A long tradition of social theory has emphasized the importance of communication to individuals' ties to their communities. Two major types of such ties are treated here: affective attachment and cognitive and active involvement. Datafrom a sample survey of 400 adult residents of Iowa are used to examine a structural equation model linking community attachment and involvement to newspaper use, local television news use, age, education, number of children in the home, localism, and population density. Among the results, we show that newspaper reading makes important contributions to both attachment and involvement, independently of the other variables in the model, while television news viewing does not. Error paths and correlations between the errors of the equations are estimated to aid future modeling work. Ovemiew. In Habits of the Heart, Bellah et al. argue that active involvement in group life is necessary to individual satisfaction.1 Happiness, in other words, derives from the meaningful contributions we make to the lives of others we care about. Bellah and his colleagues borrow this themefrom Tocqueville's Democracy in America? "Habits of the heart" is Tocqueville's evocative definition of mores, a definition that emphasizes the role of sentiment in the habits of action that weave the webs of social relation. Tocqueville was concerned with the power of the individuating forces that shape Americanculture and the organization of Americanlife. Thenecessary benefits of theinterdependency could belost if individuation went unchecked. Without theinvestment of energy and attention, thewebof interdependencies in which we are embedded fails, in turn, to support us. In public associations, party politics, organized religion, and importantly from our point of view, the newspaper, Tocqueville saw the possibility of a vital connection between the individual and the social surround. These were the forces countervailing an overweening individualism, and the newspaper was as important as any of them. "A newspaper is an advisor who. . . talks to you briefly every day of the common weal. . . . Newspapers therefore become more necessary in Eric W. Rothenbuhler is associate professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa. Lawrence J. Mullen is assistant professor of telecommunication at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Richard DeLaurell is assistant professor of communication studies at Southern Methodist Uniwrsity. Choon Ryul Ryu isadoctoral candidate in communication studies at the University ofIow(l. Parts of this project were supported by Downloaded fromproportion as men become more equal, and individualism more to be feared. Tosuppose that they only serve toprotect freedom would be to diminish their importance: they maintain ci~ilization."~ Communication activities, then, especially the use of public communication media, are seen as essential for the growth and maintenance of attachments to and involvement in the communities in which we live. In turn, community attachment and involvement are seen as ess...