Mass Media Use and Electoral Choice in West Germany

Abstract

The claim that the mass media exercise a strong influence on people's political attitudes and behavior enjoys a wide currency-though not any more than the disclaimer. Common sense tells us that the mass media affect how we perceive political reality and what part of it, since few experience politics firsthand. Yet voting research has generally failed to turn up evidence for sizeable media effects, at least as far as changing people's votes is concerned. Studies examining the media and electoral choice have stressed activation and reinforcement, but discounted conversion.' This does not necessarily reduce the role of the mass media to insignificance, but it provides little or no support for the proposition that electoral change, to the extent that it occurs, results from mass media influence. Whether or not one deplores it, the notion that media exposure is associated with more, rather than less, voting stability is perplexing. But few studies have offered evidence that would satisfactorily resolve this apparent puzzle. It is the goal of this study to probe the relationship between media use and voting stability. We shall examine two prominent hypotheses-one stressing partisan affect, the other one cognitive elaboration-and assess their explanatory power. Our interest focuses on the West German electorate during the 1960s and 1970s. This perspective allows for a fresh look at the problem in more than one way. First of all, the Federal Republic represents an especially interesting case for such an inquiry, having rebuilt a democratic system on the rubble of a defeated totalitarian regime. Attitudes supporting a democratic form of government, loyalties to newly formed or reemerged political parties and other political orientations had to be formed in the West German mass public. Such a need creates unique opportunities for the mass media to play an influential role. Second, the mass media in West Germany, while professing to be independent and nonpartisan, generally follow particular ideological and partisan lines, with