Persuasive Self-Efficacy: Dispositional and Situational Correlates

People vary in their self-efficacy as persuaders. After devising a brief measure of persuasive self-efficacy, we find that the construct correlates positively with a number of variables relevant to social interaction, including self-esteem, self-monitoring, extroversion, and openness to new experiences, and negatively with other variables, including communication apprehension and neuroticism. Social self-efficacy had a modest but significant relationship with persuasive self-efficacy. Drawing from research on contextual self-efficacy, we also examine some of the social situations where persuasive self-efficacy may matter and find that people vary in their self-efficacy as a persuader as a function of the context.     

The Psychology of Marathon Television Viewing: Antecedents and Viewer Involvement

This study focuses on the expanding trend of marathon (“binge”) television viewing. It examines the personality antecedents of such media consumption (attachment style, depression, and self-regulation deficiency) as well as the psychological experiences of marathon viewers relative to the narrative (transportation, enjoyment) and its characters (parasocial relationship, identification). In a two-study design, theoretical models of media use and involvement, on one hand, and models of media addiction, on the other hand, are applied to predict the extent of marathon viewing and to compare it with “traditional” viewing. Results advance understanding of enjoyment and involvement theory and support cognitive theories of media addiction. At the same time, the study’s findings reveal that marathon television viewers are active both cognitively and emotionally during and after the media exposure, thus alleviating some concerns about the “problematic” nature of the “binge” viewing phenomenon.     

Television and Political Participation Among Adolescents: The Impact of Television Viewing,Entertainment and Information Preferences

Although sweeping statements about the effect of television viewing on political participation could still be found in the literature in the 1990s, it is now commonly held that the effect of television should be studied as a multidimensional phenomenon. Not only the time spent watching television but also the kinds of programs being watched and even the preference for particular stations are assumed to have an effect. In this article, we report on a survey among 6,330 Belgian adolescents allowing for a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between various dimensions of television viewing and political participation. We focus on adolescents, because research suggests that the decline in participation levels clearly manifests itself in this age group. The results of the analysis confirm a negative impact of the amount of television viewing, which is partly counterbalanced by a positive impact of a preference for information and for public broadcasting. We discuss the implications of these findings among adolescents for adult participation behavior.     

Parental Mediation of Preschool Children's Television Viewing

This study examines parental mediation of preschool children's television viewing. Becker's (1981) theory of parent-child relations is used to frame mediation in terms of parenting resources. A survey of 129 parents of preschool children (ages 1-5) reveals that when resources are in highest demand, attitudes toward television are a factor in deciding whether television mediation will benefit children. Demographic variables, parents' attitudes about television, and parents' involvement with children all significantly predicted restrictive and instructive mediation. The findings are discussed in light of young Children's needs for mediation as a guide to television's novel set of technical and cultural codes.     

The Portrayal of Race and Crime on Television Network News

A content analysis of television network news was conducted to assess the portrayal of race and criminal behavior. Findings revealed that Whites were more likely than African Americans to appear as perpetrators, victims, and officers. Both African Americans and Whites were more likely to appear as perpetrators than as victims and officers. African American and White law-breakers were represented in a way consistent with their perpetration rates. However, Whites were overrepresented while African Americans were underrepresented as victims of violent crime. Furthermore, Whites were over represented and African Americans were under-represented as police officers. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Relation Between Television Viewing and the Values Orientations of Japanese Students

Applying the postulates and methodology of the universal value structure theory articulated by Schwarrs and Bilsky (1987, 1990) to mass communication, this study employs value type analysis to investigate how respondents' cultural background and television viewing habits are related to their perceptions of the importance of value types and to individualistic or collectivistic value structures. In this study, we found significant relations between television program genres viewed and individualist, collectivist, and mixed value types. The findings indicate that-throughout individualist, collectivist, and mixed value types-television program genre usually serves as a stronger predictor of value type importance than do demographic variables.     

Beyond Materialism: The Role of Health-Related Beliefs in the Relationship Between Television Viewing and Life Satisfaction Among College Students

Prior research has typically focused on materialism and the perceptions of general others' affluence to explain the link between television viewing and life satisfaction. This study extends our understanding of such a relationship by demonstrating the mediation of health-related perceptions. Surveys were administered to 274 college students at a large southeastern university, and the data were subjected to path analyses. Results reveal that overall television viewing was associated with viewers' perceptions of others' health risks and of personal health risks; in turn, these perceptions significantly related to life satisfaction. Further, overall television viewing was indirectly associated with perception of self-efficacy in maintaining personal health, which in turn reduced life satisfaction. These results indicate that health-related perceptions help establish the association between television viewing and life satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.     

2010年中国电视市场收视动态

2010年中国电视市场大环境相对稳定,常态时期的电视收视总量保持稳定,"内容为王"继续引导竞争方向,不同层级间频道竞争更加激烈.本文通过对2010年电视收视市场动态的分析,可以为透视电视市场现状表象后的动因提供诸多参考.     

Multi-Platform Event Television: Reconceptualizing our Relationship with Television

The proliferation and success of popular factual formats, the process of digitalization, and the emergence of interactive technologies have transformed the global television landscape. Content is now being produced, delivered, and consumed in new ways. Capitalizing on these changes are a set of complex multi-platform media events that deliver a range of content across various platforms, utilizing television, the Internet, mobile phones, and digital and interactive screen services. This paper will explore the ways in which these examples have changed the way we think about television, live broadcasting, the relationship between various technologies and platforms, and, most importantly, about the way we conceptualize audiences.     

The Effect of Perpetrator Motive and Dispositional Attributes on Enjoyment of Television Violence and Attitudes Toward Victims

Previous research (Zillmann & Bryant, 1975 Zillmann, D. and Bryant, J. 1975. Viewer's moral sanction of retribution in the appreciation of dramatic presentations.. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 11: 572–582. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggests that over-retributive and under-retributive violent acts are deemed unjust, enjoyed less, and influence attitudes toward perpetrators and victims of violence. This study extends this research to examine how disposition and motive influence enjoyment and liking of victims and perpetrators. An experiment manipulating perpetrator disposition and motive for violence showed that liking for neutral targets is decreased by incongruous perpetrator disposition and motive, whereas liking for perpetrator was affected only by motive. Balance Theory is offered to explain how dispositional considerations influence the evaluation of characters and other features of a story line.     

Personality Traits,Television Viewing,and the Cultivation Effect

This research investigates the impact of 3 personality traits—trait anxiety, sensation seeking, and psychoticism—on cultivation effects regarding perceptions of violence. A survey measuring violence prevalence estimates, personality traits, television consumption, and genre preferences was completed by 427 undergraduates. Results indicate that low trait–anxious individuals, and to a lesser extent high sensation seekers, are more susceptible to cultivation regarding personal vulnerability to crime whereas those low in psychoticism are susceptible to cultivation regarding societal violence perceptions. The worldview offered by these traits, as opposed to TV genre consumption or resonance, seems to best explain these effects.     

Family Television Viewing and Its Alternatives: Associations with Closeness within and between Generations

Audience research on family television viewing flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. These studies highlighted watching television as a family as a valuable family routine, structuring the rhythm of daily life and generating family harmony. Ever since, we have witnessed changes in both family structures and media structures, which have affected the ways television is consumed within the household. This begs the question whether earlier findings considering family closeness still hold up. Therefore, this study conducted a cross-sectional survey among a sample of 691 Belgian individuals, nested in 288 families. Drawing upon insights from literature on family rituals and media generations, the results of this study indicate that despite a robust prevalence of family viewing, alternative social patterns emerge coinciding with the appropriation of screen technologies beyond living room television. Further analysis reveals that deviations from family viewing are associated with lower closeness between generations. However, younger generations watching together do report higher levels of closeness with their generational counterparts.     

Television Viewing Preferences: Programs,Schedules, and the Structure of Viewing Choices Made by Israeli Adults

Using analysis of program content and programming features, this study identifies patterns of television viewing preferences that explain why certain shows are frequently watched with certain other shows. Principal components analysis (PCA) of data collected from a sample of 750 Israeli adults was used to identify groups of shows often watched by the same viewers. A further analysis was conducted to uncover common features of these shows. The results replicate earlier findings indicating that program viewing preferences are explained by channel loyalty and genre loyalty, but the study adds a focus on the importance of programming language in non-English-speaking television markets.     

Feeling Connected via Television Viewing: Exploring the Scale and Its Correlates

Contextualized in television program viewing, the current study seeks to develop a new scale that captures individuals' feelings of being connected to others via media consumption. Literature on general human motivation and media consumption motivation sheds light on social relatedness in television experiences. Data suggest a three-factor structure of the focal concept of feeling connected via television viewing (FCTV): (1) a perception of shared viewing among one's immediate social circle and anticipation of subsequent communication as aided by television programs, (2) a sense of global community enhanced by shared television experiences, and (3) communication with distant unknown others. A stronger sense of FCTV predicts a greater tendency for an individual to watch a program when it is first released, and to watch it together with one's friends, as well as a higher level of general involvement with television. Further, we differentiate the focal concept of feeling connected to other television viewers via television viewing from the related concept of parasocial interaction with television characters. Relative to parasocial interaction, FCTV better predicts collective viewing and first-run viewing.     

Television Viewing,Perceived Similarity,and Adolescents' Expectations of a Romantic Partner

This study aimed to explore the relationships between overall and romantically themed television viewing and adolescents' expectations of a romantic partner. A sample of 428 15- and 76-year-olds from Belgium rated the importance of physical attractiveness and a pleasant personality in a romantic partner. Results show moderate but significant associations for overall television viewing, after background variables and the quality of other relationships were accounted for. These associations are unrelated to direct experience and the perceived similarity of televised portrayals. Discussion focuses on the need for continued research in this area and on the role of direct experience.     

Direct and Indirect Aggression on Prime-Time Network Television

This research uses disproportionate exemplar distributions in an attempt to create a spiral of silence effect for a controversial issue. No support is found for exemplars predictably causing a spiral of silence. There is mild evidence that perceived opinion can silence "public display expression." More importantly, opinion is found to predict speaking out, a phenomenon most likely associated with a cultural bias effect.     

The Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents' Civic Participation: Political Efficacy as a Mediating Mechanism

Pundits, parents, and scholars express concern about youth attention to late-night political comedy shows, such as The Daily Show, suggesting that such viewing is deleterious for an active, efficacious citizenry. Yet as civic participation declines among adults, it appears to be growing among adolescents. This study assessed the effects of television viewing on high school students' civic participation. Results demonstrate that viewing late-night TV and local TV news had a positive, significant effect on civic participation, and this relationship was mediated by political efficacy. Implications for the study of late-night TV and applications to research on political socialization are discussed.     

Predictors of Social Television Viewing: How Perceived Program,Media, and Audience Characteristics Affect Social Engagement With Television Programming

This study investigated social television viewing by introducing the social engagement construct. Three categories of factors, television program related perceptions, social media characteristics, and audience attributes, were proposed to predict the social engagement experience. This investigation tested 10 audience motives for using social media to engage with television content. It was found that social engagement is a complex process driven by multiple factors, particularly, program-related variables such as affinity, involvement, and genre preferences, as well as individuals' innovativeness trait.     

In Search of the Older Audience: Adult Age Differences in Television Viewing

General Social Survey data were used to test the claims that (a) older adults watch more television than younger adults and (b) they do so because of poor health, retirement, and widowhood. Older adults did watch more television on average than other age groups. This effect was not explained by birth cohort or altered by time of measurement. However, the age effect was small (despite striking mean differences), because variability within the youngest and oldest groups was large. Overall, traditional explanations of older adults' viewing were largely unsupported. Demographic and social variables explained younger adults' viewing better than older adults'.