When TV and Marriage Meet: A Social Exchange Analysis of the Impact of Television Viewing on Marital Satisfaction and Commitment

Although several studies have examined the association between television viewing and romantic relationships, differences in theoretical grounding, methodology, and findings have produced a picture that is decidedly unclear. Furthermore, past research has been directed primarily toward general relational attitudes and hypothetical relational behaviors without considering potential effects of viewing on existing, long-term relationships. This study sought to address these issues by drawing on the theoretical traditions of cultivation analysis, uses and gratifications, and social exchange theory to explore the associations among relationship variables and measures of both television viewing and belief in television portrayals by analyzing data collected from 392 married individuals. Results revealed that both heavier viewing of romantically themed programming and greater belief in television's portrayals of romantic relationships were associated with lower marital commitment, higher expected and perceived costs of marriage, and more favorable perceptions of alternatives to one's current relationship.     

Bookstores of Chicago

Les Brown, Television: The Business Behind the Box (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Javanovich, 1971—$8.95)

Arnold Passman's The Deejays (New York: Macmillan, 1971— $7.95)

Allan Jefferys and Bill Owen's DJ (New York: Ashley Books, 1971—$7.95)

Harvey F. Swearer Commercial FCC License Handbook (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1971—$8.95/5.95)

Dick Perry's Not Just a Sound: The Story of WLW (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971—$6.95)     

Books of the Month

FROM TELECOMMUNICATIONS TO ELECTRONIC SERVICES: A GLOBAL SPECTRUM OF DEFINITIONS, BOUNDARY LINES AND STRUCTURES by Robert R. Bruce, et al (London and Stoneham, MA: Butterworths, 1986—$40 approximately)

COMMUNICATIONS DEREGULATION: THE UNLEASHING OF AMERICA'S COMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY by Jeremy Tunstall (Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1986—$24.95)     

Help is at hand: Reviewing and developing Welsh Academic Library Collaboration

This article describes the work undertaken for the Higher Education Libraries in Partnership (HELP) project by Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum (WHELF). The project received funding from Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and was concerned with reviewing and developing Welsh academic library collaboration. The study describes the various elements of the project: Collaboration Review, E-Learning Feasibility Study, Journals Case Study, and the development of an Action Plan for future collaborative activity.     

Reviews

Comics: Ideology, Power and the Critics. By Martin Barker. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1989. 320 pp. £40 hb, £10.95 pb

David Astor and the Observer. By Richard Cockett. London: Andre Deutsch. 1991. 315 pp. £17.99.

Medical Journals and Medical Knowledge. Historical Essays. By W. F. Bynum, S. Lock and R. Porter. London: Routledge. 1992. 272 pp.

The Magazine in America, 1741–1990. By John Tebbel and Mary Ellen Zuckerman. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 1991. 433 pp. $49.00 (Cdn)

Killing the Messenger: 100 Years of Media Criticism. Edited by Tom Goldstein. New York and Oxford: Columbia University Press. 1991. 272 pp. $17.50 (paperback)

Preserving the Press: How Daily Newspapers Mobilized to Keep Their Readers. By Leo Bogart. New York and Oxford: Columbia University Press. 1991. 327 pp. $46.00 (cloth)

Dictionnaire des journaux 1600–1789, Edited by Jean Sgard. Paris: Universitas, and Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. 2 vols., 1209 pp. 1991.

Politics and Reviewers: The Edinburgh and the Quarterly in the Early Victorian Age. By Joanne Shattock. Leicester: Leicester University Press. 1989. 220 pp.

Crowds and History: Mass Phenomena in English Towns 1790–1835. By M. Harrison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1988. 373 pp. £25.

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. By J. R. Zaller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1992. 367 pp.

Le nuove di Francia, L'Immagine delta rivoluzione francese nella stampa periodica italiana (1789–1795). By Marco Cuaz. Turin: Albert Meynier. 1990. Lira 20,000.     

Cross‐media response to digital manipulation of still and moving images

This investigation provides survey data for a cross‐media comparison between newspaper photo editors and television news directors to assess the ethical response to digital image processing and enhancement technology. The results indicate that television news directors tend toward less strict ethical standards in application of the technology. However, the television people showed more sensitivity to aspects of the technology that relate to long‐standing themes of TV critics.     

Do Different Levels of Inquiry Lead to Different Learning Outcomes? A comparison between guided and structured inquiry

Although the effects of open inquiry vs. more didactic approaches have been studied extensively, the effects of different types of inquiry have not received as much attention. We examined the effects of guided vs. structured inquiry on secondary students' learning of science. Students from three schools in north-eastern Thailand participated (N?=?239, Grades 7 and 10). Two classes in each school were randomly assigned to either the guided or the structured-inquiry condition. Students had a total of 14–15 hours of instructions in each condition. The dependent measures were science content knowledge, science process skills, scientific attitudes, and self-perceived stress. In comparison to the structured-inquiry condition, students in the guided-inquiry condition showed greater improvement in both science content knowledge and science process skills. For scientific attitudes and stress, students in one school benefited from guided inquiry much more than they did from structured inquiry. Findings were explained in terms of differences in the degree to which students engaged effortfully with the teaching material.     

Introduction to the Forum on the Violence of Rhetoric

Fundamentals of Debate. By Harry Franklin Covington. New York. Chas. Scribner's Son's, 1919. Pp. 291, Cloth.

Psycho‐Gymnastics and Society Drama. By Delbert M. Staley, A.M. Ph.D. and Helen C. Culver. Boston. Richard G. Badger, 1918. Cloth, pp. 94.

Winning Declamations. By Edwin DuBois Shurter. Lloyd Adams Noble. New York City, 1917. Cloth, pp. 303.     

Before The Rhetorical Presidency

The American Language: Supplement One. By H. L. Mencken. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945; pp. xv + 739 + xxxv. $5.00.

Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America. Edited by Charles R. Morris. New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1945; pp. 194. $1.00.

Educating Liberally. By Hoyt H. Hudson. Stanford University, California: The Stanford University Press, 1945; pp. viii + 120. $2.00.

Television: Programming and Production, By Richard Hubbell. New York: Murray Hill Books, Inc., 1945; pp. 207. $3.00.

Representative American Speeches: 1944–1945. Selected by A. Craig Baird. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1945; pp. 328. $1.25.

Planning and Equipping the Educational Theatre. By A. S. Gillette. Cincinnati: The National Thespian Society, 1945; pp. 30. $0.60.

Improving Your Vocabulary and Spelling. By Roland Ketchum and Jay B. Greene. New York: Noble and Noble, 1944; pp. viii + 118. $1.00.

A Stage Version of Shelley's Cenci. By Arthur C. Hicks and R. Milton Clarke. Caldwell, Idaho: Claxton Printers, 1945; pp. 156. $3.50.

Principles of Speech, Brief Edition. By Alan H. Monroe. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1945; pp. viii + 303. $1.50.

College Handbook of Composition. By Edwin C. Woolley and Franklin W. Scott, with the collaboration of Evelyn Tripp Berdahl. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1944; 4th edition, pp. 452. $1.50.

A Drill Manual for Improving Speech. By William Norwood Brigance and Florence M. Henderson. Chicago: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1945; pp. xxiii + 246. $8.25.     

AARP Online Portrayal of Social Security: Engaging Aging Baby Boomers Through Interaction

Although baby boomers were not the sole focus of the American Association of Retired Persons' (AARP) website content on the issue of Social Security reform, their interests were addressed in a variety of ways. AARP provided information, position statements, a live chat forum, and message boards. Additionally, AARP had a partnership with the Rock the Vote website. It was unexpected that AARP would be so interested in younger people and in convincing them about their generation's need to support Social Security as it currently exists. It may be that as the baby boom generation enters retirement, AARP will become increasingly concerned with addressing the specific needs of this group. For now, AARP seemed comfortable with a single message designed to fit all age groups: AARP favored maintaining the existing Social Security system and promoting individual investing and savings.