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There have been contradictory findings concerning the direct effects of ideal body image advertising on women's body concerns. Despite numerous studies, the mechanism of how women are affected negatively by such imagery is still unclear. The current study explored why women are influenced negatively by ideal body image in the third-person effect framework. In particular, the authors proposed gendered 'others' and hypothesized that when those others were men, exposure to the ideal body would create larger third-person perceptions; there would be a negative relationship between third-person gaps and body area satisfaction. Findings confirmed the importance of gendered others, such that women estimated close male friends would be more affected by ideal body image than close female friends. Keywords: third-person perception; body image; advertisement

This article is based on a study of voters' self-reported and actual votes and how the media coverage of political campaigns can positively or negatively affect public mood and political cynicism. The report shows that negative mood influences actual votes, and how negative campaigns generate negative feelings.

Music in the twentieth century means, among other things, big business of mass communication that crosses global boundaries. Several theories address the possible effects of such global corporate influences on local culture. This essay reviews such theories and evaluates them in relation to popular music as a cultural product. Specifically, we review the history and structure of the popular music industry, examine applications of the cultural imperialism theory to popular music and the subsequent debate, and survey newer theories that developed as a result of the debate. These theories are then assembled and organized along a continuum to establish the progressive relationships between the numerous forms musical flow can assume. The resulting model is meant to be a heuristic so researchers can keep in mind that not all cultural exchanges are sinister. Factors that may help to mitigate the predictions posed by cultural imperialism theory in the global flow of music are also examined.

The physical box of the television itself influences viewer evalation of programming content. Researchers assigned subjects to either viewing entertainment and news programs on a single set or on two sets, one dedicated to news shows and the other to entertainment shows. Programming on dedicated television sets generally received more positive evaluations from viewers than the same programs viewed on a single set.

Effects of various mass media on political learning during the 1992 presidential campaign are examined via analyses of two voter surveys conducted in different states. Three indicators of political knowledge are compared: differences on issues between parties (Republican vs. Democratic), differences on issues among candidates (Bush vs. Clinton vs. Perot), and personal knowledge about the candidates (Bush, Clinton, and Perot). Campaign media, including both news coverage and special events (conventions, debates), added significantly to the prediction of both kinds of knowledge about the candidates, even after controlling for major demographic variables and for habitual uses of news media. Of the new forms of media campaigning that became prominent in 1992, at least the interview/talk show format apparently added to voter learning about candidates. Television sources of various types tended to contribute more to learning about the candidates, whereas the newspaper was the medium more associated with knowledge of policy differences between the two major parties.

Television political advertising has been criticized for focusing too much on candidates' image rather than on their issue positions. Yet, image advertising has been largely ignored by the press as a source for news stories. This study examined the effects of a proposed type of television adwatch story--one that critiqued political advertisements that focused on a candidate's image. Image adwatches produced less positive candidate evaluations than the control group, which saw no adwatches. This pattern did not hold for issue adwatches. Participants did not apply information from either the issue or image adwatch to ads that were different from those critiqued in the adwatches. Recall of the ad was lower for issue adwatches, but only when they critiqued a different ad. Participants did not penalize journalists for their image adwatch stories. Findings are discussed in an information processing perspective.

This study finds stories using computer-assisted reporting are as credible as stories based on anecdotal evidence or authoritative sources. It is no longer enough to report the fact truthfully. It [...]