Alison Alexander

Soap opera viewing motivations and the cultivation process

Previous research of possible cultivation effects of television viewing has ignored television viewing motivations as possible variables in the construction of a “television world view.” Results of the present survey of 265 college student soap opera viewers revealed that the interaction of soap opera exposure and viewing motivations better explains cultivation effects based on soap opera content. Viewers who frequently and ritualistically select soap operas as an undemanding activity may be most vulnerable to the genres messages.

Adolescents' Soap Opera Viewing and Relational Perceptions.

A sample of 230 middle‐school children completed questionnaires that examined the links between soap opera viewing and their perceptions of the nature of relationships. Mediating variables such as motives for viewing, experience with peer relations, and family structure were examined. Direct, mediated, and interactive effects of soap opera viewing on adolescent perceptions of relational fragility and the importance of talk in managing relationships were discussed.

Adolescents, VCRs, and the Family Environment

With the rapid diffusion of the VCR into the home media environment, a central question is whether the special features of the VCR lead to transformations in the family, or whether preexisting family relationships and media orientations determine the uses of the VCR and its role in the family. This study, using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from adolescents, suggests that VCRs mainly augment and extend family television patterns and that VCR use may be both a cause and a symptom of family conflicts.

Estimates of children's television viewing by mother and child

Comparisons among several measures of childrens television viewing revealed few age differences in ability to produce consistent self‐report viewing data but wide discrepancies between mother and child viewing estimates.

The Mass Media Environment of Children

Childhood as a stage in the human life cycle encompasses a period of phenomenal biological, physiological, psychological, and social growth. Between infancy and the beginning of adolescence, about age twelve, the human acquires major life skillsthe ability to walk, talk, read, care for oneself, and come to know the world around him/her. During this time, the child first encounters the major agents of socialization: the family, peers, schools, and media. This article will focus on the last of these socialization agents. In particular, it will attempt to describe the mass media environment of children up to age twelve. One cannot talk about media consumption by children without including in the discussion a notion of how children’s communicative activities vary ontogenetically. Major changes in children’s

Review and criticism

The Soap Opera, Muriel G. Cantor and Suzanne Pingree (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1983), 167 pp.,

Exploring the margins of television viewing

17.50/

What is Quality Children's Television?:

9.95. Life on Daytime Television: Tuning‐in American Serial Drama, Mary Cassata and Thomas Skill (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1983), 214pp.,

Textual Status, the Stigmatized Self, and Media Consumption

28.50/

Patterns of topic sequencing and information gain: A comparative study of relationship development in Chinese and American cultures

15.95. Milestones in Mass Communication Research, Shearon Lowery and Melvin L. DeFleur (New York: Longman, 1983), 398 pp.,