Showing papers in "Public Opinion Quarterly in 1973"

The issues of the sixties: an exploratory study in the dynamics of public opinion

Abstract: This article relates news media coverage of major issues in the 1960's to public opinion and to the realities underlying those issues. It challenges some major assumptions-for example, that the media provide a useful picture of what is "really" going on-and discusses implications for policymakers and future research. The author is Assistant Professor of Communication Research at the College of Human Development, Pennsylvania State University.

Aging and cohort succession: interpretations and misinterpretations

Abstract: The two processes of aging and cohort succession underlie many of the changes and trends of concern to social scientists, and as the relevant data accumulate, better understanding of both individual and social change becomes more nearly attainable. The purpose of this article is to further such understanding by providing guideposts for the analysis of data that often appear to be deceptively simple. Language: en

How being interviewed affects voting: an experiment

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.

“crime and law enforcement on prime-time television

Abstract: During the unrest of the late 196os considerable attention focused on crime and law enforcement in the United States. Viewers of network newscasts witnessed confrontations between police and demonstrators culminating in the 1968 Democratic convention. Popular reaction ranged from an increased demand for law and order to a diminished respect for law enforcement, especially among young people. In the midst of this polarization, social scientists became more interested in the cultural norms related to crime and law enforcement. Obviously, the evolution of these norms takes place amid a variety of influences. The family, school, friends, siblings, and actual contact with crime and police all interact to form an individual's attitude. One potential source of influence, however, received only minimal attention from researchers: mass media in general, and television entertainment shows in particular. The present study uses content analysis to describe the way in which TV entertainment shows portray crime, criminals, victims, and law enforcement.

Quality versus quantity in televised political ads

Abstract: Political candidates have relied increasingly on television advertising over the past decade, with expenditures by major office-seekers reaching $34 million in the 1970 campaigns.1 While a number of election analysts and advertising practitioners argue that these televised appeals have a major impact on the mass public, many social scientists feel that few voters are actually affected. This study examines how voters use political advertising, focusing on patterns of exposure and attention, information acquisition, and voting intentions. Charles K. Atkin is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Michigan State University, Lawrence Bowen is an Instructor of Journalism at Northern Illinois University, Oguz B. Nayman is an Assistant Professor of Technical Journalism at Colorado State University, and Kenneth G. Slieinkopf is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Florida Technological University.

Television and adolescent conventionality: an exploratory study

Abstract: The degree to which psychological involvement with television is associated with conventional values, attitudes, and behaviors among adolescent youth was investigated in two independent questionnaire studies of high school and college youth. The findings of both studies strongly suggest that involvement with television is associated with a syndrome of conventionality. These findings were consistent for younger and older adolescents, for males and females at both age levels, and for samples which differed markedly in a variety of other respects. Russell H. Weigel is a doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado. Richard Jessor is a Program Director in the Institute of Behavioral Science and Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado.

Self-concepts and television viewing among women

Abstract: In studies of TV program preference, personality traits have been relegated to the background. This article, in which TV viewing, itself, is considered value-expressive behavior, compares the self-concepts and ideal self-concepts of light and heavy TV viewers and relates them to demographic variables. The author is Associate Professor of Marketing and Communications at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He wishes to thank the Los Angeles Times for permission to publish these data and Professor David McConaughy for his comments on the manuscript.

Mass communication and socialization

Abstract: HREE PASSIONS, simple but overwhelmingly strong have 117governed my life," Bertrand Russell (1951) informs us in the opening sentence of his autobiography. Apart from "the longing for love" and "the search for knowledge," his third passion, which I stress now, was "unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind." He tells us, "echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart." His beginning makes a fine beginning for-us. My primary purpose here is to emphasize important and neglected problems in the study of mass communication and socialization and to suggest some new and needed lines of theorizing and research, rather than to review past work. Russell's remarks, however remote from the topic they may seem, will free our thoughts from their conventional moorings and start us on a new and fruitful course. A more traditional treatment of the topic can wait and will be presented later.

Implications of new information technology

Abstract: T HE FOCUS HERE is on new or changing information technology. This is consistent with the social science research strategy of deviant case analysis or examining variance. In stable situations, the relevant variables are confounded; it is when things begin to change that we often get an insight into the function and significance of previously stable components. Changes in information technology can be examined either as a dependent variable of social science interest (what are the causal factors in our culture leading to changes in information technology?) or as an independent variable (what social effects follow from changes in information technology?). From the perspective of the larger society, examining the major social impacts or trends that follow from changes in information technology is most significant, although we ought not focus too narrowly on the media of traditional interest to mass communication research. Print and broadcast mass media are undergoing technological change, but the major social impact of changes in information technology is likely to follow from changes in computer information-processing or office copying machines. The greatest social impact is likely to follow from the media undergoing the greatest change. The key change that influences how widely new information technology diffuses through the society seems to be the reduction of the amount of matter-energy required to transmit or store information. Major reductions in the unit cost of the matter-energy component of information storage and transmission can lead to wide diffusion and major social impact. The computer information utility* is still some years away, but the unit costs of computer information processing are dropping faster than costs of conventional media and hence deserve careful examination (Sack

“the cardinal test of a southerner”: not race but geography

Abstract: Sociologists who have studied the American South have, by and large, been inclined to attribute cultural differences between white Southerners and other Americans to regional differences in occupational structure and economic circumstance.' With the economic development and "national incorporation" of the South proceeding apace, advocates of this view assume that regional cultural differences are also diminishing. Indeed, many of the most dramatic and visible ones have been,2 but an accumulating body of literature demonstrates that many, more subtle, regional cultural differences not only remain, but show no sign of disappearing.3 This suggests that the orthodox materialist view is-at the very least-inadequate, and that we must look elsewhere for the explanation of some white Southern peculiarities. White Southerners do not comprise the only group in America that has surprised sociologists by maintaining its identity and distinctiveness. During the past decade, especially, we have come to realize that many immigrant ethnic groups are still intact, and

Tracking respondents in longitudinal surveys: some preliminary considerations

Abstract: Over the last fifteen years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of follow-up and panel studies being undertaken, despite sharply rising interview costs (especially for longitudinal surveys) and the heightened sophistication and wariness of potential respondents. Given this increased interest and these potential problems, it seems appropriate to suggest a possible research strategy for ensuring successful follow-up of respondents in diachronic surveys. Crider et al. have done this in a recent issue of this journal.1 However, like many other researchers, they neglected an important phase of any strategy for panel designs. This research note is intended to serve as an addendum to the article by Crider et al. There is a certain body of information that it is helpful to have before the trackdown begins. In fact, one of the most helpful guidelines that can be suggested to a researcher contemplating a longitudinal study is that the best time to begin the execution of a panel design is even before the first-wave interviews have been administered. Even if one does not intend at T1 to conduct a panel interview, it is wise to collect some limited follow-up information if there is any chance that one may decide post facto to reinterview. In other words, it is recommended that all surveys be designed as though they were to be

Class and party support in the united states: recent and emerging trends

Abstract: In this article Norval Glenn brings trend data in voting and party identification to bear on the proposition that traditional class differences in party support have vanished or are being reversed. He concludes that although class polarization in the party choice of major-party identifiers did not decline appreciably, if at all, during the 1960's, class-based voting outside the South has declined almost steadily since 1948. Some implications of these findings are discussed. The author is Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

A comparison of the voting preferences of likely voters and likely nonvoters

Abstract: In elections in the United States, even national general elections, relatively large proportions of the population old enough to vote do not do so. In the six off-year congressional elections from 1950 through 1970 inclusive (that is, congressional elections not coincident with presidential elections), the percentage of the population of voting age not voting for House candidates averaged about 56 percent. In the six presidential elections from 1952 through 1972 inclusive, the comparable percentage who did not vote for President averaged about 39 percent. Among these six elections the lowest turnout occurred in 1972, when it appears, at the time of writing, that about 45 percent of those of voting age did not vote for President. Because such a large share of the voting-age population does not vote, election research has been concerned with the problem of identifying likely voters and likely nonvoters in advance of an election. This in turn has raised the question of what a comparison of the voting preferences of likely voters and nonvoters would show, which is the subject addressed by this paper.