To increbe public. awareness, an urban television outlet presented mental health programming on its evening news. Eight videotaped segments of 2 to 4 min. in length were aired during a 5-wk. period. The topics included: psychological effects of lupus; parental child abuse; community residences for deinstitutionalixd persons; drug abuse by adolescents; the current professional treatment of juvenile delinquents; cosmetics and the sense of self; the potential psychological side-effects of food additives; and verbal rage on television programming for children. Thirty subjects, serving as their own controls, volunteered to watch nightly and to complete an assessment questionnaire(s) received at the end of each week. The measure(~) stated the mental health topic(s) aired that week and included pre- and postassessments of content acquisition (Beecher, 1959), a post-attitudinal continuum of agree/disagree, a checklist of elicited emotional response, and the total news viewing hours for that week. A post-experimental inquiry of the project's meaningfulness, primary prevention, and television research was conducted. Statistically significant t tests indicated that the longer lupus (r = 3.81, p < .001) and drug abuse (t = 2.68, p < .01) segments resulted in increased knowledge, a consistent finding (Holding, 1974). Atticudinally, subjects agreed w~rh the editors' programming. The lupus, child, and drug-abuse segments elicited anger, the others, curiosity to know more. Total viewers and viewing hours declined by one-third during the 5-wk. experimental period, although no consistent patterns or trends were found. Since 80% of the subjects reported a meaningful experience, and 97% found the questionnaire adequate, it appears that Ball's methodological suggestions (1976) may result in improved viewing assessment. Finally, with respect to primary prevention, previous research, present experimental and self-report data suggest that length of programming is an important methodological variable. This station and another local station presented hour-long programs on child abuse and depression, respectively. Over 400 people called seeking help. Length of programming appears central to efficacy.
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