Suchergebnisse

Using data from a political campaign study conducted in Syracuse, New York, this article tests Blumler's argument that audience motives should be considered in uses and gratifications studies which seek to predict media influence processes. The primary research question addressed here is whether the general cognitive motive of need for orientation (a combination of political interest and uncertainty) is a better predictor of media exposure- media effects relationships than are individual political gratifications, par ticularly the surveillance gratifications. The findings tend to support Blum ler's (1979) proposal that we need to turn to basic audience orientations to predict and explain media influence processes. They also suggest that perhaps future studies of media uses and effects should move toward more general measures of audience motives and away from the more specific gratification measures which have been employed in past uses and gratifi cations studies

This study aims to explore first-level agenda setting at the state level. In particular, it examines the relationships among media coverage of local newspapers, state-level public opinion, and state legislative policies. In addition, it tests two state-level intervening factors: state legislative professionalism and state political culture. This study includes a geographic scope of eighteen U.S. states and a time period of twenty-two years from 1984 to 2006. The media agenda is represented by the news coverage of a state's most popular newspaper. The public agenda employs a survey question asking, "What is the most important issue facing the state?" The policy agenda is defined by the number of bills that are introduced in the state house. This study finds a moderate and positive relationship between the newspaper agenda and the public agenda in five U.S. states from 1984 to 1997, a strong positive relationship between the newspaper agenda and the policy agenda in fifteen U.S. states from 1989 to 2006, and a weak positive relationship between the public agenda and the policy agenda in South Carolina in 1989 and 1990. State political culture moderates the degree of agenda-setting effects between the newspaper coverage and the legislative policies.

This paper examines the longitudinal evolution of correspondences among the issue agendas of the mass media, Congress, and the public from 1946 to 2004. The time unit is one year. Data are derived from the New York Times coverage, Gallup's Most Important Problem series, and Congressional hearings. The evolutions of, as well as the causal relationship among, the three agendas and their agenda-setting effects are analyzed and discussed.

In view of the recent developments in public attitudes toward the use of investigative reporting, this study compares past findings on perceived public importance of investigative reporting and the acceptability of different reporting methods with findings from a national telephone survey of 1,211 respondents conducted in February 1997 by Princeton Survey Research Associates. While past studies only found weak relationships between approval of investigative reporting and respondents' individual-level characteristics, this study hypothesizes that the increased use of these techniques in popular television shows and local evening news has created a highly divided audience which, while paying great attention to reports that use investigative reporting techniques, either strongly approves or disapproves of their use. Findings indicate that the best predictor for whether people approve or disapprove of investigative reporting is their general attitude toward the media's role in society, rather than increased exposure to investigative news stories.