Mass Media Use, Issue Knowledge and Political Involvement

RECENT studies report an increase in mass political sophistication, as indicated by attitudinal consistency and issue voting, not only among the well educated, but among the less educated and disinterested as well (e.g., Nie et al., 1976; Niemi and Weisberg, 1976).1 This finding, together with the observation that the influence of traditional political socialization agents has eroded (Jennings and Niemi, 1975), point to the mass media as important influences on voters as sources of information and as guides for affective and behavioral orientations. The hypothesized central role of the mass media in political socialization2 has spawned a number of recent studies reevaluating the effects of mass media use on the electorate (e.g., Chaffee, 1977; Kraus and Davis, 1976). Typically, recursive models are used, predicting that the direction of causality is from mass media use to political socialization. This report examines the relationships between mass media use and interpersonal discussion, and between issue knowledge and campaign