No abstract

Although uiewers who were asked to pay particular attention to the following evening's network news were able to recall significantly more news items and in more detail than viewers who were not, neither group as a whole recalled more than 25 percent of the stories.

This paper reports on an investigation of the abilities of literates and adult nonreaders to recall and use information from a national network television news program. On a test of unaided recall of news stories the literates recalled 55% more stories than the nonreaders. On a multiplechoice test of information gain from the news program, the literates performed 63% better than the nonreaders. The samples were found to be virtually identical in their use of and opinions about television news. A control group of college students was given the information test without first seeing the news program and did no better than chance.The most important factor affecting recall was the length of time the story was on the air. Human interest stories were recalled much better by both groups than any other type of story. The level of performance among the adult nonreaders correlated highly with their reading levels.

No abstract

College students recalled more radio neu's stories than did illiterates, tenth graders or adults uith less than college; comprehension also Mias lower in the latter group in this study done in Kenya.