Communication Research

Do televised debates between presidential candidates stimulate campaign interest and learning? This question can best be answered by controlling the problem of self-selection: The people who normally watch may already be interested in the presidential campaign. Since the self-selection problem may be most acute during the fall campaign, we chose to study the effects of the February 20, 1980, debate involving seven Republican candidates. Experimental group subjects were asked to watch the debate in exchange for a small payment, while two control groups were not. Key measurement took place during a “surprise” March wave where none of the groups had any advance warning that they would be interviewed. In March, Experimentals continued to learn more than controls about events occurring after the first interview, and they displayed greater interest in the Democratic race while maintaining their previously stronger interest in the Republicans.

Interview data from a sample of 336 mothers of elementary school children were used to examine the relationship between family communication style (that is, the degree of concept orientation or socio-orientation) and mothers' comments to their children about the content of TV programs. The major findings were as follows: Concept orientation was associated positively with mothers' exploration of moral issues raised by TV programs in discussions with their children (but not with the giving of explicit directives about the implications of these issues for the children's own conduct). Concept orientation was also associated with mothers' use of TV as an occasion for giving their children information about historical, geographic, or scientific details pertinent to a TV program. Finally, concept orientation was associated with mothers' statements to their children that things on TV are just make-believe. Socio-orientation, on the other hand, was associated with mothers' statements to their children that various aspects of TV are true-to-life and, in particular, with maternal confirmations of the reality of TV portrayals of misfortune and evil.

Subjects were assigned to one of two apprehension conditions (high versus low) based on their responses to fear of victimization items embedded in a more general questionnaire. Subjects within each level of apprehension were randomly assigned to view one of two versions of a made-for-TV movie. The original version concluded with the antagonist getting shot. The second version was identical to the first except that it ended with the protagonist being shot. Physiological responses indicated that apprehensive viewers reacted more intensely to the program than their less apprehensive counterparts. Importantly, there were no significant differentiations in physiological response to noncrime content seen by the same subjects. Evaluations of the program's endings were also more negative for apprehensive viewers. Apprehensive viewers also found the antagonist to be more reprehensible than their less apprehensive counterparts. These findings are interpreted as being consistent with the view that individuals who are apprehensive about crime and victimization find crime drama particularly exciting and that this excitement induces more intense evaluations of the show. The present findings are analyzed with respect to prior research and theory and are shown to be compatible with the selective exposure hypothesis (apprehensive viewers are particularly attracted to crime drama).

This article reports on a study that treats recent growth in ethnic awareness as an opportunity to study cultural concepts at a more manageable level. Scholars in this area have pitted social class against ethnicity, and people moving up the status ladder were expected to assimilate. Ethnic communication holds ethnic groups together but also may mediate changes in ethnic behaviors and attitudes. Changes in social status are viewed as competing influences, acting directly and indirectly through changes in ethnic communication networks. Some 392 people represented 11 ethnic groups in a panel study that tapped communication and ethnic behaviors in 1976 and 4 years later. Correlations show income is negatively related to ethnic behaviors at time one but not at time two. Cross-lagged correlations show income is negatively associated with observing ethnic customs but not perceived change in ethnic ID; education is unrelated to either ethnic measure. Regression analysis shows that neither status variable is related to ethnic ID when communication and other variables have been controlled. Several path analytic models map the relationships presented in the literature; in all models, the two social status variables have no direct relationship on ethnic ID or behavior; some mediation occurs in the 1976 model but not the 1980 model.