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considered by the Committee which ascertained that no situation had arisen in New Zealand which had made the matter an issue, and that no special provision had been made for means of reply by persons alleging that they had been attacked in Parliament. No action was taken by the Committee and the question has not been raised again.

Historic Records

In 1960, an amendment to the Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946 was passed by the Parliament which places on the Australian Broadcasting Commission an obligation to retain, when so directed, a record of notable occurrences in the proceedings of Parliament. Having regard to timing difficulties, the Australian Broadcasting Commission has been given the initiative of choosing which Parliamentary occasion to record, although it will make an appropriate recording when directed to do so. The directions in this regard and the oversight of the procedure involved is in the hands of the Committee. The Committee makes the decisions as to those items which will be put into safe keeping and also makes the appropriate safekeeping arrangements.

A recording of a typical day's proceedings in both the Senate and the House of Representatives has been lodged with the British Institute of Recorded Sound and various archival authorities in Australia.

Conclusion

In a letter to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Broadcasting the former Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, who was then Leader of the Opposition, in supporting the proposal wrote:

"I think it is desirable that the public should have the fullest access to Parliamentary discussions. There are still some newspapers which give a very extensive report of Parliamentary debates, but there are others which give little account of what is actually said in Parliament. The case for broadcasting is therefore a strong one. It is desirable that the electors should be in a position to know what were the actual words spoken by a Member of Parliament. It is equally important that they should be in a position, by actually hearing, to assess the personality and significance of the speaker. In one sense, the ideal Parliament would be one in which all debates were carried on in the presence of all the people."

It is this concept of a Parliament which provides the over-riding justification for the broadcasting of Parliamentary proceedings and it is submitted that those countries like Australia which have introduced broadcasts have come closer to that ideal by its introduction.

• Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1960. Act No. 35 of 1960. 12752/67.

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PUBLIC TELEVISION AND POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION

A field experiment on the impact of a public television series on the political knowledge, attitudes and communication behaviors of adolescents.

Charles K. Atkin

Bradley S. Greenberg

A joint publication of the Department of Commu-
nication, Michigan State University, and the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

March, 1974

This project was sponsored and funded by the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Final repo:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the development of a project of this scope, and particularly one which involves field coordination and cooperation, several agents and agencies are critical. Splendid and necessary cooperation was received from all people, both administrative and academic, in the Leon County School system. The superintendent, his staff, the principal, the teachers all personally assisted this project. The field supervisor, Dr. Judy LeRoy, was invaluable. She arranged for and administered day-to-day operations, and fixed, without arranging for, day-to-day crises. She was the third project director, in practice. Two Florida State colleagues, Professors David LeRoy and Edward Wotring, materially helped us and Judy. At Michigan State, Rick Bechtel processed seemingly endless analyses, and Judy Osborne and Edna Seeley prepared materials and manuscripts. In Washington, Jack Lyle of CPB encouraged the project and CPB funded it.

PROLOGUE

During April, May and early June, 1973, the public broadcasting system

in Florida televised approximately 40 one-hour evening programs based on that day's session in the state legislature. The shows were created to make the public aware of political issues, bills, committee hearings, and the This was done as part of

general functioning of the state legislature.

Florida's Sunshine Act, designed to minimize secrecy in the administration

of public business.

Such programming may generate many questions, particularly in the light of current Washington hearings on the merits of televising sessions of Congress. This particular study focused on one of those questions -the likely political socialization of youngsters as a function of exposure to some segments of this television series on public affairs. The project examined the nature of the series' impact on high school students' knowledge about politics, attitudes toward legislative activities and legislators, political interest and the students' resultant political communication be

havior.

This report will first summarize what prior research suggests are the likely agents of political socialization and how the media have been shown to affect political attitudes and behaviors. Specific hypotheses will be

generated for this study, and the results presented.

discusses some implications of these results.

The final section

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