Interpersonal Communication and News Comprehension

This study examines the role of interpersonal and mass media channels in public awareness and comprehension of major news stories. Unlike previous research which asks about respondent perceptions of their “main source” for news, this study attempts to determine actual comprehension of stories that had been in the news during the previous week. On the basis of two separate probability samples, respondent awareness and comprehension of a week's news was measured and related to demographic, news media use, and interpersonal discussions variables. A Multiple Classification Analysis of the data indicates that conversation about the news is a major and often overlooked correlate of comprehension, and that interpersonal channels may play at least as important a role in the public's awareness and understanding of the news as exposure to the news media.