Comparing two measures of television exposure (time spent viewing, and the number of violent acts viewed per hour) as predictors of television-influenced fear of criminal victimization, a study conducted probability surveys in two midwestern cities with dissimilar crime rates. A preliminary study of 142 undergraduates in a mass communication class…

A content analysis was performed on all of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Nine O'Clock News and ITV (Independent Television) News at Ten programs that were broadcast during Britain's year-long miners' strike--March 1984-March 1985--and a four-month sample of Channel 4 news to examine how television news covered a protracted story of…

Most of the "talk" about the role of mass media in the Third World is generated by politicians rather than by professional communicators. The "Developmental Play Model" treats media experience as an encounter with the "self" and considers the "self" as an integral part of the mass communication process. The…

Teachers of public speaking need to provide the educational leadership necessary for students to become responsible for their presentational interaction. Several instructional practices can help students re-position themselves in what they do with their presentational interaction to make it meaningful. For example, teachers can respond to student…

A study assessed the effect of the telelvision drama "The Day After" on attitudes toward (1) defense spending, (2) a nuclear freeze, (3) nuclear disarmament, (4) the likelihood of war, (5) the severity of such a war, (6) personal political efficacy on the issue of war and peace, and (7) the likelihood of nuclear war under the presidency…

Swedish consumer use of video recording equipment and software was surveyed through interviews with 10,700 people; the interviews were conducted by the field research staff of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation's Audience and Programme Research Department between December 1981 and April 1982. The study focused on possession (ownership, leasing,…

One of the rhetorical dimensions on which theatre exists is the rhetoric of production. This implies that the production, through examples, takes and urges an attitude toward the text. This argument provides a foundation for both the nature and the implications of interpreters theatre productions that advocate social issues. Theatrical…

Noting that daytime television serials have been used to teach a variety of subjects, including writing and language skills, this paper reviews literature on the nature of soap operas so that instructors can use them more effectively. Following an introduction citing studies on the educational uses of soap operas, the paper explores the following…

Included in this set of proceedings are a keynote address on the state of the art of cable television and the future of the television economy by Les Brown, editor-in-chief of "Channels" magazine; panel discussions on the structure of the cable television industry; the potential market for cable television arts programming; the birth and…

The concept of knowledge gap (the discrepancy in the amount of information acquired by different groups of people reached by mass communication) can be critically examined to consider its theoretical and practical implications in the context of using communication to bring about changes in society. Some causes of knowledge gap include differences…

A study was conducted to explore the relationship between a mother working outside the home and the amount of television a child views. It was hypothesized that the hours of television viewed by a child would be positively related to the amount of television viewed by (1) the female head of household, (2) the male head of household, (3) the number…

The letter of application should make use of message strategies that show the writer's awareness of the explicit needs of specific readers. However, very few students are able to write them, partially as a result of the audience analysis procedures that are suggested for student use. Students need a reader analysis procedure to help them learn…

Using Chaim Perelman's concept of the "universal audience" as a method of analysis, an investigation was made into the images of equality under the law in two landmark Supreme Court rulings on segregation, "Plessy v. Ferguson" and "Brown v. Board of Education." The analysis revealed that the Supreme Court in both…

In a study designed as a pilot project to test a taxonomy of noun phrases (NPs) and indicate results to be expected from a larger subsequent survey, 13 essays from a basic writing class and 10 essays from an advanced composition class were analyzed for four NP types: (1) those requiring earlier text information for full interpretation, (2) those…

An approach to composition, involving group efforts to formulate solutions to real-world problems, is described. (JH)