Marilyn Jackson-Beeck

Newspaper Nonreaders: A National Profile.

2 See James E. Davis. Cumulative Codebook for the General Social Surveys. 1972-78 (Chicago: National Opinion Research Center. 1978. p. 148). An analysis of variance for thc four wars (1972. 1975. 1977. 1978) was significant at thc .oOl level. A series of I-tests showed the change not to be significant betwccn 1972 and 1975. but significant at the .05 lcvcl betwccn 1975 and 1977, a d 1977 and 1978. This indiutca that there was a signifiunt increase in non-readership after 1975.

Content Analysis of Televised Communication Events: The Presidential Debates

Content analysis has been included In political communication research less often than would seem useful. Typically, when It is employed manifest content is measured alone, to the exclusion of other varieties of content. This paper advocates more extended treatment of content data. It develops a fourfold scheme for classifying communication content, both verbal and nonverbal, and it illustrates the utility of the scheme in political communication research. Two dimensions underlie the classification scheme: (1) message consciousness and (2) message ambiguity. Illustrative data-gathering and analyses are based on the first 1960 and 1976 televised presidential debates, and on American National Election Study data. Findings suggest a diversity of political communication research hypotheses to be tested and derived from an expanded perspective on content analysis of communication events. On a more general level, the benefits of content analysis in mass communication research are brought to life.