A study of the agenda-setting influence of the mass media on adult viewers explored (in a series of five experiments) how political knowledge stored in long term memory can be activated by the media, leading to decisions about issue salience. Spreading activation theory formed the basis for the study, and priming--the concept that the activation…

This special report provides a survey of media in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and attempts to answer questions such as: what freedoms the mass media enjoy, the nature of their finances, what problems they have to deal with, and what their future in competition with new modes of communication will be like. Chapter 1 discusses the…

An empirical study examined politicians' use of public speaking teleprompters (PSTs) when delivering major addresses to determine if audiences made aware of this practice would more seriously question speaker credibility, sincerity, and communicative ability. After completing an initial survey about political attitudes and awareness, subjects, 36…

A study was conducted to examine how the implementation of new technology in the newsroom has affected job satisfaction, whether demographic characteristics of employees have an effect, or whether employees in certain classifications of jobs are more satisfied with this technology than others. Pagination was chosen as the technology to study…

In the spirit of the postmodern movement, this paper mixes the genres of survey research, in-depth interviews, and textual analysis to comment on governance in the media age. Using these methods, the paper traces the movement of a particular issue, international child abductions, on the agendas of the press, the public, and policy elites.…

A pilot study examined trends in the appearance of personal advertisements (individuals seeking dates/mates) in the classified columns of daily newspapers located in state capital cities, as well as newspaper guidelines for the acceptance of personal ads. Daily newspapers in the capital city of each state and some of the larger nationally…

A study examined uses of newspapers by elderly persons, with emphasis given to the extent to which exposure and gratification patterns change by age segments within the aged, and what kinds of factors are associated with such changes. Data from a national sample of 1,308 elderly persons indicated that readership varies more by demographic and…

After summarizing the widespread occurrence and male orientation of television beer advertising, this paper describes a study of the thematic content of beer commercials. Two-hundred and six beer advertisements which appeared on WTBS, the USA Network, and ESPN between September 1983 and September 1985 were studied. Event-specific ads and those in…

The relationship between mass mediated symbol systems and the development of subculture were studied through an analysis of the "hardcore" followers of the rock group, the Grateful Dead, i.e., the "Deadheads." As a way of compiling a "thick description" of the kind proposed by Clifford Geertz (1973), several key areas…

A case study of two metropolitan newspapers examined whether there was a relationship between type of newsroom management style--"authoritarian" or "democratic"--and journalists' perceptions of management style and leadership, editors' roles, career goals and job satisfaction, readers' news source contact, and community…

Because newspapers have begun switching from evening to morning publication with increasing frequency, a study investigated subscriber response to change in publication time and in subscriber behavior over time. In follow-up to an earlier study on subscriber reactions to the conversion to morning publication of the weekday Eugene (Oregon)…

A study examined the perceptions of newspaper editors as to how useful video cameras are in the newsroom. The original hypothesis was that reaction to introducing video cameras for newsroom use would meet with negative reaction. Subjects, 32 editors from Texas newspapers of over 10,000 circulation, were surveyed by mail. Results indicated an…

A study was conducted to determine how a population viewed the prospect of receiving news and information electronically. Subjects were 529 students attending Stanford University (California) in the heart of the "Silicon Valley" computer industry. The survey was conducted by mail with a telephone follow-up, and included 108 questions on usage of…

Using data from a 1980 study of Iowa caucus and state nominating convention attendees a study investigated the newspaper and television use of political activists and opinion leaders or elites. Demographic and psychological variables were used to explain differences in media use behavior between the two groups, as well as to determine how the…

To determine the treatment of visual journalism by privacy law from the origins of privacy law in 1890 until 1978, an analysis was made of the mass media legal cases occurring between those years. The cases were subjectively divided into three categories: those that established or extended a freedom of the press or the right of a defendant to…