Melvin L. DeFleur

Audience Recall of News Stories Presented by Newspaper, Computer, Television and Radio:

This study reports results of a large-scale experiment in which subjects were exposed to news stories presented by one of four media. The goal was to provide both baseline data and a reasonably definitive answer as to the relative level of recall resulting from presentations by newspapers, computer screen, television and radio while controlling for other factors. Facts from news stories presented by newspaper or computer screen were recalled at a significantly higher level than were facts from the same stories when presented via radio or television. Somewhat surprisingly, results from computer screens were closer to newspapers than to television.

A Cross-Cultural Experiment on How Well Audiences Remember News Stories from Newspaper, Computer, Television, and Radio Sources

This paper reports on the methods, findings, and implications of a large-scale cross-cultural experiment on audience recall of brief news stories. Subjects from Spain and from the United States were exposed, one-at-a-time and under highly controlled conditions, to one of three local spot news stories presented via either newspaper, computer screen, television, or radio. Each of the 720 subjects was a student in a beginning course in media studies, in either a Spanish or an American university. The stories were the same for each group, with each carefully prepared in the two languages so as to be “matched.” Careful attention was given to making the stories as close as possible in length, topic, organization, and coverage of specific details so as to permit direct comparisons between similar subjects in the two cultural settings. Distinct patterns of results with statistically significant differences between the two cultural groups were found.

A Linchpin Concept: Media Studies and the Rest of the Curriculum: Introducing Unique Literature for General Education of All

Connecting the content of journalism and mass communication courses to the rest of the academic enterprise is a continuing dilemma for teachers and students. No where is this challenge more evident than in the introductory course in mass communication or media studies, and no where is it more needed. Typically such courses called “Introduction to Mass Communication” or some similar name, attract both freshmen and sophomores, some of whom are already determined to major in the field, while for others it is a service course, either fulfilling a social science or other requirement. Professors in such a course must cover a wide territory, typically including a general introduction to communication theory as well as inventories of the several media industries and their consequences for society. Most standard texts also make reference to the history of journalism and mass communication, media economics, sociology, law and regulation, and other aspects. In scores of conversations with teachers of the introductory course as well as hundreds of responses from students to our introductory text, Understanding Mass Communication (4th Ed., Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1991), it is clear to us that connecting this wide ranging and complex material to a student’s general education is virtually an impossibility for most teachers. After all, how can a teacher survey the field and give the student specific examples of how the history of media fits into general American history, let alone economic, intellectual, or cultural history, or the arts and sciences generally. A lecture on media economics covering issues of ownership and advertising, for example, might be calibrated to a student’s course work in economics, but there is little time for this and most teachers we consulted readily admitted that they can hardly keep up with their own field, let alone the current state of diverse disciplines that make up the social sciences, humanities, sciences, and various professional fields. Yet, this is just what a student needs: a clear link between knowledge in mass