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Using data from the Center for Political Studies 1976 national election survey (N = 2,248 adult Rs), the influence of exposure to local press & TV news on the level of alienation toward local government is analyzed. Measures of local government are regressed with measures of local news exposure conditional for community & for selective perception. The only relationship found is a modest association between more press exposure & less general alienation for suburban communities. Selective perception as measured is not a factor. Thus, media exposure & local political alienation appear to be mostly unrelated. 3 Tables, 16 References. Modified HA.

Mass media exposure to election campaigns was hypothesized as influencing beliefs about the closeness of the election race. and these beliefs were predicted as influencing the degree of involvement in the election. Persons perceiving a close race were expected to have greater political involvement than persons perceiving a one-sided contest. It was further hypothesized that the influence of media exposure on competition beliefs. and the influence of these beliefs on election involvement. would have the most impact on those persons who generally have lower rates of involvement in elections, such as the less educated. However, it was found that for both the 1968 and the 1972 presidential elections. there were no relationships between levels of media exposure and beliefs on the closeness of the election race. Also. whether expecting a close or a one-sided election had no relationship lo showing interest in the campaigns. attempting to influence the vote of others. or having voted or not. All of these findings basically held even when respondents were analyzed by distinct social categories.

It was hypothesized that following President Nixon's resignation due to the Watergate scandal those persons who had voted for him in 1972 were disillusioned & became less trusting of people in general than did former McGovern voters. This tendency was further hypothesized as being strongest among the more highly educated since prior research has shown that more highly educated people were also more disturbed by Watergate. However, it also predicted that former Nixon voters became more negative towards the mass media while McGovern voters became more positive due to the media's role in uncovering Watergate. Here, though, a higher level of education was expected to reduce such clearly biased judgments. The hypotheses were tested by using national probability samples of United States adults collected by the National Opinion Research Center for the years 1973-1976. Correlational analysis & percent comparisons supported the trust & the media hypotheses except for the one predicting that more highly educated voters would be less reactive to the mass media. The strongest negative reactions to the media actually came from the more educated Nixon voters while the strongest positive reactions came from the more educated McGovern voters. Further, media reactions were temporary for television but persisted into 1976 for the press. 1 Table, 2 Figures. AA.

Higher levels of urbanization, social diversity, & voter turnout have long been theorized as factors promoting political competition. Previous empirical evidence on these relationships, however, has been inconsistent mostly due to the methodological limitations & the lack of comparability of the studies. To correct for earlier shortcomings, data were collected for all US congressional districts (N=436) on the 1972 races for elections to the US House of Representatives, US Senate, the presidency, & state governorships. Political competition was measured by computing the runner-up's vote proportion as a % of the winner's vote proportion; urbanization was the proportion of people residing in central cities of 50,000 or more population; & social diviersity was the SE, racial, & community mix of a district as computed from Lieberson's index of population diversity. Controls were instituted for district X income, minority level, homeownership level, & geographic location. Multiple regression analysis revealed that diversity was related to competition in a positive direction for races to the Senate, presidency, & governorships; turnout was positively related to the competition to the House & the presidency but was negatively related to the governorships; & urbanization was related only to presidential competition, in a positive direction. Major conclusions were that the manner in which ecological factors influence competititon is highly specific to the particular race concerned, & that ecological factors are not very important for competition because on the average they accounted for only 18% of the variance in competition. 2 Tables. AA.