David Tewksbury
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Communication, Faculty Member
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This chapter argues that while the ANES media exposure measures used in 2004 and before may have been problematic on methodological grounds, it is important to continue asking questions about the process of information acquisition. A... more
This chapter argues that while the ANES media exposure measures used in 2004 and before may have been problematic on methodological grounds, it is important to continue asking questions about the process of information acquisition. A measurement strategy based on information retention, this chapter contends, requires survey instrumentation that is election-specific and unlikely to be valid over long stretches of time. The resulting problems of longitudinal continuity make this approach unsuitable as a stand-alone measurement strategy for the ANES. The chapter suggests that an expanded set of retooled media exposure measures can provide researchers with the variables needed to better understand the predictors of campaign knowledge, political attitudes, and voter turnout.
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This chapter examines how citizens acquire political information using the internet. For some time, researchers have been looking at the form of news online and how news audiences find (or at least encounter), consume, and retain... more
This chapter examines how citizens acquire political information using the internet. For some time, researchers have been looking at the form of news online and how news audiences find (or at least encounter), consume, and retain political content there. The available literature suggests that major news outlets rarely create content exclusively for the online audience. In fact, news online is often similar to what one finds in print newspapers. Internet audiences are increasingly likely to seek news online, but there is little evidence thus far that this has resulted in replacement of print newspapers and television news. Online audiences tend to limit their reading to topics of special interest to them, though not to the extent that some observers expected. There is some evidence that learning from the news is different online than off. The reviewed research on learning from online news suggests that the national news audiences may become fragmented if they rely on the internet for...
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This study examines whether readers of the paper and online versions of a national newspaper acquire different perceptions of the importance of political issues. Using data from a weeklong experiment in which subjects either readthe print... more
This study examines whether readers of the paper and online versions of a national newspaper acquire different perceptions of the importance of political issues. Using data from a weeklong experiment in which subjects either readthe print version of the New York Times, the online version of that paper, or received no special exposure, this study finds evidence that people exposed to the Times for 5 days adjusted their agendas in response to that exposure and that print readers modified their agendas differently than did online readers. In the process of disseminating information about what Walter Lippmann called the “world outside,” the press does much more than merely inform its audiences. By selecting which public affairs stories will be reported and by giving specialprominence to some stories, the news media suggest which peo ple, issues, and events are especially deserving of public attention. Given the importance of this attention-directing function, we might ask whether the na...
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At the heart of Post-Broadcast Democracy is a portrait of the average American that few of us would dispute: If we had the choice, most of us would spend more time with entertainment media than with news. H. L. Menken famously opined that... more
At the heart of Post-Broadcast Democracy is a portrait of the average American that few of us would dispute: If we had the choice, most of us would spend more time with entertainment media than with news. H. L. Menken famously opined that few people went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, and the suggestion that the average American would avoid serious news in favor of entertainment has been a truism subject to little more than anecdotal verification. Things may have stayed that way were it not for changes in the television environment that have altered the relationship between news and entertainment programming. Setting the entertainment preference notion in the context of television channel proliferation, Markus Prior has produced a convincing and worrisome set of analyses of the evolving relationship between television consumption and political beliefs and behaviors. One of the most attractive elements of Prior's book is that we need not assume tha...
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... This anxiety reflects both negative affect and low levels of confidence regarding computer use (Heins-sen et al., 1987; for a more recent review, see Scott & Rockwell, 1997). It seems reason-able to... more
... This anxiety reflects both negative affect and low levels of confidence regarding computer use (Heins-sen et al., 1987; for a more recent review, see Scott & Rockwell, 1997). It seems reason-able to expect that comfort with using computers may influence willingness to use the ...
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Gatekeepers usually control news information. However, recent technological advancements might require rethinking previous gatekeeping hierarchies. Aggregation algorithms currently filter and present news information to millions of... more
Gatekeepers usually control news information. However, recent technological advancements might require rethinking previous gatekeeping hierarchies. Aggregation algorithms currently filter and present news information to millions of American Internet users daily. A content analysis demonstrates significant differences between health news content retrieved from Web sites that aggregate their articles from many sources (e.g., Google News), and those that focus on providing news from a limited number of sources (e.g., CNN.com). Explanations for these content differences are discussed, as are implications concerning health information seeking and Internet news consumption.
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As researchers took note of the emerging ubiquity of new media, they predicted how digital technologies would facilitate an increasingly fragmented audience. New media (i.e. technologies with online capabilities) were observed to possess... more
As researchers took note of the emerging ubiquity of new media, they predicted how digital technologies would facilitate an increasingly fragmented audience. New media (i.e. technologies with online capabilities) were observed to possess previously unmatched levels of content options and audience control over consumption. Many researchers have since observed that the current audience landscape has not reached previously anticipated degrees of fragmentation, leading to questions about potentially mitigating factors. In this study, we utilize emerging network analytical procedures to examine the role of interpersonal relationships in both exacerbating and mitigating audience fragmentation. We find support for the notion that social ties can mitigate fragmentation with regard to particular types of media use, notably, those most narrowly defined. Implications of this cross-disciplinary study are discussed.
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Cable television news channels and online news sites appear to offer interested voters the ability to follow presidential election campaigns more closely than ever before. However, survey research looking at the extent to which Americans... more
Cable television news channels and online news sites appear to offer interested voters the ability to follow presidential election campaigns more closely than ever before. However, survey research looking at the extent to which Americans are taking advantage of these newer media is incomplete. Rarely is new media use adequately assessed in surveys, and no extant study has simultaneously examined
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This study investigated how journalistic story frames can affect the thoughts and feelings of readers. Two hundred and seventy-eight students participated in two studies, reading and responding to a fictitious story about possible... more
This study investigated how journalistic story frames can affect the thoughts and feelings of readers. Two hundred and seventy-eight students participated in two studies, reading and responding to a fictitious story about possible reductions in state funding of their university. Stories were presented in one of four randomly assigned versions, all containing the same information, but varying in their opening and closing paragraphs according to the frame employed: human interest, conflict, or personal consequences. A control version contained the common body only. In Study 1, thoughts listed by participants indicated that the news frames—although they had no influence on the volume of cognitive responses—significantly affected the topical focus and evaluative implications of thoughts generated. In Study 2, evaluations and opinions offered by participants indicated that the news frames also subtly could affect audience decision making about matters of public policy. Implications for shaping public opinion are discussed.
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EJ624553 - The Interaction of News and Advocate Frames: Manipulating Audience Perceptions of a Local Public Policy Issue.
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Page 1. ACCIDENTALLY INFORMED: INCIDENTAL NEWS EXPOSURE ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB ~~ By David Tewksbury, Andrew J. Weaver, and Breff D. Maddex An important element of news delivery on the World Wide ...