Abstract
Press critics and social theorists have suggested that the press should take on a “watchdog” role, monitoring powerful institutions and guarding against abuses of authority. At the same time, news media often are called on to play a “consensus” role, emphasizing social cohesion and downplaying conflict. This study seeks to measure public support for these roles, to determine how opinions on the two roles are related, and to examine the effect of community pluralism and education levels on those opinions. A structural theory of mass communication suggests three hypotheses: HI: The higher the education level, the lower the support for either the “watchdog” or “consensus” roles. H2: The greater the level of structural pluralism, the greater the difference will be in support for the “watchdog” role between high and low education groups. H3: The greater the level of structural pluralism, the smaller will be the difference in support for the “consensus” role between high and low education groups.
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