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Abstract
The ways in which individuals interact with political media has changed significantly over the last 30 years. With the advent of cable television some scholars have argued that television's influence on political opinions can now be defined by the specific, niche audiences of the cable channels, instead of the vast, general audience of network television channels (Prior, 2007). Using the 2004 NAES debate panel survey, this article argues that, although the shift from reach to specificity might be occurring, political debates still serve an important reach function in American elections. Further, the tested model also displays different paths of influence for FOX News verse CNN viewers on their opinions of President Bush. Specifically, FOX News viewing was found to directly influence individuals' opinions of Bush, while CNN indirectly affected individuals' opinions of Bush by positively influencing debate viewing.
Notes
A total of 250 CNN and FOX News viewers were not asked any of the post-debate battery of public policy issue stance knowledge questions. As a result, these participants were not included in the study.
The three 2004 general election American presidential debates were held on the following dates: September 30, 2004; October 8, 2004; and October 13, 2004.
The formula for Fisher's z test is z = Bi1 − Bi2/square root (), where Bs stand for regression coefficients from two independent samples and SEs indicate their corresponding standard errors.