Mass Media, Interpersonal, and Social Background Influences in Two Canadian and American Settings

This paper reports mass media, interpersonal communication, and socio-linguistic background influences on selected political and cultural attitude, agendas, and information levels. Three hypotheses were tested using data from two cross cultural settings. Findings differed greatly in the two settings. Generally, social background was a more frequent and stronger predictor of attitudes, agendas, and information acquisition than interpersonal or media exposure, and interpersonal exposure was stronger and more frequent than media exposure. Media use was an important predictor of some (especially cultural) variables, but no substantial evidence was found for broadbased media imperialism.