Exploring the Link Between News Broadcast Use and Politics’ Personal Importance

Have you ever wondered whether using radio or TV news broadcasts to stay informed about your country and the world is associated with believing politics is important in your life? When someone says they watched or listened to news broadcasts last week, does that typically correlate with placing higher personal importance on politics? Do people who consider politics important in their lives tend to rely on radio and TV news broadcasts more often to follow what’s going on nationally and globally? For instance, perhaps people who see politics as personally important are simply more attentive to political information in everyday media routines, making broadcast news a natural match—or, speculatively, maybe some regular broadcast news consumers still keep politics at arm’s length because their interest is broader than politics alone. Understanding whether these two attitudes and behaviors move together can be important for interpreting civic engagement, public opinion, and how people stay informed.

We've analyzed data from a study on 1178 people in the the U.S., which we've used to explore these questions. Study participants were asked whether they agreed with the statement, "I used the news broadcasts on radio or TV last week to obtain information on what is going on in my country and the world" and also to what extent they agree with the statement "Politics is important in my life".

Here are the results:

To further explore the relationship between these two items, you can explore the pages for either statement on PersonalityMap:

• I used the news broadcasts on radio or TV last week to obtain information on what is going on in my country and the world
• Politics is important in my life

Or you can explore over 1 million human correlations spanning personality, demographics, behaviors and beliefs at PersonalityMap.io.