Suchergebnisse

Numerous studies of learning about politics from the media suggest that in spite of criticism of election news coverage for being superficial and preoccupied with campaign strategy, voters do learn, especially from television news, newspapers, and televised debates. Most likely to be learned are awareness and concern over certain issues, candidates, and traits of candidates. Specific positions of candidates and parties on issues are somewhat less likely to be taught by media. Contrary to popular belief, media exposure seems to have little relationship to voters' images of candidates; prior political attitudes and educational levels are much stronger predictors of these perceived images. Exposure to media coverage of elections, especially television coverage, is likely to reinforce interest in politics and voting turnout, although heavy media emphasis on campaign strategy and maneuvering can make some voters more cynical and less likely to vote. Newer forms of media, such as radio and television talk shows, seem to have notably weaker and less consistent links to voter learning of any kind.

A research review suggests that the media heightens voter awareness more with respect to issues, candidates, & their traits than do specific candidate & party positions on issues. Media exposure is also likely to reinforce interest in politics & voter turnout. It is found that people interpret media messages in markedly different ways, such that the meaning of a message occurs not in the text, but in the reading of it. Adapted from the source document.

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.