August 6, 1983

A jury in Kansas City, Mo., yesterday began deliberating a television newswoman's charge that she was demoted on a news program because she was ''unattractive, too old and not deferential to men.'' She is seeking reinstatement, lost wages and damages. No matter how the jury decides, the suit has brought into public view a question that has troubled people in the industry for years: Are women who appear on camera on news programs still judged more by appearance than their male colleagues? ''It has become the symbolic focus of a lot of apprehension,'' said Diane Sawyer, co-anchor of the ''CBS Morning News.'' At the same time, the case has drawn attention to the fact that television executives increasingly rate a pleasing personality as more important than journalistic ability among reporters and anchors. Another concern raised by the case is the pervasive influence of market research on decision-making in television news.

With the economic recovery apparently gathering strength, the national unemployment rate dropped half a percentage point to 9.3 percent in July, the Labor Department announced today. Excluding military personnel, the jobless rate, seasonally adjusted, was 9.5 percent, also down half a percentage point from June. It was the largest one-month decline since 1958, and it sent the civilian unemployment rate below 10 percent for the first time since July 1982. In New York City, however, unemloyment rose sharply, to 10.6 percent from 8.9 percent in June. The rate in New York State declined, to 8.5 percent, and New Jersey's rate, at 8.4 percent, was unchanged. (Page 6.)

A General Accounting Office study, made public today, concludes there were ''serious problems'' in the Government's handling of potential safety-related defects in General Motors 1980 X-model cars. The study by the G.A.O., an investigative arm of Congress, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not follow its own guidelines for investigations into safety-related defects and showed an ''apparent reluctance'' to inform the public. The report says the agency's investigation into the 1980 X-model cars extended from late 1979 to early 1983 and was ''allowed to remain essentially inactive for about 13 months.'' 'Campaign of Nonenforcement' Representative Timothy E. Wirth, the Colorado Democrat who had requested the study, released it in House hearings today, where he charged the safety agency with carrying out a ''campaign of nonenforcement'' under President Reagan.

Japan produced 58 million electronic calculators last year, but that does not necessarily mean that people count on them for anything. Despite all the state-of-the-art gimcracks that this country cranks out, daily life is still governed by a rectangular gadget that never blinks or blips, never runs down and has never been known to go wrong just because a 6-year-old tried to test its mettle underwater. The simple, elegant abacus is not only surviving, but by some measures is even thriving. This Monday is Abacus Day in Japan, and while it is not an occasion of great public commemoration, its mere existence shows the resilience that a few beads and strips of hard wood can have.

A leader of New York City's hotel industry said yesterday that he would like to see the New York Coliseum remain open after the city's new Convention Center is completed. The official, Klaus R. Ottman, said the 320,000-square-foot Coliseum should continue to accommodate small and medium-sized shows that are presented there. He said the Convention Center, which is more than twice as large, could concentrate on drawing larger shows and conventions from out of town. Present plans call for the Coliseum, at Columbus Circle, to be shut and possibly sold when the Convention Center opens, at a date now projected at between April 1985 and mid-1986.