Hearing-impaired viewers of prime-time television

One group of television viewers accounts for more than 15 million persons in the United States alone (25, p. 25) and tends to watch more television than other viewers. Yet this group -the hearing impaired- has been largely neglected by mass media researchers (cf. 12) A review of empirical literature published from 1950 to 1978 on television and the hearing-impaired concluded that information about this audience was "scan at best". The study reported in this article compares hearing-impaired and hearing persons' self-reported frequency of viewing and level of enjoyment network prime-time television programs.