Bradley S. Greenberg

Video game uses and gratifications as predictors of use and game preference

When communication researchers consider computer games (and video games) as a new form of media entertainment, they typically highlight those games’ interactivity because it is the main feature that distinguishes them from most other kinds of entertainment (Grodal, 2000; Vorderer, 2000). Not only do game players actively process information provided by the medium (as do viewers, readers, and users of other noninteractive media), but they also contribute substantially to the quality and progress of the media product itself. Their decisions and actions determine how a game looks, how it develops, and how it ends. Consequently, most theoretical work on the enjoyment of playing computer games has focused on the issue of interactivity and player action during game play (Klimmt, 2003, 2005). In order to handle modern entertainment software successfully, users must stay alert for most of the playing time and be able to respond quickly and appropriately to incoming new information. Some, if not many, of these responses may be automatized (Bargh, 1997) for efficient execution and conservation of cognitive processing resources. But, in general, the use of computer games should be modeled as a complex and multifaceted kind of action. Therefore, research on the psychology of action (e.g., Gollwitzer & Bargh, 1996; Heckhausen, 1977) offers theories and empirical findings that may help explain why people play and what they do during playing. Adopting the perspective of the psychology of action means searching for motifs (and motivations) of playing.

Portrayals of Overweight and Obese Individuals on Commercial Television

OBJECTIVES This study examined the distribution and individual characteristics of body types on prime-time television. METHODS Five episodes of each of the 10 top-rated prime-time fictional programs on 6 broadcast networks during the 1999-2000 season were quantitatively analyzed. RESULTS Of 1018 major television characters, 14% of females and 24% of males were overweight or obese, less than half their percentages in the general population. Overweight and obese females were less likely to be considered attractive, to interact with romantic partners, or to display physical affection. Overweight and obese males were less likely to interact with romantic partners and friends or to talk about dating and were more likely to be shown eating. CONCLUSIONS Overweight and obese television characters are associated with specific negative characteristics.

The Portrayal of Racial Minorities on Prime Time Television

A one week sample of prime time television (8-11 p.m.) for ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC was constructed to represent broadcast entertainment programming for 1996. In a systematic content analysis/ the frequencies and attributes of ethnic minority and majority characters were documented, with particular attention to Latinos and their interactions with other TV characters. This studys findings update the current status of minority portrayals and identify prevalent attributes of minority portrayals that may impact viewer perceptions.

Orientations to Video Games Among Gender and Age Groups

Questionnaires were completed by 5th-, 8th-, and 11th-grade public schools students in rural and suburban school districts and by undergraduates at two universities in the United States (n = 1,242). They were asked about their orientation to video games—the amount of time they played, their motives for doing so, and the game types they preferred—to better understand the context in which effects research might be organized. The conceptual schema for this research was the uses-and-gratifications perspective. The males in the sample played video games at twice the weekly average of the females, were consistently stronger in all measured motives than the females, and preferred physically oriented video games over the females’ preference for more traditional, thoughtful games. Younger players opted for the fantasy motive in their playing and older players more so for competition. Preference for physical games declined among the older males, and generally motives were stronger in the middle years of playing for both males and females than in the youngest and oldest age groups. Regression analyses explained considerably more variance in game playing for males than for females.

The Nature of Television Realism Judgments: A Reevaluation of Their Conceptualization and Measurement

In this article, we review previous conceptualizations of perceived reality judgments of television content. We argue that the perceived reality literature suffers from conceptual inconsistencies that have the potential to interfere with understanding the research taken as a whole and with the success of future studies. We analyze 3 major variants in perceived realism judgments. The first consists of conceptual dimensions (e.g., magic window and social realism). We argue that labels and definitions have been assigned inconsistently in previous research. Redundancies and inconsistencies are addressed. Six primary dimensions are identified and described. The second is measurement features. We point out that perceived realism judgments may vary in specificity (e.g., the realism of television in general or the realism of a specific program) and object of judgment (e.g., the realism of characters or the realism of issues). The third variant is processing characteristics. Realism judgments may be made while reflecting back, with memory-based judgments, or while viewing, with online judgments. The implications of considering each variant when conducting research are discussed. An overall conceptual structure for perceived reality judgments is proposed. Finally, the application of this organizational scheme to 3 areas of future research is presented.

DIFFUSION OF NEWS OF THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION

The rapidity with which news of the assassination of President Kennedy reached virtually every adult in the United States is an impressive demonstration of the influence of the modern news media. Here is a study of the diffusion of the news in a northern California city. Bradley S. Greenberg is Research Associate and Assistant Professor in the Institute for Communication Research at Stanford University.

Newspapers or Television: Which Do You Believe?:

Noting conflicting results in reports of media use and believability, this California study finds evidence of bias in one Roper question and explores reasons given by respondents for their preferences.

Children's Reactions to TV Blacks:

A white child living in an urban area today has many opportunities for direct contact with black children or black adults. They may live in his neighborhood, sit in his school classes, or be played with at school or the park. Certainly they are quite visible in downtown areas, on buses, at stores, etc. The white child living in a suburb has fewer direct experiences with blacks. Few blacks live nearby, even fewer attend his school. For them, direct contacts may be confined to trips to urban shopping centers, where strangers are seen but minimal interaction occurs. The rural and small town youngster has virtually no direct experiences with black people, and such youngsters number in the tens of millions. His imagery, information and beliefs about blacks traditionally have been struutured primarily by what he has been told by parents and peers. He has learned and modeled their behaviors. Prior to 1966, a large percentage of white children hiad minimal contact with blacks, either directly or indirectly, save for what someone else said, or through some few mass media presentations. In contrast, for the last three b four years, an additional source of information about blacks hlas become widely available-the black on commercial television programs. Whereas in 1966-67, netmrk television was racially monochromatic, since then it has introduced many black actors and performers in leading and supporting roles. The black actor and actress are now a larger mainstay of commercial TV, and TV commercials. This project examined some of the impact of the increasing use of television blacks on white child viewers-and some of its influences among black children. For the first time, lfarge numbers of white children, given their early and persistent exposure to television, may be obtaining their earliest impressions about blacks from TV entertainment

The changing faces on TV: A demographic analysis of network television's new seasons, 1966–1992

Prior investigations of televisions demography often relied upon programs sampled across varying periods of time to describe character populations. Results are sometimes conflicting and it is difficult to generalize these independent findings to longitudinal trends. This study examines a census of 1,757 major characters added to broadcast network lineups through new season programming from 1966 to 1992. New characters are examined in terms of gender, age, race/ethnicity, and occupational patterns occurring across 27 years of network program activity.

Person-to-Person Communication in the Diffusion of News Events

,A major news story typically reach= most of the public first through the mas media. Then it travels by interpemonal channels. Deutschmann and Danielson dGGZd that 9 of 10 adults first learned of three dramatic news events through the newspaper, radio or televjsioa1 Danielson earlier had found a similar pattern for the flow of information about Eisenhowefs decision to run for a SBCond term.* Person-teperson communication about these events, extensive as it was, supplemented first-hand knowledge of the happenings through mass media. Deutschmann and Danielson suggested that the initial transmission of information by word of mouth “may be smaller when the story is of lesser importance or ‘news value’.”8 That is, as stories decrease in importance, the personal channel plays a successively smaller role as a first source of information. However, the “least important” event they studied had been dif€used to 89%