Debate Viewing as Mediator and Partisan Reinforcement in the Relationship Between News Use and Vote Choice.

This study posits that debate viewing is a mediator between news use and vote choice, and that party identification is a moderator in the relationship between debate viewing and vote choice. A series of OLS regression equations, first tested using 2000 ANES data, revealed that debate viewing initially serves as a mediator between television news viewing and vote choice for the general voting population. However, party identification is a moderator in the relationship between debate viewing and vote choice. More specifically, debate viewing acts as partisan reinforcement for Democratic and Republican voters. These results replicate using 1996 ANES data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]