This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the black press of Tennessee from 1865 to 1980; (2) news values and decision making; (3) news coverage of the Indiana State Assembly; (4) an information theory approach to reader enjoyment of print journalism; (5) the effects of newspaper accounts of nuclear power plant incidents on reader understanding and attitudes; (6) the social ecology of the newspaper and the professional journalist; (7) journalists and jurists; (8) the effects of computer assisted instruction in writing skills on journalism students in beginning newswriting classes; (9) the Newspaper Preservation Act; (10) international news coverage in United States newsmagazines; (11) the photojournalist and the law; (12) news releases and the making of Washington, D.C. news; and (13) the urban daily press in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1797 to 1816. (FL)