Abstract

The present study suggests that a simple community television program may, under certain conditions, promote attitude change and social learning. Using a sample of fifty-four university students, the author found that over fifty percent of the group's pretest mean scores significantly shifted in a favourable direction on the posttest measure after exposure to the treatment--a videotaped episode of a community television program co-produced by the author dealing with the topic of racism in Canadian society. Furthermore, the majority of subjects found the show both interesting and informative, and a full one third of the sample indicated that they would have watched the whole show had they been in their own homes. Most importantly for the author, who is committed to the use of community television to provide an "alternative voice" (one of its original mandates), sixty-one percent of the sample agreed that the issue of racism was treated differently in this show when compared with commercial shows they had seen on the topic.