Influence of News Coverage of the “Scandal” on PTL Viewers

Abstract

A sample of 179 faithful viewers of religious television with divergent patterns of secular television exposure were found to possess significantly different perceptions of religious broadcasters in light of the PTL scandal. High consumers of secular television and magazine reports of the scandal became far more critical and increasingly negative. Low consumers were more supportive of religious broadcasters after the scandal. The interaction between viewer motives, media exposure, interpretive processing of media information and the effects on viewer perceptions are discussed.