Students who disagreed with a hypothetical editorial policy leaned over backwards in writing news stories and editorials. Their stories were the most one-sided and their editorials the most partisan.

This department is devoted to shorter articles and notes on research in the communications field, either completed or in progress. Readers are invited to submit reports on investigative studies which might prove useful to other students because of content, method, or implications for further research.

In this study of the meaning-change which results from combining pictures with captions, the author tested captions and pictures alone before combinations were tested. The judgments of pictures and captions alone permitted a test of the “point of resolution” in picture-caption combinations.

In an experiment with college students at the University of Illinois, the author found that captions can modify the judgments of readers regarding the pictures they accompany, and may even change interpretations. Dr. Kerrick is an associate in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley

An earlier study by the senior author showed that headlines have a significant effect upon the interpretation of newspaper stories. An experiment with newscast “leads” produced similar results. Dr. Tannenbaum is director of research in television at Michigan State; Mrs. Kerrick is a research assistant at Illinois.