This paper examines the possibility that citizens' mediated and sporadic exposure to education research influences their policy attitudes. It reflects upon how citizens--who are not direct consumers of education research and who lack basic training in the modes of social scientific inquiry--use the paucity of information made available to them in news stories in order to formulate opinions about public education. After briefly surveying relevant literatures on political behavior and survey design, the paper introduces a simple experiment that is designed to further elucidate the varying impacts of academic research on public opinion about education policy. (Contains 7 tables.) [Financial support for this paper was also provided by the National Research and Development Center on School Choice, Competition, and Student Achievement.]