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The program series TODAY IN THE LEGISLATURE, produced by two public television stations, WJCT-TV, Jacksonville, and WFSU-TV, Tallahassee, was a unique experiment in both "government in the sunshine" and a modified television of record: The program was telecast on the state's eight public television stations. Public television video-taped the nine week proceedings of both the Florida House of Representatives and the Senate: Portable video-tape equipment was also utilized to record a variety of important committee meetings:

The format of the typical program generally included some introductory material by the hosts, and an up-date of the current status of bills both in committee and before the houses. Usually, the program concluded with an observation of comment by the senior member of the anchor team, Dr. Ralph Chandler, who focused upon some aspect of either the day's legislative activity or issues of more global interest in the democratic process: The majority of the program's ninety minutes consisted of unabridged sections of floor debate and committee hearings.

RESEARCH PROGRAM

To ascertain viewer reaction to the program, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Communication Research office contracted the Communication Research Center of Florida State University to perform a series of field studies. Using state-wide WATS lines, trained interviewers conducted à variety of opinion surveys. Reported first are the data of what is termed the

#dailies." On almost every weekday from April 4, 1973 to

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June 7, 1973, samples were called in each of the seven Florida

public television markets.

(Tampa/St. Petersburg was considered

single market.)

DAILY VIEWING
DAILY VILNI

During the first two weeks of the legislative session,

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TODAY IN THE LEGISLATURE was telecast twice a week. Beginning with the third week of the session, telecasts of ninety minutes were broadcast over the state's public television stations each

were

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weekday evening. With the advent of the Watergate hearings

(May 17, 1973), the program was cut to sixty minutes and

telecast usually at seven, rather than ten, o'clock in most markets. Throughout this period, telephone calls were conducted in seven public television markets. At the end of the session, there were 5,539 usable telephone interviews. The figures reported here are adjusted so that only respondents who reported

being able to receive public television were analyzed.

This,

in effect, excludes the 25% of the sample who cannot receive public

television. Most of these respondents were in Orlando and

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Pensacola, two cities which have weak UFH public television

stations.

Viewing

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Approximately 21% of those interviewed knew about the program's existence, while 14% watched at least one program. Tracking the audience throughout the two month session shows that the sharpest rise in viewing of TODAY IN THE LEGISLATURE occurred when the public television stations began telecasting

the Watergate hearings.

In general, viewing of the program was highest in the state capital, Tallahassee, and the university city of Gainesville. Looking at only metropolitan areas yields a conservative total of 1,290,000 households existing within the seven markets. Of this number, 110,706 homes viewed at least one telecast of

TODAY IN THE LEGISLATURE.

Known Viewers

At the completion of the legislative session, 276 viewers of the program series were re-interviewed. They were asked a variety of questions concerning their reactions to the program. When asked if they thought the program had influenced or caused the legislators to do their work differently, these known viewers responded as follows: 28% said no, 54% replied yes, and 18% had no opinion.

When asked if they detected any political bias in the program, 79% of the known viewers responded no, while the remainder split between having no opinion and saying yes, there was a political bias (10 and 11% respectively).

A series of questions dealt with perceived learning from the series. When asked how informative the series was, 54% of the known viewer sample responded that the program

was very informative; 31% said the program was fairly informative; seven percent said the program was only slightly informative;

two percent replied it was not informative; and, the remaining five percent had no opinion.

When asked if the program had increased their understanding of the legislative process, 67% replied that the series had increased their understanding, one percent said the series confused them, 28% replied the program had no effect upon their understanding of the legislative process, and four percent had no opinion.

Next, the viewers were asked if the program had increased their knowledge about what their specific senator or representative did at the state capitol. The responses were: no increase, 28%; confused them, one percent; know a little better what their legislator does, 42%; know a lot better, 25%; and, the remainder had no opinion. However, when asked if they could recall and name a bill being discussed on the program, 60% of the known viewers could not recall a bill, while 22% could name one, 10% named two, and eight percent named three or more. When asked if they could remember the names of the various program hosts and hostesses, only three percent of the sample could recall their names.

This portion of the questionnaire concluded by asking the viewers for the principal reasons they watched the program. When asked if they viewed TODAY IN THE LEGISLATURE primarily for news about the activities of the state legislature, 34% responded yes, while 66% said no. Forty-one percent indicated they watched to learn about the legislature, while 59% did not view for this reason. Entertainment did not seem to be an important reason for viewing--only five percent of the viewers said they watched the program for entertainment (95% did not).

Finally, when asked if time passing was à principal purpose or reason for viewing, 10% said yes and 90% said no.

Lastly, the sample was asked if they thought the series was worthwhile and should be continued: Ninety-four percent felt the series was worthwhile, four percent said it was not; and two percent had no opinion.

Panel Study

Before the program series TODAY IN THE LEGISLATURE began; more than 1,100 interviews were completed throughout the state's seven public television markets: For purposes of this panel study, approximately one-third of the sample was resampled, proportionate to the market size, after the series was completed.

When asked if they had viewed at least one of the programs; 15% replied yes (approximately the same as found in our daily sweeps). When TODAY IN THE LEGISLATURE viewers were asked if the newspaper ads (remembered by 16% of the respondents) had caused them to view; eight percent said yes. Three percent of the TODAY IN THE LEGISLATURE viewers in the panel study had received a mailing, and 10% said the mailings had caused them to view, while four percent said both the ads and the mailings caused them to view.

For this sample, 48% felt the series caused the legislators to do their work differently, 238 said the program did not affect the legislators, and 30% had no opinion. When asked if the program displayed any political bias, 14% said yes, 37% said no, and 498 had no opinion. Finally, when asked if

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