ABSTRACT
Although news programmes occupy prominent positions in the daily television schedules and are watched by millions of people, how effectively do they impart information about the world? We have seen that viewers believe that one of the most important functions of television watching, from a personal point of view, is to provide them with information about social, economic, political, and world affairs. Those who watch particular news programmes believe they actually do learn from them and that their knowledge of current affairs is enhanced as a result of the experience. But is what viewers believe the same as what actually happens? Contrary to what the claims audiences make for news programmes might lead one to expect, research on the retention of television news has indicated frequent miscomprehension or even wholesale forgetting of information presented by these programmes.
