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The diffusion of mediated state public affairs information
Author(s) -
Tyson Ben,
Honyotski Tara,
Bevacqua Bill
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of public affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.221
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1479-1854
pISSN - 1472-3891
DOI - 10.1002/pa.368
Subject(s) - public opinion , democracy , state (computer science) , word of mouth , political science , opinion leadership , rest (music) , public relations , sociology , public administration , law , advertising , business , politics , computer science , medicine , cardiology , algorithm
The strength of a democracy rests with having an informed public. The relatively recent advent of C‐Span at the national level and the state‐based equivalents such as CT‐N in Connecticut now provide the most thorough and unbiased coverage of public affairs information that has ever been disseminated in the U.S. The importance of these networks rests with the word of mouth influence that the smaller, demographically diverse, opinion leader audience for these stations have on the rest of society. A series of surveys of CT‐N viewers over three years provides a good picture of what their opinion leader audience looks like and how it is evolving. This information may be useful for other public affairs television networks. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.