Discusses the increase in audience research for public broadcast radio programming and how it influences decisions about programming and fundraising. The evolution of public radio's use of audience research is related to its changing conception of localism. (53 references) (Author/AEF)

This review of communication research on television viewing by intellectually gifted children examines the number of hours such children spend watching television, types of programing they watch, their capacity to process and comprehend program content, appropriate child role models in television programing, and mediation of television viewing by…

Describes a year-long study of the reading dialogue journals of eight eighth grade students. Finds that responses dealt with ongoing business, summaries, metacognitive responses, connections, and evaluation of text and author. Discusses how such journals promote reading development and how journal entries differ according to audience. (SR)

Letters from 18 average sixth-grade writers were analyzed for context-creating (background) and persuasive (strategic) text elements. Analysis revealed that sixth graders use context-creating elements to provide helpful background information for their audiences, rely on logical reasoning for persuasion, and have some understanding of text…

Cites research showing that many technical writing courses do not give students an accurate conception of the workplace. Notes the importance of communication skills, inadequacies of writers in the workplace, and the need for practice and instruction in collaborative writing. Outlines a one-term course containing a collaborative writing project…

Describes a technical writing assignment in which students learn to consider the needs of an audience through writing query letters. Discusses researching the magazine, comparing competitors, editors' responses, and the advantages results of the assignment. (PRA)

Offers a model lesson that uses television commercials to foster in students a more sophisticated awareness of audience. (SR)

Presents results of a study that explored the effect of overt categorization on musical preference. Found no difference in choices of nonmusic majors when choices were structured as stipulated, unstipulated, or free form categories. Finds musical experience and gender affected preferences for pop and jazz, but not for rock music. (DK)

Day care centers can use newsletters to establish good parent relations. This is done by means of communicating, educating, giving recognition, and obtaining feedback. Policy guidelines for newsletters, ways to establish target audiences and write copy, and a suggested format for a newsletter are included. (SH)

Five principles of media literacy help parents base their criticism of television on reason: people are smarter than televisions; the television world is not real; television teaches that some people are more important than others; television keeps repeating the same things; and someone always wants to make money with television. (SM)

College alumni association mailings can be made more successful by targeting the audiences, delivering a strong proposition to readers, choosing a forceful format, and creating impressive copy. Efforts of the University of Minnesota, University of Iowa, and Southern Methodist University illustrate these principles. (MSE)

Measures how much voters learned about the issue positions of the 1988 presidential candidates and the images formed from campaign coverage and other information. Finds the debates influential on knowledge; higher levels of education and campaign interest related to more issue knowledge; and image knowledge predicted by party loyalty. Concludes…

Describes a writing strategy that reflects the importance of writing for authentic purposes for real audiences. Discusses how cross-grade-level exchanges can support this approach. (MG)

Describes how a university professor collaborated with a ninth-grade English teacher in a research project aimed at studying the collaborative writing processes of the students. Analyzes the various collaborative writing processes of the students, including audience awareness, planning, and revising. (HB)

Suggests a method for modeling the characters of readers and writers as they are shaped in the process of writing about public policy issues. Uses this model to examine classroom oral presentations of four professionals. Integrates consideration of writing process, audience, ethics, and public policy issues. (HB)