L. Erwin Atwood

Illusions of Media Power: The Third-Person Effect

This study assesses the third-person effect and its alternatives, a first-person effect and equal media effects, among a panel of respondents following the prediction of a severe earthquake and after the earthquake failed to materialize. The theoretical perspectives are provided by social comparisons and cognitive adaption theory. The findings indicate that both third-person and first-person effects result from downward social comparisons following from differences in belief in the message, accuracy of information about the predictability of earthquakes, and perception of the beliefs of others about the message. These media effects and their correlates are interpreted as illusions people create to cope with a predicted disaster and later revise to reflect situational contingencies.

How Newsmen and Readers Perceive Each Others' Story Preferences

Q analysis shows that among newsmen desk-bound editors are least able to predict subscriber preferences; but on the whole newsmen and readers show high agreement in their preferences.

Applying Situational Communication Theory to an International Political Problem: Two Studies

Two Hong Kong telephone surveys, in 1983 and 1985, assess the applicability of Grunigs situational theory of publics, developed in organizational and environmental contexts, to a political problem, the return of Hong Kong to China in July 1997. Theses studies also explore the relationship between instrumental utility and opinion publics. In 1985, but not in 1983, the theory consistently predicted which publics would talk about the “1997 problem,” but those patterns did not hold for media use. Extrinsic utility discriminated between levels of involvement but not opinion publics. Information relevance was situation specific and discriminated among publics and between levels of involvement, although somewhat inconsistently. The problem-specific measures appear to function better within the theorys context.

A Path Model of Political Cognitions and Attitudes, Communication, and Voting Behavior in a Congressional Election.

A path model was developed to assess the effects of early campaign cognitions and attitudes on media use and interpersonal communication, subsequent cognitions, attitudes, and vote. Two interpretations of possible outcomes were postulated—agenda‐setting and uses and gratifications. It was argued that an agenda‐setting interpretation would be typified by a predominant effect of the cognitive elements in the model while a uses and gratifications interpretation would follow from a strong effect of the attitudinal components which would indicate the functioning of selective processes in the communication channels. The findings indicate a uses and gratifications interpretation best fits the data. Relatively stronger effects of attitudinal components on both interpersonal communication and media use and subsequent effect of attitude on vote suggest the functioning of selective processes.

Information sources and voting in a primary and general election

There is a considerable variance in audience perceptions of media use and credibility between primary and general elections. The authors are in the School of Journalism and the Department of Speech, respectively, at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. They gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Drs. Robert 0. Hirsch and Larry Kokkeler in the collection of data for this report.

How the Tehran Press Responded to the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

On January 9, 1978, Iranian troops in the central city of Qum killed scores of demonstrators and wounded hundreds who were incensed by a n article published a day earlier in the Tehran newspaper EtteIaat.l Thirteen months later, on February 1 1 , 1979, the dynasty of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fell ending 2,500 years of absolute monarchy. The monarchy was succeeded by the Islamic Republic. A new era had begun. This paper describes changes in content characteristics of the Tehran press before, during and after the revolution. Except for a few brief periods, Iranian news media have been government controlled. Press control in the prerevolutionary period resembled what Siebert, Peterson and Schramm2 refer to as the authoritarian model. Radio and television were government owned and operated while the

Perception of television program preferences among teenagers and their parents

When we have to report on someone elses program preferences, how well do we do? Can parents and children accurately perceive each others’ viewing pattern? Dr. Atwood is an assistant professor of journalism at Southern Illinois University. He was associate director of the Mass Communication Research Bureau of the University of Iowa School of Journalism when this study was conducted (with some financial support from the University of Iowa Extension Division.)