By Gerald C. Stone and Roger V. Wetherington, Jr.
Confirming the Newspaper
Reading Habit
Survey finds most respondents
who read newspapers have
particular time andplace for
doing it and that newspaper
reading behavior of parents is
strong predictor.
The readership of daily newspapers
has been studied extensively-especial-
ly following World War I1 and the slow-
ing in newspaper circulation growth.
Studies have looked at who reads and
who doesn't, what content is read and
how much, the gratifications that reading
brings and when the paper is read. A
number of studies, particularly those
dealing with how frequently or regularly
people read newspapers, have assumed
that newspaper reading is a n acquired
habit, but none has studied the habit it-
self.
This study seeks to confirm whether
newspaper reading is indeed a habit and,
if it is, t o explore some of the habit's
characteristics.
Knight Dunlap', a behavioral psycholo-
gist, wrote:
By a habit, is generally understood a
stereotyped form of response: the doing of
the same thing always in the same way un-
der the same conditions.
WDr. Stone is assistant professor at California State
University. Long Beach. where Wetherington and he
are on the journalism faculty. Wetherington's work
on the project was part of a degree program at the
University of Southern California's School of Jour-
nalism. The authors are grateful for the ndvice pro-
vided by Ray G. Di Piaua of the Long Beach f n d r
pmdcnr. Press-Telegrom and the help of Ms. Clau-
dia Long, a CSULB student.
554
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His teacher, William James*, had
written in 1890 that the strongest habits
are those learned earliest. "Intellectual
and professional" habits are formed
during a n individual's 20s, and "person-
al habits" like pronunciation and ges-
tures are formed earlier, he said.
Both psychologists said new habits
can replace or modify old ones.
This study seeks to show whether news-
paper reading is a habit in the psycholo-
gists' terms-that is, behavior that tends
to be repeated regularly in just about
the same way. D o people tend to read
their newspapers regularly at the same
time. in the same place and under the
same conditions? By conditions we mean
social environment for reading (whether
alone o r with others) and activities that
regularly accompany reading (like eat-
ing o r listening to music).
Previous research suggests many
characteristics of the newspaper reading
habit invite further study, especially the
extent of the role played by parents in
forming children's newspaper reading
habit.'
The factor of age-especially as it ap-
I Knight Dunlap. Hohirr, T h n r MokinK ond llnrnokrnf f V r w
York: Livcnght. 1972). Chapter I
'William Jamc5. Hohrr (New York Henry Holt and C o ,
1914). pp. 52-53
'Therc rtudin pertaining to reading habm arc arranpcd
in chronological order. with the most rccent la\t Wllhur
Schramm and David M White. "Age. Educduon. Fconomlc
Srdtus: Factors in Newspaper Readinn." J I M I\ 11i\\i
QI'~RTERLY. 26149-59. (1949). Wilbur Schramm. Jack 1 ylc
and Edwin B Parker. 'Patterns in Children's Reading or
Ncwappera." JOVRNALISHQUARTF.RI.Y. . 1 7 : 1 M . (1960)
Mcrrill Snmuelson. Richard F Carter and 1 ec Ruppcl-.
"Education. Available Time and U s e of Maw Media."
J O I , R V ~ L I S MQ I , % R T ~ R40
L 491%
V. 617 l19hll Brucr Wc+
Icy and Werner J . Sevcrin. 'A Profile of the Dallv Ncwqm-
per Non-Reader." Jol.RuAl ISH QI A R T ~ R II . 41 4S-Sll ( I Y M )
Pctcr Clarke. "Parental Socialitation Value\ and Children'\
Newspaper Reading." Jot R Y A twI Q I . A R T ~ R I > , 42 5 2 0 4 .
(Con'!)
 Confirming the Newspaper Reading Habit
plies to those in the 18- to 34-year old
group-also invites further inquiry.
Study of this age group's reading habits
is important not only for what it might
show about the group now but for what
it may portend for newspaper reading
and circulation in the f ~ t u r e . ~
Method
In the spring of 1978, students were
surveyed at California State University,
Long Beach. The campus has a 32,000
commuter student enrollment, and most
are middle class. A resident of Califor-
nia pays only f103 a semester in fees as
a full-time student, so the overrepresen-
tation of upper socioeconomic groups
would not be expected on this campus.
Most students live in their parent's
home or elsewhere off campus. The cam-
pus has fewer than 700 dormitory resi-
dents and no living accommodations for
fraternity or sorority members. The
student body is generally older than at
many universities with a median age of
23.
Long Beach, the second largest city
in Los Angeles County, is useful for the
study of media habits because it is rich
in media. The area is served by six
major dailies, dozens of suburban pa-
pers, seven V H F television stations and
(1965). "Whcn Dcs Moincr h'cwspapcrs Arc Read." Nevr
R r r r a r h / o r Britrr Nrwspaprrs, Vol I . cditcd by Chilton
R Bush (New York: Amcrican Ncwspapcr Puhlirhers Ass+
ciation Foundation. 1966). pp. 15-111. "An Autumn Wcckcnd
(19551.- Nrws Rrsrarrhfor k r r r r Nevspaprrr. Vol 2. Chil-
ton R . Hush, cd.. (Ncw York A V P A Foundation. 1967). pp.
10-11. Manwcll F McCombs. "Mass Communication on the
Campus" IUC1.A Communicrtions Board. I9h7). citcd in
News Rrsrarrh for Brrtrr Nrwpaprrs. Chilton R Rush. cd ,
(New York. A t i P A Foundation. 196R). pp 4041 &n H
Bdgdiktan. Thr Informalion Ma'htnrr. Thrir Irnpoc.1 on M r n
andrhr Mrdie(Ncw York Harpcr & Row. 1971 ). p S3. Stcvcn
H Chaffcc. Jack M McLcod and Charks K Atkin. "Parcnt-
al lnflucncn on Adolcscent Mcdia Use." American Rchav-
.
ioral Scicntisl. 14. 3 2 3 4 0 . Jan Fcb 1971 F Gcrald Klinc.
"Media Time Budgcting as a Function of I ifcstylc." JIN.R-
N A I I S M Q t . A R T t R L I . 48.21 1-21, (1971) Ciarrctl J OKccfc
Jr and H T Spcrnagcl. "Patterns of Callcp Undergraduates'
IJse of Sekcted Yews Media." JOI.OSAIISH Q I ' A R T F R I ) . 50
54348 (1972). Jeanne Pcnrou. Davtd H . Weaver. Richard
R Colc and Donald L Shaw. "Thc Ncwspapcr Nonrcadcr 10
Years Later: A Panial Rcplicarion of Wcstlcv-Scvcrin."
JOI:RNALISH Qt ~RTERLI'. 5I:631-311. (1974) Mary Bcncdict.
David H Wcavcr and J Hcrbert Altschull. 'High Schml
Studcnts and thc Ncwspapcr Educatinp Mcdia Consumcrs."
Jot R Y A I tsw QI.*RTFRLY. 53. 2110-86 (1976) John P Rohinson.
"Dally Ncws Habits of the American Public." A h P A News
Rrsrarrh Rcpon. No. IS. (Scptcmbcr. 197X).
'Yankclovich. Skclly and White. I n c . "Young Pcopk and
Ncwspapcrr. An Exploraror) Study." prcparcd for the Hartc-
Hanks Hcwspspcn. Inc.. May. 1976.
Downloaded from jmq.sagepub.com at NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV on March 18, 2015
555
some PO major A M and F M radio sta-
tions.
The questionnaires were designed to
explore the students' newspaper reading
habits and to a lesser extent their par-
ents' habits.
Interviews were conducted at the uni-
versity's two major cafeterias and its
Union building. These are among the
three most central and busiest sites o n
campus. Complete randomization was
not a priority of this exploratory study,
but the 202 completed interviews closely
matched the entire student population o n
available criteria.
Hypo theses
The objective of this study was to
eliminate from the realm of speculation
those relationships which definitely d o
not exist. Hence, the absence of signifi-
cant differences would indicate further
research along a particular line is prob-
ably not worth pursuing. The hypotheses:
I ) Newspaper reading is a habit and as
such is manifest as any other habit might be.
People read at a regular time during the
day, at a regular place, and those who have
the newspaper reading habit are likely to
read more frequently and to spend more
time with the paper when they do read.
2 ) The newspaper reading habit is more
closely related to personal characteristics
of the individual and to the reading habits of
the individual's parents than t o more transi-
tory influences, such as exposure to pro-
grams like the Newspaper In Education proj-
ect.
a) Those whose parents read a newspaper
regularly are more likely to read a news-
paper themselves.
b) Those whose parents had a particular
time to read are more likely also to have
a particular time; those whose parents
had a special place to read are more like-
ly also to have a special place.
c) Those whose parents read in the morn-
ing are more likely to read newspapers
in the morning themselves: those whose
parents read in the evening are more like-
ly to read newspapers in the evening.
d) Offsprings' reading place is likely to
be associated with parents' reading place.
e) The likelihood of having acquired a
newspaper reading habit will be greater
for those in the sample who are Caucasian
556 JOURNALISM QUARTERLY
TABLE I TABLE 2
Parents Having Special Reading Time Parents Having Special Reading Place
Associated with Similar Practice by Associated with Similar Practice hy
Respondents, in Percent Respondents. in Percent
Respondents Respondents
Special Time Special Place
Yes No Yes No
Parents Special Parents Special
Time 83 17 Place 81 19
Parents No Parents No
Special Time 51 49 Special Place 46 54
N = 158 X*=13.3 p<.OOI N = 157 X z =14.7 p<.OOI
and whose father is higher in occupational
status and in education. to determine if a newspaper reading
9 Those whose parents discussed the habit does exist, to find its correlates
newspaper with one another or with their and to learn if it is a process, the study
children will be more likely to have de-
veloped a newspaper reading habit. offers many comparisons that could be
g) Those who evidence greater news of benefit to the newspaper industry gen-
awareness through more frequent attcnd- erally. These observations will be of-
ance to local and national television news fered only as exploratory insights to
will be more likely to have acquired a serve as the basis for future research
newspaper reading habit. into the newspaper reading habit.
h) Exposure to the Newspaper I n Educa-
tion program will have little or no effect
on the likelihood of acquiring a newspa- Results
per reading habit. Survey respondents could easily artic-
ulate having a particular time and place
Because the study is composed pri- at which they usually read the newspa-
marily of 18- to 24- and 25- to Wyear- per. Of the entire sample, 61% said there
OMS, the opportunity existed to e x p l o ~ was a particular time they read; 75% of
these two contiguous groups to determine those who read a daily newspaper said
if their newspaper use characteristics they did so a t a particular time. (Table
were similar. The question is instru- I ) Likewise, 63% said there was a place
mental to the present study in determin- they usually read the newspaper, and of
ing if consistent patterns apply to the those who said they read a daily paper,
entire 16-year time frame o r if there is 77% did so at a particular place. (Table
a maturing effect, a process that must 2) Further, 58% of the survey respond-
be delineated to understand how the ents who read a daily paper said they
reading habit grows. We predicted there had both a particular time and a special
would be a maturing effect. place they usually read.
3) The newspaper reading habit becomes To test the remaining supportive state-
more defined, more explicit with a person's ments of the first hypothesis, a scale
age. The habit matures as an individual ma- was created by combining elements in
tures. the questionnaire which seemed to indi-
a) The tendency to have acquired a news- cate habitual practices. The items in-
paper reading habit increases with age. cluded in the scale were: I ) reading a
b) Newspaper content preferences for daily newspaper at all, 2) having the pa-
older respondents will be broader than per delivered, purchased o r borrowed-
those of their younger counterparts; the
older readers will have wider ranges of hence a stable method for securing the
reading interests. paper, 3) reading a newspaper three or
more days a week, 4) spending more than
Beyond the three hypotheses designed 15 minutes a day with the paper when

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 Confirming the Newspaper Reading Habit 557
TABLE 3
Respondents' Reading Days per Week by Parents' Regularity of Reading
Respondents' Reading Days
None, Three,
One Four Six or
Or T w o Or Five Seven
Parents read regularly 31% 32% 37%
Parents read less than regularly 51 30 19
X'=1.53; 2 df; pC.001

TABLE 4
Reading Time by Parents' Reading Time
Sample Sample Sample
Morning Evening Other Times
Readers Readers Readers
(n=40) (.n = 39) (n = 19)
Parents read morning (n = 38) 63% I87n 31%
Parents read evening (n = 33) 25 49 12
Parents read other (n = 27) 13 33 41
Xz=21.3; 4df; p<.OOI

TABLE 5
Reading Place by Parents' Reading Place
Sample Sample Sample
Kitchen- Living, Den, Other
Dining Family Room Place
(n 39) (n = 37) (n = 24)
Parents read in kitchen or dining
room areas 59% 16% 20%
Parents read in living room, den
or family room 13 51 13
Parents read in other places 28 27 58
X*=25.8; 4df; p<.oO1

reading it and 5) having a particular Because the Guttman scale requires

time and a particular place to read.
A Guttman scale was formed using
five data variables. The scale had a co-
efficient of reproducibility of .90, a
minimum marginal reproducibility of
.70; and a coefficient of scalability of
.67-all acceptable levels for the Gutt-
man scale. A total of 68 of the 172 re-
spondents who said they did read a daily
paper qualified on all five scale items.
unidimensionality and homogeneity of
items, Hypothesis I is accepted as sup-
ported. The scalability of like items is
strong evidence that a newspaper reading
habit does exist, and that those with any
given score on the scale can be classi-
fied as having a more pronounced news-
paper reading habit than all those scor-
ing below them on the scale.
The second hypothesis extends the

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558 JOURNALISM
first by delineating characteristics - tbat
might be associated with a newspaper
reading habit. We began by showing that
an individual i s more likely to read a
newspaper if parents were Fegular read-
ers. Among those whose parents were
regular newspaper readers, 89% said
they usually read a- daily paper veFsus
only 72%) of the respondents whme par-
ents had read less frequently- (pC.01).
-Table 3 shows a slight climb-in re-
spondents' reading days per week when
parents were regular readers. with a
corresponding sharp drop in reading
days per week when parents were termed
less than regular readers. These data
leave little doubt that parents' having a
particular time or reading place is high-
ly correlated with respondents' having
acquired the same tendencies, and show
also there is a strong association be-
tween these practices by parents and
their children.
One of the key findings of the study.
which shows to what extent a newspaper
reading habit is developed from family
ties, was the finding that reading times
and places are linked with parental read-
ing times and places. Tables 4 and 5 pre-
sent these data which show the tendency
to read at the same time of day parents
read and at the same place in the home.
The table shows also that when sample
subjects reported their parents did not
read at a particular time of the day o r at
a particular place, they too were likely
not to have a particular reading time o r
place.
We would expect the parental reading
preference to have influenced those of
the young sample readers rather than
the reverse. However, it should be em-
phasized that a correlation is obvious
here in spite of the tremendous differ-
ence in life cycles. Respondents are re-
porting on parental reading habits re-
membered from a time when they were
children in their parents' home--a time
when parents might have been in their
late 30s or in their 40s. Yet the likeli-
hood of reading at the same time and
place parents read is great even though
sample respondents' median age is only
21.
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QrJ A R T E R L Y
The remaining supportive statements
of Hypothesis 2 were analyzed by t-test
and Spearman correlations. Most findings
are not in line with the assumptions
made through the supportive statements.
Basing our approach on the past litera-
ture of newspaper readership correlates,
we expected to find the newspaper habit
similar to newspaper readership pat-
terns, i.e.. the tendency to have acquired
a newspaper reading habit would be re-
lated to being Caucasian, in a higher
socioeconomic status family and being
more news-oriented.5 Also, the family
communication pattern literature sug-
gests discussion of the newspaper in the
home should increase the tendency for
having acquired a newspaper reading
habit. The only relationship expected
not to relate with the newspaper habit
was exposure to the Newspaper In Edu-
cation program.6
In fairness to the local N I E program,
there is some uncertainty that the ques-
tionnaire actually measured exposure
to the area project. A total of 57.4% of
the sample said they had participated in
such a program, but a single assign-
ment involving the newspaper may have
triggered a positive response to the
questionnaire item. Still, we assume the
question did tap a response from those
who had participated in some kind of
classroom newspaper program.
As predicted, exposure to the newspa-
per classroom program made no differ-
ence in the tendency to have acquired a
newspaper reading habit. Race also was
in line with our assumption: being Cau-
casian was predictive of having acquired
a newspaper reading habit (p<.OOl), but
race was the only one of the six person-
al trait variables related with having a
newspaper reading habit. In this study,
neither father's occupation level, educa-
tion level, parents' discussion of the
newspaper with each other or with the
respondent, or the respondent's fre-
(icrald c' Sinnc. "Communii) Corrclatr\ ullh S c w p
pcr llrc A Rcvicw o l thc I itcralurc." A . b P A .Zrn.s Rrwarch
Hcppori. K O 14. iScprcmhcr. 197X)
'John H Haclncr. % I F In Hctrcr\pcct Cornmcnt\ h\ a
Curmudgcon." Spccch dclivcrcd 10 thc Conlcrcncc lcir \cub-
paprr In Fducriwn Program kvclopmcnt a1 CI I OIIL\. Uo ,
April h. I W X
 Confirming the Newspaper Reading Habit
quency of watching television news pro-
grams was significantly related to the
tendency of having acquired a newspaper
reading habit.
The finding seems contrary to the body
of research on newspaper readership.
In most studies, the personal attributes
which failed here are not only related to
newspaper reading generally but are in-
terrelated with one another and certain-
ly with the race variable. N o variable
in the study seems a significant inter-
vening variable that could explain why
most of the findings here are negative.
We therefore conclude that the tendency
to have acquired a newspaper reading
hahit is a somewhat different concept
from mere newspaper reading. Perhaps
traditions may be involved in the habit
to some extent while tradition is not nec-
essarily a key part of mere newspaper
reading.
In all Hypothesis 2 may be accepted
as partially supported in an altered form:
The newspaper reading habit is more
closely related to newspaper reading
habits the family has fostered than to
non-familial influences. By restating the
relationship, we suggest the tendency to
have acquired a newspaper reading habit
is similar to the tendency to vote the
same party platform one's parents vote
or to practice religious teachings if par-
ents practiced them as a part of the
child's upbringing.
Hypothesis 3 assumed a maturing ef-
fect would be demonstrated as older re-
spondents would be more likely to have
acquired the newspaper reading habit.
Age of the respondent was compared with
the five-point habit scale by Spearman
Rank-Order correlation and resulted in
an r2 value of +.05 ( p = .26). Finding
no relationship between age and the like-
lihood of having acquired a newspaper
reading habit, we rejected this support-
ive statement.
The supportive statement that content
preferences would be broader for older
people was tested by Spearman R. All
respondents who read a daily newspa-
per were asked to mark, in the order to
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559
which they turned first, the three most
frequently read items of content. Their
mean responses yielded rankings and al-
lowed a comparison of breadth of inter-
est based on the ranges of the category
means. We found first that content pref-
erences for the two age groups tested
were highly correlated ( R = + .7I : p <
.01; table not shown). We found the range
of means actually more restricted in
the 25-34-year-old group than among the
lower age group, which implies more
diversity of reading interest for the older
respondents. But the difference in ranges
was minimal and lends little support for
the idea that older respondents' news-
paper reading interests are broader
than those of the younger respondents.
The only real differences in content
preferences for the two age groups are
younger readers' interests in weather
and older readers' interests in business.
This leads to rejecting Hypothesis 3
and concluding that there is little or no
maturation process in the newspaper
reading habit. In light of the restatement
of Hypothesis 2, a clearer picture of the
reading habit seems t o be taking shape.
If the tendency to read a newspaper ha-
bitually is something that is generally
engendered in the home while the adoles-
cent is there, it is reasonable to find
there is no maturation process at all;
offspring either acquire the newspaper
reading habit or they d o not.
Reflecting on the past research. we
are inclined to favor the family com-
munication patterns literature which
suggests media use and content interests
are molded by parental influence fairly
early in life. The research literature-
which describes newspaper reading as a
maturing process-may be correct from
adolescence to the individual's early
teens, but the data here suggest age 18
may be the milestone after which the
likelihood of beginning a newspaper read-
ing habit is greatly reduced.
Since the hypothesis of a maturing hab-
it has been rejected, this analysis clar-
ifies the methodological problem of
treating 18- t o 24-year olds and 25- to
34-year-olds as a unit of similar young
560 J 0 U R N A 1. I S M Q IJ A R T E R L Y
readers. Rejecting the differences hy-
pothesized strengthens the validity of
combining the two groups in a category of
"young readers" for most analytical
approaches dealing with newspaper read-
ership.
Further data exploration attempted to
broaden insights about the newspaper
reading ha bit.
We tested for significant differences in
the newspaper habit based on gender. An
expected difference was found in reading
content with males more likely to read
sports and females more likely to read
entertainment. Males looked for crime
and violence news while females were
more likely to read human interest and
features, local news and personal inter-
est items.
Males were more likely to say another
activity went along with their newspa-
per reading, although there was no differ-
ence between the sexes as to what the ac-
tivity was. Asked who they discussed the
paper with, males were twice as likely
to say "friends" rather than "family"
o r "both friends and family." A strong,
significant distinction was evident as
79% of females said their parents dis-
cussed the paper with each other or with
them, while only 56% of males gave this
response.
We found that half the respondents who
usually read a paper in the evening said
they read the Los Angeles Times, a
morning daily. This finding supports
other studies.
The morning-evening dyad showed
morning readers are likely to read the
paper in the dining room o r kitchen
while eating and evening readers are
likely to d o their reading in the living
room o r family room while listening to
music. There was some evidence in the
study that morning readers pursue their
newspaper as efficient readers while
evening readers consider the paper a
leisure time activity. Those who regularly
read in the morning read the paper a n
average of 5.2 days per week compared
with the 4.1 days for evening readers
(tz2.63; pC.01; table not shown).
Other slight differences support the
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relaxation vs. enterprise dyad. There
was an indication morning readers spend
less time with their newspaper. Their
reading interests included sports. busi-
ness and the women's section. These
content categories were contrasted with
evening readers' preference for what
might be considered more time-consum-
ing content such as features, comics,
editorials, political columnists and
classified advertising. In all. however, the
morning versus evening readers' con-
tent preferences were more similar
than different.
Finally, morning readers were signi-
ficantly more likely to have a usual
place to read (p<.02). A peculiar dis-
tinction was found with non-Caucasians
more likely to discuss the paper with
either family or friends, but not with
both. Non-Caucasians' parents read less
frequently than did the parents of Cau-
casians (p<.OI). There were only three
content preference differences by race
with Caucasians rating comics and edi-
torials higher and non-Caucasians rat-
ing display ads higher. Taken as a whole,
the racial division shows few significant
differences for this study of young read-
ers.
Classifying respondents by whether
or not they said other activities were
associated with their newspaper reading
yielded only a few distinctions in news-
paper use. Those with associated activ-
ities were twice as likely to discuss the
paper with friends while those without
such activities were twice as likely to
discuss the paper with family members.
Having associated activities was defi-
nitely related to respondents' parents
having a special time and special place
for reading the paper (both p<.OOI).
Summary and Conclusions
The study has used a sample of college
students to explore the idea that read-
ing a daily newspaper is an habitual
practice which is manifest through cer-
tain repetitive actions. The data strong-
ly support this idea and show these traits
are both unidimensional and cumulative
in delineating the newspaper reading hab-
 Confirming the Newspaper Reading Habir
it: 1) reading a daily; 2) having a stable
method of getting the paper: 3) reading
three or more days a week; 4) reading
more than 15 minutes a day; and 5 ) hav-
ing a particular time and special place
to read the newspaper.
Having a newspaper reading habit was
demonstrated to be dependent on the tra-
dition of newspaper reading in the home
when the individual was growing up. As
such, possessing the reading habit is
somewhat different from mere reading
frequency: it is similar to practicing a
religion or voting by party affiliation if
parents exhibited such traits. Further,
the newspaper reading habit is not close-
ly related to demographic characteris-
tics other than race or to news orienta-
tion as measured by television news
viewing frequency. Finally there is evi-
dence that influences outside the home-
such as a classroom newspaper program
-have no effect on the newspaper read-
ing habit.
Data from this study showed the news-
paper reading habit is not a process; it
does not mature as the individual ma-
tures. The tendency to be an habitual
newspaper reader apparently is fixed by
the time a person reaches the late teens.
The study therefore supports general
research methodology of lumping 18-24-
year-olds with 25-Wyear-olds as a rath-
er homogeneous group of "young adult
readers."
In exploring the data of this study, a
series of groupings was made to probe
for differences in newspaper use and
content preferences. Generally the sam-
ple proved to be similar both in content
preferences and in newspaper use al-
though some groupings might offer fruit-
ful insights in a future study of a larger
random sample of young adults. The fol-
lowing findings could be incorporated
into a research design which would furth-
er develop the idea that reading a news-
paper isa habit:
I ) Males read crime and violence
news; females prefer human interest and
features.
2) Parents discuss the newspaper
more with their daughters.
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56 I
3) Half the evening readers read a
morning newspaper.
4) Morning readers read while eating
in the kitchen or dining room; evening
readers read while listening to music or
the radio in the family room, living room
or den.
5 ) Morning readers may be "efficient,"
evening readers may be leisurely.
6) Individual psychological traits may
influence the newspaper reading habit
to some extent.
7) A larger, more representative
sample of the universe of young readers
might use the same independent variables
analyzed in this study with greater suc-
cess at distinguishing content prefer-
ences and newspaper use traits.
This study's findings should serve as
a warning to the newspaper industry that
the decrease in dependence on a daily
newspaper is likely to continue. More
alarming is the notion that there may be
little the industry can d o to block this
erosion of future readers.
We have found that a newspaper read-
ing habit is established (or not establish-
ed) by the time an individual reaches
age 18, and that the likelihood of acquir-
ing the habit is largely dependent on
whether parents served as positive mod-
els for newspaper reading while the
child was in the home.
The present study may also be a warn-
ing that drastically altering content to
appeal to young readers is not a solution.
Our findings indicate more can be gained
by a renewed effort to make the news-
paper a daily necessity for people in
their child rearing years. perhaps the
30- to 45-year-old age category, or what
used to be considered the primary mar-
ket for newspapers. These readers. ap-
parently, are the ones who provide a
positive model for their youngsters and
we suspect the newspaper is less of a
necessity in their daily lives. If newspa-
per dependence can't be reinstituted,
then a home without a newspaper tra-
dition today will probably result in par-
ents without a newspaper habit tomorrow.
(Please turn to page 566)
566 J 011R N A 1. I S M Q ~ AJR T E R L Y
zines and television were equally credi-
ble. Newspapers were perceived t o be
the most credible sources of furniture
advertisements by both segments, how-
ever, blacks differed markedly from
whites in their perception of the believ-
ability of furniture advertisements car-
ried by other media.
With respect to political and public
service advertising categories, there
were significant racial differences in
rankings of perceptions of the believa-
bility of mass media for political adver-
tisements. Television was perceived to
be the most credible source of advertise-
ments by both races. However, a large
proportion of the white respondents
(18.5%) felt that magazines carried the
most credible political ads, while only
a small proportion of the blacks sample
(2.5%) felt this way.
To provide additional insight into ra-
cial differences in media credibility. ad-
ditional comparisons were made between
sex categories within racial groups as
also depicted in Table I . Two of the four
significant racial differences in media
believability shown in Table I can be
attributed t o differences between blacks
and whites for a given sex. In other words,
it appears that in two instances a sex
by race interaction effect was operating.
These information categories in which
differences were found were automobiles
and furniture.
In the case of automobiles, a signifi-
cant Chi-square value (pC.05) indicated
differences between black and white
males. In both instances, white males
perceived magazines to be more credible
and television to be less credible than
did black males. For furniture advertise-
ments. on the other hand. black females
CONFIRMING THE NEWSPAPER READING HABIT
(Continued from page 561)
The present study suggests that morn-
ing papers improve o n weather and sports
and perhaps business news coverage;
evening papers might offer more fea-
tures, human interest, editorials and col-
umnists. Editors of morning papers
should think of their readers as "effi-
cient" breakfast table readers for the most
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perceived newspapers to be more credi-
ble than did white females, whereas white
females placed greater faith in maga-
zines.
Usefulness of Media. Given the racial
differences in credibility attributed to
the various media, blacks and whites
should differ in their perceptions of the
usefulness of media for reducing per-
ceived risk. Except for magazines, sig-
nificant differences were found in the
analyses comparing all blacks to all whites
and for one sex segment. I n each in-
stance, as hypothesized, blacks found
each of the examined media to be more
useful in reducing perceived risk than
did whites. Only in the case of magazines
were the results similar for the two
racial segments.
Conclusions
An examination of credibility and use-
fulness in reducing perceived risk indi-
cates that blacks differ from whites in
their ranking of the mass media on both
of these attributes. Overall, the major
difference between the races was the faith
placed in television by blacks and maga-
zines for whites except in the case of
public service advertisements. Regard-
less of race or information area, radio
was not perceived to be a credible source
of any type of information by many in-
dividuals and was uniformly rated poorly
in terms of its usefulness as an aid in
reducing risk. Whites perceived all me-
dia to be less useful than blacks in re-
ducing risk. The only discrepancy in this
generalization was in the case of females
where whites perceived magazines to be
more credible than blacks, although the
difference was not significant.
-
part while those editing evening papers
should imagine the audience listening to
the radio in the living room and leisure-
ly browsing through the pages. These
suggestions may only skim the surface
of what might be learned about the news-
paper reading habit from subsequent re-
search effort along the same lines.