Newspapers, Television and Political Reasoning

Abstract

OF THE most powerful hopes advanced by theories of representative government is that news media remain free so they may educate the public in making political choices. Ignorance condemns people to sway with the most available rhetoric. The uninformed person chooses randomly or out of habit to support candidates or policies. 1 Often he or she avoids the political arena altogetherperhaps because of hedonism or alienation. 2 1 An analogy to this point, drawn from laws of inertia, can be found in Converse (1962). 1 The conventional image of the alienated and withdrawn citizen may be badly out of date, however. Recent studies have disclosed many people who are distrustful of government, but who combine this feeling with intensely held attitudes about political issues. Extreme conservatives and liberals can be expected to possess above average levels of information. See Miller (1974), and following comment by Jack Citrin and rejoinder.Abstract Adults' use of newspapers is found to correlate positively with having reasons for preferring one U.S. senatorial candidate over another. Television exposure is negatively related to political "reasoning" to a nearly significant degree. Data were provided by a 1974 nationwide, postelection survey. Analysis was conducted at the aggregate level, examining media behavior and political knowledge in 67 news markets. News markets with competition among daily newspapers show greater levels of information than monopoly areas, controlling for education and interest in politics. Results suggest that a decline in newspaper penetration, lessened competition, or shift toward use of television for news would weaken peoples' understanding about partisan candidates.

Media involvement and local news effects

“…Much news research focuses on knowledge gain because news is designed to inform the public (e.g., Clarke & Fredin, 1978). This research observed that knowledge gain is associated with an informational orientation toward the news and higher levels of cognitive involvement.…”

“…Information holding measures do not concentrate on facts, but allow respondents to focus on issues that are important to themselves rather than on issues that are important to researchers (Roberts & Maccoby, 1985). Although information holding research has not focused on cognitive activity, information holding is associated with message discrimination, or recalled messages about issues (Clarke & Fredin, 1978;Clarke & Kline, 1974). Recalled messages are usually associated with focused attention and cognitive effort (Greenwald & Leavitt, 1984).…”

Beliefs that manifest through newspaper items in relation to peoples’ life challenges and their potential to enhance a sustainable learning environment in school science

“…As elaborated earlier by Clarke and Fredin (1978) and Miller, Goldenberg and Erbring (1979), papers do have an influence in peoples' beliefs. Furthermore, beliefs have been found to be rooted in the activities related to witchcraft (Davies, 1998).…”

Watts, the 1965 Los Angeles Riots, and the Communicative Construction of the Fear Epicenter of Los Angeles A previous version of this paper was presented at the American Sociological Annual Conference, Chicago, 2001

“…Thus, newspapers have at least the potential to encourage reflexive absorption of information. For example, Clarke and Fredin (1978) have shown that political information filtered through newspapers is more likely to lead to reasoned electoral decisions. Or, as Sheley and Ashkins (1981) have shown, newspapers are relatively less likely to distort the extent and gravity of violent crime in urban areas.…”