A study investigated whether political interest was a factor in differences in political knowledge between television and newspaper reliant individuals. Data were collected through 353 hour-long interviews with adults in a midwestern city. Subjects supplied information about their media use and preferences, political preferences, education level, and age. Data analysis revealed a number of findings, including the following: (1) newspaper reliant persons held more political knowledge than did their television reliant counterparts; (2) individuals with high political interest, regardless of the media they relied upon, read more public affairs magazines and were stronger political partisans than were their low interest counterparts; (3) television reliant individuals with high political interest showed greater political knowledge than did low interest individuals, regardless of media reliance; and (4) individuals with similar levels of political interests revealed comparable levels of political knowledge. The findings suggest that some of the differences between television and newspaper reliant persons might be attributed to differing levels of political interest rather than to the "good" or "bad" effects of the medium. (An appendix contains definitions of terms used in the study.) (FL)