The rules of viewing television in public places

Naturalistic methods were employed in studying television viewing in a variety of public places. The behavioral regularities that emerged included adjustment to the setting, to other viewers and to the television set, as well as an openness for television‐related interaction.     

Impact of the VCR on control of television viewing

Familial control of television viewing in light of the introduction of the videocassette recorder (VCR) was examined by: asking sets of parents and children about their use of VCRs and television, determining differences in these perceptions, and relating family demographics to use and control. In‐home interviews with 110 families found agreement on who chooses the programs to be watched. Some differences were noted, however, between parents’ and children's perceptions of how the viewing situation is controlled.     

The quiz program: A network television staple

The quiz program has received considerable comment in recent weeks, so this article by Patrick E. Welch is particularly appropriate at this time. The article is based upon a chapter in Mr. Welch's PhD. dissertation, “The Development of Audience Participation Programs on Radio and Television Networks Through the Season of 1956–57.”;     

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.     

The economic impact of television on the market for books

In France, book information disseminated on television reaches large numbers of potential purchasers and increases sales of the books featured, despite a ban on advertising. There is a clear relationship between television appearances and bestsellerdom. The ability of television to influence sales affects the behavior of book purchasers (who focus on a small number of rapidly changing titles), publishers (who devote advertising and production budgets to mediagenic titles), and book-sellers (who devote more shelf space to titles promoted on television). This article analyzes the impact of television on the book market and on trends in production and editorial decision making. Translated by Beth Luey.     

The forced choice as a measure of television station image

That intangible attribute of a broadcast station commonly called its “image” isn't quite as hard to measure as that other intangible asset, “good will.” Nevertheless, measurement isn't simple, and the standards for measurement are not yet agreed upon. In the following article, a new technique of indexing a station's image without special training and supervision of the respondents is illustrated. Malachi C. Topping, author of “The Cultural Orientation of Certain ‘Western’ Characters on Television” in the Fall, 1965 issue of the Journal, earned his Ph.D. at Ohio State University and is Assistant Professor of Radio and Television at Oklahoma State University.     

The relationships of trait verbal aggressiveness and frequency of viewing and enjoyment of television sitcoms

Verbal aggressiveness is the tendency to attack the self‐concept of another person with the intent to inflict psychological pain (Infante & Wigley, 1986). This study focused on how low and high verbally aggressives differ in the television sitcoms they watch and how enjoyable they find those shows. Participants (N = 555) first completed the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale. Then they were asked how often they watch particular television sitcoms and if they watched a given sitcom, how entertaining they found that show to be. The sitcoms included in this study were those that were televised in April 1996. Of the 33 shows included in the analyses, low verbal aggressives differed from high verbal aggressives on 8 shows for frequency of watching and on 11 shows for entertainment value.     

The relationship of various audience composition factors to television program types

The mountains of data amassed by the various audience research services are rarely mined for the underlying factors of audience behavior. Published as part of the rating service reports is a vast amount of qualitative information that can be used to build a coherent picture of some of the many audiences to broadcast programs. (See “Qualitative Information Concerning Audiences of Network Television Programs” by Harrison B. Sommers, Journal op Broadcasting, Vol. V, No. 3, pp.147–160, Spring 1961.) The present study offers some predictable and some unpredictable findings from such published data on television program types and audience composition.     

Let's talk about what we're watching: Parental mediation of children's television viewing

A random telephone survey of Washington state parents of children between the ages 2 and 17 assesses patterns of interaction with children regarding television viewing. The children's gender did not affect the way parents coviewed or mediated with them about television. Parent's gender, however, did matter. In addition, it was found that the ageof children had a significant effect on how parents coviewed and mediated. A linear relationship showed that coviewing decreased as children aged. A different trend was seen regarding children's age and negative mediation.     

The television generation's relation to the mass media in Germany: Accounting for the impact of private television

This study extends earlier research on the television generation's media‐related behavior. Those who have grown up with TV are often said to be (therefore) more devoted to TV and less inclined to read than people born earlier. To provide evidence, data on TV and newspaper use and on attachment to both media in Germany, 1970–1995, were cohort‐analyzed, controlling for the age‐specific effect of the introduction of private TV in the mid‐eighties. While younger birth cohorts are less interested in the newspaper, the TV generation is not more devoted to TV than most of the preceding cohorts.     

Financial support for religious television: The impact of the PTL scandal

The impact of the PTL scandal on financial contributions to televangelists and viewers’ perceptions of televangelists’ credibility and financial accountability is examined in this study. It finds that highly religious ritualized viewers have become more selective and infrequent in donating but are providing larger gifts.     

Determinants of parental guidance of children's television viewing for a special subgroup: Mass media scholars

This study examines the level and nature of parental guidance regarding revision exercised by mass media scholars. It also focuses On relationship of that guidance to beliefs the scholars here about the effects of television, to characteristics of the scholarship, and to basic demographic information.     

The impact of on-line search availability on literature retrieval patterns of researchers

The ready availability of on-line information resources may have resulted in a change in biomedical researchers' patterns of use of resources which are not available on-line. To investigate the occurrence and extent of these changes, the distribution patterns by date of citations from every major article published in ten high-impact biomedical journals in 1959, 1969, and 1979 were analyzed. The analysis showed that in all three time periods approximately 89% of the references fell within fifteen years of the journal's publication date. In 1979, however, references were more evenly distributed over the fifteen years available on-line. In addition, a marked increase was noted in the number of cited references per article. To verify the citation analysis results, a random selection of senior authors of 1979 papers was surveyed. Major findings showed that: (1) approximately 29% of the respondents had used a computer bibliography to prepare the paper which was analyzed; (2) approximately 73% of those using a computer search used it in combination with a manual search; and (3) less than 22% of all respondents had never used a computer-generated bibliography.     

An integrated model of parental mediation: the effect of family communication on children's perception of television reality and negative viewing effects

This study proposed and tested an integrated model of parental mediation involving family communication, parental mediation styles, children's perceptions of televised realities and the actual world, and perceptions of the negative effects of television viewing. A total of 348 Korean adolescents participated in a nationwide survey. The findings demonstrated that parental, instructive mediation, in combination with open family communication, increased not only children's perceived disparity between televised realities and the actual world, but also children's perceptions of the potentially negative effects of television. Restrictive parental mediation styles were also found to mediate the role of open family communication on children's perception of negative effects of television. In contrast, co-viewing mediation was not found to directly affect either the children's perceived reality or their perception of negative effects of television viewing.     

A social identity approach to understanding the impact of television messages

Based on the postulates of social identity theory (SIT), this study examined the relationship between exposure to stereotypical media messages regarding race/ethnicity and subsequent social judgments. Specifically, the association between Whites' evaluations of self and other (Latino) as a result of varying media content pertaining to criminality stereotypes was investigated. The findings were partially consistent with the posited relationships. As predicted, negatively stereotypical racial depictions in mediated messages were found to be significantly associated with social judgments. Only limited support, however, was provided for the predictions that increasing levels of racial identification would be related to increased ingroup favoritism, or that esteem would be enhanced from this mediated process of intergroup comparison.     

The MEDLINE update on closed-circuit television.

An alternative format for presentation of the MEDLINE Update is presented. Utilization of a statewide closed-circuit television network is time-saving and cost-effective for the audience. Differences in and audience response to this alternative programming are described.     

The selectors of television programs

Difficulties in indexing the degree of motivation or attention to television by people in the same room with a “live” television set have long been recognized. One element of this problem has been the question of determining which member of the household actually makes the selection of specific program or channel, and whether there are differences between types of households or socio‐economic classes that are related to different patterns of channel or program selection.     

The words of children's television

The dialogue and nonverbal formal features of six children's television programs are described. The findings of this study have implications for models of young viewers' information processing when viewing, and possible effects of the medium on children's language development.