The relatively few empirical studies that have concentrated on the relationship between television and children's interest and achievement in reading reflect two schools of thought. One group assumes a negative relationship, hypothesizing that time previously devoted to reading has been replaced by increased television viewing. Research in this…

This report describes the Virginia Public Telecommunications Council, an agency formed to manage and coordinate the Commonwealth's investments in and uses of all kinds of telecommunications services, facilities, processes, capacities, and products. In this respect they act as professional consultant, liaison officer, approval authority, planner,…

THIS STUDY ATTEMPTED TO PROVIDE DEFINITIVE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TELEVISION INSTRUCTION IN HIGH SCHOOL CHEMISTRY UNDER VARIED CONDITIONS. THE SAMPLE OBTAINED INCLUDED PREDOMINANTLY WHITE AND NEGRO SCHOOLS USING TELEVISION (FOUR OF EACH), AND PREDOMINANTLY WHITE AND NEGRO SCHOOLS NOT USING TELEVISION (SIX AND ONE). GROSS…

A telephone survey of 337 parents was conducted to determine (1) the television viewing rules parents have for regulating their children's use of television, (2) the media use and social indicators that account for variance in family television viewing rules, and (3) the relationship between family communication patterns and family television…

Questions concerning the relationship between gratifications sought (GS) and gratifications obtained (GO) were explored in a study of determinants of exposure to national network television evening news programs. The categories of gratifications, derived from a number of studies of television and political news, were (1) general information…

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…

This paper discusses research on the effects of formal features of television programs on children's attention, comprehension, and social behavior. Formal features are defined as visual and auditory events which are not primarily a part of the content or message. Three models of the influences of form and content are discussed: (1) the…

This report describes research designed to examine questions about the amounts and kinds of positive examples appearing in children's television programming, the influence they have on children's prosocial behavior, and the circumstances that optimize attention to and comprehension of such content. A methodology for analyzing positive social…

This paper discusses the wide appeal, and the effect on the viewing audience, of traditional television soap operas. It reports on a comparison of role interactions, topics discussed by the characters, and types of topics and problems presented on the television program "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" with those presented on two traditional…

This study investigated the influence of structured children's television programming on prosocial behavior. Subjects were 53 children ages 4-6, from two day care centers. Nine videotapes were produced (three for each of three experimental conditions) differing in their presentation of socially-valued behavior, socially-devalued behavior,…

This report, the second in a series of six reports on television advertising and children, presents the results from a series of experimental studies designed to test children's intentional and incidental learning from television commercials. A total of 400 elementary school students of varying socioeconomic status participated in the study, with…

Until the 1960's, the prevailing view within the scientific community was that television was a relatively unimportant influence, but studies have shown that television does have an important effect on the behavior of its viewers, particularly aggressive behavior. Consequently, recent research has focused on the role of television in the…

As a followup to a previous evaluation, a study to determine the effect of Sesame Street viewing on school readiness was conducted using a group of 99 three-, four-, and five-year-olds from a low income neighborhood in Los Angeles. Subjects were randomly assigned to groups which were either encouraged to watch the program or to maintain their…

The relative effectiveness of real news violence and fictional entertainment violence was assessed in an experiment with pre-adolescents. One group saw a brief fight scene portrayed as a news story in a simulated TV newscast, while a second group saw the same scene presented as a movie preview during a commercial break. The primary dependent…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made provision for three access channels in new cable television systems: one each for the public, educational authorities, and the local government. The success of these access channels in instituting a two-way relationship between the public and commercial broadcasting is dependent on the presence…