Noting that several current communication theories suggest that the media have a "persuasive" effect on American society, a study compared the effects of two media (the electronic medium of television and the spoken medium of the homily) and whether these media have different effects on their audience's perceptions of reality. A national phone survey of 552 random residences was conducted. The amount of time each respondent spent per day watching television and the number of times per month each attended church or worship service were found. Respondents were then categorized as to whether they viewed television and attended church more or less than the median. Respondents were also asked what they felt was the most important problem facing America today. The frequency of these responses were compared for heavy and light TV viewers and church attendees. Results indicated that these media were not significant factors in respondents' view of the most important problems facing America today. In fact, results support the value of scholarly consideration of the objective impact of real-world indicators along with the effects of the media. (Contains 20 references and 3 tables of data.) (RS)