Diversity in local television news

This study was designed to determine if VCR satisfaction, VCR use, and interpersonal communication about VCRs are related to three functions: home entertainment, displacement, and social utility. A survey of VCR households yielded 338 responses. Differential patterns were found across the three functions.     

Concerns about crime and local television news

This project reports on a two‐part investigation into students' perceptions of behaviors constituting active participation in a college course. Seven factors emerged: Working Hard, Outside Contact, (Refraining from) Negative Behavior, Group Citizenship, Positivity, Attendance, and Class Discussion. Interestingly, students rated the Group Citizenship factor as the most representative of participation. High and low communication apprehensives differed on their ratings of the centrality of some of these factors to participation. The results of this study suggest that students have an expansive notion of what it means to participate in their classes, better characterized as “course involvement,” than is captured by conventional definitions of “class participation.”     

Market size and local television news judgment

The research explores market‐based difference in news judgment to determine whether content is affected by size. It concluded that size and available resources do not significantly affect the types of news stories presented in stations of different market size.     

Foreign and domestic news content of Chinese television

A sample from 10 weeks of the major Chinese national television news program was content analyzed; 559 news stories were coded according to duration, topic category, position in the newscast, and geographic origin. The 189 international stories clustered at the end of the broadcast and were significantly shorter than domestic stories. A plurality of domestic stories was from the capital, Beijing, and covered different topics than those that originated outside of China. Foreign and domestic stories were brief and provided little interpretation or background.     

Visual materials on local television news programs

When sight was added to sound, the problems of presenting the news of the day multiplied, as did the cost of such coverage. Nevertheless, few news directors are satisfied with the strict “man‐on‐camera” approach; they prefer to use the additional information channel for a certain amount of visual augmentation of the audio channel's content. Beacuse television stations in a given market rarely have a chance to examine the output of stations in other markets, the survey reported in the following article was made'. Both the sources of visual news materials and their uses are studied in a sample of midwestern stations. It is interesting to examine this report after a review of William Hazard's study for the Radio‐Television News Directors Association, “Adequacy of Coverage by Still Picture and Film Services” published in the Journal of Broadcasting, Vol. IV, No. 1, pp. 64–76, Winter, 1959–60.     

The changing market structure of local television news

Local television news markets have been defined in terms of oligopoly theory, in which the number of competitors is limited and firms must pay significant attention to pricing behavior and product differentiation. The author explores how the development of independent television stations, cable television, and video recorders is changing the market from oligopoly to monopolistic competition.     

A content analysis of local television newscasts: Answering the critics

Local television newscasts have been criticized for being too frivolous, but an analysis of San Diego stations indicates more newscast time is devoted to significant issues of the day than to anything else.     

Competition,conduct, and ratings in local television news: Applying the industrial organization model

This study explores how competition and competition intensity affect the amount of time devoted to local television news and the number of employees assigned to news activities. It also studies how the amount of time devoted to news and staff size affect newscast ratings. The author concludes that competition and its intensity did affect the amount of news presented locally and newscast ratings in the market examined.     

Structural determinants of the television news audience

This study examined the impact that program scheduling and market characteristics had on people's exposure to the early evening local news. Three factors combined to explain 81% of the variation in local news ratings across the U.S.: a station's network news rating, the lead‐in rating for the local news, and the size of the available television audience. We discussed how such structural factors might be better integrated into research and theory that emphasize individual characteristics as determinants of exposure to television programming.     

Children's expectations for television entertainment vs. television news events

Young children's limited ability to recognize and defend against commercial messages has led to numerous concerns about advertising that targets child‐viewers. Industry self‐regulation of child‐oriented advertising content is one response to those concerns. With the demise of the National Association of Broadcasters Code in 1982, guidelines maintained by the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the National Council of Better Business Bureaus comprise the only industry‐wide self‐regulation. This study evaluates the extent of compliance with the CARU standards across a sample of over 10,000 ads directed to children. The results indicate a high overall rate of adherence to the guidelines. Two problem areas emerged which accounted for most of the violations observed: ads that featured premium offers, and ads for recorded telephone message services. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the child audience.     

Television news is government news in Taiwan patterns of television news sources selection and presentation

Based on a content analysis of evening newscasts by the three television stations in Taiwan, this study examines the patterns of news sources selection and presentation in television news. The results of this study show that television news relies heavily on government officials who are primarily middle‐aged men in executive positions located in the capital city of Taipei. These findings suggest that the central government officials in Taipei appear to be the primary definers of social reality. TV news portrays only a very limited view of the society. In conclusion, this study suggests that with the management and content tightly controlled by the state, Taiwan's television news consists primarily of official rituals.     

News elements and selection by television news editors

This paper was made possible by the cooperation of Universal City Studios and producers Richard Levinson and William Link, along with Michael Rhodes, and—most importantly— the director, Walter Doniger. This team gave the writer complete access to all meetings prior to production, all production work, and all post‐production operations. The program, (Ellery Queen—"The Case of the Black Falcon"), was filmed in October, 1975 and shown by NBC on January 4, 1976. J. W. Ravage is a member of the Department of Communications at the University of Wyoming.     

International and foreign affairs on network television news

With television broadcasting the “window on the world” of most Americans, the amount of foreign and international news carried by the three national commercial networks becomes an important subject for inquiry. Adnan Almaney earned his Ph.D. in mass communications from Indiana University, and currently is an assistant professor of communications in DePaul University in Chicago.     

The audience for television news interview programs

An experiment investigated if graphic censorship disclaimers affect memory or thought elaboration for television news stories of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Viewer assessment of the credibility of censored news also was considered. Subjects listed their thoughts about each story, and their memory was tested as recognition latency. Subjects who rated the credibility of censored news as moderate scored highest on the memory task, but listed the fewest number of negative mentions about the government named as censor in the stories. Under some conditions, results show that the more viewers thought about the source of the censorship, the lesser they remembered images from the stories.     

A survey of salaries and hiring preferences in television news

Perhaps the fastest growing area of local broadcasting is news. Few other areas require as much background and education—the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” to the contrary. To attract the best possible people into this field, it is necessary to show them that (a) they have a good chance of being accepted, and (b) they will find the field rewarding. The survey reported in the following article attempts to provide the necessary raw data for this “showing.” Frank Gerval was a senior in broadcast journalism, and Dr. Irving Fang is author of Television News and associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication of the University of Minnesota.     

The television news interview: A field study

The participant observation technique and interviews provide the methodology for observing the television news interview process. The author provides a critical analysis.     

The informative speech as a television news package

Objective: To expand an informative speech into a television news package Type of speech: Informative Point value: 5% of course grade (Note: The original informative speech is worth 10% of the course grade) Requirements: (a) References: 3; (b) Length: 30 seconds; (c) Visual aid: 3; (d) Outline: Yes; (e) Prerequisite reading: Chapter 14 (Whitman & Foster, 1987), Chapter 15 (McKerrow, Gronbeck, Ehninger, & Monroe, 2000), Chapter 14 (Andrews, Andrews, & Williams, 2002), Chapter 13 (Zettl, 1985), Chapter 11 (Gibson, 1991), Chapter 9 (Berner, 1991); (f) Additional requirements: Need use of television camera and editing station This assignment demonstrates the interrelationship between speech communication and mass media. Having students take the components of an informative speech and placing the components into a “news package” teaches students how to effectively organize a television news package. Moreover, this assignment teaches students basic television production and news techniques (e.g., source attribution, editing techniques) and illustrates the value of effective visual aids to communicate the information.     

The impact of television news film on perceived media credibility

This article outlines a conceptual framework and measurement model of the social cognitive processes underlying marital communication. Based on husbands’ and wives’ tendencies to perceive their spouses as unique individuals rather than undifferentiated role occupants, the measurement model specified a two dimensional configuration consisting of marriage‐specific and general social cognitive processes. Two studies were conducted to develop and validate a measure of conjugal understanding. Results confirmed the proposed measurement model. The implications, uses, and shortcomings of the instrument are discussed.     

Violence in television news: A case study of audience response

On February 2, 1968, about 20,000,000 Americans watched South Vietnam's Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan shoot a suspected Viet Cong in the head on a Saigon street. Color film of that execution was shown on NBC's Huntley‐Brinkley Report. There was also a black and white still photograph by Eddie Adams of Associated Press. The impact of that single news story on public opinion about the war will be argued for some time. In an attempt to analyze the audience reaction to the NBC film report, a content analysis of audience mail to NBC was performed. Further, questionnaires were sent to the letter‐writers for additional information and to further explore their reasons for writing.