ABSTRACT
Like other age groups, the elderly spend a great deal of time with the mass media. They spend more than 40% of their leisure time watching television, reading, going to the movies, listening to the radio, and listening to music (Spring, 1993). Although any behavior that consumes so much time should be of concern to social scientists, mass media usage is a particularly important leisure activity, because it affects other leisure behaviors (Robinson, 1972, 1981), impacts interpersonal interaction (Bleise, 1986; Faber, Brown, & McLeod, 1979; Lull, 1980), and also affects perceptions of aging and social reality (Davis, 1984; Gerbner, Gross, Signorielli, & Morgan, 1980).
