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ERIC Number: ED252906
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1984-Apr-5
Pages: 15
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Political and Social Issues as Predictors of Attending to Religious Broadcasts.
Copeland, Gary A.; Davis, Donald M.
Acknowledging fears of electronic church critics that audiences will adopt the conservative political messages espoused by evangelical broadcasters, a study was conducted to determine the political and social issues that best predict attendance to religious broadcasts. A secondary analysis was conducted of existing data from a statewide telephone survey of residents of Alabama. Interviewees in the survey were questioned about political beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge; race relations; religious orientation; media use; and demographic information. A pool of 20 items dealing with political and social issues, political anomie, and racial attitudes was selected for possible use as predictor variables in the discriminant analysis. The results of the analysis indicated that fundamentalist issues, political distrust, political power, and political knowledge tended to be the areas of distinction between viewers and nonviewers of religious broadcasts. Viewers tended to be more opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment, pornography, and abortion than did nonviewers. Viewers also favored prayer in school and gun control more strongly than did nonviewers. There appeared to be a sense of political estrangement among viewers, who found politics and government more complicated and legislators losing touch with them. At the same time, viewers had a greater sense that political power wielded at the ballot box is the only way of controlling the political process. Nonviewers tended to exhibit greater political knowledge than did viewers. (HTH)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A