested in two classrooms. Results were compared with two control…

The essays in this volume examine the use of the mass media and explore the findings of the gratifications approach to mass communication research. Part one summaries the achievements in this area of mass media research and proposes an agenda for discussion of the future direction of this research in terms of a set of theoretical, methodological,…

William Stephenson's ludenic newsreading theory, which asserts that the newsreading situation is not one in which information is passed from a communication source to a receiver, but one in which the individual plays with communication, is examined in this study. Four postulates from the theory are tested in relation to student newspaper demands:…