The Mass Media, Knowledge and Evaluation of Community

An earlier phase of a research project proposed a theoretical model linking the key concepts of community commitment, media use, knowledge about community, community evaluation, and community pride as well as a series of social locator variables. The present phase of the study concerned itself with the central part of the model, ignoring the community commitment and community pride variables, guided by the expectation that media use is related to community knowledge, and subsequently, to community evaluation. A telephone survey of 589 household heads in Columbus, Ohio, measured frequency of media use, attention to media content, and attitudes about the community. Results suggest that the data are supportive of major relationships predicted. Persons knowledgeable about their community are likely to evaluate it highly, and that knowledge is, in certain instances, media dependent. Locator variables such as respondents' level of education continue to have impact on knowledge even after media use is controlled, however, indicating that media use is not the sole method by which these variables have their impact on knowledge. There is little consistent evidence that media variables behave differently within different social strata. There is evidence, however, that, at least in the case of local television news, attention to that news is a more important variable than mere use of it. The study of media and media effects with regard to community is one way of investigating basic components and relationships that make up modern society. (Appendixes include analyses measures, four data tables, a figure of the theoretical model, and a list of references.) (NKA)