Faith and News: A Quantitative Study of the Relationship Between Religiosity and TV News Exposure

• Main Author: Marvez, Raquel
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2008
• Subjects: Faith; news; religion; broadcast news; communications; Journalism; Communication
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1626; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2625&context=etd

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between religiosity and broadcast news usage. This study examines the level of religiosity of individuals and its correlation to broadcast news exposure. The correlation between religiosity and perceptions of violence on broadcast news was also measured. Two theories were applied in this study. Uses and Gratifications asserts the active character of the audience to choose what they watch, how often, etc., and Selective Exposure defends the ability of the individual to select media that coincides with personal value systems. These two theories complement each other and provide support in the evaluation of religiosity and broadcast news exposure. A survey was posted on-line through various message boards. Twenty-five questions were used to determine religiosity, broadcast news exposure, broadcast news and perceptions of violence on broadcast news. In sum, all hypotheses were supported and the general idea that as religiosity increases broadcast news exposure decreases was confirmed. Nevertheless, due to the small effect size the study also indicates that religiosity does not explain a great percentage of the behavior of an individual towards broadcast news exposure. Therefore, the results of the study indicate that even though religiosity is not a good predictor of broadcast news exposure in general, religiosity affects to a small degree the choices of a more religious individual to expose himself to broadcast news. The perception of violence in broadcast news is also greater in religious than non-religious individuals.