An experiment in increasing the educational television audience

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The “prestige factor” has been known to social scientists for many‐years. It shows up in the “over‐reporting” that occurs whenever people are asked, to tell an interviewer their income, or the amount of schooling they have had—or the amount of viewing of an educational television station they do. The management of ETV stations is well aware that their audience often isn't as large as reported, and that the same “prestige factor” prevents them from receiving sufficient data from their audience as to the reason why they do or do not view ETV. In the present study, an experimental approach was made. Three different kinds of appeal were used in a promotional campaign designed to cause people to watch an ETV station more often. The results, of each appeal were compared to a group of ETV viewers and non‐viewers who were not exposed to the promotional material. These data were derived from the Oregon Educational Television Project, which was financed in part by a grant from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. John Shepherd received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, and is presently Associate Professor of Speech and Director of the Division of Broadcast Services and Televised Instruction at the University of Oregon.