Values, communication behavior, and political participation

This article examines how communication patterns mediate the influences of values on political participation. We find that the positive effects of pos tmaterial values on participation are mediated through reading public affai rs content in newspapers. In contrast, materialist values negatively affect participation through watching television entertainment. Interpersonal dis cussion in which disagreement occurs mediates both the positive effect of r eading public affairs and the negative effect of materialism on political p articipation. We also provide what may be a better explanation of the influ ence of communication patterns on political participation by going beyond a cquisition of factual political knowledge. We show that individuals' effort s to think about news and search for additional information and perspective s modify what people "get from" media. Reflecting about news and integratin g information from various sources promote better understanding of the poli tical world and may provide a stronger cognitive base for political partici pation than factual political knowledge.