Passive Learning: When the Media Environment Is the Message

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 48, Heft 3, S. 629-638

Abstract

An investigation of the phenomenon of "passive learning," or how people may acquire information from the mass media despite lacking the "saturation effect" that generally makes the study of this phenomenon difficult. Saturation conditions commonly occur because exposure to political programming is virtually universal. With interest controlled, 2 groups (N = 1,000 interview Rs) receiving different media messages are compared over 2 elections, 1977 & 1981 in NJ. Those with no interest in an election, but who lived in a media-rich environment were 40% more likely to have acquired information than their uninterested cohorts living in a media-poor environment. 4 Tables, 1 Appendix, 8 References. Modified AA.