Three questions bearing on M. Janowitz's community-integration hypothesis were pursued in a study for which community ties and newspaper subscribing were the focal dimensions. The questions addressed were the following: (1) Are community-church ties positively associated with subscribing to a local church newspaper? (2) Are church ties positively…

That competition in broadcasting may not bring about sufficiently heterogeneous programing has long been the subject of debate among policymakers, and nowhere has that debate been more acrimonious than in its application to the diversification of radio formats. While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prefers to leave questions of…

In an attempt to integrate research on the impact of judicial selection and research on journalist-source interaction, a study considered the method by which judges are selected and retained and how this method influences the exchange relationship between sources and journalists in trial courts. Elected trial court judges in Minnesota and…

The "Electronic Media Career Preparation Study" was conducted by the Roper Organization to represent an attempt to put many industry concerns about academia into a more formalized context. Broadcasters in the Roper study suggested that colleges and universities do an inadequate job in providing students with practical knowledge and in…

Based upon the philosophical position of contextualism, the common-sense idea of powerful, uniform, and universal media effects is largely untenable. Instead, researchers can more profitably view such effects as resulting from synthesized stimuli, of which media content is only one component. Thus, these phenomena should be called media-related…

Because the quoting of anonymous sources in journalism has received a great deal of attention recently, a study was conducted to focus attention on the broadcast media by examining the quoting of anonymous sources on network television newscasts. Four research questions were formulated: (1) What percentage of television news stories contain…

This basic, entry-level guidebook introduces public broadcasters to videotext or teletext technology and the range of services it can provide. Following an explanation of basic terms and a review of the early history of videotext, a summary of research findings from commercial and public trials of teletext addresses such topics as consumer…

"Breadth of perspective" is a significant concept for definition of public goals, especially in line with the two-way symmetric model of public relations practice. The concept involves four components: (1) awareness that more than one definition, stand, or conclusion is possible and is probably accepted as valid by significant persons or…

Intended for newspaper managing editors, this collection includes the following topics and authors: (1) discovering how to reshape newspapers for the video age (Tom Holbein and Deanne Termini); (2) trends that will cause newspapers to change the manner of news collecting and delivery (Tom B. Mauro); (3) solid tips on research (Jenny Fielder); (4)…

A study examined how presentation of men and women by selected internal business publications changed from 1978 to 1982. A visual content analysis of three major industry publications was conducted. The total number of individuals shown in the 22 magazines studied was 1,551. Of these individuals, 83% were male and 17% were female. After…

A study was conducted to determine how readers regard the accountability of newspapers that employ ombudsmen. Subjects were 393 readers of Kentucky's "Louisville Times" and "Courier Journal." Both papers, the first American papers to hire ombudsmen, publicize the existence of the ombudsman in a daily column, and from 1974 to…

A study was conducted to explore whether Fishman and Roslow's concept of adjacent listening could be adapted to studying television viewing behavior and used as an indicator of audience interest and information-seeking behavior. A second hypothesis was that different types of news programs might be preferred by groups reporting primary reliance on…

Examines several different media of communication to determine if the channel or the audience determines effectiveness. (RB)

This study measured audience perceptions during the course of a prerecorded segment of the television series "Emergency" and compared audience responses with the occurrence of specific production variables: subject movement, camera movement, cutting rate, image size, and so on. Audience-response equipment, capable of recording ratings…

One of the most difficult problems facing scholars interested in conducting empirical research concerning the gratification that audience members seek or receive from the media is measurement of gratification itself. This paper outlines the strategies commonly used by researchers and describes some of the limitations of each. Particular attention…