This survey-based study examines public attitudes toward press access to government records, deriving a political model predicting support for freedom of information based on social learning theory and testing whether support for press access is best explained by societal power, media importance, or political attitudes. Findings indicate that support is tied most closely to political attitudes such that the strongest predictors are community engagement and support for press rights, regardless of age, income, education, newspaper reading, or other variables. The results offer insights to help journalists, scholars, and citizens understand -and perhaps influence-public attitudes towardfreedom of information.Democracy relies on political participation, aided through an informed electorate able to gather information about its government.' Citizens count on journalists as proxies to access police reports, city budgets, bridge inspections, property tax records, and other public documents.2 Yet, in recent decades increased government secrecy through legislation,3 court rulings,4 and policy changes has severely restricted press and citizen access to record^.^ As a result of increased secrecy, journalists say they are unable to adequately monitor government6 and some express worry that the public does not notice-or care:Public opinion toward open government is likely to influence policy decisions, including federal and state legislation, responsiveness to public records requests by officials, and court decisions.8 In recent years the public has demonstrated increased support for secrecy because of fear of terrorist attacks9 and privacy invasion.'O Little research, however, has examined how people think about access to public records and what factors are related to support and nonsupport. A few studies have identified basic demographic correlates of support for access," but they have been limited by a lack of psychographic and political vari-
