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THE CONTRIBUTION OF LOCAL MEDIA
TO COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
by
Keith R. Stamm
Professor
School of Communication
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-2660
Internet: [log in to unmask]
Arthur G. Emig
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
1000 UCOM
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36608
(334) 380-2800
Michael B. Hesse
Professor
Department of Communication
1000 UCOM
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36608
(334) 380-2800
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOCAL MEDIA
TO COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Abstract
Based on results from a probability telephone survey of 432 respondents,
the authors found evidence suggesting use of newspapers, television,
radio,
and interpersonal communication all contribute to individuals' community
involvement. This holds true particularly when population subgroups
are
examined in relation to involvement levels and recent changes in those
levels. Talking to others is the most ubiquitous contributor at all
levels
of involvement and for most subgroups.
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOCAL
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOCAL MEDIA
TO COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
INTRODUCTION
The Problem
What part do local media such as newspapers play in community integration?
This question has been around since Robert Park (1929) reported a
relationship between newspaper readership and membership in community
organizations. Janowitz (1952) later took up the question in his study
of
the community press, but the matter has not received much attention
since
then. Recent research on newspaper readership has turned the question
around. Variables representing the individual's degree of community
attachment are used as predictors of newspaper readership (Denbow, 1975;
Stone, 1977). Presumably this has increased the relevance of
community
integration research to the problems of newspaper circulation (Rarick,
1973; Stevenson, 1979; Chaffee & Choe, 1981).
Unfortunately, the focus on newspapers' problems has resulted in
communication researchers largely neglecting the individual's problem of
community integration (Stamm, 1985). If, as many recent studies argue
(McLeod & Choe, 1978; Stephens, 1978, 1983; Cobbey, 1980), some kind
and/or
degree of community integration is essential to newspaper circulation, it
would seem the problem of community integration should take
precedence.
Some contemporary social scientists have argued community integration is
problematic. The conditions for individuals' community integration
are not
favorable due to high mobility (Steahr & Brown, 1980), suburbanization
(Janowitz, 1978), and the increasing scale and remoteness of local
political institutions (Greer, 1965; Nisbett, 1969).
If the development of community attachments is problematic for many
individuals, there are also important implications for the cohesiveness of
local communities. Community has been viewed as the product of people
working together on problems (Nisbett, 1969)--i.e., the involvement of
the
individual in solving collective problems. Yet, research shows the
individual's involvement is limited and highly variable (Greer, 1965;
Janowitz, 1978). This may result in communities losing the capability
for
building consensus and making decisions collectively. When, as a
result,
the solution of local problems comes to rest largely in the hands of a
professional bureaucracy and/or depends on the outcome of struggles
between
special interest groups, community involvement may be replaced with
apathy, boredom, or even hostility (Nisbett, 1969).
Conceptualization
The conceptual unit for this study is the relation between individual and
community. The question we intend to pose is what contributions do
local
media make to the formation of this relation? To get to that
question, we
need to first consider what kind of individual-community relation to
focus
on, and what it takes to produce it.
When using the individual-community relation as a predictor of media use,
researchers have generally not been careful to distinguish among
different
kinds of community ties. Indexes that sum over a variety of kinds of
ties
are widely employed (Stamm, 1988), a practice which enhances
predictive
power but may not be to our advantage here. There is a need to
distinguish
among those ties media use makes a difference in, as opposed to those that
make a difference in media use. Given that 36 kinds of community ties can
be distinguished (Stamm, 1985), there is no reason to suppose a priori
those ties which make a difference in media use are the same ones
affected
by media use. For example, if we ask what might be a first step
toward
community integration, we might answer "thinking about buying a house"
(Stamm & Weis, 1982). If this step contributes to newspaper
subscribing,
then we might see newspaper subscribing as subsequently contributing
to
community involvement.
....HOME PURCHASE>>>>MEDIA USE>>>>CMTY INVOLVEMENT....
To give another example, Kromer (1983) has suggested the following
sequence:
....CMTY ORIENTATION>>>>MEDIA USE>>>>CMTY CONSENSUS....
In this view the relationship of a community tie to newspaper readership
makes a difference in the community as a whole.
Media use might also make a difference in community ties other than
involvement. Recent literature does not afford much guidance since most
measures of community tie have been used interchangeably as predictors
of
use and consequences of use. Some of the earlier literature is more
suggestive. Park (1937) suggested newspaper readership contributed to
membership in local organizations. Janowitz (1952) saw local readership
as
contributing to a "community orientation," building and maintaining local
consensus, and building local traditions. Greer (1965) argued the
community press facilitates (local) political involvement. Edelstein &
Larsen (1960) reported evidence the community press contributes to
"community feeling." More recently evidence has been reported of the
contributions of local media (other than newspapers) to community
integration (Finnegan & Viswanath, 1988; Jeffres, et al., 1988; Emig, in
press).
We might have chosen any of these ties for study but decided to limit the
study to the question "what do local media contribute to community
involvement?" Our definition of community involvement is derived from a
recent application of community ties in which involvement was
considered a
relation between the individual and community as "process"--as opposed
to
"place" or "structure" (Stamm and Fortini-Campbell, 1983).
Community involvement was considered a productive criterion variable
because one can readily identify a number of mechanisms by which
communication could contribute to involvement. These mechanisms were
identified by first asking what (all) it would take to produce community
involvement. We identified four mechanisms:
1. Relevance of community: What happens in/to the community should be of
some consequence to the individual. Generally, we conceive of a
situation
in which there is a problem requiring collective action.
Thus, community
becomes relevant as an instrumentality for doing something
about a problem.
Local media identify problems needing community attention, and make known
their consequences for the individual and/or community.
2. An available collectivity: A group is needed through which collective
action can be taken. This may be either an extant group that has
taken on
the problem, or an idea for a new group that needs to be
formed. Local
media help to identify those groups making a difference, or
could, and help
bring members of a community together (e.g., by publicizing group
activities). As Lemert, et al. (1977) have shown, news stories
may
"mobilize" participation in political affairs by providing the
time and
place of chances for collective activity.
3. Individual capability: The individual needs the capability to make a
difference within the collective process. This may include the
ability to
comprehend others' views of the problem, to express one's
own view, and/or
to help create the needed group. Local media may help
individuals to think
about and understand the problem, to clarify or construct his/her own
view.
4. Available time: It takes time both to develop the needed capabilities
and to make contributions to the group effort. Some capability might
be
developed during the course of time set aside for reading,
listening,
watching local media. For example, if reading the newspaper is
something
that goes well with eating breakfast, then breakfast becomes
a time when
the individual may think about a community problem.
Thus, there are a number of possible mechanisms by which local media such
as newspapers, radio, and television can make a difference in the
community
involvement of the individual. But how is this contribution to be
observed? Ideally, one might do a panel study in which local media use and
community involvement are measured at several points over time. Media use
could then be related to subsequent changes in amount and/or kind of
community involvement. However, the cost and logistical difficulties of
a
panel study might not be warranted until preliminary evidence of a
local
media contribution is obtained. We sought preliminary evidence via
the
following questions: (1) Is local media use positively related to
amount
of community involvement? (2) Is media use positively related to
recent
increase in the amount of community involvement?
METHODS
Sample
A survey was conducted in a medium-size (200,000) community located in the
deep South. The survey was conducted by telephone using random digit
dialing. To insure random selection at the household level,
interviewers
first asked to speak with the person in the household over 18 who most
recently celebrated a birthday. Interviewing took place on four
separate
days over a 10-day period between April 28 and May 7, 1994. Of 746
eligible respondents contacted, 432 interviews were completed for a
completion rate of 58%. Demographics of the sample agreed fairly closely
with the general population. There were some deviations in
representation
of occupational groups that may have been due to coding differences
for
technical and professional occupations, and blacks were
underrepresented
although they were oversampled in the survey.
Measures
Key measures were of local media use and community involvement. Four
kinds of involvement questions were asked (see Fortini-Campbell & Stamm,
1981): (1) attending -- following what goes on in local government
and
local public affairs; (2) orienting -- thinking of ideas for improving
the
community; (3) connecting -- getting together with others to talk
about the
community's needs; and (4) manipulating -- working to bring about change
in the community. Respondents were asked to answer on a four-point
Likert
scale: "never," "not very often," "often," or "very often." These
same
questions were repeated, asking respondents if there had been any
recent ch
ange (say, within the past six months). Respondents indicated whether
each
type of involvement had "increased," "decreased," or "remained about the
same."
Item analysis was performed on each set of questions in anticipation of
constructing an index of involvement, and an index of change in
involvement. The correlations were moderately strong and positive (.26 to
.48) within each set of items, so two indexes were constructed by
summing
the scores over items. Cronbach's alpha for each of the indexes was
.69.
Analysis
As a first step, we will conduct Pearson correlations between local media
use and both measures of community involvement. The size of the
coefficients will indicate the relative contributions of each
medium--newspapers, radio, television, and talking. The second step
will
be to conduct an elaborated analysis in which we ask how the
contributions
of local media might vary between different groups. Of particular
interest
here is the possibility of finding relationships in which particular media
make distinctive contributions to the community involvement of certain
groups. Or, looking at it another way, do newspapers, for example,
make
the same contributions to community involvement of all groups? Is
there
one medium more ubiquitous in its contributions to community
involvement of
different kinds of people? In this elaborated analysis the sample will be
subdivided in terms of residence status, home ownership, age, sex, and
race.
RESULTS
Community involvement was found to be a highly variable behavior, its
frequency apparently dependent on the demands of different forms of
involvement. While a substantial majority followed what was going on in
the community, more demanding activities such as working for change
and
getting people together were much less frequent (Table 1). As would be
expected, recent change in community involvement was even less
frequent,
but most of the change reported was in the direction of increased
involvement (Table 2).
Index values for community involvement were very unevenly distributed over
the various subgroups in our sample (Table 3). The highest levels of
involvement were found for those most "settled" in the community, among
homeowners, among middle-aged persons (45-59 years old), and among
blacks.
Few subgroup differences were found in community involvement change,
ostensibly because change was a much less variable behavior. There were
slight, mostly nonsignificant tendencies for the most change to have
been
reported within the same subgroups reporting the highest levels of
involvement.
Reported levels of local media use and talking were generally fairly high,
averaging between "some" use and "a lot"
of use (Table 4). Highest reported levels of use were for newspapers and
television. Local media use also differed substantially among
subgroups.
Generally speaking, local newspaper and television use was highest
within
the same groups reporting the highest levels of community
involvement--settled persons, homeowners, and those 45-59 years of
age.
The exception was race, where whites reported higher newspaper use and
blacks higher television use. These subgroup differences in both
community
involvement and media use raise the possibility subgroups will differ as
to which medium (or media) make the most contribution to their
community
involvement.
Consistent support was found for the working hypothesis that local media
contribute to community involvement (Table 4). Strong support was
found in
the correlations of media use to the index of involvement level, and
modest support in the correlations of media use to involvement change.
Newspapers and talking to others appear to make the strongest
contribution
overall, but evidence of contributions from radio and televison was
found
as well.
Are these contributions to community involvement evenly distributed across
subgroups? The evidence is clear each local medium contributes more to
the community involvement of some subgroups than others, and that the
media
differ considerably as to where they make their greatest contributions
(Tables 6 & 7).
For newspapers, the strongest correlations with community involvement were
found among those least settled in the community (i.e., those "drifting,"
"settling," and "relocating")[1] and those in the youngest age group
(Table
6). The contribution of newspapers dropped off precipitously after 60
years of age, while radio and television continued to make a modest
contribution after age 60.
For radio the strongest correlations were also among less settled groups
("drifting" and "relocating," but not "settling"), among young and
elderly,
and blacks. Thus, the contributions of radio to community involvement
only partly overlap those of newspapers.
The contributions of television overlapped those of newspapers and radio
in part, but included contributions to two additional subgroups --
females
and middle-aged persons (45-59). The strong correlations of radio and
television use to community involvement of blacks were particularly
striking.
If there was any universal contributor to community involvement, it was
talking to others -- all correlations were statistically significant
and
relatively uniform over subgroups, the exception being those 60 and
over.
The contribution of media use to community involvement appeared somewhat
different when examined in terms of a change measure (Table 7).
Although
the correlations were generally lower, they were also much more
variable;
even some negative correlations were found. The contributions of
local
media to increased involvement tend to be found, not surprisingly,
among
those subgroups whose involvement is changing the most--those settling
into
the community, young and middle-aged persons, and blacks (see Table 3).
Within these subgroups all media appear to make at least some
contribution.
The other striking pattern in Table 7 is the absence of contributions to
increased involvement on the part of older persons.
DISCUSSION
Considerable support was found for the working hypothesis that local media
contribute to the community involvement of those who use them. The
hypothesis was tested against two measures of community involvement,
surviving both tests. It was tested against four different local media,
and contributions were found for all four. Finally, it was tested
within a
number of specific subgroups with the result every subgroup received a
contribution from at least one local medium.
Some readers may regard this interpretation skeptically. They may, with
some justification, argue the findings could just as well be regarded
as
showing community involvement makes a contribution to media use. We
have
two answers to that argument. One is the (largely neglected) question
of
media contributions to community involvement is just as important as
the
question of how to predict media use; in fact, it has theoretical
precedence in the literature. Second, we have identified a number of
mechanisms by which local media can contribute to individuals' community
involvement.
The implications of these findings go well beyond the working hypothesis
in suggesting the importance to communities of local media. They
shine a
beacon on an important media function, a function traditionally
assigned
only to newspapers, which is here shown to apply to other local media
as
well. Thus, all local media are important contributors, particularly
when
subgroups of the local population are considered. Apparently, no one
local
medium can be relied upon to facilitate community involvement of all
groups in the community. A mix of different media may be essential to
maintaining the community involvement of all groups in the community.
Where community involvement is concerned, social scientists have often
taken a negative view, seeing lack of involvement and declining
involvement
in communities. This argument may have been overstated, considering
increases in involvement are reported more frequently than decreases, and
mechanisms are in place which contribute to increased involvement.
Instead
of asking why involvement is lacking and/or declining, we might better ask
how improvements in local media could enhance their contributions to c
ommunity involvement.
NOTES
[1] These categories of community residency are adopted from Stamm
& Weis, 1982.
"Drifters" are those who have lived in the
community less than five years and are
temporary residents,
"settlers" have resided less than five years but consider themselves
permanent, "settled" are individuals who have more than five yea
rs tenure and are
permanent, while "relocaters" have lived
in the area more than five years but do not
intend to remai
n there.
Table 1. Percent "Often" and "Very Often" Involved in Community.
Involved by: Percent
Attending to community 80.8
Ideas for improving 54.9
Working for change 32.9
Getting people together 28.5
---------------------------------------
n = 432
_______________________________________
Table 2. Percent Change in Involvement
Involved by: Decrease Same Increase
Ideas for improving 4.2 72.0 22.0
Working for change 6.3 75.7 16.2
Getting people together 4.9 81.5 11.3
_______________________________________________________________
Table 3. Mean Community Involvement and
Involvement Change by Locator Variables
Involve- Involve.
Locator Group ment Change
STAGE: Drifting (40) 9.79 6.30
Settling (60) 10.87 6.40
Settled (267) 11.60 6.37
Relocating (40) 10.89 (p<.001) 6.33 (ns)
HOME: Own (238) 11.64 6.40
Rent (156) 10.69 (p<.001) 6.30 (ns)
SEX: Male (196) 11.21 6.39
Female (218) 11.21 (ns) 6.32 (ns)
AGE: 19-30 (109) 10.13 6.38
31-44 (106) 10.90 6.24
45-59 (94) 12.13 6.56
60 & > (90) 11.67 (p<.001) 6.20 (p<.08)
RACE: Black (103) 11.99 6.58
White (280) 10.94 (p<.01) 6.28 (p<.05)
_________________________________________________________________
Table 4. Mean Media Use by
Demographic Locators
MEDIA USE:
Locator Group Newsp. Radio Telev. Talk
STAGE: Drifting (40) 3.63 3.50 3.83 3.45
Settling (60) 3.87 3.16 4.13 3.30
Settled (267) 4.17 3.35 4.48 3.68
Relocating (40) 4.08 3.43 4.38 3.80
HOME: Own (238) 4.29 3.34 4.45 3.64
Rent (156) 3.81 3.36 4.27 3.58
SEX: Male (196) 4.11 3.52 4.30 3.68
Female (218) 4.03 3.20 4.43 3.53
AGE: 19-30 (109) 3.76 3.65 3.95 3.40
31-44 (106) 4.08 3.48 4.30 3.58
45-59 (94) 4.25 3.29 4.68 3.88
60 & > (90) 4.13 3.00 4.57 3.52
RACE: Black (103) 3.87 3.34 4.64 3.78
White (280) 4.16 3.30 4.30 3.55
Blocks of means significantly
different by F-test are boldface
_________________________________________________________________
Table 5. Correlations Between Community Involvement
Indexes and Local Media Use (n = 416)
MEDIA USE:
Involvement Index Newsp. Radio Telev. Talk
Involvement Level .41*** .17*** .25*** .50***
Involvement Change .09* .12** .10* .25***
* - p<.05
** - p<.01
*** - p<.001
_________________________________________________________________
Table 7. Indexed Correlations1 Between Community
Involvement Change and Local Media Use by Locators
LOCAL MEDIUM:
Target Group Newsp. Radio Telev. Talk n=
Total sample, r= .08 .13 .08 .22 416
Settling stage:
Drifting 125 46 -2502 64 42
Settling 362* 0 325* 186* 60
Settled 37 108* 75* 91* 270
Relocating -622 169* 313* 55 38
Residence:
Own 112 62 38 91* 158
Rent 25 108* 125 86* 238
Sex:
Male 100 115* 163* 109* 196
Female 112 92 50 95* 220
Age:
19-30 188 154* 150 118* 111
31-44 138 54 63 100* 105
45-49 150 146* 175 145* 93
60 & > -2142 77 0 14 91 91
Race:
Black 125 85 125 68 101
White 125 115* 100 118* 286
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1 Index value=(column total r/group r) x 100. For example,
drifting group = (.29/.08) x 100 = 362.
2 Due to negative correlation coefficient.
* Indicates coefficient from which index was derived was
statistically significant.
Table 6. Indexed Correlations1 Between Community
Involvement Level and Local Media Use by Locators
LOCAL MEDIUM:
Target Group Newsp. Radio Telev. Talk n=
Total sample, r= .41 .17 .25 .50 416
Settling stage:
Drifting 124* 174* 128* 121* 42
Settling 131* 47 116* 97* 60
Settled 74* 98* 70* 97* 270
Relocating 133* 164* 78 101* 38
Residence:
Own 105* 112* 101* 109* 158
Rent 65* 75* 85* 87* 238
Sex:
Male 92* 116* 77* 105* 196
Female 107* 87* 122* 96* 220
Age:
19-30 141* 169* 86* 110* 111
31-44 105* 168* 71* 101* 105
45-49 82* 93 126* 113* 93
60 & > 17 110* 68 58* 91
Race:
Black 98* 151* 183* 94* 101
White 111* 90* 65* 102* 286
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1 Index value=(column total r/group r) x 100. For example,
drifting group=(.4836/.39) x 100 = 124.
* Indicates coefficient from which index was derived was
statistically significant.
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