ADOLESCENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL CONFLICTS IN TELEVISION NEWS AND SOCIAL REALITY

This study examined Israeli adolescents' differential perception of social conflicts in society and of their presentation by TV news, given the assumption that TV presents a distorted picture of real social conflicts along three dimensions: complexity, intensity, and solvability. It was hypothesized that age and degree of remoteness of social conflicts from one's life experiences will account for the main differences in an adolescent's differential perception of social conflicts. The sample consisted of 492 9th-grade and 425 12lh-grade Israeli adolescents. The data indicate that the older adolescents typically differentiate between the two realms of reality to a greater degree than do the younger adolescents. This is the case for three conflicts (school integration, labor disputes, and political terrorism) across the three dimensions. Moreover, the highest degree of differentiation between the two realms of reality was found for both age groups in the school integration conflict, with which the respondents were presumed to be most familiar, and the least differentiation for the conflict concerning political terrorism, with which they were presumed to have had the least experience.     

THE USES AND MISUSES OF USES AND GRATIFICATIONS1

Four conceptual problems require resolution if the uses and gratifications approach to mass communication studies is to be maximally productive: a vague conceptual framework; lack of precision in major concepts; a confused explanatory apparatus; and failure to view perception as an active process. Consideration of the current state of the uses and gratifications approach suggests the need for conceptual analysis if the approach is to unambiguously inform the research enterprise.     

ON THE MEANING AND VALIDITY OF TELEVISION VIEWING

The construct validity of “television viewing” is developed and explicated. It is suggested that while this concept is usually used as a strict behavioral variable, many different constructs are implied by it. The construct validity of television viewing can be derived from a conceptualization of what it is in television which, when viewed, or exposed to, interacts with human behavior and attributes. Four such conceptualizations are illustrated, each leading to a different construct of “viewing”: (1) television as a social-situational factor involving choice behavior between activities; (2) television as a transmission of a content repertoire, implying decision-making regarding messages; (3) television as a source of content-messages dealing with recall, comprehension, and attitude change; and (4) television as a “language” pertaining to the processes of encoding messages in the service of extracting knowledge.     

REPRESENTATION OF THE WORLD OF WORK IN DAYTIME TELEVISION SERIALS

Daytime television serials were analyzed for their representation of the world of work. It was found that 80 percent of all jobs portrayed were in the professional, technical, and managerial category with a very high representation of jobs in the health fields. When occupations represented by men and women characters were separately analyzed, similar patterns of gross overrepresentation of the professional occupations and underrepresentation of clerical, sales, and benchwork categories were noted. This distortion of the world of work as portrayed on television serials was compared with the distortion already noted in the occupational literature.     

MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Abstract. Scholars in religious studies, or "religionists," often mischaracterize the social-scientific study of religion. They assume that a social-scientific analysis of the origin, function, meaning, or truth of religion either opposes or disregards the believer's analysis, which religionists profess to present and defend. I do not argue that the social sciences analyze religion from the believer's point of view. I argue instead that a social scientific analysis is more akin and germane to the believer's point of view than religionists assume. I single out seven mischaracterizations of the social sciences typically held by religionists.     

THE SOCIAL STIGMA OF MENSTRUATION

In a study examining the effects of a social stigma on impression management concerns, 28 menstruating and 30 nonmenstruating women were interviewed by a male confederate who either was or was not aware of their menstrual condition. Relative to menstruating women who thought the interviewer was unaware of their menstrual condition, menstruating women who believed that the interviewer knew they were menstruating perceived that the interviewer liked them less, yet were less motivated to make an impression on him. Nonmenstruating women reported more self-presentational motivation and perceived that the interviewer viewed them more positively than he did the menstruating women. These results suggest that the interviewer's knowledge of their menstrual condition inhibited menstruating women's self-presentational motivation. Implications of this social stigma for interpersonal relationships are discussed.     

THE EFFECT OF TELEVISION AND RADIO ON CHILDREN'S CREATIVITY

The literature on creativity posits that creative abilities are stable and relatively impervious to short-term interventions. Several studies have, however, reported differential effects of media on children's imaginative play and thinking. The results of these studies are difficult to interpret owing to their reliance on nonstandardized measures of creativity. The present study examines the relative effects of television versus radio on children's creativity. Third and sixth graders were presented a story on television or radio and were then given an adapted version of the “Just Suppose” test of divergent thinking developed by Torrance (1974). Responses were scored in terms of ideational fluency, flexibility, and originality. The results indicated that the two media did not have a differential effect on children's creativity.     

THE DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE OF CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF TELEVISION CHARACTERS: A REPLICATION

This study was an attempt to replicate and extend the findings of previous research which explored the cognitive dimensions used by children to differentiate television characters. Results indicate that humor remains the primary attribute that children use to differentiate television characters, although this characteristic does not seem to be important in children's modeling decisions. Attractiveness and activity remain secondary attributes but also discriminate between male and female children in predicting identification with the characters. These findings are similar to those of the original study. Sex represents an additional important attribute for both sexes in differentiating the characters but is important only for female decisions about which characters are appropriate role models.     

A RULES APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF TELEVISION AND SOCIETY

A rule-based theoretical framework is presented as an alternative to scientific laws or purely interpretive approaches for examination of the activities undertaken by television audiences. Communication rules, which explains human actions in terms of its pragmatic and normative rather than causal features, is productively applied to the study of audience activity at two levels—the family and the larger society. Habitual, parametric, and tactical rule types are defined and described in relation to basic mass communication processes. Television-related interpersonal activities in the home are shown to be rule-governed while audience members and sources of media programming at the societal level are revealed to engage in rule-based interaction that perpetuates selected ideologies and their accompanying lifestyle models. Communication rules is proposed as a viable approach for resolving fundamental problems in mass communication theory building, including the “effects” vs. “uses” argument regarding direction of influence, and conceptual and methodological differences that have often polarized media critics and empiricists.     

PROGRAMMING STRATEGIES AND THE POPULARITY OF TELEVISION PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN

This study investigated the effects of various programming strategies, commonly employed by the networks, on program popularity for children. Viewing data for prime time and Saturday morning programs were collected in the fall, winter, and spring of the ‘75-'76 season. Simple correlations supported the relationship between program popularity and the following programming strategies: counterprogramming by type, block programming by type, inheritance effects, starting time, program familiarity, and character familiarity. Regression analysis, which controlled for relationships among programming strategies, confirmed the effects of program familiarity and starting time only. The results, suggest that children are not highly adventurous viewers. On the contrary, it appears that past experience with a program coupled with availability of the child audience are overriding determinants of program popularity.