Journal article
Individual Motivations, Perceived Media Importance, and Political Disaffection
Political communication, Vol.18(3), pp.321-334
07/01/2001
Abstract
Mass media have been blamed for distancing people from the political process by increasing cynicism and voter apathy. A telephone survey of 592 registered voters in Washington state tested a set of relationships among political involvement, perceived media importance, political disaffection, and efficacy. As hypothesized, political involvement was positively associated with the perceived importance of newspapers and radio talk shows. These, in turn, were negatively associated with cynicism and positively associated with efficacy. Cynicism was negatively associated with efficacy, while efficacy was positively associated with involvement. The results suggest that involvement is a key variable in the political decision making process through its relationships with orientations toward information sources. Thus, media can serve as a catalyst for involved citizen decision making. Scholars should attend to the motivational context individuals bring to the media when examining the role of the media in political decision making.
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Details
- Title
- Individual Motivations, Perceived Media Importance, and Political Disaffection
- Creators
- Bruce E Pinkleton (Author) - Washington State University, Edward R. Murrow College of CommunicationErica Weintraub Austin (Author) - Washington State University
- Publication Details
- Political communication, Vol.18(3), pp.321-334
- Academic Unit
- Strategic Communication, Department of
- Publisher
- Informa UK Ltd
- Identifiers
- 99901129223901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article