| The problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of television on the selection of political leadership in the United States.;Method. Fifteen hypotheses were examined to ascertain their television influence potential. These considerations included the overall influence of television, television imagery, candidates' presentation on television, candidates' background and history, negative and positive audiovisual effects, sensationalism, candidates' values and attitudes, television advertising, candidates' physical appearance, campaign funds, campaign issues, and television commentators, current events, and lastly, effects of television experts.;Supplemental demographic information included the following: age, sex, approximate number of hours spent watching television each week, education level, profession, and citizenship. A modification of the original questionnaire was utilized. The format employed a modified semantic differential scale. Statistical analyses included t tests, chi-square measures, Pearson r, Spearman's rank order, nonparametric Mann-Whitney U Tests, and the nonparametric Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test.;It was predicted that overall television would influence the voting, viewing public in their selection of United States political leaders. The study further predicted that this influence would be observed in 15 diverse yet related areas pertaining to a candidate's bid for public office. Supplemental data were gathered mainly to account for any major discrepancies.;Results. Responses from 435 subjects were included in the data analysis. The major results of the study indicated that participants felt television played a significant role in their selection of national leaders in all areas tested, to include the overall influence of television, imagery, candidate presence on television, candidate background and history, negative positive audiovisual effects, sensationalism, candidates' values and attitudes, television advertising, candidates' physical appearance, campaign funds, issues and television commentators, current events, and effects of television experts.;The study provides supporting evidence for research which see television as a major factor that has the potential for influencing the voting, viewing public in the selection of United States political leaders. |
