Suchergebnisse

Major changes in information technology utilized by society are reflected in significant changes in culture. The speculations of E. L. Eisenstein on why one particular revival in the Middle Ages produced the Renaissance while the preceding ones did not, & his proposed solution, suggesting that this is due to the reduction of unit cost in storing & transmitting information as a result of the invention of the printing press, are discussed. Harold Innis' works analyzing economic & social histories of cultural change influenced by information technology are also cited. Studies of the major institutional forces shaping new information technology are urged. Speculations are made on the improvements in information techniques likely to be utilized over the next few decades. J. Diebold's assertion, that we are beginning the third phase of the Industrial Revolution which will be increasingly concerned with the production & distribution of information, are discussed. S. Karganovic.

A critique of an article by W. Belson, reporting a comparison of reading behavior of matched viewers & nonviewers of TV (See SA A3479). Belson concluded that, contrary to circulation trends, TV had increased the reading of papers of the popular press & had decreased the reading of the more serious papers. This finding is contrary to other res evidence re the effects of TV on reading behavior, & is more readily interpretable as a self selection phenomenon than as effects. The fact that matching was done on correlates of the independent variable (TV viewership) without considering the relationship of the control variables to the dependent variable (reading behavior), can account for the anomalous findings. It is suggested that covariance procedures be used to handle such methodological problems. AA.

An ex post facto exp'al design was developed to test the effects of TV on library circulation. Matched pairs of Ill communities, differing in the date of obtaining TV reception, were selected. Changes in library circulation were compared in 2 time periods . In the early period, changes in the community increasing in TV saturation (as measured by % of TV homes in county) were examined, with the matched nonTV communities serving as controls. In the later time period, changes in the late TV community were examined, with the early TV communities serving as stable (no change in TV availability) controls. Analysis of variance showed a signif displacement effect of TV. Fiction circulation, but not nonfiction, was shown to have been displaced by TV. AA.

This department is devoted to shorter articles and notes on research in the communications field, either completed or in progress. Readers are invited to submit reports on investigative studies which might prove useful to other students because of content, method, or implications for further research.