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Jennings Bryant
Jennings Bryant (July 21, 1944 – October 14, 2020) was Distinguished Professor Emeritus at The University of Alabama. Prior to his retirement in 2010, he was Communication and Information Sciences Distinguished Research Professor, holder of the Reagan Endowed Chair of Broadcasting, and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at UA. Jennings Bryant was married to Sara Poteat Bryant for 43 years. He and Sara were the parents of three children. The Bryants lived on a family farm in the Mountain Valley Rural Agricultural Historical District in Glenwood, North Carolina.
Over the course of his career, Bryant made major contributions to the field of mass communication, primarily in the area of media effects research.
Bryant received a bachelor's degree in history from Davidson College in 1967. He completed his Master's of Divinity work in Communication and Counseling in 1971, graduating from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary with highest honors. Bryant earned a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Indiana University Bloomington in 1974, again graduating with highest honors.
Bryant's research work has been vast, but much of it has focused on media effects research, particularly as it relates to media use and children. He is responsible for two landmark works: his 1983 book, co-edited with psychologist Dan Anderson, Children's Understanding of Television: Research on Attention and Comprehension "Children's Understanding of Television: Research on Attention and Comprehension" remains one of the most-cited works on the subject of media effects on children, and his 2002 textbook Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research "Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research", co-edited with Dolf Zillmann, which is one of the most widely used textbooks in Mass Communication theory courses worldwide.
One of the more widely cited articles Bryant helped author was a large research project on the effects of exposure to the television show "Blue's Clues" on television viewing behavior and cognitive development of children. This, largely correlational, study—which simply used a battery of tests that they repeatedly gave the children every few months, and used the elevated post-test results to suggest that their television viewing or Blue's Clues had a positive impact on cognitive development in children, with children who viewed the show showing more successful and systematic problem-solving increased cognitive skills than those who did not. The study did not account for or control for practice, age related cognitive changes, or the Hawthorne effect. Children, their teachers and caregivers were coaxed to put in extra effort because of the monetary incentives they received.
Bryant has also been published in other areas of effects research, including Cultivation theory with co-author Dorina Miron, pornography, and video games.
Bryant has authored, co-authored, or edited 27 books, 77 chapters, 20 scholarly encyclopedia entries, and 78 articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as 129 technical reports totaling over 8,000 pages.
Bryant was also the Advisory Editor of the 12-volume, 5,694 page International Encyclopedia of Communication, which was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2008 and is updated quarterly. The Encyclopedia is a reference guide for all theoretical research conducted in the modern age of Communication Studies.
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Jennings Bryant
Jennings Bryant (July 21, 1944 – October 14, 2020) was Distinguished Professor Emeritus at The University of Alabama. Prior to his retirement in 2010, he was Communication and Information Sciences Distinguished Research Professor, holder of the Reagan Endowed Chair of Broadcasting, and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at UA. Jennings Bryant was married to Sara Poteat Bryant for 43 years. He and Sara were the parents of three children. The Bryants lived on a family farm in the Mountain Valley Rural Agricultural Historical District in Glenwood, North Carolina.
Over the course of his career, Bryant made major contributions to the field of mass communication, primarily in the area of media effects research.
Bryant received a bachelor's degree in history from Davidson College in 1967. He completed his Master's of Divinity work in Communication and Counseling in 1971, graduating from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary with highest honors. Bryant earned a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from Indiana University Bloomington in 1974, again graduating with highest honors.
Bryant's research work has been vast, but much of it has focused on media effects research, particularly as it relates to media use and children. He is responsible for two landmark works: his 1983 book, co-edited with psychologist Dan Anderson, Children's Understanding of Television: Research on Attention and Comprehension "Children's Understanding of Television: Research on Attention and Comprehension" remains one of the most-cited works on the subject of media effects on children, and his 2002 textbook Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research "Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research", co-edited with Dolf Zillmann, which is one of the most widely used textbooks in Mass Communication theory courses worldwide.
One of the more widely cited articles Bryant helped author was a large research project on the effects of exposure to the television show "Blue's Clues" on television viewing behavior and cognitive development of children. This, largely correlational, study—which simply used a battery of tests that they repeatedly gave the children every few months, and used the elevated post-test results to suggest that their television viewing or Blue's Clues had a positive impact on cognitive development in children, with children who viewed the show showing more successful and systematic problem-solving increased cognitive skills than those who did not. The study did not account for or control for practice, age related cognitive changes, or the Hawthorne effect. Children, their teachers and caregivers were coaxed to put in extra effort because of the monetary incentives they received.
Bryant has also been published in other areas of effects research, including Cultivation theory with co-author Dorina Miron, pornography, and video games.
Bryant has authored, co-authored, or edited 27 books, 77 chapters, 20 scholarly encyclopedia entries, and 78 articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as 129 technical reports totaling over 8,000 pages.
Bryant was also the Advisory Editor of the 12-volume, 5,694 page International Encyclopedia of Communication, which was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2008 and is updated quarterly. The Encyclopedia is a reference guide for all theoretical research conducted in the modern age of Communication Studies.