Understanding News Media Consumption and Political Attitudes and Behavior in Latin America Page: I
View a full description of this dissertation.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Salzman, Ryan, Understanding news media consumption and political attitudes and
behavior in Latin America. Doctor of Philosophy (Political Science), May 2011, 239 pp., 57
tables, 3 figures, references, 150 titles.
News media consumption is vital to understanding democracy in Latin America.
Democracy in the region lacks consolidation that may be encouraged by the ability of news
media to shape individuals' political attitudes and behaviors. Yet, we know very little about how
citizens of Latin American countries consume news media or how that consumption affects
attitudes and behavior. This study offers a region-wide examination of the factors that shape
news media consumption and the effects of that consumption on individuals in the region. To
explore this topic, I examine survey data from the 2008 Latin American Public Opinion Project
in 18 Latin American countries. I argue that news media promote democratic attitudes and
political behavior by increasing the symbolic value of democracy and by supplementing those
symbols with information that further encourages democratic attitudes and political participation.
Additionally, political behavior is not temporally proximate to political behaviors such as voting.
This necessitates a mediated path for news media consumption to influence participation through
political interest, civil society participation and democratic attitudes. My findings illustrate that
each news medium type (TV, radio, newspaper) must be considered separately from each other
type. I find that news media consumption has little effect on attitudes. The effect of news media
consumption on behavior is best understood as mediated paths through political interest and civil
society participation. An additional analysis examines the state of internet use in the region. In
total, this project offers a broad understanding of how news media consumption affects
individual-level democracy in Latin America.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This dissertation can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Dissertation.
Salzman, Ryan. Understanding News Media Consumption and Political Attitudes and Behavior in Latin America, dissertation, May 2011; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc68043/m1/2/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .