INTRODUCTION

Media have been the subject of many studies; in particular the effect of media on their audiences has been of special interest to researchers in the field of Communications such as: Harold Lasswell and Paul Lazarsfeld. They are considered two of the fathers of Communications (Schramm; 1980). I, like these and other researchers, find interest in why we seek out certain media, how we use them and what benefits we get from media. As an employee at the local newspaper, and a believer in the need for the service that journalists provide to our society, I have become intrigued by news media consumption.
Early studies done by Harold Lasswell determined that media did have a strong influence on their audiences. He developed the Hypodermic Needle (also known as the magic bullet) Theory, which stated that media have a direct, immediate and powerful effect on their audiences (Journalism; 2003). This theory was widely held to be true in the 1940s and 1950s. Others, such as Paul Lazarsfeld, looked for other connections between media and their audiences. Lazarsfeld determined through his research that media had a limited effect on audiences. He developed the Limited Effects Paradigm after his extensive research. Limited Effects says that media have some effects on audiences, but they are limited to the opinion leader and direct receiver, and tend to be tied to preconceived beliefs of the audience members. He used this to develop what is known as the two-step flow of communication model (Stone; 1999). This brought Lazarsfeld’s research a step further, and he began working off Leon Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory, which was first identified in 1951 and says that messages that disagree with our personal belief system cause us discomfort. This theory was first adopted as a social psychology theory and was linked to the Selective Exposure Theory (Cognitive; 2004).
These theories will be used in this study to determine if in fact we as a society choose particular media because their messages reinforce the belief systems of their audience members. With growing technology, media have changed, and from these changes have come a multitude of messengers with an array of platforms. These changes have brought up new questions and perhaps new answers to old questions. With new technologies and more media being offered, audiences have more options, not only in the messages they receive but where they get those messages and in what form. The changing environment in mass media calls for research to be done to either substantiate developed theories or to come up with new ones to describe the media-audience relationship.
The purpose of my research is to determine if in fact there is a correlation between our personal belief systems and the media we consume, and the strength of that relationship. I will also look for a link between our educational level and the amount of news media we consume, as well as the level of satisfaction in available information to our news seeking habits.