The Impact of Traditional and Nontraditional Media Forms in the 1992 Presidential Election

Abstract

Data collected from two surveys in 1992, one cross-sectional and one two-wave panel, are used to examine the predictive patterns of traditional and nontraditional media forms on people's campaign interest, campaign information processing strategies, campaign participation, knowledge of candidates' issue positions, affect and image favorability toward candidates, perceived votes for candidates, and issue salience. Applying three incremental levels of controls, nontraditional media were found to have the strongest impact on labile characteristics (e.g., campaign interest) and weakest impact on criteria more difficult to alter, such as knowledge of candidates' issue positions. Traditional media forms continue to have a potent influence greater than that of nontraditional media forms on the campaign.

Media use and public confidence in democratic institutions

“…The influence of media use on confidence in democratic institutions must be viewed in tandem with a number of other factors. For instance, media use has been shown to differ based on a number of demographic variables (e.g., McLeod & Choe, 1978;Sobal & Jackson-Beeck, 1981;Stevenson, 1994;Tipton, 1978).…”

“…Non-traditionalMedia.The term "non-traditional media" has been used to refer to a number of different sources, ranging from entertainment talk shows (Meyer, 1993) to televised political talk shows (Chaffee, Zhao & Leshner, 1994;McLeod et al, 1996;Newhagen, 1994), and from radio talk shows (Hollander, 1996) to television tabloids (Weaver, 1994). Each of these sources provides its audience with public affairs information, though not necessarily from the same perspective as newspapers or television news.…”

“…One factor identified as driving confidence levels down is the "antipolitics bias" of the media (Patterson, 1993, p. 19), a tone that has manifested itself, to varying degrees, across a number of media ranging from newspapers and television news to the "non-traditional" television and radio talk shows (Pfau et al, 1997;Hollander, 1995;McLeod et al, 1996;Newhagen, 1994). The inference that media negativity undermines public confidence is based on content analyses, on surveys of media use alone, or on combinations of content analyses and surveys of media use which examine the influence of particular media on public confidence.…”

Satire, Punch Lines, and the Nightly News: Untangling Media Effects on Political Participation

“…Although the link between media use and political participation is well-established (e.g., Kang & Kwak, 2003;Lee, 2005;McLeod et al, 1996;Moy, McCluskey, McCoy, & Spratt, 2004;Ostroff & Sandell, 1989;Shah, Kwak, & Holbert, 2001;Teixeira, 1987), until recently, the majority of these studies have focused on news rather than entertainment. We propose that two types of entertainment programminglate-night comedy (as in The Late Show and The Tonight Show) and political satire or parody (The Daily Show and The Colbert Report)-may have unique effects on political participation.…”

More than popularity matters: How would voters like to get social networking with candidates?

“…Furthermore, the time spent reading newspapers was a stronger predictor than that spent viewing television. [12][13] With its power to offer ample information as well as spaces for public speeches and discussions, the Internet was believed to be more helpful in improving people"s political efficacy and participation than newspapers and television. However, empirical evidence on this topic has yielded conflicting results.…”