SWITCHING CHANNELS - THE EFFECTS OF TELEVISION CHANNELS ON THE MENTALREPRESENTATIONS OF TELEVISION-NEWS

This study tests how people differentiate between television channels, conceptualized as having two important properties: channels differ in degree of specialized content and are positioned within arrays varyin g in size. Participants watched news stories identified as emanating f rom either specialist news channels or from generalist channels. News on specialist channels was rated higher on news attributes and evaluat ed more positively than identical news on generalist channels. News wa tched on one channel was rated as more similar than identical news wat ched on lour channels. Participants who watched news on four channels rated the television picture quality higher than those who watched on one channel. This pattern of results is consistent with the notion oi channel as a place where television programs-and the people and action in them-exist.