The Symbiotic Relationship between Television and Newspaper Public Affairs Use.

Although television and newspaper public affairs use are two of the foundation variables employed in the empirical study of mass communication, there is still a great deal that media scholars have yet to understand about the true relationship that exists between these forms of media use. This study posits and tests for a mutually reinforcing positive reciprocal relationship between television and newspaper public affairs use. Combined 1992, 1996, and 2000 American National Election Study (ANES) survey data (N = 6006) are used to test for this relationship via Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). A simultaneous positive reciprocal relationship is found to exist between these two forms of public affairs media use, providing evidence to a lingering question that has been often assumed but never directly tested. Ramifications of this finding for studies analyzing both forms of public affairs media use are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]