What effect does education, age, and consumption of environmental information from newspapers and television have on people's environmental knowledge, concerns, and behavior? Partial answers to this question are based on a 1984 telephone survey of 336 residents of Ithaca, New York. Respondents' education and newspaper use led to greater effects. Television use, both for specific environmental information and in general, appeared to have some negative consequences. Age did not relate to the dependent variable.

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Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence is tested with data from the 1948 Elmira election study. Results indicate that support for the theory and trends in the data are consistent with expectations for the spiral of silence as an additional explanation for the famous election misprediction. Statistical tests affirm Noelle-Neumann's suggestion that social isolation is associated with fear of isolation and provide partial support for the idea that social isolation interacts with fear of isolation in the spiral of silence effect.

Do motives for using TV vary by viewer's age? Mass communication literature suggests that TV plays an important role in the life of younger and older persons in American society, but has not investigated how motives for viewing vary by age of the viewer or what needs are satisfied by viewing. A systematic random sample of telephone households in the Carbondale, DeSoto, and Murphysboro area of Southern Illinois provided 140 interviews with adults aged eighteen to eighty-seven. Life stage was related to five motives for using TV (to learn things, to forget, to overcome loneliness, to pass time when bored, and to find something to talk about). All but the forget/bored motive were positively correlated with age.