Values, media uses, and political participation: A comparison between China and the United States

To expand the examination of how media usage mediates the influence of values on political behavior to a cross-national context, this study compared the linkages among materialistic and postmaterialistic value priorities, patterns of media use, and political participation in China and the United States. The study employed a survey to examine hypotheses that support for postmaterialist values is positively related to liberal political environment and advanced economic condition, and positively correlated with the use of public affairs media. Further hypotheses also posited that the use of public affairs media has positive relations with public affairs knowledge, reflective integration of information, and political participation. In addition, this study investigated the relations between value support, political environments, economic conditions, and political participation.; Comparing China and the United States, the survey results indicated that the relationships among support for postmaterialist priorities, political environments, and economic conditions were not significant. Nonetheless, in contrast to the statistically significant correlation between support for materialistic values and the usage of entertainment media, the postmaterialist value support was positively correlated with public affairs media use. Also, positive correlations were found between the use of public affairs media and public affairs knowledge, reflective integration, and political participation. On the other hand, postmaterialist value supporters demonstrated a higher frequency of political participation than their materialist counterparts, but again political and economic conditions were found insignificantly related to the frequency of political participation.; The finding from this research suggests that political and economic conditions may place influences on postmaterialist value formation, but many mediating factors, such as education, should also be taken into account. This comparative examination of relations among value systems, media uses, and political participation can help enlighten the understanding of functions and political consequences by these various linkages in different national and cultural contexts. The pursuit in this line of investigation would also benefit from survey sampling covering a wider range of demographic groups as well as societies.