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In a study of 1300 junior and senior high school students in Wisconsin, McLeod, O'Keefe and Wackman (1969) reported similar levels of exposure to television public affairs content. Again, males viewed more heavily than females, and older students watched a greater amount than younger students. Using this same sample, Chaffee, Ward and Tipton (1970) found this male-female difference in exposure to 1968 campaign coverage on television. There were only slight age differences for campaign news.

Research indicates that public affairs newspaper use begins somewhat later, but becomes widespread by high school. Schramm, Lyle and Parker (1961) discovered daily newspaper reading among 51% of the sixth graders and 69% of the tenth graders in several Rocky Mountain communities. In another sample of San Francisco students, daily news reading increased from 48% in eighth grade to 66% in twelfth grade.

The Schramm, Lyle and Parker results showed little difference between males and females in readership. Those students with higher mental ability

were considerably more exposed than less intelligent youngsters in the sixth grade, but this gap decreased by the tenth grade. White-collar children were somewhat heavier readers than those from blue-collar backgrounds.

Specific readership of national news increased steadily with age in San Francisco, from 2% in the second grade to 20% in eighth grade to 36% in twelfth grade. None of the second graders read editorials, but 10% read these in eighth grade and 22% were exposed among the twelfth graders. Similar increases were shown for foreign news and local news. Almost two-fifths of the twelfth grade students cited one of the "hard news" categories as the part of the newspaper they would miss the most.

Chaffee, Ward and Tipton (1970) also found moderate exposure to serious news content during the 1968 campaign. Readership of the front page, political news, and Vietnam war news was significantly higher for the senior high school students than the junior high students.

A survey of sixth and ninth graders in Wisconsin by McLeod, Atkin and Chaffee (1972) showed that three-fourths read the newspaper every day. Among readers, 62% read the front page, 39% read local news, and 13% read editorial columnists. Exposure to each of these categories was higher for

older students.

Effects of Exposure to Political Content

These studies of children's mass media usage patterns demonstrate a considerable amount of exposure to politically relevant information, especially in older age groups. Unlike parents and schools, the mass media do not produce messages with the intent of politically socializing young members of society. Nevertheless, youth's customary contact with public affairs content in newspapers and television provides an opportunity for important informal learning from mass media sources. What are the consequences of political exposure for the socialization process?

The most significant investigation of this issue was conducted by Chaffee, Ward and Tipton (1970), who administered questionnaires to 1300 adolescents in both May and November of the 1968 presidential campaign. They found that public affairs media exposure was correlated moderately with level of political knowledge and with campaigning activity at each point in time. Examining cross-lagged correlations across the six-month period, they discovered that public affairs media use in May correlated +.33 with Novem ber political knowledge, and +.24 with November campaign activity. The

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knowledge correlation exceeded both the opposite time-order relationship and a "baseline" figure representing chance association, indicating a causal influence. However, the evidence for impact on campaign activity is somewhat

less conclusive.

Their findings show that viewing of news specials and

national news programs on television and reading of national and world affairs news in the daily newspaper both contribute to political socialization, with the newspaper influence slightly stronger.

In addition, Chaffee et al. asked students to rate the four primary socialization agents according to degree of importance in providing both information and personal opinion on two specific current topics. On the basis of self-reports on six-step rating scales, the mass media were clearly the most important information source (mean = 5.6), substantially above teachers (3.9), parents (3.3), and friends (2.6). As a source of opinion, the advantage still accrued to the media (4.5), followed by parents (3.3), teachers (3.2) and friends (2.5). Furthermore, students who relied primarily on the mass media scored substantially higher on the political knowledge index than those indicating that parents, teachers or peers were primary sources of information and opinion. The degree of dependence on the mass media was correlated +.24 with knowledge, while level of dependence on each of the interpersonal agents was negatively associated with knowledge.

This set of correlational and introspective data provides solid evidence of a substantial functional role for the media in the political learning process. Chaffee et al. conclude that "the use of mass media for public affairs information is an important factor in political socialization.

The

media are not simply a supplement to interpersonal communication, but constitute a major independent agency of personal political growth."

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Another correlational study indicates mass media impact on political knowledge among younger children. Conway, Stevens and Smith (1973) tested almost 300 students in upper elementary school grades in Maryland. Their findings showed that exposure to television news programming and newspaper current events coverage was moderately associated with perceptions of policy differences between political parties, awareness of the law-making process in government, and knowledge of governmental roles.

There are several research investigations featuring self-report perceptions of the role of the mass media versus other socialization agencies. In the most thorough study, Dominick (1972) administered questionnaires to more than 300 junior high school students in New York City. The mass media were the primary sources of information about the president (83%), vice-president (85%), Congress (59%) and the Supreme Court (50%). In each case, television was cited most often, followed by newspapers; moving from the most visible executive branch to the least visible court, references to television declined and reliance on the teacher increased.

Dominick also asked students to name the "best place to look for help in deciding whom to vote for." They most often referred to newspapers (36%), along with parents (26%) and television (21%). For the "best place to go for information about candidates and issues," the primary source was again newspapers (50%), which rated far ahead of television (20%) and parents (12%). Thus, the mass media were cited by a majority of children on all items in

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spend large amounts of time viewing television. As expected, he found that children from low-income homes, particularly boys, were more reliant on television and less dependent on parents for political information than middleincome children.

Self-report measures have also been used to determine sources of information about foreign affairs. A study by Hollander (1971) examined five basic agents of socialization to international conflict in general and to the Vietnam War in particular. High school seniors were asked specific questions about the nature, causes and consequences of war. When told to identify the sources of information they used as a basis for answering these questions, they cited the mass media in three-fifths of the cases. Second most important was the school, followed distantly by family, friends and church. Among mass media sources, television was clearly most crucial with newspapers next most often cited.

In a similar pair of studies, Colde vin (1972, 1973) asked high school juniors to define and describe their international political cognitions along several specified dimensions. Respondent identifications of most important sources for this information again showed that more than half relied primarily on the mass media, especially television. Next most important was the school, while family and friends were seldom mentioned.

All of these studies have dealt with cognitive effects of mass media exposure. Little research has explored variables other than political knowledge. Byrne (1969) examined affective feelings toward government in a survey of almost 400 junior and senior high school students in North Carolina. He discovered that adolescents exposed primarily to television news rather than newspaper news tended to think favorably about government in general, and perceive government as performing effectively.