Opinion Leadership and Television News Uses

Transcription

1 CURRENT RESEARCH Opinion Leadership and Television News Uses MARK R. LEVY RECENT studies (Lin, 1973; Robinson, 1976) have reported that public affairs opinion leaders do not show markedly higher rates of mass media exposure than those not defined as leaders, particularly with regard to television news. These findings are said to call into question an important assumption of the two-step hypothesis (Lazarsfeld et al., 1948), namely, that because of their greater exposure to the mass media, opinion leaders acquire information which can be retransmitted to other opinion leaders or less attentive individuals. However, by focusing on the quantity of television news exposure, previous research leaves unexamined the possibility that the quality of media-person interactions will differ for opinion leaders and nonleaders, and that qualitative differences in television news uses may have important consequences for the flow of information and influence from television to the public. One qualitative aspect of the audience experience with television news which may be of particular significance in the public opinion process concerns the uses and gratifications associated with television news exposure. It has been demonstrated, for example, that recall of news items is greater for persons who use television news "to keep informed" than for persons who watch in order "to relax" (Neuman, 1976). Two uses and gratifications of television news which have been Current Research This section of POQ is reserved for brief reports of research in progress, discussions of unsolved problems, methodological studies, and public opinion data not extensively analyzed or interpreted. Succinct case histories are welcomed, as well as hypotheses and insights that may be useful to other students of public opinion. Usually, material in this section is shorter, more informal, and more tentative than in preceding pages. Mark R. Levy is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York, Albany. Data for this study were gathered under a research grant from the National Association of Broadcasters. Public Opinion Quarterly 1978 by The Trustees of Columbia University Published by EUevier North-Holland, Inc. 0O33-362X/78/O042-O4O2/S1.25

2 OPINION LEADERSHIP AND TELEVISON NEWS USES 483 empirically identified (Levy, 1977b) may be relevant to public affairs opinion leadership. 1 The first has been labeled "cognitive orientation" and suggests that some people watch newscasts in order to gain information about the external world. This cognitively oriented interaction with the media affords an opportunity to activate, test, reinforce, or perhaps modify their attitudes about "newsworthy" people and events. The second, basically unrelated dimension has been called "surveillance-reassurance," to indicate a tendency for people to watch the news in order to gain information to reflect upon or to give context to their lives or social situation. (For items defining each dimension, see the Appendix.) It is hypothesized that opinion leaders actively use the news to increase their store of information and opinion, while nonleaders make little or no use of their exposure for this purpose. Such a difference might explain how public affairs opinion leaders may watch no more television news than nonleaders and still be able to play their postulated leadership role. Method During October and November, 1975, personal interviews were conducted with a sample of 240 adults living in the Albany County, New York Urbanized Area. Respondents were chosen from 40 randomly selected housing clusters, with quota controls for respondent's sex, age, and work-force participation. Respondents were screened to insure that each watched at least one television newscast weekly. Public affairs opinion leadership was measured by a three-item index, developed by Troldahl and Van Dam (1964) and modified by Levy (1977a). (See Appendix.) Ten uses and gratifications propositions defining the two gratifications dimensions discussed above were presented to the respondents, along with other items. Each respondent was asked to indicate his or her support for each proposition on a five-point scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." Factor scales were created from the uses and gratifications propositions, with respondents' support for each proposition scored from "strongly agree" equal to 5 to "strongly disagree" equal to 1. 1 The two dimensions were generated by principal factoring with iteration followed by oblique rotation (delta=0) to terminal solution, performed on a set of 40 uses and gratifications propositions (Levy, 1977a). Five factors resulted with eigenvalues in excess of 1.0. The surveillance-reassurance dimension had a coefficient alpha of.90 and explained 50.6 percent of the variance in the data; the cognitive orientation factor had a coefficient alpha of.71 and explained an additional 11.6 percent of variance. Propositions which did not load unambiguously to either of these two factors or which had factor loadings smaller than.20 were excluded from the factor scales reported here.

3 404 MARK R. LEVY The sum of each respondent's support scores for the propositions defining each dimension constituted his or her overall factor scale score. Results In general, public affairs opinion leaders did not watch television news with much greater frequency than nonleaders. Scores on the index of public affairs opinion leadership were uncorrelated with exposure to either the 6 P.M. or 11 P.M. local newscasts (r =.06 and.02), and only weakly correlated with exposure to network news programs (r = AT). 2 This finding is similar to the results of recent studies and makes it even more important to examine possible qualitative differences in the audience experience with television news. As hypothesized, there was a direct relationship between opinion leadership scores and endorsement of the cognitive orientation dimension (r =.358, p <.01). As opinion leadership increased, individuals claimed that their use of television news for information and opinion acquisition also increased. 3 However, public affairs opinion leadership was not significantly associated with using television news for Surveillance-Reassurance (r Table 1. Pearson Correlations between Public Affairs Opinion Leadership, TV Newt Exposure, and TV News Uses and Gratifications 1. Public affairs opinion leadership *.358* P.M. news exposure " * P.M. news exposure Network news exposure " Cognitive orientation dimension Surveillance-reassurance dimension p <.01. b p < Some 6.3 percent of otherwise eligible respondents were not interviewed because they did not watch at least one newscast weekly. If, as seems unlikely, all these ineligibles were also opinion leaders, then the correlations between opinion leadership and exposure might have been even weaker if these nonviewers had been included. If, as seems equally unlikely, all these nonviewers were also nonleaders, then the correlations with exposure would have been strengthened by their inclusion. Previous studies (Robinson, 1976, for example) suggest, however, that neither opinion leaders nor nonleaders are overrepresented among nonviewers. 3 This association and the correlation between opinion leadership and the surveillance-reassurance dimension which is reported below were not significantly affected by statistical controls for either rates of television news exposure or respondent education.

4 OPINION LEADERSHIP AND TELEVISION NEWS USES «05 =.082, p =.11). This result does not deny the possibility that both opinion leaders and nonleaders make a personal identity use of the newscasts. Rather, it suggests that both types of viewers use their exposure in varying degrees to meet these personal needs. Discussion The ability of the mass media to affect public knowledge and opinion depends on several factors, not the least of which is the subjective orientation of audience members to the media and its messages (Katz et al., 1974). Even though public affairs opinion leaders and nonleaders have similar rates of TV news exposure, opinion leaders claim to watch the news differently. Public affairs opinion leaders apparently use their television news exposure for cognitive orientation. However, television is not their sole source, and possibly not even their major source, of news. 4 The evidence presented here does not demonstrate that information and opinion actually flow from the mass media to opinion leaders. Whether actual information gain in fact occurs remains a subject for future research. Moreover, although less opinion-active individuals seek fewer cognitive gratifications from their television news exposure, most still seek and experience some cognitive gratification and gain in information. It is also possible that whatever information nonleaders do acquire has only limited meaning or relevance in their lives. By contrast, news which meets both the cognitive and personal needs of opinion leaders could be used by them to interpret and reinterpret public events for others. Future research should examine whether opinion leaders communicate such contextualizing opinions to both other opinion leaders and nonleaders. Appendix Items Defining the Index of Public Affairs Leadership and the TV News Uses and Gratifications Dimensions INDEX OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS LEADERSHIP 1. About how often would you say people ask you for your opinion on things which get a lot of attention in the news on television? 4 Indeed, public affairs opinion leaders expressed some "dissatisfactions" with the "inadequate" content of television news (Levy, 1977a), and, in fact, 67.9 percent of respondents with scores in the highest third of the opinion leadership index also read the news sections of a newspaper nearly every day.

5 <0«MARK R. LEVY 2. How important is it to you to be considered a person who is well informed about things in the news? 3. Compared with your circle of friends, are you more likely or less likely to be asked for your opinions about things that are on the TV news? COGNITIVE ORIENTATION DIMENSION 1. I sometimes see something on the television news and then follow it up in more detail later. 2. I like to compare my own ideas with what the commentators say. 3. Television nlator say. 3. Television news provides food for thought. 4. Keeping up with the news on television gives you plenty to talk about. SURVEILLANCE-REASSURANCE DIMENSION 1. Television news makes me realize that my life is not so bad after all. 2. I watch television news so I won't be surprised by higher prices and things like that. 3. Television news helps me forget about my own problems. 4. Television news lets me see how big issues are finally worked out. 5. I watch television news because I like to get the news first so I can pass it on to other people. 6. Somehow I feel more secure and reassured after I watch the news. References Katz, Elihu, Jay G. Blumler, and Michael Gurevitch 1974 "Utilization of mass communication by the individual." Pp in J. Blumler and E. Katz (eds.), The Uses of Mass Communications. Beverly Hills, Ca.: Sage. Lazarsfeld, Paul, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet 1948 The People's Choice. New York: Columbia University Press. Levy, Mark R. 1977a "The uses and gratifications of television news." Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Sociology, Columbia University. 1977b "Experiencing television news." Journal of Communication 27: Lin, Nan 1973 The Study of Human Communication. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Neuman, W. Russell 1976 "Patterns of recall among television news viewers." Public Opinion Quarterly 40: Robinson, John R "Interpersonal influence in election campaigns: two step-flow hypotheses." Public Opinion Quarterly 40: Troldahl, Verling, and Robert Van Dam 1964 "A new scale for identifying public affairs opinion leaders." Journalism Quarterly 42: