How Newspaper Readership Affects Political Participation

Lee, Tien-Tsung; Lü, Wei

doi:10.1177/073953290802900302

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The number of observations reflects 4 months of data for 79 sites, i.e., 4 * 79 = 316. Lee and Wei (2008) find that a decrease in newspaper readership among 17-to 24-year olds is associated with a decline in political participation.…”

Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Indeed, studies have shown that the diffusion of news media is associated with positive spillovers on civic awareness and engagement (Mondak, 1995a,b;Lee and Wei, 2008;Oberholzer-Gee and Waldfogel, 2009;Gentzkow et al, 2009). Though the Internet facilitates the spread of information, it is not clear how or whether news organizations should charge for their content and how this might affect consumption of the news.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paywalls and the demand for news

Chiou

Tucker

2013

Information Economics and Policy

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Section: Empirical Analysismentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paywalls and the demand for news

Chiou

Tucker

2013

Information Economics and Policy

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“…Past research has detected significant differences in the effects of electronic versus print media on political knowledge. Newspaper readers, for instance, tend to obtain and retain more political information (Chaffee & Frank, 1996; Chaffee, Ward, & Tipton, 1970; Chaffee, Zhao, & Leshner, 1994; Clarke & Fredin, 1978; Kessel, 1980; Klapper, 1960; Lee & Wei, 2008) and can better discriminate among issues compared to television viewers (Choi & Becker, 1987; Wagner, 1983). As Viswanath and Finnegan (1996) argued, television's emphasis on entertainment rather than learning makes it a poor information provider.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Filter Blogs vs. Personal Journals: Understanding the Knowledge Production Gap on the Internet

Lü

2009

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

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Blog is currently a popular form of knowledge production on the Internet. Research shows that relatively few bloggers produce ''filter blogs,'' which focus on political knowledge. Most bloggers produce personal journals. This study uses national survey data to determine whether and why people have differential knowledge production in the form of different blogs. As knowledge is a critical indicator of social power, this research also examines whether blogs with different levels of political knowledge demonstrate unequal social power. Results show that bloggers with higher socioeconomic status contribute more filter blogs than lower-status segments. Even among filter bloggers, socioeconomic status, gender, and print-media use are associated with social influence. These findings suggest that a knowledge production gap merits more scholarly attention.Key words: Knowledge gap, Knowledge possession, Knowledge production, Filter blogs, Personal journals, Social power, Internet doi:10.1111/j. 1083-6101.2009.01452.x On September 8, 2004, only weeks before the U.S. presidential election, the CBS television network's 60 Minutes II aired a story regarding President George W. Bush's fulfillment of service obligations in the Texas Air National Guard. Some damaging memos written by Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, Bush's Guard supervisor, were exhibited in the report. The memos asserted that Bush received preferential treatment when he abruptly gave up flying and moved from Texas to Alabama to take part in a political campaign.Nineteen minutes into the CBS report, the authenticity of the memos was challenged by an active Air Force officer on a discussion forum at the conservative website FreeRepublic.com. About 4 hours later, postings from ''Buckhead,'' a Republican lawyer in Atlanta claimed that the typography of the memos was inconsistent with period typewriters (Pein, 2005;Scott, 2007). The buzz quickly made its way to other blogs such as Rathergate.com, Littlegreenfootballs.com, AndrewSullivan.com, InstaPundit.com, and DrudgeReport.com. Within 24 hours after the story aired, the authenticity issue brought about by bloggers resulted in having the story effectively retracted by mainstream media across the nation. Then, on September 15, CBS anchor Dan Rather acknowledged that there were serious questions about the authenticity of the documents. Two months later, this legendary anchor announced his resignation, after serving CBS for nearly 4 decades, in what has become known as ''Memogate. '' Memogate is just one of the examples illustrating the power of bloggers to produce their own knowledge, to mobilize citizens behind a cause, and to bring about social and political change (Kaye, 2007). As 8% of internet users in the US, or about 12 million Americans, keep a blog, and 39%, or 57 million Americans, read blogs (Pew, 2006), the role of bloggers as knowledge producers deserves more scholarly scrutiny. Nevertheless, past research primarily focused on the possession of knowledge as most knowledge gap research does. Little atten...

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“…This finding seems to counter Norris's (1996) contention that exposure to hard news in the newspaper and radio have a strong positive correlation with political interest and consequently, political participation as well as trust in public figures and institutions. Lee and Wei (2008) found that a decrease in newspaper reading among baby boomers and generation Y is associated with their decreasing political participation. They note that there has been a decline in political participation through signing petitions, attending rallies to voting in America.…”

Section: Research Question Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…They note that there has been a decline in political participation through signing petitions, attending rallies to voting in America. Young American's political involvement has declined the most precipitously (Lee & Wei, 2008). Ali and Fatima (2016) who found that newspaper reading among Pakistani youth, which together with the Internet are the most preferred medium of information seeking, are strongly and positively correlated with their political awareness, knowledge, interest, and participation, which explains the healthy democratic system in Pakistan.…”

Section: Research Question Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the relationship between media consumption and Kenya's political culture

Kipkoech¹

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INSTRUMENT laments about these definitions of the term, arguing that the term "has so many definitions and facets that any overlap in this myriad of definitions might actually be absent" (Yengoyan, 1989, p. 3). This slippery and ubiquitous nature perhaps led Baldwin et al. (2006) to note, "The definition of culture is a moving target, and those who choose to define it should ground their definitions in a fuller, multidisciplinary, and historicized accounting of the word" (p. 24). The following definitions give meaning to this "empty shell". According to Barnett (1988): Culture consists of the habits and tendencies to act in certain ways, but not the action themselves. It is the language patterns, values, attitudes, beliefs, customs, and thought patterns-not things or behaviors, but forms of things that people have in mind, in their models for perceiving, relating, and otherwise interpreting them. (p. 102) However, in this study, culture is operationalized following Kroeber and Kluckhohn's (1952) summarized definition-which is broader as it goes beyond the patterns of thought advanced by Barnett to include action and behavior: Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e., historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other, as conditional elements of future action. (p. 181) Clearly, the definitions above converge on the idea that culture consists of something that is shared and/or learned by a group of people even though the content of its definitions vary. These shared convictions, values, beliefs, and skills have a significant impact on politics, especially on democratic institutions (Inglehart, 1988). Putnam (2000) also argues that politics (e.g., political participation) cannot be examined in isolation of the culture of the masses. Moreover, Putnam posits that the success or failure of democratic institutions reflects the degree to which a culture of trust and participation is present, the two key variables in this study. Culture influences the relationship between polity and society, hence the term political culture. Political culture, according to Inglehart (1988), varies from one society to another and is passed on from one generation to the next through a process called socialization. One of the prominent socializing agents is the mass media which are rich sources of information about the politics, current affairs, and the government. But the seminal question here is: Does the media consumption have any relationship with people's political attitudes and behaviors (political culture)? Past Research on Media Use and Political Attitudes and Behaviors A substantial body of research has documented the relationship and the effect of the mass media on the formation, change, and/o...

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How Newspaper Readership Affects Political Participation

Abstract: This analysis reveals that a decrease in newspaper readership among 17- to 24- year olds is associated with their decreasing political participation but not with a decrease in their political knowledge.

Cited by 15 publications

References 31 publications

Paywalls and the demand for news

Paywalls and the demand for news

Filter Blogs vs. Personal Journals: Understanding the Knowledge Production Gap on the Internet

Examining the relationship between media consumption and Kenya's political culture

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