Mass communication in national election campaigns: the research experience in the United States
In: Massenmedien und Wahlen, S. 65-103
"The major early studies by Paul Lazarsfeld and his colleagues in the 1940s were based upon a number of assumptions that are not very appropriate today. Subsequent research has largely consisted of variations on those early studies, rather than a full reconceptualization of the problem posed by the burgeoning role of mass media in politics. Using a panel design, Lazarsfeld and his colleagues found relatively few people switching from one candidate to another, and switching was particularly rare among those who followed politics closely in the media. This lack of evidence, coupled with the prevalent image of social science as searching for 'theories of middle range', yielded a conclusion that mass media have only 'limited effects' in politics. Election research shifted in the 1950s and 1960s to national surveys conducted at the University of Michigan. Synchronous correlational designs replaced panels as the dominant model, and the role of mass media was severly downgraded to a few items asking whether the person had read or heard about the election campaign on TV or radio, or in a newspaper or magazine. The 1970s brought a flowering of new conceptual topics, although the basic marketing model continued to structure most studies. Cognitive dependent variables, based on the assumption that the media are responsible for enlightenment of the electorate, began to overshadow attitudinal measures and the simple act of voting. But the basis model for election studies has never been abandoned. The research field today remains very much the product of its historical roots." (author's abstract)