To outline the development of smoking as a health issue as it was covered by magazines, a study tested the hypotheses that (1) the pattern of media attention to the issue would begin in professional and scientific journals, expand into books and government publications, and then appear in consumer magazines; and (2) the distribution of subtopics…

This is a final report on a series of research studies conducted to determine the effects of videotaped testimony on information processing and decision making in jury trials. The report is divided into the following sections: descriptions of the research methodology and technological aspects of the videotaped stimuli; summaries of eleven studies…

Biometric communication research is defined as research dealing with the information impact of a film or television show, photographic picture, painting, exhibition, display, or any literary or functional texts or verbal stimuli on human beings, both as individuals and in groups (mass audiences). Biometric communication research consists of a…

A 1981 nationwide study of awareness of public broadcasting, viewing, and listening habits for public television and public radio, and reactions to on-air fund raising by public broadcasting stations are described in this report. Information on the survey and the analysis of the results have been organized into two sections, one presenting results…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: establishing newspapers in the Washington Territory; the business history of the antebellum Wisconsin newspaper, 1833-1860; the idea of news in a culturally plural society; the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference in cognitive and affective responses of eighth grade students to a short, educational film and to a videotape presentation of that film. The cognitive response involved students' understanding of such story elements of the film as plot, setting, character, mood, and theme. The affective…

Intended primarily for use by individuals about to assume responsibility for the implementation of field trials and demonstration projects built around interactive telecommunication systems, this report provides brief descriptions of 20 telemedicine projects, 12 teleconferencing projects, and seven involving two-way applications of cable…

University freshman journalism students from two different states were surveyed to study the influence of high school publication experience on journalism career aspirations, perceptions of media credibility, and use of media. About half the students surveyed had worked on high school publications. These former staffers were compared with the…

A study of the role of the attention construct in the process of transforming specific newspaper and television media content into political knowledge involved a survey of 71 undergraduate students in an introductory journalism course. A review of the literature had revealed that the use of the attention construct had been infrequent in mass media…

An undergraduate core course covering the entire range of communication studies was content analyzed, scripted, and audiotaped for broadcast in 20 half-hour segments. The formats of the tapes included interviews, panel discussions, expository lectures, fabled narratives, and radio drama. An evaluation of the audiotaped materials was conducted by…

A taxonomy of levels of analysis in mass media decision making is presented in this paper, and a strategy is proposed for incorporating the different levels into the design of research. Following a clarification of the concept of influence and its relationship to the levels of analysis used in the taxonomic structure, the paper describes the…

Defining political culture as a fundamental, culturally important value system that forms a context in which media content judgments and other professional behaviors can be described or evaluated in a meaningful way, this paper analyses two minority press systems as they relate to their political culture contexts. The two systems are the black…

The first in a series of four, this report describes part of a national study commissioned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to investigate audience awareness of public radio, reaction to on-air fund raising and programing on public radio, and audience reactions to on-air fund raising by public television stations. Specifically, this…

The results of a survey conducted in 1975 were compared with the findings of three previous studies of Finnish public awareness of mass media to determine any changes or trends which might have occurred between the years 1967 and 1975. Data were reported in categories based on the public concept of (1) the most important mass medium, (2) the…

Mass media in the Philippines at present show two seemingly opposite trends: a small but noticeable increase in the number of provincial newspapers, and a reduction in the number of radio stations in certain areas. Two general features of the media situation, the private ownership of the media and the need for progressive public service…