Accounting for learning from news has focused on media attention, media gratification, content-specific exposure, and prior knowledge. One measure of prior knowledge is political sophistication, measuring components of both knowledge and ideology. Two studies evaluated the reliability, concurrent validity, and comparative predictive validity of political sophistication in comparison to those of exposure, attention, and civics knowledge. Study 1 focused on the 1993-1994 health care reform debate. Those higher in political sophistication learned more from broadcast and print news, and had more differentiated constructs and higher quality arguments about health policy issues in open-ended essays. These findings were replicated in Study 2, which was conducted within a simulated mayoral election campaign. The results suggest that political sophisticates do not simply consume more news but process it differently than their less-sophisticated counterparts.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Burleson, B. R.
, & Waltman, M. S. (1988). Cognitive complexity: Using the role category questionnaire measure. In C. H. Tardy (Ed.), A handbook for the study of human communication (pp. 1-35). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
2.
Cacioppo, J. T.
, & Petty, R. E. (1979). Attitude and cognitive response: An electrophysiological approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 2181-2199.
3.
Cappella, J. N.
, & Jamieson, K. H. (1994, September). Public cynicism and news coverage in campaigns and policy debates: Three field experiments. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, New York.
4.
Chaffee, S.
, & Schleuder, J. (1986). Measurement of effects of attention to media news. Human Communication Research, 13, 76-107.
5.
Chaffee, S. H.
, Zhao, X., & Leshner, G. (1994). Political knowledge and the campaign of 1992. Communication Research, 21, 305-324.
6.
Converse, P.
(1962). Information flow and the stability of partisan attitudes. Public Opinion Quarterly, 26, 578-599.
7.
Converse, P. E.
(1964). The nature of belief systems in mass publics. In D. Apter (Ed.), Ideology and discontent (pp. 206-261). New York: Free Press.
8.
Crone, M. E.
(1993, September). The nature of political sophistication in mass publics. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.
9.
Davison, W. P.
(1983). The third-person effect in communication. Public Opinion Quarterly, 47, 1-15.
10.
Fiske, S. T.
, Lau, R. R., & Smith, R. A. (1990). On the varieties and utilities of political expertise. Social Cognition, 8, 31-48.
11.
Fiske, S. T.
, & Taylor, S. E. (1991). Social cognition (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
12.
Graber, D.
(1988). Processing the news: How people tame the information tide. New York: Longman.
13.
Gunter, B.
(1991). Responding to news and public affairs. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Responding to the screen (pp. 229-260). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
14.
Hsu, M.
, & Price, V. (1993). Political expertise and affect. Communication Research, 20, 671-695.
15.
Jamieson, K. H.
, & Cappella, J. N. (1993, September). The effects of a strategy-based political news schema. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.
16.
Judd, C. M.
, & Downing, J. W. (1990). Political expertise and the development of attitude consistency. Social cognition, 8, 104-124.
17.
Kinder, D. R.
, & Sanders, L. M. (1990). Mimicking political debate with survey questions: The case of White opinion on affirmative action for Blacks. Social cognition, 8, 73-103.
18.
Kinder, D. R.
, & Sears, D. O. (1981). Prejudice and politics: Symbolic racism versus racial threats to the good life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 414-431.
19.
Krippendorff, K. K.
(1980). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
20.
Krosnick, J. A.
(1990). Expertise and political psychology. Social Cognition, 8, 1-8.
21.
Kuhn, D.
(1991). The skills of argument. New York: Cambridge University Press.
22.
Kuklinski, J. H.
, Luskin, R. C., & Bolland, J. (1991). Where is the schema? Going beyond the “S” word in political psychology. American Political Science Review, 85, 1341-1355.
23.
Luce, R. D.
(1986). Response times: Their role in inferring mental organization. New York: Oxford University Press.
24.
Luskin, R. C.
(1987). Measuring political sophistication. American Journal of Political Science, 31, 857-899.
25.
Markus, H.
, & Zajonc, R. (1985). The cognitive perspective in social psychology. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 137-230). New York: Random House.
26.
McGraw, K. M.
, & Pinney, N. (1990). The effects of general and domain specific expertise on political memory and judgment. Social Cognition, 8, 9-30.
27.
McGuire, W. J.
(1968). Personality and susceptibility to influence. In E. F. Borgatta & W. W. Lambert (Eds.), Handbook of personality theory and research (pp. 1130-1187). Chicago: Rand McNally.
28.
McGuire, W.
(1986). The myth of massive media impact: Savagings and salvagings. In G. Comstock (Ed.), Public communication and behavior (Vol. 1, pp. 173-257). New York: Academic Press.
29.
McLeod, D. M.
, & Perse, E. M. (1994). Direct and indirect effects of socioeconomic status on public affairs knowledge. Journalism Quarterly, 71, 433-442.
30.
McLeod, J. M.
, & McDonald, D. G. (1985). Beyond simple exposure: Media orientations and their impact on political processes. Communication Research, 12, 3-33.
31.
Neuman, W. R.
, Just, M. R., & Crigler, A. N. (1992). Common knowledge: News and the construction of political meaning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
32.
Petty, R.
, & Cacioppo, J. (1986). Communication and persuasion. New York: Springer-Verlag.
33.
Price, V.
, & Zaller, J. (1993). Who gets the news? Alternative measures of news reception and their implications for research. Public Opinion Quarterly, 57, 133-164.
34.
Robinson, J. P.
(1986). Long term information and media usage. In J. P. Robinson & M. R. Levy (Eds.), The main source (pp. 57-85). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
35.
Robinson, J. P.
, & Davis, D. K. (1986). Comprehension of a single evening's news. In J. P. Robinson & M. R. Levy (Eds.), The main source (pp. 107-132). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
36.
Robinson, J. P.
, & Davis, D. K. (1990). Television news and the informed public: An information processing approach. Journal of Communication, 40, 106-119.
37.
Robinson, J. P.
, & Levy, M. R. (1986). Comprehension of a week's news. In J. P. Robinson & M. R. Levy (Eds.), The main source (pp. 87-105). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
38.
Schroder, H. M.
, Driver, M. J., & Streufert, S. (1967). Human information processing. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
39.
Stoker, L.
(1992). Interests and ethics in politics. American Political Science Review, 86, 369-380.
40.
Tetlock, P. E.
(1985). Integrative complexity of American and Soviet foreign policy rhetoric: A time series analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1565-1585.
41.
Tetlock, P. E., & Hannuum, K. (1984). Integrative complexity coding manual. Unpublished manuscript, University of California at Berkeley.
42.
Woodall, W. G.
(1986). Information processing theory and television news. In J. P. Robinson & M. R. Levy (Eds.), The main source (pp. 133-158). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
43.
Woodard, E.
(1995, May). Argumentative skill: A measure of schema development. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
44.
Wyckoff, M. L.
(1987). Measures of attitudinal consistency as indicators of ideological sophistication: A reliability and validity assessment. The Journal of Politics, 49, 148-168.
45.
Zaller, J.
(1987). The diffusion of political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 821-833.
46.
Zaller, J.
(1990). Political awareness, elite opinion leadership and mass survey response. Social Cognition, 8, 125-133.
47.
Zaller, J.
(1992). The nature and origin of mass opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press.
