Mass Communication and Voter Volatility

This study attempts to explicate empirically the concept ofvoter volatility and to test the assertion that the use of televisionfor political news contributes to this electoral instability.Voter volatility is defined as the level of unpredictabilityof election outcomes from traditional demographic and politicalparty variables. The effects of television and newspaper exposureon each of seven volatility dimensions were examined beforeand after the introduction of two control variables: educationand political interest. Neither the media exposure measuresnor the control variables predicted to all volatility dimensionsin a uniform way. Contrary to expectations, the dominant directionof television exposure's relationships was toward lower levelsof volatility. While newspaper use effects were largely in theexpected direction of lower volatility, reversals were shownhere as well. Education and political interest, traditionallythought to be stabilizing electoral forces, also revealed positiveas well as negative relationships to various volatility factors.