Analysis of the relationship of ten characteristics to item readership revealed that page number and length of story were major determinants. (KS)

Reexamines the basic tenets and assesses the use-value of phenomenology as a methodology of film study. Suggests that phenomenology can assist in restoring a proper role for the spectator in the creation of meaning, as part of a dialectical human sensuous activity. (MS)

Examines the current state of empirical research on religious television, discusses some of the implicit difficulties in exploring this phenomenon and its viewership, and suggests avenues for future research. (MS)

Presents a brief overview of the history of recorded music, focusing on the dynamics between production and consumption. (JD)

Concludes that major market local television newscasts include substantial doses of helplessness, most of it at extreme levels. Specifically, members of the general public are often presented as helpless, and, by implication, so are television viewers. (FL)

Examines all network prime-time television aired from 1963 through 1985 to determine the effect of available program options on inheritance effects. Indicates that a strong lead-in increases audience share, especially when the program is new, of the same type as the preceding program, or one of few viewing alternatives. (JD)

Indicates that readers were in substantial agreement on their impressions of the subjects of news stories, as were other readers who viewed only the mugshots associated with those stories. Finds that these judgments correlated significantly with one another. (JD)

Reports on the perceptions of "Roots" among a nationally representative sample of black Americans. Examines viewing patterns and reactions to "Roots" in relation to seven variables: urbanicity, region, gender, age, education, and income. Suggests that, for Blacks, "Roots" was more than entertainment, and that heaviest…

Examines style in children's theatre, focusing on pantomime, vaudeville, and theatre of the absurd. Traces shifts in the appeal of these styles from adult to children's theatre and then possibly to extinction. (PD)

Presents an eulogy of Ellen Raskin, author of "Figgs and Phantoms" and "The Westing Game," by a close friend. (CRH)

This collection of papers by leading experts from a range of disciplines is divided into four sections. Section 1, "Anthropological Approaches," includes: (1) "'Style' as Distinctiveness: The Culture and Ideology of Linguistic Differentiation" (Judith T. Irvine); (2) "Variety, Style-Shifting, and Ideology" (Susan…

Discusses the relative absence of Black and Jewish characters in television programs. Charges that the networks' fear of presenting Jews and Blacks as realistic characters in realistic situations arises from the mistaken notion that the viewing public is uneducated, myopic, and easily bewildered. (GC)