MEDIA USE IN THE PRIMARY ELECTION - A SECONDARY MEDIUM MODEL

This study tests the effect of concern about the electability of candi dates competing for a party's nomination for president on voters' info rmation-seeking behavior The analysis is based on a sample survey of v oters in four California counties in early 1992. Correlational tests r eplicated prior findings that issue-oriented voters rely mainly on new spapers, whereas image-oriented voters tend to seek relevant informati on from television. But these tendencies interacted with electability. Voters with this additional concern sought information on secondary c riteria in secondary media. That is, if the candidates' chances of ele ction were also important, issue-oriented voters also sought image inf ormation, and vice versa. Issue-oriented voters sought their image inf ormation via television, if electability was important to them. The op posite interaction was not found, however, image-oriented voters used television as their source for both kinds of information, if electabil ity was important to them.