Voter learning in the 2004 presidential election: Did the media matter?

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Volumn 83, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 25-42

  Drew, Dan ^a   Weaver, David ^b  

^a INDIANA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ELECTORAL GEOGRAPHY; MEDIA ROLE; POLITICAL PROCESS; VOTING BEHAVIOR;

NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 33745308974     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769900608300103     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Newsweek, 15 November 2004, 124.
2. Lee Rainie, Michael Cornfield, and John Horrigan, "The Internet and Campaign 2004," The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 6 March 2005, 1. Also available at .
3. Walter R. Mears, "A Reporter's Look at the 2004 Campaign, Journalism Studies 6 (May 2005): 229-32.
4. "Contest Lacks Content," Media Tenor Quarterly Journal (1, 2005): 12-15.
5. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, The People's Choice (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1948).
6. For a summary of this research, see Doris A. Graber, Mass Media and American Politics, 6th ed. (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002), ch. 7 and 237-48.
7. Key studies finding political cognitive effects include Steven H. Chaffee, L. Scott Ward, and Leonard P. Tipton, "Mass Communication and Political Socialization," Journalism Quarterly 47 (winter 1970): 647-59;
8. Maxwell E. McCombs and Donald L. Shaw, "The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media," Public Opinion Quarterly 36 (summer 1972): 176-87;
9. Maxwell E. McCombs, "Mass Communication in Political Campaigns: Information, Gratification, and Persuasion," in Current Perspectives in Mass Communication Research, ed. F. Gerald Kline (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1972), 169-94;
10. and Lee B. Becker, Maxwell E. McCombs, and Jack M. McLeod, "The Development of Political Cognitions," in Political Communication, ed. Steven H. Chaffee (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1975), 21-63.
11. Young Jun Son and Sung Tae Kim, "Do the Media Matter to Voters? An Analysis of Presidential Campaigns, 1984-1996" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Washington, DC, 2001).
12. Xinshu Zhao and Steven H. Chaffee, "Campaign Advertisements versus Television as Sources of Political Issue Information," Public Opinion Quarterly 59 (spring 1995): 41-65.
13. Steven H. Chaffee, Xinshu Zhao, and Glenn Leshner, "Political Knowledge and the Campaign Media of 1992," Communication Research 21 (June 1994): 305-24.
14. David Weaver and Dan Drew, "Voter Learning in the 1992 Presidential Election: Did the 'Nontraditional' Media and Debates Matter?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 72 (spring 1995): 7-17.
15. Mira Sotirovic and Jack M. McLeod, "Knowledge as Understanding: The Information Processing Approach to Political Learning," in Handbook of Political Communication Research, ed. Lynda L. Kaid (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2004), 357-94.
16. Pippa Norris, "Tuned Out Voters? Media Impact on Campaign Learning" (paper presented at the Politeia Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 2002).
17. Also see Pippa Norris, A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
18. See Willam P. Eveland Jr., Andrew F. Hayes, Dhavan V. Shah, and Nojin Kwak, "Understanding the Relationship Between Communication and Political Knowledge: A Model Comparison Approach Using Panel Data," Political Communication 22 (October-December 2005): 423-46;
19. R. Lance Holbert, "Intramedia Mediation: The Cumulative and Complementary Effects of News Media Use," Political Communication 22 (October-December 2005): 447-61.
20. Thomas E. Patterson and Robert D. McClure, The Unseeing Eye: The Myth of Television Power in National Elections (New York: Putnam's, 1976).
21. Keena Lipsitz, "The Significance of Rich Information Environments: Voter Knowledge in Battleground States" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, 2004).
22. Dan Drew and David Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1988 Presidential Election: Did the Debates and the Media Matter?" Journalism Quarterly 68 (spring/summer 1991):27-37;
23. David Weaver and Dan Drew, "Voter Learning in the 1990 Off-Year Election: Did the Media Matter?" Journalism Quarterly 70 (summer 1993): 356-68;
24. Weaver and Drew, "Voter Learning in the 1992 Presidential Election";
25. Dan Drew and David Weaver, "Voter Learning in the 1996 Presidential Election: Did the Media Matter?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75 (summer 1998): 292-301;
26. and David Weaver and Dan Drew, "Voter Learning and Interest in the 2000 Presidential Election: Did the Media Matter?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 78 (winter 2001): 787-98.
27. William L. Benoit, Glenn Leshner, and Sumana Chattopadhyay, "A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Televised Political Advertising" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, New York, NY, 2005).
28. Sidney Kraus, ed., The Great Debates: Carter vs. Ford (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979);
29. see also Kathleen Hall Jamieson and David S. Birdsell, Presidential Debates: The Challenge of Creating an Informed Electorate (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988);
30. and Sidney Kraus, Televised Presidential Debates and Public Policy, 2d ed. (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2000).
31. James B. Lemert, "Do Televised Presidential Debates Help Inform Voters?" Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 37 (winter 1993): 83-94.
32. Chaffee, Zhao, and Leshner, "Political Knowledge and the Campaign Media of 1992."
33. Weaver and Drew, "Voter Learning in the 1992 Presidential Election;
34. Weaver and Drew, "Voter Learning and Interest in the 2000 Election."
35. William L. Benoit, Mitchell S. McKinney, and Michael T. Stephenson, "Effects of Watching Primary Debates in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Campaign," Journal of Communication 52 (June 2002): 316-31.
36. William L. Benoit and Glenn J. Hansen, "Presidential Debate Watching, Issue Knowledge, Character Evaluation, and Vote Choice," Human Communication Research 30 (January 2004): 121-44.
37. Stephen J. Farnsworth and Diana Owen, "Internet Use and the 2000 Presidential Election" Electoral Studies 23 (2004): 415-29.
38. See Charles K. Atkin, John Galloway, and Oguz B. Nayman, "News Media Exposure, Political Knowledge and Campaign Interest," Journalism Quarterly 53 (summer 1976): 231-37;
39. and David H. Weaver, Doris A. Graber, Maxwell E. McCombs, and Chaim H. Eyal, Media Agenda-Setting in a Presidential Election (New York: Praeger, 1981), especially ch. 5.
40. See, for example, Debra Rosenberg and Karen Breslau, "Winning the Values Vote," Newsweek, 15 November 2004, 23.
41. Project for Excellence in Journalism, "The State of the News Media 2004: An Annual Report on American Journalism," Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University (available at ).