Suchergebnisse

Studies by P. Converse ("Information Flow and the Stability of Partisan Attitudes," in Elections and the Political Order Campbell, A., Converse, P., Stokes, D., & Miller, W. [Eds], New York: Wiley, 1966) & E. Dreyer (see SA 20:5/72F7182) found divergent results on the impact of media exposure on stability of political attitudes. However, the scoring procedures used are flawed, in considering different media as equal & in ignoring f of contact with each medium. Data from previous studies conducted from 1952 to 1972 are analyzed for media number, amount, & type. Number & amount of media are similar in pattern; type of media makes little difference to partisan stability. Persons with no media exposure appeared most stable for 1952, but this result has little significance as virtually everyone has some media exposure, & any media exposure produces similar effects regardless of amount or type. 6 Tables. W. H. Stoddard.

An investigation of the phenomenon of "passive learning," or how people may acquire information from the mass media despite lacking the "saturation effect" that generally makes the study of this phenomenon difficult. Saturation conditions commonly occur because exposure to political programming is virtually universal. With interest controlled, 2 groups (N = 1,000 interview Rs) receiving different media messages are compared over 2 elections, 1977 & 1981 in NJ. Those with no interest in an election, but who lived in a media-rich environment were 40% more likely to have acquired information than their uninterested cohorts living in a media-poor environment. 4 Tables, 1 Appendix, 8 References. Modified AA.

Introduction -- Coming of age in a post boomer world -- Engagement in public life -- Through the looking glass -- Generational pathways to participation -- Where do young people stand politically? -- Civic engagement, political engagement and generational change.

To determine if the liberal shift that began after WWII is declining, the liberal vs conservative attitudes of Americans are tracked using 1972-1987 General Social Survey data on 42 items relating to crime, free speech, politics, race, religion, & gender/sexuality. Four cohorts (N = approximately 500 persons each) are observed for cohort succession (replacement) & intracohort shifts (conversions). It is suggested that general public opinion ([PO] overall climate) still leans toward the liberal, but small topic-specific countertrends within the cohorts (weather) may be explained in terms of a weather vs climate (between cohorts) metaphor. In particular, the late 1970s saw a small shift toward the Right. In Comment on Davis's "Changeable Weather in a Cooling Climate atop the Liberal Plateau," Philip E. Converse applauds Davis's elucidation of the assymetrical effects of cohort replacement, but challenges him on other issues, pointing to the heterogeneity of change patterns item by item in the selection of the 42 items, noting the variability in difficulty for keying some of these items & the vagueness in the ideological descriptors, & contending that the items clustered around conservative issues are outnumbered by those concerning liberal issues two to one. In Comment on David: Yes, but.Public Opinion is a Top-Down Process, Cliff Zukin (Eagleton Instit of Politics, Rutgers, U, New Brunswick, NJ) offers observations about the relationship between public policy & PO, rather than commenting directly on Davis. Survey results, notwithstanding, it is remarked that, since there is no one thing called PO, public policy is mainly in the hands of public policymakers. This points to a top-down process in the PO-policy relationship. 18 Tables, 5 Figures, 2 Appendixes, 20 References. J. Sadler