Suchergebnisse

A study was conducted to assess the reliability and stability of television exposure, and the relationship of various demographic variables to this, presumed hypothetical construct, when measurement error is removed. A secondary analysis of survey data collected from a sample of black adults over two points in time served as the basis for this investigation. Using a LISREL model. the results indicated that: (1) the indicators of television exposure are moderately reliable and any unreliability is almost entirely due to random error; (2) the construct is substantially unstable over the interval assessed and (3) education is inversely related to television exposure. it was concluded that more attention should be given to theoretically defining media exposure, a central concept in communication research, and to taking into account measurement error.

A study was conducted in Venezuela to explore the scope and the external validity of a model—nominal agenda diversity—representing the factors that lead people to identity a greater number of social problems as important. Using survey data gathered in an urban area of this media-rich developing country, three hypotheses were tested. The first two focused on those members of the society with a higher socioeconomic status (SES). Would they be more likely to attend to the information-and entertainment-oriented content in the mass media (television and newspapers) and be able to identify a larger number of problem areas in their region and in the country than those of lower SES? Further, it was hypothesized that the greater the exposure to newspaper content (both news and nonnews sections), as compared to exposure of people to television, the greater the nominal agenda diversity. A structural equation framework (LISREL) showed strong support for these hypotheses.

This study investigated some key theoreticalpropositions derivedfrom a synthesis of two related areas of research: the construction of social reality and cultivation analysis. A total of eight hypotheses were generated from the following propositions: (1) three broad construct categories (objective, symbolic, and subjective) constitute, to a major degree, the construction of social reality; (2) indicators of subjective reality can be placed usefully on a close-remote continuum based on their distance from the everyday life experiences of the individual; and (3) the accumulation of television exposure has a dominant influence on the shaping of beliefs and interpretations of the world, the direction of influence being contingent on the "bias "of the specific content consumed. A national sample of black adults, 18 andover, was usedto test the hypotheses. Path analysis provided some support for the hypotheses.

Most studies that have examined attitudes and behavior of blacks toward mass media have emphasized the differences between their attitudes and behaviors and those of whites. These studies implicitly assumed a relatively homogeneous black perspective. In contrast, this study explores differences among black adults in their attitudes and behavior toward television and the social processes accounting for these differences. A recursive structural equation model was employed to interpret patterns of direct and indirect effects among a set of variables representing demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, general and race-related attitudes, television exposure, preference, and evaluation. Results indicate that variation in attitudes and behaviors toward television (especially those related to perceived bias and perceived bad points of black-oriented situation comedies) is systematically related to differences among black adults in their exposure to the medium, subjective orientations, and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. It is suggested that future research take into account the diversity within the black community in studying what blacks do with the media, rather than focusing exclusively upon what the media do to blacks.

We use a cognitive schema-based approach to model an African-American racial belief system, showing the content of racial belief systems in a national sample to be associated with the individual's degree of sodoeconomic status, religiosity, and exposure to black media. We find that African-Americans with a higher sodoeconomic status are less supportive of black political autonomy and that they feel themselves more distant from black masses and black elites than do those of lower socioeconomic status. Religiosity, while unrelated to black autonomy, strengthens closeness to black masses and black elites. Black television—and, to a much lesser degree, black print media—had a consistent impact on the racial belief system. We conclude by discussing the complexity of the African-American racial belief system and potential directions for future work.