This paper was presented at the Association for Education in Journalism
and Mass Communication in Toronto, Canada, August 2004.
If you have questions about this paper, please contact the author
directly. If you have questions about the archives, email
[log in to unmask] For an explanation of the subject line, send email to
[log in to unmask] with just the four words, "get help info aejmc," in the
body (drop the "").
(Oct 2004)
Thank you.
Elliott Parker
************************************************************************
MacDougall Student Paper Award Entry
Growing Up With Parents Who Read and Watch the News:
What is the Effect on College Students?
By
Amy Zerba
School of Journalism
University of Texas at Austin
5200 North Lamar Blvd. Apt. H301, Austin, TX 78751
Phone: (512) 467-7984 (h); (512) 699-2347 (c)
[log in to unmask]
Submitted to the Newspaper Division, MacDougall Student Paper Award Entry
of the AEJMC National Convention, Toronto, Canada, August 2004
P
MacDougall Student Paper Award Entry
P
Abstract
Growing Up With Parents Who Read and Watch the News:
What is the Effect on College Students?
By Amy Zerba
School of Journalism
University of Texas at Austin
Submitted to the Newspaper Division, AEJMC National Convention
Toronto, Canada, August 2004
As a result of using social learning theory and uses and gratifications as
theoretical frameworks, this study shows that parents' regular use of
newspaper and television news does influence students' news exposure in
college. Results from the Web-based survey also showed students' attachment
to print and television does influence exposure to newspaper and television
news. Findings show attachment to reading print is a consequence of parents
reading newspapers and a determinant of students reading newspapers. The
results suggest parents' modeling behavior of media use has an effect.
P
Growing Up With Parents Who Read and Watch the News:
Are There Effects and Can They Last?
By Amy Zerba
Introduction
Young adults in their 20s have never been regular newspaper readers and
there is little evidence that they will get into the habit (Pew Research
Center, 2002). Asked if they read a newspaper yesterday in a nationwide
survey, one-quarter of those between the ages of 18-30 had, compared to 56
percent of those 65 and older who had (Pew Research Center). Television
news habits follow the same pattern with those 65 and older almost three
times as likely to regularly watch nightly network news as those under age
30. Getting young adults and children interested in reading or watching the
news is nothing new. Some newspapers have responded by printing content
solely for young readers while educators have long since included different
media in the classroom as a way for students to become effective, skillful
and critical thinkers about the news, skills media literacy proponents say
are necessary to participate in a democratic society. While these attempts
are made to motivate young adults to be news consumers, reading and
watching the news relies on several variables – time, cost, use of other
mediums and level of interest.
Why is studying news consumption behavior of twenty-somethings so
important? Media messages give readers and viewers a vision of the world
and an understanding of themselves and their culture. People can acquire a
"common knowledge" from media and refer to stories they've heard or read
when learning new information (Wicks, 1995). Studies that examine
predictors of television viewing by children – such as age, ethnicity,
parental education and parental involvement – show that parents are
influential models for the amount of viewing by children. Key socializing
variables for newspaper reading include access to newspapers at home and
parental involvement. This study examines parental influence on young
adults' newspaper and television news habits. Previous studies that have
explored how children are socialized to the news media, social learning
theory and the uses and gratifications approach provide the theoretical
framework to this study.
Theoretical Framework/Literature Review
The decline in newspaper reading and interest in TV news by young adults
have been of great interest to scholars and the news industry for decades.
Researchers as well as media experts both have sought answers to why users
read or watch TV news and why they do not. Studies have focused on the role
of exposure to news media in childhood in helping shape future habits of
media use, demographic predictors of media use, and consumers' uses and
needs for different media (Lain, 1986). Social learning theory and uses and
gratifications provide a theoretical framework for understanding news media
use among young adults.
Social Learning Theory
According to Albert Bandura and Richard Walters' social learning theory,
people learn by experience or observation. Most behavior is learned by
observation through modeling (Bandura, 1977). Modeling can be words,
pictures or live actions and serves principally as a way to transmit new
forms of behavior. Social learning theory is defined as the learning of
socially expected and therefore appropriate and desirable behaviors (Khan &
Cangemi, 1979). From observing, people form ideas of how new behaviors are
performed. They then code this information in verbal symbols or mental
images to serve as guides for future action. In the early years of
childhood, children's modeling occurs mostly through imitation.
Identification occurs when a person adopts the behavior of another person
with whom the child has a satisfying relationship, such as a mother or
father. As children develop mental skills to symbolize experience and
translate it into future motor actions, their ability for delayed modeling
of more complex behaviors increases (Bandura, 1977).
Observational learning is governed by four processes – attention,
retention, motor and motivation (Bandura, 1977; Bandura, 2001). Attention
processes determine what people select to observe as modeling is occurring
and what one extracts from the modeling. People then must remember response
patterns by developing symbolic codes for memory representation. When
symbolic codes are translated into appropriate actions, the motor processes
begin. Motivational processes are the fourth subfunction, and arguably the
most studied in social sciences. People do not enact everything they
observe. Personal standards of what is favorable and unfavorable influences
motivation, as people tend to pursue behaviors that are self-satisfying,
provide self-pride and give them a sense of worth rather than those of
which they disapprove.
Reinforcement, or learning by response consequences, is a motivational
operation not a response strengthener (Bandura, 1977). People read
newspapers for resulting benefits, but these benefits do not add strength
to the responses; they simply motivate people to read the newspaper. Prior
notions of outcomes guide people's actions. Therefore, reinforcement is an
antecedent to behavior rather than a consequent influence (Bandura, 1977).
Incentive motivators can be direct, vicarious and self-produced.
Self-produced motivation is not outwardly seen. Bandura (1977) illustrates
this type of motivation by describing how a child first learns to read with
immediate incentives. Children initially need some encouragement to learn
to read. Soon after, they become proficient in reading on their own for the
enjoyment and valuable information they get from reading. Intrinsic
motivation is difficult to examine because there are no visible rewards.
One approach that has been used to measure intrinsic motivation is uses and
gratifications. News readers and viewers are asked why they read or watch
the news.
Uses and Gratifications approach
In the 1970s, media researchers turned to studying audiences' motivations
for using media (Rubin, 1994). Prior to this, media researchers studied the
effects of mass communication on readers (Rubin, 1994; Katz, Blumler &
Gurevitch, 1974). The uses and gratifications perspective shifted from
looking at users as passive to active and research questions shifted from
how the media affect people to what people do with the media (Rubin, 1994).
The audience-centered approach examines their motives for media use, what
influences these motives and the consequences of these needs, motives and
desires. Even in early uses and gratifications studies, Katz, Blumler and
Gurevitch (1974) saw a growth in the interest in gratifications that the
media provided audiences. In these early days of empirical mass
communication research, a list of functions formed that were served by
either content or a specific medium. These include: To match one's wit
against others, to get information or advice for daily living, to provide a
framework for one's day, to prepare oneself culturally for the demands of
upward mobility, or to be reassured about the dignity and usefulness of
one's role (Katz et al., 1974).
Gratifications are an important motivating factor for seeking information
(Graber, 1984). Newspaper uses include: to get information or surveillance;
to form and compare opinions, enjoyment and to facilitate conversation
(Elliott & Rosenberg, 1987; Ruotolo, 1988). When Rubin (1983) asked users
their level of agreement with motive statements for viewing television, his
findings showed that habits, passing time and entertainment viewing
motivations had a significant positive relationship with amounts of TV
viewing.
Lull (1980) categorized the social uses of television as structural and
relational. According to his typology of social uses, television serves as
part of the social environment, such as background noise, and as a
regulator for behaviors, such as when it is time to eat, to do homework and
go to bed. Television's relational uses include communication facilitation,
in which children often use information they see and hear on television to
support conversations held with adults. Also, television can fill silence
when there is no talk while creating an agenda for discussion. Affiliation
and avoidance are a second relational use in which families can come
together to watch television and have on-going discussions, or the medium
can be a resource for escape. Television also provides opportunity to show
competency by means of family role fulfillment (Lull, 1980) and it is one
of the most controlled media by parents (Pasquier et al., 1998; Morrison &
Krugman, 2001).
Children, Young Adults and Newspapers
Communication researchers have always been fascinated with non-newspaper
readers and their reasons for not reading print news. Possible explanations
include: lack of time, use of another news medium, cost and lack of
interest in content (Poindexter, 1979; Burgoon, J. K & Burgoon, M., 1980).
Other reasons include decline in reading interest, competition from other
stimulating mediums, changing lifestyles, less newspaper reading at home
and the image of a newspaper as an adult medium (Cobb-Walgren, 1990).
Teenagers cite time and the effort needed to read a newspaper as reasons
for not reading print news (Raeymaeckers, 2002; Cobb-Walgren, 1990).
Predictors of newspaper reading include income, age and satisfaction with
the local product. As each increases so does time spent reading the
newspaper (Burgoon, J. K. & Burgoon, M., 1980).
Americans age 25 and under who did not get news from newspapers,
television or radio on the previous day more than doubled from 14 percent
in 1994 to 37 percent in 2002, according to the Pew Research Center survey
(2002). Eight years ago, Americans under age 25 spent almost an hour (51
minutes) a day on the news. Today, they spend roughly a half hour a day.
People age 65 and older spend an average of 81 minutes on the news, and
only 12 percent got no news on the previous day. Mothers have trouble
finding the time to follow the news with six in 10, or 62 percent, saying
they wish they had more time for the news, more than fathers (52 percent)
and women who do not have children at home (48 percent).
Similar to television, newspapers are a routinely used medium in many
households, but often ignored by children. In Barnhurst and Wartella's
collection of life diaries from 164 college students in 1989-1990,
participants reflected on how newspapers were a constant part of their
household backgrounds, but a number of students confessed they paid little
attention to the medium growing up or thought the newspaper was not
important to them (Barnhurst & Wartella, 1991). Some students recalled how
they got angry because their parents spent time with the newspaper rather
than paying attention to them. Some also recalled imitating the act of
reading the newspaper as a child. Half the students reported that their
parents encouraged them "strongly" or "somewhat" strongly to read the
newspaper, and 90 percent of the parents encouraged their children to read
books. For many students, a newspaper was a symbol of adulthood.
Studies also have shown that reading behavior of parents is strongly
correlated with the time youngsters spend on reading newspapers
(Raeymaekers, 2002; Stone & Wetherington, 1979). Stone and Wetherington
(1979) found parents' preferred reading time and place for reading the
newspaper also was highly correlated with newspaper reading time and place
for 18- to 34-year-olds. No study has deeply examined the feeling of
familiarity that people associate with a specific medium because they
watched their parents using the same medium during their childhood. For
example, does a twenty-something read the Boston Globe because she feels an
attachment to this newspaper for it was the newspaper her parents read? Or
does a college student watch the local news at 6 p.m. because he remembers
his parents watching the 6 o'clock news every night during his childhood?
The current study explores this variable "attachment" and how it influences
students' exposure to newspapers and television news.
Children and Television News
Numerous studies apply social learning theory to television viewing and
children because television is a powerful source for modeling and has been
widely recognized as a socializing variable. Similar to school and family,
television provides children with a sense of society and their role in it
(Heintz, 1994). Two areas of concern have been widely studied – the amounts
of time children spend watching television and the content to which
children are exposed. Researchers have paid considerable attention to
television viewing and consumer behavior, sex roles and the learning of
aggressive behavior. Bandura's classic Bobo doll study (Bandura & Walters,
1963), in which children beat up a plastic inflated doll after watching
real-life models and television models display aggression toward the doll,
was pivotal in exploring social learning theory and inspiring subsequent
media violence effects studies. Since 1975, scientific evidence
increasingly shows a link between the effects of media violence and
aggression (Bushman & Anderson, 2001).
Over the past 40 years, numerous studies have examined the belief that
exposure to television violence contributes to violent behavior in society.
But little research has focused on television news and children. Studies
have indicated increased exposure to television news correlates with
discussion with parents about news (Egan, 1979; Drew & Reeves, 1980;
Raeymaeckers, 2002). Barnhurst and Wartella (1998) collected life diaries
from 129 college students in 1995 to explore the significance of media for
young adults. In three quarters of the essays, students recalled watching
TV news with their parents. Students' recollection of television as a news
source often centered on memorable images of newsworthy events, such as the
Challenger explosion. About three-quarters of the essays reported watching
news at school, but beyond the shuttle experience, newscasts had very
little presence in school. The young adults' answers also reflected a
connection between television news viewing and their role as citizens in
democracy.
Chaffee (1971) cautioned that studying parent-adolescent modeling is
difficult because correlations are often weaker among older adolescents, an
indication that news consumption behavior has influences other than
parental modeling. The present study will explore parental influence on
newspaper reading and television news viewing of young adults in an effort
to add to the empirical evidence on the influence of parents' newspaper and
television news habits. This study will ask the following research questions.
R1. What influence does parental exposure to news have on student news
exposure?
R2: What influence does attachment to a news medium have on student news
exposure?
R3: How are parental exposure to news, student attachment to a news medium
and student news exposure related?
Methodology
To answer the research questions, 10,248 randomly selected college students
at a large southwestern university were surveyed as part of a graduate
research methods class project. Students were emailed a request to complete
the Web-based survey that included 56 questions on public affairs, media,
lifestyles, and demographics. The survey was divided into pages in
which students would answer a set of questions and then click on a button
to continue on with the next set of questions on a new screen. Students
were promised confidentiality and directed to click on a link to the
questionnaire, which would be available from November 4 through 10, 2003. A
reminder email was sent on the third day. Results were automatically sent
to a database and analyzed using SPSS. Response rate was 8 percent,
representing 842 students.
Measurements
Four types of measurements were used to answer the research questions:
student exposure to television news (local, network and cable); student
exposure to newspapers; recalled observation of parents' news exposure; and
student attachment to print and television news. For exposure to various
news media, students were asked how often do they read/watch newspapers,
local news, network news and cable news. Response choices were never or
seldom, 1 or 2 days a week, 3 or 4 days a week, nearly every day and every
day. Responses for each news exposure question were dichotomized into never
or seldom and one or more days a week.
To measure observation of parents watching TV news and reading the
newspaper regularly, respondents were asked which parent they had observed
participating in these activities regularly growing up. Response choices
were father, mother, both father and mother, neither and other. Responses
were collapsed into three categories to form an ordinal scale of neither
parent, father or mother, and both parents. The statistical test Chi Square
and tau c were used to measure the relationship between parents' news
exposure and students' news exposure.
To determine how attached respondents were to different media, respondents
were asked how much they would miss a certain medium if it were not
available. Specific media choices included: TV, cable, newspapers,
magazines and books in print unrelated to school work. The response choices
were a lot, some and none. Responses were factor analyzed and related
variables were combined to create an attached to watching television scale,
consisting of television and cable, and an attached to reading print scale,
consisting of reading newspapers, magazines and books. The newly created
television and print scales were split near the median to distinguish
respondents who were strongly attached to television or print and those
with weak attachments on this measure. The statistical test Chi Square and
tau c were used to measure the relationship between students' attachment to
a news medium and students' news exposure.
To determine if attachment to a news medium is an intervening variable
between parental news exposure and student news exposure, three
asymmetrical relationships were necessary (Rosenberg, 1968). The test
factor (attachment to a medium) was then controlled to determine if it was
an intervening variable. The relationship between the original pair of
variables (i.e. parents and newspapers and students' reading newspapers)
must disappear for the test factor to be treated as an intervening variable.
Sample Profile
The average age of respondents was 24, with ages ranging from 17 to 63. For
purposes of this study, only those responses from students under 29 and
younger were used. Of these 709 respondents, more females (57%) completed
the survey than males (43%) and more undergraduate students (72%), than
graduate students (21%), with 9 percent marking "other" or missing.
Three-quarters of the respondents were white, with Hispanic or Latino (9%)
the second largest group. Asian American accounted for 5 percent, blacks 2
percent and other minorities making up 9 percent. Almost all of the
respondents were U.S. citizens (96%). The largest percentage of students
(34%) who reported household income fell into the highest income bracket,
$100,000 or more, suggesting these students are most likely supported
financially by their parents. By contrast, 20 percent reported a household
income of $20,000 or less, the second
Table 1: The Relationship Between Parent and Student News Exposure
Parent News Exposure
Neither Parent %
Mother or Father %
Both Parents %
Student News Exposure
Newspapers a
One or more days
70
75
82
Local News b
One or more days
31
46
54
Network News c
One or more days
18
37
44
Cable News d
One or more days
48
61
68
atau-c=.10, gamma=.23 p<.01
btau-c=.14, gamma=.24 p<.001
ctau-c=.15, gamma=.23 p<.001
dtau-c=.13, gamma=.23 p<.01
highest proportion of students. Nearly three-fourths of the respondents
reported spending two hours or less on television in typical day. And
almost the same percentage reported reading a newspaper one or more days a
week. Cable news was preferred most with 63 percent watching cable news one
or more days a week compared to 47 percent for local news one or more days
a week and 38 percent for network news one or more days a week.
Results
R1 asked: What influence does parental exposure to news have on student
news exposure? According to Table 1, 82 percent of students who said their
mother and father read a newspaper while growing up, reported reading one
or more days a week. For students who said they did not remember either
parent reading a newspaper, 70 percent read one or more days a week.
Table 2: The Relationship Between Attachment to Medium and Student News
Exposure
Attachment to Medium
Weak Attachment %
Strong Attachment %
Student News Exposure
Newspapers a
One or more days
67
90
Local News b
One or more days
36
60
Network News c
One or more days
31
45
Cable News d
One or more days
51
70
atau-c=.22, gamma=.63 p<.001
btau-c=.24, gamma=.46 p<.001
ctau-c=.14, gamma=.30 p<.001
dtau-c=.18, gamma=.38 p<.001
According to the same table, 54 percent of students who recalled both
parents watching television news, reported they watched local news one or
more days a week, compared to 31 who said neither parent watched television
news. Of those students (N=370) who said both parents watched television
news, 44 percent reported watching network news one or more days a week,
compared to the 18 percent who said neither parent watched television news
and 68 percent said they watched cable news one or more days a week,
compared to the 48 percent who said neither parent watched television news.
R2 asked: What influence does attachment to a news medium have on student
news exposure? According to Table 2, of the students who have a strong
attachment to reading print (N=309), 90 percent said they read the
newspaper one or more days a week. Of those students who have a weak
attachment to reading print (N=394), 67 percent said they read the
newspaper one or more days a week. In examining television attachment, 60
percent of those students who have a strong attachment to television
(N=367) reported watching local television news one or
Figure 1: Attachment to Medium as Consequence of Growing Up in a Household
Where Parents Who Paid Attention to the News and a Determinant of Students'
News Exposure
Independent Variable
Intervening Variable
Dependent Variable
Parents reading
newspapers
Attachment to Print
(Weak and Strong)
Students' exposure
to Newspapers
Parents watching
TV news
Attachment to TV
(Weak only)
Students' exposure
to Local News
Parents watching
TV news
Attachment to TV
(Weak only)
Students' exposure
to Cable News
more days a week. By comparison, 36 percent of students who have a weak
attachment to television reported watching local news one or more days a
week. The same is true for network and cable news. Of the students who have
a strong attachment to television (N=367), 45 percent said they watch
network news one or more days a week, compared to 31 percent who have a
weak attachment to television but reported watching network news one or
more days a week. For cable, 70 percent of those students who have a strong
attachment to television said they watch cable news one or more days a week
whereas 51 percent of students with a weak attachment to television
reported watching cable news one or more days a week.
RQ3 asked: How are parental exposure to news, student attachment to a news
medium and student news exposure related? Three asymmetrical relationships
were found in testing whether attachment to a news medium was an
intervening variable between parental news exposure and student news
exposure (Rosenberg, 1968). When the test factor (attachment to a medium)
was controlled, the relationship between the original pair of variables
(i.e. parents and newspapers and students' reading newspapers) disappeared.
Both television news and newspapers met the three asymmetrical relationship
tests. The significance level between parents reading newspapers and
students reading newspapers disappeared when attachment to print was
controlled. Figure 1 shows a model of attachment to print as a consequence
of growing up in a household with parents who read the newspaper and a
determinant of students reading the newspaper. This only partially held up
when testing attachment to television as an intervening variable.
Attachment to television (strong and weak) was not a consequence of parents
watching TV news regularly and a determinant of students' watching network
news. However, a weak attachment to television was found to be a
consequence of parents watching television news and a determinant of
students watching local news or cable news. A strong attachment to
television was not found to be a consequence of parents watching TV news
and students' exposure to local, network or cable news.
Discussion
The findings in this study suggest parental news consumption influences
student news exposure. This study adds to previous research that has shown
access to newspapers and television news at home is related to increased
exposure to newspapers and television news. Students who recalled one or
both parents reading a newspaper were more likely to read a newspaper than
students who did not remember either parent reading a newspaper. Students
who recalled one or both parents watching television news regularly were
more likely to watch local, network or cable news. These findings show that
the presence of newspapers or television news in the home while growing up
can influence the likelihood a college student will read the newspaper or
watch local, network or cable news.
The analysis suggests that strong attachments to reading print and watching
TV news influences news habits of students. Students who said they would
miss a news medium a lot – a strong attachment – were more likely to read
or watch the news one or more days a week. Those who said they would not
miss a news medium very much – a weak attachment – were less likely to read
or watch television news. The results also show that attachment to print
acts as an intervening variable between exposure to news growing up and
exposure to news as a college student. In other words, students may develop
an attachment to print because they were exposed to newspapers at home
growing up. This attachment to print may lead to exposure to newspapers as
a college student.
Using students' memories of parents' media use illustrates the social
learning theory process, a major strength of the study. Students' memories
show how parents' behaviors were remembered, and then repeated. For
students to reflect on their parents' news habits – reading the newspaper
or watching television news – students would have had to mentally code this
behavior as a child. These verbal symbols and mental images are used to
guide future actions as an adult. The behavior of parents can be remembered
if it is a habit repeated regularly. According to social learning theory,
pre-notions of consequences precede behaviors. So for students to watch
television news or read newspapers, there must be something they get in
return, gratifications.
For decades, the same gratifications – surveillance, social contact,
entertainment, to get information, to form and compare opinions, enjoyment,
to facilitate conversation and to pass time – have been repeatedly studied
as motivations to reading newspapers or watching television. But attachment
to a news medium could be a gratification to reading or watching news as
well. The word, however, has many dimensions. It could mean loyalty to a
specific medium, familiarity or comfort. The word differs from the word
"habit" because it has a "following" of sorts attached to it. People may
follow news in a newspaper or magazine out of habit but also because they
feel comfortable reading print or feel a certain loyalty to their hometown
newspaper or television news anchors. The word also is an umbrella-type
description that may encompass several gratifications. The survey question
asked, how much would you miss a certain medium if it was no longer
available? The word "miss" suggests a type of attachment to a medium.
Too often young adults are criticized for not reading the newspaper
because it is assumed they do not like reading. The findings of this study
show this could be partly true. This study purposely examined the strength
of students' attachment to reading print and their exposure to newspaper
reading and found those students with a strong attachment to reading print
were more likely to read the newspaper one or more days a week as opposed
to those with a weak attachment.
In examining the three television variables together – parents watching
television news, students' attachment to television and students' exposure
to local, network and cable news, each separately – this study could not
point to students having a strong attachment to television as a consequence
of growing up with parents who watched television news or a determinant of
exposure to television news – local, network or cable. This could be
because students are part of the generation that grew up with electronic
childhoods. The television was always a part of their lives regardless if
their parents watched television news or not. Can parents have as strong
impact on television viewing than parents may have had with the generation
before? Also, the more time a student spends watching television the more
time he or she will have the opportunity to run across a news channel.
Interestingly, a weak attachment to television may be a consequence of
parents' exposure to television news and a determinant of students'
exposure to local and cable news. A case scenario could be parents who do
not watch television or television news could indeed influence a child's
attachment to television and in return lessen their exposure to television
news – local, network and cable – or even subscribing to cable.
Eighty-eight percent of the respondents reported spending three hours or
less on television in a typical day. College students do spend less time
watching television because of their studies. This sample type also could
have influenced this finding.
Limitations and Future Research
Weaknesses of the study include the response rate, population and wording
of specific questions and responses. The response rate of 8 percent is low.
There is a lack of solid research on response rates for electronic surveys
(Witmer et al., 1999). Response rates for Web-based surveys are not
consistently high enough to generalize to any population, similar to mail
surveys prior to the 1970s (Fricker & Schonlau, 2002; Sills & Song, 2002).
The population of Internet-based survey research often results in
inadequate levels of participation (Witmer et al.).
Shortening the questionnaire and having an incentive to take the survey
more than likely would have improved the response rate.
Surveying college students has its strengths and weakness. A strength of
studying college students is that the college years are important in the
socialization to news media habits (Henke, 1985), for students will be
embarking on an "adult life" after graduation and preparation for this
transition occurs in college. Also, most college students are young enough
to have vivid memories of what their parents did growing up. The biggest
weakness is the college student population is not generalizable to the
public or this age group. This population is younger, more educated,
technology-savvy and more likely to be financially supported by parents or
other financial means rather than a full-time occupation.
The question, "While growing up, which parent did you observe reading the
newspaper regularly?" does not take into consideration those students from
single-parent households, a common and growing statistic that researchers
should consider. The parent questions about newspaper and television use
could have been reworded to have responses similar to the response choices
for students – never or seldom, 1 or 2 days a week, 3 or 4 days a week,
nearly every day and every day, although this may be even tougher to recall
for some students. For students, the survey differentiates between local,
network and cable news, but for recalled parents' use of television news
there is no separation of types of television news. And not all three –
local, network and cable – measure the same thing. Consistent wording of
questions could strengthen the television measurement of this study.
Dividing the responses to media use questions into two categories has
weaknesses and strengths as well. The weaknesses being that never or seldom
is not as quantifiable as one or more days a week. Plus a student who reads
the newspaper daily has the same weight as someone who reads it once a
week. However, by grouping students into a habit-forming group – one or
more days a week – incorporates the idea of repeated behavior for some
gratification. While reading the newspaper one day a week may be considered
low, it's a start.
Future studies could further explore attachment as a gratification by
asking specific questions of loyalty, familiarity and comfort with a news
medium. It would be interesting to see how these factors may shift with
age. A weak attachment to print does not necessarily mean a student does
not enjoy reading. The Internet is reading. A future question could simply
ask students to rate how much they enjoy reading books, magazines and
newspaper to get at the heart of this assumption that young adults do not
like to read.
While students' exposure to newspapers and television news does indeed
reflect observed news habits of their parents, exactly how much is unknown.
This could be a future longitudinal study. Media use of parents is
difficult to observe after the fact because students' observation of
occurrences is spotty, with some remembering regular media use habits of
their parents and others remembering single moments. The weakness with
asking students to recall news media use habits of their parents is that
they may tend to rely on "remember-whens" of specific moments – cutting out
Sunday coupons, recycling paper, reading the Sunday comics, etc. that may
not be linked to actual reading, as Barnhurst & Wartella (1991) found. A
future cohort study could accurately measure and compare use of media by
parents at home and students' exposure to news media by asking the same
respondents over time in elementary, junior high, high school and college
about their media use habits.
Conclusion
The findings here cannot say for certain there is a direct influence
between parents' news habits and students' news habits because there may be
more intervening variables as Chaffee (1971) suggested. But the findings
do tap into something. Even in an age where fewer young readers are picking
up the newspaper, the findings of this study suggest that having parents
who read the newspaper regularly increases the likelihood that their son or
daughter will have or pick up the newspaper habit as well. The same is true
for parents watching television news and students' likelihood of tuning
into a local, network or cable newscast.
The decline in newspaper reading and watching television news by young
adults is not a new problem, but it will take new questions and approaches
to find solutions. Is a separate newspaper for young adults the answer? Or
will that be segregating this audience? Is multimedia storytelling, or more
entertainment and interactivity mixed with news, the answer for online
journalism to grab young adults' attention? An extensive study that
examines each individual reason for not reading the newspaper and watching
television news using several in-depth interviews could dig deeper into
possible underlying motives. How can journalists really get young adults
interested in reading and watching the news? This study adds to previous
empirical evidence that suggests the first place still starts at home.
References
Bandura, A. & Walters, R. (1963). Social Learning and Personality
Development. New York:
Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Bandura, A. (1977) Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice
Hall Inc.
Bandura, A. (2001) Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication. In J.
Bryant &
D. Zillmann (Eds), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research
(pp. 121-153). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum Association, Inc.
Online at
http://www.lib.utexas.edu:
2048/login?url=http://www.netlibrary.com/urlapi.asp?
action=summary&v=1&bookid=66760.
Barnhurst, K. G. & Wartella, E. (1991) Newspapers and Citizenship: Young
Adults' Subjective Experience of Newspapers. Critical Studies in Mass
Communication, 8, 195-209.
Barnhurst, K. G. & Wartella, E. (1998) Young Citizens, American TV
Newscasts and the Collective Memory. Critical Studies in Mass
Communication, 15, 279-305.
Burgoon, J. K. & Burgoon, M. (1980) Predictors of Newspaper Readership.
Journalism Quarterly, 57 (4), 589-596.
Bushman, B. J. & Anderson, C. A. (2001) Media Violence and the American
Public. American Psychologist, 56 (6/7), 477-489.
Chaffee, S. H., McLeod, J. M. (1971) Parental Influences on Adolescent
Media Use. American Behavioral Scientist, 14(3), 323-340.
Cobb-Walgren, C.J. (1990) Why Teenagers Do Not 'Read All About It.'
Journalism Quarterly. 67(2), 340-347.
Drew, D. G. & Reeves, B. B. (1980) Children and Television News. Journalism
Quarterly, 57 (1), 45-54, 114.
Egan, L. M. (1979) Children's Viewing Patterns for Television News.
Journalism Quarterly, 55 (2), 337-342.
Elliott, W. R. & Rosenberg, W. L. (1987) The 1985 Philadelphia Newspaper
Strike: A
Uses and Gratifications Study. Journalism Quarterly, 64 (4), 679-687.
Graber, D. A. (1984). Processing the news: How people tame the information
tide. New York: Longman Inc.
Heintz, K. E. (1994) Smarter Than We Think – Kids, Passivity and the Media.
Media Studies Journal, 8(4), 105-113.
Henke, Lucy L. (1985) Perceptions and Use of the News Media by College
Students. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 29 (4), 431-436.
Katz, E., Blumler, J., & Gurevitch, M. (1974). Utilization of mass
communication by the individual. In J. Blumler & E. Katz (Eds.), The uses
of mass communication: Current perspectives on gratifications research.
Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 19-33.
Khan, K. H. & Cangemi, J. P. (1979) Social Learning Theory: The Role of
Imitation and Modeling in Learning Socially Desirable Behavior. Education,
100(1), p41-46.
Lain, L. B. (1986) Steps Toward A Comprehensive Model of Newspaper
Readership. Journalism Quarterly, 63 (1), 69-74, 121.
Lull, J. (1980) The Social Uses of Television. Human Communication
Research, 6 (3), 197-209.
Morrison, M. & Krugman, D. M. (2001) A Look at Mass and Computer Mediated
Technologies: Understanding the Roles of Television and Computers in the
Home. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 45 (1),135-161.
Pasquier, D, Buzzi, C., d'Haenens, L. & Sjoberg, U. (1998) Family
Lifestyles and Media Use Patterns. European Journal of Communication, 13
(4), 503-519.
Pew Research Center (2002) Public's News Habits Little Changed By September 11
Retrieved Dec. 7, 2003, from
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=156
Poindexter, P. M. (1979) Daily Newspaper Non-Readers: Why They Don't Read.
Journalism Quarterly, 56 (4), 764-770.
Raeymaeckers, K. (2002) Research Note: Young People and Patterns of Time
Consumption in Relation to Print Media. European Journal of Communication,
17 (3), 369-383.
Rosenberg, M. (1968) The Logic of Survey Analysis. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
Rubin, A. M. (1983). Television uses and gratifications: The interactions
of viewing patterns and motivations. Journal of Broadcasting, 27(1), 37-51.
Rubin, A. M. (1994). Media uses and effects: A uses and gratifications
perspective. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in
Theory and Research (pp417-436). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Inc.
Ruotolo, A. C. (1998) A Typology of Newspaper Readers. Journalism
Quarterly, 65(1), 126-130.
Schnonlau, M., Fricker Jr., R. D. & Elliot, M. N. (2002) Conducting
research surveys via email and the Web. RAND.
Sills, S. J. & Song, C. (2002). Innovations in survey research: An
application of Web-based surveys. Social Science Computer Review, 20 (1),
22-30.
Stone, G. C. & Wetherington Jr., R. V. (1979) Confirming the Newspaper
Reading Habit. Journalism Quarterly, 56 (3), 554-561, 566.
Wicks, R. H. (1995) Remembering the News: Effects of Medium and Message
Discrepancy on News Recall Over Time. Journalism and Mass Communication
Quarterly, 72 (3), 666-681.
Witmer, D. F., Colman, R. W. & Katzman, S. L., (1999) From paper-and-pencil
to screen-and-keyboard. In S. Jones (Ed), Doing Internet Research
(pp145-161). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
|
