What Was That?

Americans may, as they tell the polltakers, consider television their prime source of news. According to yet another survey, however, TV newscasts usually go in one rabbit ear and out the other. Telephoning TV viewers after a newscast, Andrew Stern, a former ABC News staffer now on the journalism faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, found that 51% of those who had listened could not recall even one of the show's 19 items. Among all those called, the average memory rate was one item. (The calls were made over a period ranging from immediately after the show's sign-off to 3 1/2 hours later.) Not surprisingly, the lead story was the most remembered. Far and away the most quickly forgotten material was the Eric Sevareid or Harry Reasoner show-ending commentaries. Stern blames the poor retention rate on "disrupting factors," especially dinner. His recommendation: the networks should shift their major newscasts of the day to 10:30 p.m.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.