Showing papers in "Public Opinion Quarterly in 1972"

The agenda-setting function of mass media

Abstract: In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position. In reflecting what candidates are saying during a campaign, the mass media may well determine the important issues—that is, the media may jet the "agenda" of the campaign. The authors are associate professors of journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Methodological bias in public opinion surveys

Abstract: Statistically designed sample surveys have enabled pollsters to gauge public opinion on a wide range of issues In such surveys, selection of a data collection technique is generally based on four criteria: (1) cost; (2) completion time; (3) response rate; and (4) response bias Typically, more weight is placed on the first three factors and, as a result, adequate attention has not been given to the latter consideration The study described in this paper looks at one type of response bias-that which results from the use of a specific data collection method More specifically, this research uses a controlled experimental design in order to determine whether responses given in a public opinion polling are influenced by the method used to collect the data Three methods are investigated: (1) mail questionnaire; (2) telephone interview; and (3) personal interview

The professional values of american newsmen

Abstract: Many occupations and professions in American society today are experiencing dissension and debate over the definition over responsible professional practice. Within journalism, the debate revolves around objectivity versus subjectivity, detachment versus advocacy, observer versus watchdog. In this article, the authors define two clearly distinguishable sets of belief systems concerning the functions of the media and the role of the journalist, and analyze their antecedents and correlates. John Johnstone is Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Edward Slawski is an Instructor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Oakland University, and William Bowman is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle.

Anticipated communication and mass media information-seeking

Abstract: T 18HIS INVESTIGATION focuses on the concept of communicatory utility, defined as the anticipated usefulness of information for future informal interaction with family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances. The present report describes findings from an experiment and two secondary analyses relating news media use to interpersonal discussion of news events. While researchers have not specifically tested the link between mass media exposure and expected conversational experiences, many have cited the role of social relationships in understanding why people attend to mass communications.1 The specific interpersonal motive of social prestige from displaying current events knowledge was suggested as an explanation of news seeking behavior by Merton,2 Berelson,3 Wright,4 and Waples, Berelson and Bradshaw.5 1 E.g., Eliot Friedson, "Communications Research and the Concept of the Mass," American Sociological Review, Vol. 18, 1953, pp. 313-317; Matilda Riley and Samuel Flowerman, "Group Relations as a Variable in Communications Research," American Sociological Review, Vol. i6, 1951, pp. 174-180. 2 Merton concluded: "The analysis of the functions of mass communications require prior analysis of the social roles which determine the uses to which these communications can and will be put. Had the social contexts of interpersonal influence not been explored, we could not have anticipated the selection of Time by one type of influential and its rejection by another." Robert Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure, New York, The Free Press, 1949, pp. 406-409. 3 Berelson observed: "Another group of readers seem to use the newspaper because it enables them to appear informed in social gatherings. Thus the newspaper has conversational value. Readers not only can learn what has happened and then report it to their associates, but can also find opinions and interpretations for use in discussions of public affairs. It is obvious how this use of the newspaper serves to increase the reader's prestige among his fellows." Bernard Berelson, "What 'Missing the Newspaper' Means," in Paul Lazarsfeld and Frank Stanton, eds., Communications Research, 1948-1949, New York, Harper, 1949, p. 119. 4 Charles Wright, "Functional Analysis and Mass Communication," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 24, 1960, pp. 605-62o. 6 Douglas Waples, Bernard Berelson, and Franklyn Bradshaw, What Reading Does to People, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1940.

Political socialization in the american family: the evidence re-examined

Abstract: Most studies in the past have found substantial correspondence between the political beliefs of an "offspring" and a "parental" generation-a fact which has led many writers to locate the primary source of political socialization in the family. R. W. Connell, who is Lecturer in Government at the University of Sydney, re-examines the evidence leading to this conclusion, and finds it less than persuasive.

The strength in weak ties

Abstract: Although communication may take place more easily among people who share similar attributes and have similar attitudes and beliefs, such communication may be in large measure redundant: no new informtion enters the system. For the diffusion of new information, the existence of some "heterophilous" relationships seems to be a structural prerequisite. The following article offers evidence bearing on this proposition. The authors are, respectively, Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame and Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Portland.

Television soap operas: what's been going on anyway?

Abstract: Television daytime serials, the descendants of their popular radio predecessors, have been offered to the public since the earliest days of television and reach more people every year. This article examines the size and characteristics of their audience, the situations they portray, and the characters that populate them, and discusses some potential implications of all these facts. Natan Katzman is Assistant Professor of Communication at Michigan State University.

Alchemy in the behavioral sciences

Abstract: Access to powerful new computers has encouraged routine use of highly complex analytic techniques, often in the absence of any theory, hypotheses, or model to guide the researcher's expectations of results. The author examines the potential of such techniques for generating spurious results, and urges that in exploratory work the outcome be subjected to a more rigorous criterion than the usual tests of statistical significance. Hillel Einhorn is Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.

Computer simulation of state electorates

Abstract: Development of a model for estimating public opinion in the fifty states can have a major impact on research in comparative American state politics. Until now the major studies in this field of political science have generally used aggregate electoral data, demographic data, fiscal data, or elite attitudinal studies to analyze state politics and policymaking. The research reported here was designed to give impetus to attempts to use national surveys in such comparative research. With a technique for estimating public opinion from national data, political scientists can begin to examine empirically the relationslhip between public policy preferences and policymaking at subnational levels. Ronald Weber is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Indiana University; Anne Hopkins is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Michael Mezey is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii; and Frank Munger is Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina.

Parent-child consensus on socioeconomic data obtained from sample surveys

Abstract: Numerous inquiries have been made on the response similarities and consensus of family members in survey research.' Previous findings suggest that the accuracy of reported survey data varies with the type of question and increases when other family members are interviewed. Studies that uncover such results have been principally concerned with the husband-wife dyad and show particularly strong support for the consensus of dyadic members on objective data commonly used to ascertain socioeconomic status (SES)-income, occupation, education. The issue addressed in this paper concerns the consensus of young children and their parents on the SES characteristics of their families. More specifically, we ask: Do children provide an accurate report of their parents' occupational and educational status?2

Stability and change in patterns of french partisanship

Abstract: CO ONVERSE AND DUPEUX, in their well-known study of politicization in the French and American electorates, suspect that the "flash party" phenomenon in France (the Gaullist R.P.F. in 1947-1951, the Poujadist U.F.F. in 1956, and the Gaullist U.N.R. in 1958) occurs because a considerable portion of the electorate is not anchored to self-reinforcing long-term partisan commitments.' While 75 percent of the American sample identified with a political party, less than half of the 1958 French sample identified with a party or a tendance such as "left" or "right." Noting that the difference in proportions able to classify the father's partisanship revealed an even greater cross-national difference-86 percent of the American sample but only 26 percent of the French sampleConverse and Dupeux compared levels of partisanship in the two samples after controlling for knowledge of father's partisanship. The controlling operation removed the cross-national difference in partisanship to the marginals, i.e. to the difference in the proportion of respondents in each sample who were aware of their father's partisanship. This led the authors to conclude that the difference in

Dissecting the generation gap: intergenerational and intrafamilial similarities and differences

Abstract: A comparison of scores on five scales of social and political values taken by Columbia College students and their parents indicates that (1) there are highly significant differences between parents and sons, with the latter being much more radical in ideology, and (2) patterns of correlation between parents and children are low. Lucy N. Friedman is a Research Director at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City; Alice R. Gold is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Wesleyan University; and Richard Christie is Professor of Social Psychology at Columbia University.

Elite interviewing and social structure: an example from yugoslavia

Abstract: Growing interest in the study of elite groups is reflected in this issue of the Public Opinion Quarterly. Here, Bogdan Denitch describes a study of Yugoslav opinion leaders carried out by teams of scholars from the United States and Yugoslavia in 1968, with particular attention to problems of field work and their implications for similar studies. The author is a Senior Staff Associate at the Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University.

Instrumental response strategies in opinion interviews

Abstract: Studies of response bias in interviewing have emphasized distortions produced by the respondent's desire to please the interviewer. In this article, the authors focus on alternative response strategies that may be adopted under certain circumstances-in particular, on the attempt to make the respondent's opinion prevail. Charles K. Atkin is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Michigan State University, and Steven H. Chaffee is Associate Professor in the Mass Communications Research Center of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsisn.

White attitudes toward racial integration and the urban riots of the 1960's

Abstract: This section of the Quarterly is reserved for brief reports of research in progress, discussions of unsolved problems, methodological studies, and public opinion data not extensively analyzed or interpreted. Succinct case histories are welcomed, as well as hypotheses and insights that may be useful to other students of public opinion. Usually, material in this section will be shorter, more informal, and more tentative than in preceding pages of the Quarterly.