Television news is routinely blamed for a decline in political knowledge and for a deepening cynicism among the American electorate. Yet studies attempting to measure the effects of TV news have produced decidedly mixed results. This study, using survey data from a 1994 U.S. Senate campaign in Missouri, finds that using TV news for political and government information is positively associated with knowledge about candidates and not associated with cynicism toward politicians. These results run counter to the popular notion that TV news induces “videomalaise” among viewers.

We report on the adaptation of the small enrollment, lab and discussion based physical science course, Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (PSET), for a large-enrollment, lecture-style setting. Like PSET, the new Learning Physical Science (LEPS) curriculum was designed around specific principles based on research on learning to meet the needs of nonscience students, especially prospective and practicing elementary and middle school teachers. We describe the structure of the two curricula and the adaptation process, including a detailed comparison of similar activities from the two curricula and a case study of a LEPS classroom implementation. In LEPS, short instructor-guided lessons replace lengthier small group activities, and movies, rather than hands-on investigations, provide the evidence used to support and test ideas. LEPS promotes student peer interaction as an important part of sense making via ''clicker'' questions, rather than small group and whole class discussions typical of PSET. Examples of student dialog indicate that this format is capable of generating substantive student discussion and successfully enacting the design principles. Field-test data show similar student content learning gains with the two curricula. Nevertheless, because of classroom constraints, some important practices of science that were an integral part of PSET were not included in LEPS.

We report on the initial field tests of Learning Physical Science (LEPS), a new curriculum adapted from Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (PSET). PSET is an inquiry-based, hands-on, physical science curriculum that includes an explicit focus on nature of science and nature of learning. PSET was developed for small enrollment discussion/lab settings. The Learning Physical Science (LEPS) curriculum maintains the same research-based learning principles as PSET but is suitable for classes taught in lecture format. LEPS has been field tested by eight instructors at different universities. In this paper, we describe the adaptation process, the resulting LEPS curriculum, and present student learning outcomes for LEPS and PSET.

United States deregulation of radio and television in the 1980s is ossociated with the decision by some stations to end (or not storf) presenting local news. This mail and telephone survey found that station programmers who dropped local news said they could not afford it but would present it i f news generated sufficient revenue. There is evidence that news was dropped nfter, and perhnps as u result OJ deregulation, especially with television stations. The study suggests deregulation has not resulted in the news diversity for which some hoped.Through the 1970s ownership of a television or radio station was typically a license to print money. T h e broadcasting industry w a s oligopolistic. i.e.. a few suppliers providing a similar pr0duct.l The 1980s a l t e r e d t h a t s t r u c t u r e , leaving b r o a d c a s t i n g i n a s t a t e of monopolistic competition. While the range of products (radio and television programs) remained similar, the number of suppliers grew significantly.2For example, cable television began developing into a competitive programming source. O n e early study found that cable had a slight positive effect on broadcast news ~i e w e r s h i p ,~ but most found that cable access reduced the audience for local news.4 Subsequent to those studies i n t h e e a r l y 1 9 8 0 s , t h e r e h a s b e e n a d r a m a t i c i n c r e a s e i n c a b l e penetration (to 59% in the early ~S S O S ) .~ The federal government also opened the way for a n explosion of internal competition through its deregulatory activities. In 1981, t h e Federal Communications Commission deregulated radio. Stations n o lringer h a d t o p r o v i d e m i n i m u m l e v e l s of n o n -e n t e r t a i n m e n t programming, limit commercial time per hour or provide detailed proof that they had ascertained community needs and provided significant programming t r i satisfy those needs.6 In 1984, the FCC deregulated television.7 Also in that year, the commission began the process of relaxing its Miclioel L. McKean is nn nssociate professor and Vernon A . Stone is a professor in Ute School of Journnljsm nt the University of Missouri. The research was supported by a grant to the second author from the Radio-Television News Directors Associntion. Preliminnry findings were reported in the RTNDA Communicator. Journalism Quarterly Vol. 69, No. 3 713-723 Fall 1992 a1992 AEIMC L~RTUILATIUN A M WhlPETlTllh

Constructing and evaluating explanations are important science practices, but in large classes it can be difficult to effectively engage students in these practices and provide feedback. Peer review and grading are scalable instructional approaches that address these concerns, but which raise questions about the validity of the peer grading process. Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) is a web-based system that scaffolds peer evaluation through a "calibration" process where students evaluate sample responses and receive feedback on their evaluations before evaluating their peers. Guided by an activity theory framework, we developed, implemented, and evaluated CPR-based tasks in guided-inquiry, conceptual physics courses for future teachers and general education students. The tasks were developed through iterative testing and revision. Effective tasks had specific and directed prompts and evaluation instructions. Using these tasks, over 350 students at three universities constructed explanations or analyzed physical phenomena, and evaluated their peers' work. By independently assessing students' responses, we evaluated the CPR calibration process and compared students' peer reviews with expert evaluations. On the tasks analyzed, peer scores were equivalent to our independent evaluations. On a written explanation item included on the final exam, students in the courses using CPR outperformed students in similar courses using traditional writing assignments without a peer evaluation element. Our research demonstrates that CPR can be an effective way to explicitly include the science practices of constructing and evaluating explanations into large classes without placing a significant burden on the instructor.