Nonverbal behavior is an important aspect of the film and is one of the several tools that a director uses to communicate to an audience the characters' feelings and relationships. By adding to this information their own personal responses, viewers often experience strong feelings. With reference to the social psychological research of nonverbal…

An implicit contract between author and reader during discourse production and comprehension that defines the liberties each may take in relation to the text is proposed in this report. Discussed in the report are the writer's responsibilities in such a contract--to be sincere, informative, relevant, and clear and to establish points of contact…

Audience research activities were carried out to continue the development of the capacity of Pennsylvania Public Television Network (PPTN) station personnel to understand the use of audience rating information for programming and promotion decisions. The project consisted of (1) continuing the PPTN contract with Arbitron to secure access to their…

Two research reports on newspaper readership and two summaries of recent newspaper research from other periodicals are reported in the American Newspaper Publishers Association's "ANPA News Research Report Number 26." The first study identifies factors explaining the fluctuations in Canadian daily newspaper household penetration,…

Terrorists seek recognition for their cause by using violence to create public fear which will force the government into repressive counter-measures. The mass media play a vital role in this strategy. News reports of terrorism may magnify the climate of fear, thereby augmenting the public's overreaction. Moreover, broadcast of terrorist acts may…

The categories of news flow research and the objectives of readership studies were combined in a pilot field experiment in audience reaction to and interest in foreign news. Using both projective and behavioral measures, the study explored media use patterns and story preferences. In particular, it investigated the effect on reader interest of…

The author, a producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), discusses the nature of the problems involved in producing several educational television series intended to advise parents on the subjects of child rearing and child development. (LS)

TO DETERMINE THE COMPARATIVE AMOUNT OF LEARNING THAT OCCURRED AND THE AUDIENCE REACTION TO MEETING EFFECTIVENESS, A 20-MINUTE INFORMATIVE SPEECH, "THE WEATHER," WAS PRESENTED WITH VISUAL AIDS TO 23 AND WITHOUT VISUAL AIDS TO 23 INFORMAL, VOLUNTARY, ADULT AUDIENCES. THE AUDIENCES WERE RANDOMLY DIVIDED, AND CONTROLS WERE USED TO ASSURE IDENTICAL…

With a view to showing how Independent Television Authority and Independent Television have met the parliamentary injunction to educate, inform, and entertain, this document attempts to present the varying methods used, and the weaknesses and strengths as well as the originality and traditionalism of the programs offered to the adults of Britain.…

The acoustic absorption characteristics of informally dressed college students in typical classroom seating are shown to differ substantially from data for formally dressed audiences in upholstered seating. Absorption data, expressed as sabins per person or absorption coefficient per square foot, shows that there is considerable variation between…

In addition to factors analyzed in previous media research, the following three new validity checks were examined in a study of the audience's perceived uses and gratifications: the effect of time differences between administrations in a study, a comparison of respondents who claim to be gratified with those who do not, and the link between media…

Formality in rhetorical delivery can be defined as a complex variable that represents the speaker's efforts to invoke sociocultural rules of audience control through the nonverbal components of the delivery. This document describes some of the aspects of formality, outlines its significance in rhetorical contexts, and evaluates the concept in…

All of the television camera shots in the three Ford/Carter presidential debates were studied according to type, frequency, and duration to determine whether the images presented by the camera could have influenced the audience's perception of the candidates. According to the debate rules, each candidate was allowed three minutes to answer a…

In this paper, two magazine courses offered at Colorado State University as part of the Technical-Business Journalism concentration are described in terms of course content, class assignments, and course objectives. The course entitled "Writing for Specialized Audiences" assumes that the majority of magazines published today are edited for readers…

Designed to investigate intra-audience effects in a field setting, this study tested three hypotheses: (1) subjects who are exposed to favorable audience responses by confederates will display more favorable assessments than subjects who are exposed to less favorable responses; (2) subjects who are exposed to favorable audience responses will…