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An Information Theory Measure for Television Programming

A content-free measure of television program form is developed. This measure is created from a rigorous general theory construction viewpoint. The basic terms of the theoretical measure are created from iconic aspects of programming. These terms are mapped into variables by considering their human information-processing implications. The definitions of the variables are in information theory entropy terms. The variables are used to score 168 television programs, and the results used to factor analyze the variables, creating two independent dimensions called Dynamics and Unfamiliarity. As a validation, the viewing patterns of 149 adolescents on these two dimensions are compared to two other measures of programming content. The information theory dimensions of form are found to detect nonrandom viewing patterns as well or better than either of the other measures of content.