Assessing the Role of Information-Processing Strategies in Learning From Local News Media About Sources of Social Capital

Abstract

This study examines the mediating effects of information-processing strategies on the relationship between use of local news media, informational use of the Internet, and sources of social capital: interpersonal trust, reciprocity, and associational membership. Analyses of a telephone survey data (n = 546) of American adults show that even though local news media were influential, information-processing strategies were more powerful than attention in explaining learning from local news media about social norms at the individual level. These findings support the usefulness of the cognitive mediation model of information-processing behaviors in examining learning from local news media about social norms. Of the two strategies, elaborative processing played a more important role than active reflection in the mediating process. Informational use of the Internet had a significant and independent effect on associational membership, after demographic, structural anchoring, local media use, and information-processing measures were statistically controlled.

Notes

Note. Entries are standardized beta coefficients. They were derived from the final model.

^a Male = 1, female = 0. ^b White = 1, African American = 0. ^c Own = 1, rent = 0. ^d Yes = 1, no = 0.

†p ≤ .10. ∗p ≤ .05. ∗∗p ≤ .01. ∗∗∗p ≤ .001.

Note. Entries are standardized beta coefficients. They were derived from the final model.

^a Male = 1, female = 0. ^b White = 1, African American = 0. ^c Own = 1, rent = 0. ^d Yes = 1, no = 0.

†p ≤ .10. ∗p ≤ .05. ∗∗p ≤ .01. ∗∗∗p ≤ .001.

Note. Entries are standardized beta coefficients. They were derived from the final model.

^a Male = 1, female = 0. ^b White = 1, African American = 0. ^c Own = 1, rent = 0. ^d Yes = 1, no = 0.

†p ≤ .10. ∗p ≤ .05. ∗∗p ≤ .01. ∗∗∗p ≤ .001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kenneth Fleming

Kenneth Fleming (Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia) is Director of Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research interests include social capital and mass media, health communication, political communication, and research methodology.

Esther Thorson

Esther Thorson (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is Associate Dean of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Her research interests include news effects, advertising, media economics, and health communication.