ALIENATION AND ATTITUDES
TOWARD RADIO

Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D‘.
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
ROGER ALAN SKOLNIK'

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ALIENATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD RADIO

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ROGER ALAN SKOLNIK

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ABSTRACT

ALIENATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD RADIO

By
Roger Alan Skolnik

This study was designed to test the relationship
between psychological alienation and attitudes people hold
toward the mass medium of radio. "Alienation" as used in
this research refers to an individual feeling or dissocia-
tion from self, from others, or from the world at large.

A five-item scale devised by Leo Srole was used
to measure alienation. This scale asks respondents to
indicate the amount of their agreement with five state-
ments expressing distrust of public officials and others,
desire to live only for today, the worsening condition
of the average man, and a lack of interest in what happens
to the next fellow. Scores were summed for all five state-
ments, such that the greater the agreement with these
statements, the greater was a person's total alienation
score.

Earlier research by Troldahl and Skolnik was the

basis for defining attitudes toward the radio medium.

Roger Alan Skolnik

Their study yielded six dimensions of attitudes: Com-
panionship; Programming Evaluation; Worldly Awareness;
Portability; Pleasant Environment; and Abrasiveness.

Data collection for the present study consisted
of the administration of a questionnaire which elicited
scores for each individual for alienation, radio attitudes,
and certain control variables. A hetereogenous group of
adults in two metropolitan areas was the sample. The
first step of the analysis consisted of a factor analysis
of the radio attitude dimension in order to assign each
subject a score on each dimension. Later statistical
tests included Pearson product-moment correlations and
partial correlations designed to test the major hypotheses.

Only three of the original Troldahl-Skolnik atti-
tudinal dimensions appeared in this extension. They were
Companionship; Music Evaluation; and Abrasiveness. For
each of these dimensions an hypothesis between it and
alienation had been made.

The first hypothesis predicted a relationship
between alienation and Companionship. It suggested that
the more alienated a person is, the greater will be his
score on the Companionship dimension of radio attitudes.
This hypothesis was at first confirmed by a zero-order
correlation of r = .20. When the effects of respondent

age and educational level were removed from the

Roger Alan Skolnik

relationship, however, its significance was reduced below

the minimum acceptable standard (r .07).

partial

The next hypothesis which could be tested dealt
with how alienated individuals perceive music programming
on radio. It was felt, and the data supported this con-
tention, that the more alienated a person is, the stronger
will be his negative criticism of the music on radio.

This hypothesis was confirmed only for women and was in-
dependent of the effects of age and educational level.

In the last hypothesis a relationship was sug-
gested between how alienated a person felt and his score
on the Abrasiveness dimension of radio attitudes. Abra-
siveness is concerned with the annoying talk and adver-
tising aspects of the medium. Like the previous one,
this hypothesis was confirmed only for women and held up

even when the effects of age and education were con-

trolled.

ALIENATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD RADIO

By

Roger Alan Skolnik

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Communication

1970

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research project was conducted under the
supervision of Professor Verling Troldahl, to whom I owe
a debt of gratitude. I have also received strong support
and encouragement from other members of my guidance com-
mittee, Professors Thomas Baldwin, Charles Blackman,
Bradley Greenberg and Leo Martin. Two prior members of
my committee who aided in this research are Professors
Walter Emery and Gordon Gray.

Financial assistance for this project was provided
in the form of a research grant from the National Associa-
tion of Broadcasters. Additional help and material was
furnished by Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. I am
grateful to both organizations for their interest in this
research.

I would like to thank my parents, without whose
help this might never have been completed. And finally,
many of my friends, without whose help this might have been

finished sooner.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTER
I. ALIENATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD RADIO .

Background to the Study of Alienation .
Alienation Defined . .
Background to the Study of Radio Attitudes .
Presentation of Major Hypotheses . . . . l
Alienation and the Companionship Dimension l
Alienation and the Worldly Awareness

mmoomw (A)

Dimension . . . . . 2l
Alienation and the Pleasant Environment
Dimension . . . . . 26

Alienation and the Portability Dimension . . 29
Alienation and the Programming Evaluation

and Abrasiveness Dimensions . . . . . . . . 3l
Summary of Major Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . 35

II. DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY . . . . . . 36

Questionnaire Design and Scoring . . . . . . 42
Use of Control Variables . . . . . . . . . . 48

III. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Description of the Sample . . . . . . . 54
The Independent Variable--Alienation . . . . 58
The Dependent Variable--Radio Attitudes . . . 62
Results of Major Hypotheses . . . . . . 76

IV. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . 82

Summary . . . . . . . . . . 82
Dimensions of Radio Attitudes . . . . . . . . 85
Discussion of Major Hypotheses . . . . . . . 89
Possible Limitations of the Study . . . . . . 96
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . lO7

iii

Recommendations for Further Study .
Implications for Further Research

BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES

A STATEMENTS COMPRISING THE TROLDAHL-SKOLNIK

SCALE OF RADIO ATTITUDES . . . . . .
B SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE SCALE
GROUP CLASSIFICATIONS .

MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF RADIO
ATTITUDE STATEMENTS . . . . .

WOO

iv

PAGE

108
110

116

122
124
T37
I40

T42

TABLE

001th

\I

ll

12

LIST OF TABLES

Occupational Prestige of Respondents

Sample Characteristics

Frequency of Response to Alienation Statements
Correlations Between Alienation Statements . .
Distribution of Total Alienation Scores

Total Sample Rotated Factor Matrix .
Dimensions of Radio Attitudes

Description of Major Radio Attitudes
Relationship of Major Variables

Percent of Total Variance

Zero-Order Alienation Correlations of Both
Studies . . . . .

Selected Partial Correlations for Time Order
Comparisons

PAGE
47
57
59
60
61
64
7o
75
75
85

96

TOT

INTRODUCTION

This research project will focus upon the psycho-
logical concept of "Alienation" and its hypothesized
relationship to attitudes people hold about the mass medium
of radio.

It is nowadays fashionable to refer to the "alien-
ation” of this group or that group from the mainstream of
society. Perhaps the concept has been overextended, its
generality becoming a hindrance to scientific attempts at
understanding its dimensions and applicability.

With this problem in mind, the first chapter will
try to define the parameters of "alienation" as used in
this study. Later, in the second chapter, the concept will
be more completely operationalized.

Attitudes about a mass medium can, of course, take
on many dimensions. A more detailed description of various
conceptualizations of radio attitudes will be found in the
second chapter.

The hypotheses for this study will be built around
six major, independent attitudes or "meanings" people have

for radio. These are set forth in a previously reported

1 The titles of these dimen-

study by Troldahl and Skolnik.
sions are: Companionship, Programming Evaluation, Worldly
Awareness, Portability, Pleasant Environment, and Abrasive-
ness.

Radio is a powerful communication tool which may be
of prime importance in solidifying our society and bringing
back some of those who feel they have been cut apart from
its values. This study, then, is designed to explore the
perceptions alienated individuals have of radio as a first

step in discovering how that medium can best be used for

reunification.

 

1Verling C. Troldahl and Roger Skolnik, "The
Meanings People Have for Radio Today," Journal of
Broadcasting, Vol. ll No. l (Winter, l967-3BI pp. 57-67.

CHAPTER I
ALIENATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD RADIO
Background to the Study of Alienation

The concept of "alienation" has been loosely identi-
fied with a large number of social and psychological
phenomena. As Gerson points out, the term "alienation"

has been used by psychologists and sociologists to
refer to an extraordinary variety of psychosocial
disorders, including loss of self, anxiety states,
anomie, despair, depersonalization, rootlessness,
apathy, social disorganization, loneliness, atomiza-
tion, powerlessness, isolation, pessimism, and the
loss of beliefs or values. Among social groups that
have been described as alienated . . . are women,
migrant workers, immigrants, suicides, addicts, con-
sumers, sex deviates, the prejudiced, bureaucrats,
exiles, and recluses. . . . Obviously, we are dealing
with a word that lends itself to many different

meanings.

Blauner notes that the idea of alienation has been included
in psychological, philosophical, sociological and political

orientations:

In the literature on the theory of alienation, one
finds statements of the desired state of human experi-
ence, assertions about the actual quality of personal
experience, propositions which link attitudes and

 

1Walter Gerson, "Alienation in Mass Society: Some
Causes and Responses," Sociology and Social Research,
Vol. 49, No. 2 (January, 1965), p. T44.

experience to social situations and social structures,
and pgograms for the amelioration of the human condi-
tion.

Lewis Feuer has provided extensive documentation on
the career of the concept of "alienation" as a condition of

man, tracing its lineage "right back to Calvin, who saw man

alienated through all time from God by his original sin."3

Hegel and later Marx incorporated the idea of man's aliena-
tion into their phi1050phies, the latter stressing economic
capitalism as a cause for this condition.

In contemporary social sciences Emil Durkheim is
credited with the sociological focus upon what he called

"anomie" as a means of exploring the attitudes and behavior

4

leading up to suicide. Robert Merton clarifies the new

approach:

As initially developed by Durkheim, the concept of
anomie referred to a condition of relative normlessness
in a society or group. Durkheim made it clear that
this concept referred to a property of the social and
cultural structure, not to a property of individuals
confronting that structure. Nevertheless, as the
utility of the concept for understanding diverse forms
of deviant behavior became evident, it was extended to
refer to a conditign of individuals rather than of
their environment.

 

2Robert Blauner, Alienation and Freedom (Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1964), p. T6.

 

3Lewis Feuer, "What Is Alienation? The Career of
a Concept," in: Maurice Stein and Arthur Vidich (eds.),
Sociology on Trial (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall, Inc., 1963), p. 128.

4Emil Durkheim, Le Suicide (Paris: F. Alcan, 1930).

5Robert K. Merton, Social Theory_gnd Social
Structure (New York: The Free Press, 1957), p. 161.

 

 

 

Merton himself was a prime mover in this re-orientation
from the sociological to the psychological study of anomie.
Within Durkheim's original framework he shifted attention
to individuals and their struggle within a potentially
anomic situation. To Merton it is the "conflict between
cultural goals and the availability of using institutional
means--whatever the character of the goals--which produces
a strain toward anomie."6
The term "alienation" has come to mean the psycho-
logical state of individuals while the older term "anomie"
is more often associated with the traditional description
of a society whose goals and means of attaining them are
apart. Both words have, however, been freely interchanged
by various researchers over the years. Their usage will be
duly noted in the remainder of this section, although in
all cases the particular word choice still refers to a psy-
chological state of individuals. Gerson calls anomie "an

important social condition for alienation."7

Alienation Defined

Meier and Bell reflect that "Although there is no
precise agreement about the psychological or socio-

psychological concept of anomie (anomia), there are

 

 

 

O I 8
encourag1ng convergences and part1a1 agreements." As

Clark puts it, alienation "seems to have been assigned to
the rank of 'extremely-useful but loosely-defined' higher
constructs. ."9
Several people have used the psychological "self"
as a means of more explicitly defining alienation. Leo
Srole, whose five-item scale has been the most widely used
measure of alienation, has conceived the variable which his
scale measures "as referring to the individual's generalized,
pervasive sense of 'self-to-others belongingness' at one
extreme and 'self-to-others distance' and 'self-to-others
alienation' at the other pole of the continuum."10 Olsen
likewise sees this personality variable as "an attitude of
separation or estrangement between oneself and some salient
aspect of the social environment."11
In a similar manner Gerson concludes that "it seems

appropriate to limit the term alienation to mean an indivi-

dual feeling or dissociation from self, from others, or

 

8Dorothy L. Meier and Wendell Bell, "Anomia and
Differential Access to the Achievement of Life Goals,"
American Sociological Review, Vol. 24, No. 2 (1959), p. 191.

9John P. Clark, "Measuring Alienation Within a
Social System," American Sociological Review, Vol. 24
(December, 1959), p. 849.

10Leo Srole, "Social Integration and Certain Corol-
laries: An Exploratory Study," American Sociological
Review, Vol. 21, No. 6 (December, 1956), p. 711.

1lMarvin Olsen, "Alienation and Political Opinions,"
Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 29 (1965), p. 202.

 

 

 

12 He explains further:

from the world at large."
But if one acquires a self by communicating with others
especially through language, then anxiety about or loss
of selfhood is a personal problem. For this means that
the person who experiences self-alienation is thereby
also cut off from groups of which he would otherwise be
a part; in not achieving a meaningful relationship with
others, the individual is deprived of realizing some
part of his self. Alienation is thus defined as the
loss of identity. The alienated person is not only out
of touch gith other persons but also out of touch with
himself.1

Several variations in definitions of alienation may
add some insight into the nature of this concept. Clark,
for example, finds that "Alienation is the degree to which
man feels powerless to achieve the role he has determined

"14 From a

to be rightfully his in specific situations.
communication standpoint, McClosky and Schaar see this vari-
able as one which "in part reflects patterns of communication
and interaction that reduce opportunities to see and under-
stand how the society works, and what its goals and values

are."15

 

12
13

Gerson, loc. cit.

Ibid., p. 145.

14Clark, loc. cit.

15Herbert McClosky and John H. Schaar, "Psycho-
logical Dimensions of Anomy," American Sociological Review,
Vol. 30, No. 1 (1965A), p. 19.

Background to the Study
of Radio Attitudes

Background Studies:
Connotative Dimensions

One major research tradition for assessing attitudes
toward the medium of radio has followed the approach for
the measurement of meaning devised by Osgood, Suci and

Tannenbaum.16

This approach involves use of the semantic
differential for individual audience judgments to series
of adjective polar-opposite word pairs. Researchers then
look for parsimonious patterns or “clusters" of similar
behavior toward certain word pairs, using factor analytic
techniques to insure the independence of the attitudinal
dimensions formed by each cluster.

Tannenbaum and McLeod have summarized a great deal
of research done using this technique, including the work
done by Paul Deutschmann for the Inland Press Association
and their own research for several mass media organiza-

l7

tions. The latter includes at least one study of

attitudes toward Pittsburgh radio stations Sponsored by

the Westinghouse Broadcasting Co.18

 

16Charles E. Osgood, George Suci and Percy H.
Tannenbaum, The Measurement of Meaning (Urbana, Illinois:
The University of Illinois Press, 1957).

17Percy H. Tannenbaum and Jack M. McLeod, "Public
Images of Mass Media Institutions," in: Paul J. Deutschmann

 

Memorial Papers in Mass Communications Research (December,
T963), pp. 51-60.

18Ibid., p. 52.

In their summary report Tannenbaum and McLeod sug-
gest that, regardless of the mass medium under consideration,
five general patterns or "dimensions" of judgments are con-
sistently used by individuals in their assessment of the

connotative dimensions of the media. These dimensions are:

1. General Evaluative
2. Ethical

3. Stylistic

4. Potency

5. Activity

As Troldahl and Skolnik note, this approach "is useful, but
provides only part of the information usually desired. It
does not tell gfligg attributes of the mass medium may have
produced these different feelings about the medium. For
example, it may indicate that people think radio is gener-
ally 'ethical,' but it does not identify the attributes of

radio that lead people to consider it ethical."19

Background Studies:
Denotative Dimensions

A second major research tradition might be called
the "denotative" or "functional approach" to measuring
individual attitudes toward the radio medium. Mendelsohn
sets a framework for this approach by pointing out that
such research should

uncover the more subtle and oftentimes unacknowledged

functions that listening to the radio serves the indi-
vidual. That is to say, the proper study of the

 

19Troidam and Skolnik, op. cit., p. 58.

10

functions of radio today . . . necessitates examination
of its manifest as well as latent properties 28d attri-
butes within the context of given situations.

From a methodological as well as theoretical standpoint,

Troldahl and Skolnik have outlined a procedure by which

this functional approach may be realized:
First, the meanings people have for 'radio' must be dis-
cerned. At this point, the meanings of interest . .
are the primarily denotative ones. This is similar to
the task of developing a dictionary meaning for the
word 'radio.‘
Second, people must be asked to judge whether radio is
good or bad on each of the attributes identified in the
first phase of the study. Is radio news generally good
or bad? How about its music? How about its 'companion-
Ship' qualities?

Third, are there patterns to the pro and con responses
audience members make to these many radio attributes.

Fourth, if several patterns of responses are identified,

is there some general thing which all attributes within

a pattern have that could be used to characterize the

whole pattern? These general characteristics could be

used as titles for each pattern.21

Using this approach, the authors first collected a

sample of twenty-seven different statements representative
of individual's attitudes toward radio. These statements
were obtained by non-directive interviews in which respon-
dents were encouraged to "talk about" radio and the ways

in which that medium was used in their daily life patterns.

The list of statements is presented later as Appendix A.

 

20Harold Mendelsohn. "Listening to Radio,“ in:
Lewis Dexter and David Whites (eds.) Pegple, Society and Mass
Communication (New York: The Free Press, 1964) pp. 240é24T.

21

 

Troldahl and Skolnik, op. cit., pp. 59-60.

11

A second sample of respondents was asked to respond to every
one of the twenty-seven statements in a positive or negative
way. Their reactions were subjected to factor analysis in
order to identify the patterns or "clusters" of statements
which were present. The six patterns of response, and the
amount of variance accounted for by each, are:
Companionship--12%

Programming Evaluation--10%

Worldly Awareness--7%

Portability--8%

Pleasant Environment--7%
Abrasiveness--7%

mman—a

Troldahl and Skolnik note that

These general patterns of response could be considered
attitudes toward different aspects of radio (i.e. sub-
attitudes toward radio), or they could be considered

the different general meanings that people have for
radio today. The latter interpretation seems intui-
tively more useful. These meanings are tied to
relatively concrete attributes of radio, as contrasted
with the very connotative meanings evoked in the 'seman-
tic differen ial' studies of Deutschmann, Tannenbaum,
and McLeod.2

In a 1962 study, commissioned by radio station WMCA
in New York, Mendelsohn found four principal "functions"
performed by radio for listeners in that area:23

1. A utilitarian information and news function

2. An active mood accompaniment function

3. A psychological release function

4. A friendly companionship function
The first and fourth functions seem to correspond respec-

tively to the Worldly Awareness and Companionship dimensions

 

22Troldahl and Skolnik, op. cit., p. 66.

23Mendelsohn, op. cit., pp. 246-247.

12

found in the Troldahl and Skolnik study. In line with
Mendelsohn's description of "active mood accompaniment," it
would seem that this function corresponds to both the Pro-
gramming Evaluation and Pleasant Environment dimensions of
Troldahl and Skolnik, since it is generally concerned with
how individuals use radio to complement their changing moods.
Finally, one might speculate that Mendelsohn's "psycho-
logical release" function of radio is closely related to

his "active mood accompaniment" function.

The Mendelsohn study pointed out that these func-
tions were for the most part listener-oriented, and that
efforts by station programmers to mold their station "image"
to fit certain kinds of needs had little to do with how
individual listeners actually "used" a station. The study
also indicated that none of the ten AM radio stations
studied in New York were able to fulfill more than two of
the four functions successfully. Mendelsohn concludes that
radio listeners engage in purposive "dial-twisting" to
satisfy specific needs as they arise.

A third study has used a different methodological
approach in order to assess radio attitudes. A functional
analysis of the role of radio in the lives of 300 adults
and teenagers was the result of a series of group discus-

sions held by Daniel Yankelovich, Inc. as part of a larger

13

24 Six major

study commissioned by the ABC radio network.
uses were reported: Companionship, Information, Alternate
Environment, "Mood-setter," Background for Social Occasions,
and Entertainment and Relaxation.

Limitations of the
Troldahl-SkolfiTk Study

Since the Troldahl-Skolnik study was used as the
base-line study for hypothesizing radio attitudes, it is
necessary to note here some of the limitations of that study
as they might affect the present research.

In the first phase of their research Troldahl and
Skolnik completed 106 interviews with a random sample of
Lansing, Michigan residents. These were the interviews
which generated the statements people made about radio.
Telephone rather than in-home interviews were made, and the
interviewers were college students not experienced in this
technique. Thus it is not possible to specify the degree
of competency of the interviewers, their thoroughness, or
the depth to which they probed the respondents.

Another limitation revolves around the choice of
the twenty-seven statements which comprised the scale to
which a second set of respondents replied. Troldahl and

Skolnik note that it is a heterogeneous, not a random list

 

24Daniel Yankelovich, The Yankelovich Repgrt: A
Media Research Program, Part I (n.d.).

14

of statements. Because the second stage of interviewing
was again conducted by telephone, it was desirable to use
as short a list of statements as possible. Limiting the
list to twenty-seven statements may have been arbitrary in
terms of adequately reflecting the universe of possible
statements about radio. This limitation might have been
overcome if in-home, personal interviews had been used.

A third limitation concerns the structure of the
final six dimensions of radio attitudes according to
Troldahl and Skolnik. A total of ninety-six interviews
was completed in the second phase of their study. Respon-
dent reactions to the radio attitude statements were factor
analyzed into the six factors. The variability accounted
for by each of the general patterns of response ranges from
twelve and ten percent for Companionship and Programming
Evaluation to seven or eight percent for the other four
factors.

There were only three statements each loading
strongly on the Worldly Awareness, Portability and Abrasive-
ness dimensions. Only four items loaded strongly on the
Pleasant Environment dimension. Thus the low number of
items on each of these factors, plus the low amount of vari-
ability each accounted for, might be seen as limitations of
the first Troldahl-Skolnik study.

In sum, the base-line study used for this present

research may have limitations due to sample size,

15

inexperience of the interviewers, methodology for inter-
viewing, and interpretation of the six factors Troldahl and
Skolnik selected as major dimensions of radio attitudes.
These possible limitations should be taken into account as

that original study is extended to the present research.

Presentation of Major Hypotheses

The remainder of this chapter will be devoted to a
presentation of the six major hypotheses this dissertation
will test. Each of these hypotheses seeks to link psycho-
logical alienation with one of the radio attitudes reported
by Troldahl and Skolnik. As earlier noted, these six radio
attitude dimensions are Companionship, Worldly Awareness,
Pleasant Environment, Portability, Programming Evaluation,
and Abrasiveness.

The format for the presentation of these hypotheses
is as follows: First, the hypothesis itself appears. It
will predict a relationship between two scores--that for
alienation and that for the score on a radio attitude dimen-
sion. Chapter Two discusses the operationalization of these
scores for each variable.

Following each hypothesis, the theoretical rationale

behind it will be presented.

l6

Alienation and the CompanionshipyDimension

Hypothesis One: Theygreater a person's alienation score,

the greater will be his score on the Com-

panionship dimension of radio attitudes.

 

A number of statements either directly or second-

arily related to the Troldahl and Skolnik "Companionship"

factor suggest that radio may be the vicarious interactor

in what

Horton and Wohl call the "para-social interaction"

between media personalities and some members of the audi-

ence .25

Some of these statements are:

"Radio cheers me up . . . I forget my problems."
"Radio makes the time go faster for me."

"I like the chatter on radio . . . it makes my day
brighter."

"Radio music makes me feel like someone is home
with me."

"Radio is a good companion when you are alone."

"The music on the radio lessens the tensions of the
day."

"I listen to radio while I work."

The Troldahl and Skolnik study suggests that "it seems very

possible that this view is strongest among women, who must

spend more time alone during the day than men.

"26

Support for this first hypothesis will rest upon

the logical extension of two relationships for which

 

25Donald Horton and Richard Wohl, "Mass Communica-

' n and Para-Social Interaction," Psychiatry, Vol. 19

t1o
(1956),

pp. 215-229.

26Tro1dah1 and Skolnik, op. cit., p. 64.

l7

empirical evidence has been gathered: First, there is a
relationship between "alienation" and the phenomenon of
"social isolation"; and second, there is a relationship
between "social isolation" and the seeking of companionship.

Alienation and Social Isolation--Some researchers
have attempted to empirically link the variable of "aliena-
tion" to an individual's social isolation within his
surrounding environmental world. They have used, at least
in part, the Srole Scale as a measure of individual aliena-
tion. In a 1956 study, Wendell Bell tested the hypothesis
that "those persons who are relatively isolated are more
likely to be anomic than persons who are less isolated."27
He measured activities in informal groups, such as neighbor-
hood groups, kin, work and friendship groups. Membership
in formal or professional groups was also measured. Bell's
hypothesis was supported only for those men living in low
economic status neighborhoods, which he attributes to the
difference between the formal-informal classification
scheme; this is, he reports that high economic status men
are more likely to belong to formal groups whose members
take the place of informal participants.

In a further analysis of his earlier data, Bell and
Meier found that the relationship between social isolation

and alienation was independent of the additive effects of

 

27Wendell Bell, "Anomie, Social Isolation, and the
Class Structure," Sociometry, Vol. 20, No. 2 (1957), p. 105.

 

18

measures of socio-economic status, class identification and
age.28 A major study of alienation and uses of the mass

29 Of interest here is

media was reported by McLeod g£_gl.
their finding that "alienation . . . was also shown to be
negatively correlated with almost all of our measures of
participation."30
Two other studies lend final support to the rela-
tionship between alienation and social isolation or its
opposite, social participation. Mizruchi's study of social
structure and anomia in a small city indicated a significant
association of anomia and lack of social participation.3]
In a study of newcomers to the city of Minneapolis, Arnold
Rose found confirmation of his hypothesis that "a person's
degree of anomie-~as reflected by Srole's questions--is
positively related to the extent to which his social parti-
cipation has been limited."32
Social Isolation and Companionship--Evidence for
this relationship is scarce, possibly because it has been

one of those "assumed" relationships (that people alone

 

28Meier and Bell, op. cit.

29Jack McLeod, Scott Ward and Karen Tancill, "Aliena-
tion and Uses of the Mass Media," Public Opjnion Quarterly,
Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter, 1965-66), pp. 583-594.

3oIbid., p. 592.

3lEphriam H. Mizruchi, Success and Opportunity: A
Study of Anomie (New York: The Free Press, 1964).

32Arnold M. Rose, "Attitudinal Correlates of Social
Participation,“ Social Forces, Vol. 37 (1959), p. 204.

 

 

l9

seek companionship) for all relevant social isolates
except those who purposely choose non-interaction as a way
of life.

In broadcast research, Mendelsohn talks about radio
functioning as a "companion" to fill voids created by

33 Katz and

"feelings of social isolation and loneliness."
Lazarsfeld, in their classic study, found that less gre-

garious women reported greater exposure to p0pular fiction
(true story and movie magazines, radio serials, etc.) than
did those who were more highly gregarious, and presumably

34

less socially isolated. These authors suggest that this

content may "serve to some extent as a substitute for

socializing activity," that is, may provide some kind of

vicarious companionship these women seek.35

In another study, Klapper reports that McPhee and

Meyersohn:

found that radio programs involving social inter-
action were more commonly heard by persons who were,
at the time, in solitude. Such shows provided them with
both a vicarious sense of participation and a feeling
of kinship and concern.

Finally, Steiner finds some evidence that people who are

 

33

34Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Personal
Influence (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955).

35

36Joseph T. Klapper, The Effects of Mass Communica-
tion (New York: The Free Press, 1960).

Harold Mendelsohn, op. cit., p. 242.

Ibid., p. 378.

 

20

alone turn to a mass medium (in this case television) for

companionship.37

He asked his respondents how often they
themselves "turn on the set just 'to keep me company' when
(I'm) alone." Twenty percent replied “usually," twenty-five
percent said "occasionally," while the remainder answered
"rarely" or "never."

Direct Evidence--Thus far there has been little
direct evidence for the proposition that the alienated in
society seek companionship, or that they seek this companion-
ship through the mass media. There has been speculation,
like the hypothesis by Katz and Foulkes "that the mass media
behavior of the alienated also contains an element of
striving to re-establish effective interpersonal contacts."38

McLeod et a1. may also provide some direct support
for this first hypothesis. For example, the statement on
their "vicarious reasons list" for newspaper reading which
says "To feel as though I am taking part in others' lives
without actually being there" correlated positively although
not quite significantly with alienation, and thus might be

interpreted as showing a hint of a relationship between

alienation and a statement of the "need for companionship"

type.

 

37Gary A. Steiner, The People Look at Television
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf,_1963), p. 73.

38Elihu Katz and David Foulkes, "On the Use of the
Mass Media as 'Escape': Clarification of a Concept,"
Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 26 (1962), p. 382.

21

Alienation and the Worldly
Awareness Dimension

 

Hypothesis Two: The greater a person's alienation score,

 

the lower will be his score on the Worldly

 

Awareness dimension of radio attitudes.

 

This hypothesis is based upon the treatment of the
"Worldly Awareness“ dimension as an information-seeking
dimension in connection with radio listening activities.
It is reflected in the interpretation of two of the four
statements comprising this factor, including its highest-
loading statement:

"Radio is a good way to learn what's going on."

"Without radio, a person wouldn't know what is
happening in the world."

In Streuning and Richardson's factor analytic explor-
ation of alienation and other personality traits, several
items which may be related to worldly awareness loaded
highly on their main alienation factor, one which also in-

39 The essen-

cluded all five Srole Anomia scale items.
tially negative approaches to worldly awareness include
these items:

"Things are changing so fast these days that one
doesn't know what to expect from day to day."

 

39Elmer L. Struening and Arthur H. Richardson, "A
Factor Analytic Exploration of the Alienation, Anomia and
Authoritarianism Domain," American Sociological Review,
Vol. 30, No. 4 (1965), pp. 768-776.

22

"In this fast-changing world, with so much different
information available, it is difficult to think
clearly about many issues."

"Most people don't realize how much their lives are
controlled by plots batched in secret by others."

Major support for this hypothesis is given by McLeod,

Ward and Tancill, who studied alienation and newspaper

reading habits. Respondents were given the Srole aliena-

tion items and, in one part of the study, were asked to what

extent each of nine possible "uses" of newspapers applied

to them. The authors explain:
Three of the reasons (information, interpretation and
keeping up) appeared to deal with information for its
own sake, and we classified these as 'information
reasons.‘ Three others (escape from daily worries,
bringing excitement, and taking part in the lives of
others) seemed to deal only indirectly with information
and instead to serve as a substitute for more direct
personal interaction. These we called 'vicarious
reasons.‘ The motivation of the last three reasons
(solving problems, providing controversial items, and
the pleasure of reading) was somewhat unclear, and these
were examined separately.40

It was found "that the more alienated the respondent, the

less likely he was to think informational reasons applied

to him (r = -.282) and the more likely was his acceptance

of vicarious reasons (r = +.261) as gratifications con-

nected with his newspaper reading. No significant

correlations are shown between alienation and the final

three reasons."41

 

4O
41

McLeod, Ward and Tancill, op. cit., p. 590.
191g;

23

The authors indicate that a person's educational
level is positively linked to educational claims and nega-
tively linked to vicarious reasons.

Recently reported research by Seeman adds further

42 In a comparative study of powerlessness and

support.
knowledge level he related the performance of Swedish
college students on a Powerlessness Scale (very similar to
the Srole Anomie Scale) to their level of knowledge in
several areas. His results associated high powerlessness
with both low political awareness and low nuclear knowledge;
but this was not the case with powerlessness and general
cultural awareness.
Seeman's discussion about the nature of the vari-

ables in his study may bear some relevance:

It would seem that these data reinforce the observation

that when we speak of powerlessness and mastery we are

dealing with expectancies for control which govern the

individual's learning in determinate, yet discriminat-

ing, ways. People who believe that the environment is

one that they can have an effect upon show that they

are sensitive to potentially helpful cues about that

environment whether those cues concern matters of health,
of parole, or of politics.

In short, alienation in the sense used here emerges as
a feature of the person that can be understood only as
a problem-solving situation-bound characteristic.

 

42Melvin Seeman, "Powerlessness and Knowledge: A
Comparative Study of Alienation and Learning," Sociometry,
Vol. 30, No. 2 (June, 1967), pp. 105-123.

43Ibid., p. 121.

24

This interpretation is supported in the work of Chu
and Lingwood, who found that individuals scoring high on
alienation tended to know little about world events, even

44 This

when the effect of educational level was removed.
negative relationship was, however, later removed when more
salient variables such as having foreign friends, foreign
travel or opinion-seeking about foreign events were taken
into consideration.

Radio as an information medium is likewise, in this
project, seen as a medium whose information is directed
along political, social and environmental lines. To the
extent that this is true, those people who feel themselves
alienated should be less sensitive to the informational
dimensions of the medium.

As part of their larger study of the psychological
dimensions of what they call "anomy,“ McClosky and Schaar
explored the relationship between anomic tendencies and a
syndrome of traits centered around a kind of ”inflexibility"
vis-a-vis incoming stimuli from the world. These authors

feel that “Faced by complex stimuli from the social world,

inflexible persons are easily overwhelmed. Their anxiety

 

44Godwin C. Chu and David Lingwood, "Some Psycho-
logical and Sociological Predictors of Foreign News Event
Knowledge," Paper Presented at the Annual Convention of
the Association for Education in Journalism, Boulder,
Colorado, August 28, 1967.

25

is aroused, they become confused, and they register intense
feelings of anomy."45
A broad interpretation of their results suggests
that people who are highly anomic cannot tolerate messages
which are ambiguous or are in any other way threatening to
their system. By extension, these people must turn to
trusted, reliable, predictable sources for a pre-screened
version of what is going on in the world. Because the news
radio brings is relatively unpredictable, highly anomic
individuals would turn to other sources for worldly aware-
ness. Elsewhere McClosky and Schaar summarize this position
when they suggest that "by a large number of scientifically
accepted standards, the anomics simply are less reality-
oriented, less clear about what goes on 'out there,‘ than
non-anomics."46
In summary, the hypothesis of a negative relation-
ship between alienation and worldly awareness follows this
line of support: Individuals who are highly alienated do
not see the mass media as informational or problem-solving
sources, they are by nature less oriented to reality, and

they may become confused from information on a relatively

unpredictable source of what is happening in the world.

 

45

46Herbert McClosky, and John H. Schaar, "Reply to
Srole and Nettler," American Sociolggical Review, Vol. 30,
No. 4 (19658), p. 767.

McClosky and Schaar, op. cit., p. 29.

26

Alienation and the Pleasant
Environment:Dimension

 

 

Hypothesis Three: Theygreater ayperson's alienation score,

the greater will be his score on the

 

Pleasant Environment dimension of radio

attitudes.

 

This hypothesis extends the earlier relationships
and suggests that alienated individuals seeking companion-
ship through radio will perceive their goal as one
containing a basically comfortable, pleasant environment.

In a larger sense, these alienated persons may be using
radio as a means of escape, as a soft background sound
which "neutralizes the more harsh stimuli that pervade one's
day-to-day activities."47
A number of early studies on the effects of

48

escapist material are cited by Klapper. Although none

directly tests Srole's operationalized "alienation," each
at some point links alienation-type or alienation-related
personality characteristics with heavier use of mass media
for escape:
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955), for example, found that
women with high anxiety tendencies exposed themselves
more than did other women to 'true story' and movie

type magazines and to radio serials. Ricutti (1951)
found that fifth through eighth grade children who

 

47Troldahl and Skolnik, op. cit., p. 67.

48Klapper, op. cit.

27

listened particularly often to radio serials or adven—
ture stories scored slightly lower than non-listeners
on tests of happiness, personal social adjustment,
imagination, and general school achievement.

the Rileys found that escapist material is likely
to be more popular among the children who seem likely
to be more frustrated, and is more likely to be used
by them as a mode of escape by identification and as a
source of advice.49
Other early child studies cited by Klapper include the 1949
research of Wolf and Fiske, in which comic book fans "were
found more commonly among 'neurotic' children than among

."50 Klapper con-

'normal' or 'psychotic' children.
cludes that "at least seven studies . . . attest
relationships between heavy use of escapist media material
and various socio-economic, socio-structural, and person-
ality characteristics of audience members."51
Recent studies illustrate the hypothesized relation-
ships and their suggested generalization to use of radio
for an escapist's environment.
Leonard Pearlin had his respondents classify them-
selves into what he called "escape" and "reality" television
viewers.52 In addition, these viewers were given questions

to determine their "personal stress," as Pearlin called it.

 

49
50
51

121g;J pp. 190-191.

Ipigp, p. 193.

1213;) p. 196.

52Leonard Pearlin, "Social and Personal Stress and

Escape Television Viewing," Public_Qpinion Quarterly,
Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer, 1959), pp. 255- 259.

 

28

Although the Srole Scale items were not themselves directly
used, the questions asked by Pearlin bear a remarkable
similarity. For example:

"It doesn't pay to get too friendly with people
because they usually take advantage of you."

"The world is in such a muddle that there is really
not much that can be done about it, so why try?"

The results showed the predicted difference between "escape"
and "reality" viewers and their agreement or disagreement
with the "personal stress" statements, as well as similar
results for measures of frustrated and satisfied occupa-
tional aspirations.

Viewer preferences along a fact-fantasy continuum
were also measured in Hazard's study of this variable and
its relationship to personal anxiety as measured by the

53 His results uncovered a

Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale.
"four-variable chain or developmental sequence . . . which
suggests that fantasy television has a primary audience of
persons who are anxious, who avoid cultural contact, and

who are of low social status."54

In this chain, personal
anxiety was identified as the antecedent variable in a
process leading to low cultural participation, and also to

choice of fantasy rather than "fact programming" as TV fare.

 

53William R. Hazard, "Anxiety and Preference for
Television Fantasy," Journalism Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 3
(Autumn, 1967), pp. 461-469.

54Ibid., p. 469.

29

Johnstone's study of mass media patterns of high
school students supports the use of fantasy-oriented fare
among persons located in unfavorable positions within their
social structure, that is, the kinds of people most likely

55 His research

to feel alienated from their environment.
underscores the need to evaluate the individual's salience
to his own value structure regardless of the sociological

classificatory level of that system.
Alienation and the Portability Dimension

Hypothesis Four: The greater a person's alienation score,
the lower will be his score on the Port-

abilityydimension of radio attitudes.

The rationale for this hypothesis is derived from
the earlier-cited association of anomia and a lack of social
participation. Alienated individuals have consistently been
more socially isolated and less frequent participants in
community activities. It was earlier noted that mass media
consumption may be a substitute for this lack of social
contact. McLeod, Ward and Tancill found a positive,
although not quite statistically significant relationship

between alienation and agreement with this vicarious reason

 

55John W. C. Johnstone, "Social Structure and
Patterns of Mass Media Consumption," (Unpublished Ph.D.
Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1961).

30

for newspaper readership: "To feel as though I am taking
part in others' lives without actually being there."56
Troldahl and Skolnik found that one of the functions
of radio
is that of travelling companion (Portability) suggested
by the awareness among many audience members, and atten-
tion to the fact, that radio has Portability. This
function seems to be performed for somewhat different
persons than those who use radio for Companionship.
Apparently the first function of Companionship is tied
primarily to home or office.57
Thus this hypothesis, along with Hypothesis One, suggests
that high alienation both leads an individual to see radio
as a vicarious companion and, concurrently, to have less of
a need for the "portable" features of the medium. A person
who has low social participation will be less disposed to
"like radio because you can take it with you anywhere."58
Specification of the conditions under which this
hypothesis is confirmed will include a set of scales
designed to measure each individual's social participation.
Questions will measure the amount of interaction with rela-
tives, the amount of interaction with social contacts and
friends outside the family, and an indication of the sub-

ject's contact and participation in church and community

 

groups.
56McLeod, Ward and Tancill, op. cit., p. 591.
57Troldahl and Skolnik, op. cit., p. 55.
58

Ibid., p. 63.

31

Alienation and the Programming Evaluation
and Abrasiveness Dimensions
Hypothesis Five: The greater a person's alienation score,
the greater will be his score on the Pro-
gramming_§valuation dimension of radio

attitudes.

Hypothesis Six: The greater a person's alienation score;
the greater will be his score on the

Abrasiveness dimension of radio attitudes.

Unlike some other dimensions of radio attitudes,
the Programming Evaluation factor concentrates upon a
critical look at the medium itself and for the most part
excludes an individual's functional relationship to that
medium. In this respect it resembles the “general evalua-
tive" attitudinal dimension found in studies measuring
connotative approaches to the media. A closer look at this
problem centering upon the work of Tannenbaum and McLeod is
presented in the chapter which follows.59

The Abrasiveness dimension may similarly be viewed
as another essentially negative evaluation of the medium

and of radio advertising in particular. Persons loading

high on this factor object to "the millions of little ads"

 

59Percy H. Tannenbaum and Jack M. McLeod, "Public
Images of Mass Media Institutions," in: Paul J. Deutschmann
Memorial Papers in Mass Communication Research (December,
T963) pp. 51-60.

32

that are on radio and are annoyed when radio commercials
break into news and other programs.

Thus both the Programming Evaluation and Abrasive-
ness dimensions represent ways in which people perceive the
radio medium apart from the ways in which they "use" radio.
Troldahl and Skolnik suggest that persons scoring high on
the Programming Evaluation dimension are "careful listeners"
to the medium. Since statements loading high on this factor
"are critical evaluations of the content, they suggest a
critical, attentive listening pattern. ."60

Within the framework of the previously presented
hypotheses it is argued that an individual may positively
view radio as a source of companionship and pleasant envi-
ronment while still retaining a critical outlook toward the
medium. This position rests upon the argument, presented
below, that psychological alienation from his society leads
an individual to a negative appraisal of a great many in-
stitutions in that society over which he feels he has no
control, including radio. Since the statements in both
Programming Evaluation and Abrasiveness are written in
negative form, it is expected that alienated individuals
will score highly along these dimensions.

Previous research suggests that alienated persons

carry an essentially negative disposition when it comes to

 

60Troldahl and Skolnik, op. cit., p. 66.

33

areas of concept evaluation. Templeton, for example, found
that alienation was "related to the rejection of the pre-

vailing distribution of power and influence within the

"6]

community. In a similar study Thompson and Horton found

support for "the hypothesis that political alienation leads

to an attitude on a given issue which represents a protest

against the existing power structure in the community."62

There is evidence that alienation leads to a wider syndrome
of negative evaluation predispositions. Olsen reports that

Feelings of alienation from society also seem to have
varying degrees of influence in several other areas,
including intolerance of racial integration in schools
and housing, willingness to place limitations on the
exercise of free speech, and disapproval of United
States participation in international political organi-
zations. Although education also clearly affects
opinions in these latter areas, holding this factor
constant does not eliminate the influences of aliena-
tion in most cases.63

Additional evidence of a negative attitude by the alienated
toward certain aspects of society includes Gould's data
showing a relationship between alienation and a composite

of personality and attitude dimensions. Among these are a

 

61Frederic Templeton, "Alienation and Political
Participation: Some Research Findings," Public Opinion
Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Summer, 1966), p. 259.

62Wayne E. Thompson and John E. Horton, "Political
Alienation as a Force in Political Action," Social Forces,
Vol. 38, No. 3 (March, 1960), p. 195.

63

 

Olsen, op. cit., p. 212.

34

devaluation of peers, a generalized distrust of others and
a rejection of socially approved "rules."64
Final support is offered by Mueller, whose study
of anxiety level and inferred identification suggests that
those with a higher anxiety level produce lower end
responses on the evaluative dimension and wider variance
in use of the semantic differential scale.65
Perhaps this hypothesized negative approach is
derived from the fear and uncertainty arising from dif-
ficulties in determining appropriate communication behavior.
Marsh et a1. provide some evidence for their contention
that "the more anomic an individual is, the greater his

1166

uncertainty as to what behavior is appropriate. They

point out that this uncertainty reflects a major communi-
cation problem for the anomic and may well lead him "to

avoid or minimize contact with sources of communication."67

 

64Laurence J. Gould, "The Alienation Syndrome:
Psycho-Social Correlates and Behavioral Consequences,“
(Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of
Connecticut, 1965).

65William J. Mueller, "Anxiety Level, Inferred
Identification and Response Tendencies on a Semantic Dif-
ferential," Journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol. 13,
No. 2 (Summer, T966), pp. 144-15 .

66Paul C. Marsh, Robert J. Dolan and William L.
Riddick, "Anomia and Communication Behavior: The Relation-
ship Between Anomia and Utilization of Public Bureaucracies,"
Rurg§y$ociology, Vol. 32, No. 4 (December, 1967),

p. .

Ibid.

 

35

Summary of Major Hypotheses

l. The greater a person's alienation score, the
greater will be his score on the Companionship dimension
of radio attitudes.

2. The greater a person's alienation score, the
lower will be his score on the Worldly Awareness dimension
of radio attitudes.

3. The greater a person's alienation score, the
greater will be his score on the Pleasant Environment
dimension of radio attitudes.

4. The greater a person's alienation score, the
lower will be his score on the Portability dimension of
radio attitudes.

5. The greater a person's alienation score, the
greater will be his score on the Programming Evaluation
dimension of radio attitudes.

6. The greater a person's alienation score, the
greater will be his score on the Abrasiveness dimension

of radio attitudes.

CHAPTER II
DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

This chapter is mainly devoted to a discussion of
the ways in which the independent, dependent and control
variables were defined and operationalized. It also con-
tains a background on the theory of time order relationships.

The basic design of this research is what Hyman
would call a theoretical or experimental survey, one which
"takes the form of a test of some specific hypothesis
growing out of some larger theory as to a particular deter-

ll]

minant of the phenomonon. Its goal, in general terms, is

establishing reliably the nature of the relationship
between one or more phenomena, or dependent variables,
and one or more causes or independent variables.2
The actual study was a one-time-only administration of a
paper-and-pencil attitude questionnaire used to elicit
individual scores on the independent, dependent and control
variables. In addition, social and demographic data were

collected for later use in specification and elaboration

of the main hypotheses.

 

1Herbert Hyman. Survey Design and Analysis (New
York: The Free Press, 1955). p. 66.

21bid.

36

37

The Dependent Variable:
Radio Attitudes

The present research used the twenty-seven radio
attitude statements reported by Troldahl and Skolnik as
the dependent variable. These are listed in full in
Appendix A. The statements were thought to be closely
tied in their meaning to relatively concrete attributes of
radio. In addition, the earlier Troldahl and Skolnik study
provided information on how these statements clustered
together into factorial dimensions, about which predictions
were made. This was not the case with the data reported by
both Mendelsohn and Yankelovich.

The decision was made to present the same twenty-
seven statements that were used in the base-line Troldahl-
Skolnik study. This was done, in part, to determine if the
results of that first study could be extended a second time.
It was hoped that the twenty-seven statements would factor
into approximately the same six dimensions for which hypo-
theses had been made.

Although the twenty-seven statements were used jp_
£339 from the original study, there were two important
methodological differences in this extension. In the first
study, the statements were read to respondents by inter-
viewers over the telephone. In the present research
respondents were given a printed questionnaire and asked

to read each statement and make an appropriate scale

38

response. It is not known if this new form of administra-
tion in any way affected the behavior of respondents.

Another major difference between both studies is
in the design of the response scale. In their earlier
telephone study, Troldahl and Skolnik asked respondents to
agree or disagree with each statement. There was also a
middle marking for "don't know" responses. In the present
study a five-step scale was used, with responses ranging
from "strongly agree" at one end of the scale to "strongly
disagree" at the other end. This change was made since
pre-testing had indicated that subjects had sufficient
time to consider a larger range of choices in a pencil-and-
paper response situation. Thus the change in scales might
have affected any differences found between the original
study and this present extension.

Both the methodological differences cited above and
the limitations of the original Troldahl-Skolnik study out-
lined in Chapter I may play an important part in interpreting
differences between the previous and present research.
Taking these into account, it was nevertheless felt that use
of the twenty-seven Troldahl-Skolnik statements about radio
would provide an important opportunity to extend their

research and to link it with alienation research.

39

The Independent Variable:
Alienation

 

In order to better understand the influence of
individual alienation upon behavioral patterns, a large
number of researchers have attempted to operationalize this
concept. Olsen finds that "most social scientists today
prefer to treat alienation as a.subjective attitude, rather
than a strictly objective situation."3 McClosky and Schaar
explain further:

Virtually all of this work has employed a single
explanatory model for the analysis of anomy: a speci-
fied social—cultural condition gives rise to specified
feelings in individuals which in turn result in speci-
fic behaviors. Different writers have worked
variations on this scheme, but nobody has challenged
the scheme itself or attempted a fundamental revision
of it.4

Neal and Rettig point out that very little has been
done to empirically delineate multidimensional structures

5 On a theoretical level, a useful and well-

of alienation.
documented attempt has been made by Melvin Seeman. He has
identified five basic ways in which the concept of aliena-

tion has been employed in the literature. These are

 

3Olsen, loc. cit.

4McClosky and Schaar, "Psychological Dimensions of
Anomy," p. 14.

5Arthur G. Neal and Salomon Rettig, "On the Multi-
dimensionality of Alienation,“ American Sociological Review,

j

Vol. 32, No. 1 (February, 1967), p. 55.

40

identified as powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness,
isolation, and self-estrangement.6
The most widely used indicator of alienation has
been what essentially is a unidimensional measure of this
concept. Leo Srole's "Anomia Scale" asks for agreement

with five statements:

1. In spite of what some people say, the lot of the
average man is getting worse.

2. It's hardly fair to bring children into the world
with the way things look for the future.

3. Nowadays a person has to live pretty much for today
and let tomorrow take care of itself.

4. These days a person doesn't really know who he can
count on.

5. There's little use writing to public officials
because often they aren't really interested in the
problems of the average man.7
Although not every study has reported the coeffi-

cient of reproducibility associated with use of the Srole
Scale, there is enough evidence to suggest that the scale
is a unidimensional one. There is further indication that
alienation, as measured by the Srole Scale, has been found
in a fairly continuous distribution throughout the popula-
tion. With regard to the question of what the Srole scale

does indeed measure, most researchers agree with Meier and

Bell that it is essentially a measure of despair:

 

6Melvin Seeman, "On the Meanin of Alienation,"
American Sociological Review, Vol. 24 TDecember, 1959), p.783.

7Srole, op. cit.

41

We are convinced that these questions for the most part
measure despair, that is, utter hopelessness and dis-
couragement. A person agreeing strongly with each of
these questions is beyond simple apathy; his is a condi-
tion of sadness and distress in which he is unable to
exercise any confidence or trust that his desires or
wishes may be realized, and in the extreme may reach

the point described by MacIver as 'unquiet introspec-
tion and self-torture.‘ At the very least, despondency,
and, at worst, adject despair characterizes such a
person.

Attempts at operationalization of alienation have
not yet satisfactorily explored either the unidimensionality
or the multidimensionality of the variable. Perhaps the
best comment on the problem comes from Neal and Rettig, two
who have tried to unravel it:

Results indicating both uni- and multidimensionality
are not logically inconsistent with one another if they
derive from variant orders of abstraction.. In opera-
tional terms, alienation in toto is an abstract concept
tying together common elements derivable from the lower-
order structure.
For this reason, a basic conceptual alternative con-
fronting those doing research of correlates of alienation
consists of the common scientific dilemma of choosing
between parsimony and more precise description.
The dimensionality dilemma posed by Neal and Rettig will be
met by choosing parsimony and considering what Srole
measures as the major focal point of what we call "aliena-
tion." It would have been extraneous for the purposes of
this study to attempt a greater delineation of the various

and subtle sub-dimensions of the alienation concept.

 

8Meier and Bell, op. cit., p. 191.

9Neal and Rettig, p. cit., p. 60.

42

This study used a slight modification of the orig-
inal role Alienation Scale as the measure of the main
independent variable. Ephriam Mizruchi, apparently in con-
sultation with Srole, has devised a simplified set of five
questions which he and others have used in place of the

10 The statements which comprise this scale

original set.
are as follows:
1. Most public officials (people in public office) are
not really interested in the problems of the average
man.

2. These days a person doesn't really know whom he can
count on.

3. Nowadays a person has to live pretty much for today
and let tomorrow take care of itself.

4. In spite of what some people say, the condition of
the average man is getting worse, not better.

5. Most people don't really care what happens to the
next fellow.

Questionnaire Design and Scoring

Subjects were asked to complete an eleven-page
questionnaire and return it to the survey administrator
when finished. The first part consisted of 27 statements
dealing with the topic of radio, followed by 9 more state-
ments of a more general nature. Finally, respondents were

instructed to answer some items of a demographic nature.

 

10Ephriam H. Mizruchi. "Social Structure and Anomia
in a Small City," American Sociological Review, Vol. 25
(1960) p. 647.

 

43

A complete version of the survey questionnaire is included
as Appendix B.

Instructions for the first 27 questions were pre-
sented to the subjects in the following manner:

I'd like you to read several statements people have
made about radio in general. After you read each

statement, please tell me how much you agree or
disagree with it. For each statement put an "x
by the one choice which best expresses your opinion.
Remember, the statements are only about radio in

general. I want to know what you personally think.

After each radio attitude statement the subject could check
one of the following five responses:

strongly agree

agree

undecided

disagree

strongly disagree
The order of these 27 radio attitude statements was exactly
the same as that used in the earlier Troldahl and Skolnik
study. This was purposely done in order to increase the
chances for comparability between the latter research and
the current survey. A complete list of these attitude
questions is included as Appendix A.

When they had finished responding to the first set
of statements, the subjects were confronted with this set
of instructions:

Here are several statements which are not about

radio, but concern other things which may be of

interest to you. After you read each statement,

again please tell.me how much you agree or dis-
agree with it.

44

It was felt that a new set of instructions was needed in
order to "warn" the respondents that the topic was no longer
radio and hopefully to re-set their reference frame to the
broader questions in mind.

Again, the same five-step response scale was used,
to minimize the differences between sections in form, if
not content. As a partial protection against response set
and the seemingly sameness of the Srole alienation ques-
tions, four additional neutral attitude questions were
alternatively interspersed with those of prime interest.
These four "masking" questions called for agreement or
disagreement with the propositions that:

"I ought to go to church more than I do."

"Children should not get married until they finish
college or technical school."

"I prefer to travel on trains for long trips
because I'm afraid of airplane travel."

"Teachers should be allowed to hold public office."

All thirty-six attitude questions were scored on a
five-point scale, with a score of 5 awarded to the "strongly
agree" response and a score of 1 given to "strongly disa-
gree." If a subject did not respond to a question he was
scored with a 3 for "undecided." Those subjects who failed
to complete more than four of the thirty-six attitude

questions were removed from subsequent analysis.

45

Demographic Questions

 

When they had completed the attitude statements
respondents were asked to "finish with just a few questions
about yourself." There followed a series of demographic
questions with which each individual could specify his age,
sex, marital status, and educational level, as well as the
educational level and occupational prestige of the house-
hold's main wage earner. Measures of social interaction
were also included. In answering these questions the
respondents were forced to check one reply in each fixed
set of response categories.

Occupational Prestige--To determine the occupational
prestige level of each subject a two part open-ended ques-
tion was used. The first instruction asked: "What kind
of work does the main wage earner in your household do?
Please tell me in a few words." Following that, a second
question probed further by inquiring "What type of busi-
ness or industry does he work for?" It was hoped that
a combined reading of the two answers would lead to a
meaningful estimation of the respondent's prestige level.

Three coders independently read each reply and
assigned each respondent to a level on the 13-point scale

11

developed by Troldahl and Van Dam. This scale provides

 

HRobert Van Dam, (Unpublished M.A. Thesis, Depart-
ment of Communication, Michigan State University, 1964).

46

sample occupational categories at each of the 13 levels,

the highest having "more prestige than a lawyer" and the
lowest identifying individuals with "less prestige than a
bean and berry picker." The complete scale and its instruc—
tions to coders is included as Appendix C. Twenty-two of
the 245 respondents failed to provide sufficient informa-
tion for classification and were arbitrarily awarded an
occupational prestige level of seven, the mid-point of the
scale.

There was generally close agreement among the
coders. Two showed a Pearson product-moment correlation of
.82 with one another, and each of them correlated .69 with
the third coder. The scores of all coders were summed and
divided by three (the number of coders) in order to deter-
mine the final occupational prestige assignment for each
subject. Table 1, page 47, shows the frequency dis-
tribution for this variable.

Social Interaction--Two questions attempted to

 

measure the degree to which each respondent interacts
socially with both relatives and friends or neighbors.
Subjects were asked whether, on the average, they got
together several times a week, once or twice a week, once
or twice a month, or less often.

Neither measure of social interaction correlated
significantly with any radio attitude dimension, and

neither measure was used in subsequent analysis.

47

TABLE 1
OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE OF RESPONDENTS

 

 

 

Mean Occupational Percent of Total
Prestige Score Respondents
1.00-1.99 0
2.00-2.99 0
3.00-3.99 3
4.00-4.99 4
5.00-5.99 15
6.00-6.99 14
7.00-7.99 33
8.00-8.99 13
9.00-9.99 8
10.00-10.99 7
11.00-11.99 l
12.00-12.99 2

 

Group Participation--Respondents were asked to list
the organizations in which they are active participants,
such as civic groups, clubs, lodges, PTA, church groups and
veterans organizations. There was an opportunity to indi-
cate whether the respondent is an officer with each
organization he listed, as well as the number of meetings
he attended out of the last four.

Answers to questions of group participation were

coded according to the ll-category system devised by

48

12 A complete listing of their classi-

Backstrom and Hursh.
fications is given as Appendix D.

No measure of group participation and activity
correlated significantly with any radio attitude dimension,

and none was used in subsequent analysis.

Use of Control Variables

Controlling for Social Status

Previous research suggested controls for the effects
of socio-economic status upon the independent variable, psy-
chological alienation. Studies by Meier and Bell, Thompson
and Horton, Mizruchi, Dean and Olsen have all established
some sort of relationship. Only the work of Roberts and
Rokeach failed to yield the expected results. These authors
used, however, a relatively simple index for this variable,
one based only upon income and education. Olsen found the
same problem until he added a measure of occupation to his

13

index. Mizruchi replicated the Roberts and Rokeach non-

significant relationship until he used Hollingshead's
two-factor Index of Social Position as a measure of social

class.14

 

12Charles H. Backstrom and Gerald D. Hursh. Surve
Research (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1963)
p. 102.

13Olsen, op. cit., p. 211.

14Mizruchi, "Social Structure and Anomia in a Small
City," p. 647.

49

His comments on the difference in measurement are appro-
priate:
Our findings suggest that income alone does not deter-
mine whether or not persons become anomic, but the
expectation regarding income--the principal means of

achievin success--play a significant role in tfie
process.

Contpgllingyfor Causality
and Time Order

The problem of time order relationships and "causal-
ity" has been elusive in survey research, especially in
those facets dealing with the relationships between atti-
tudes.

Bell and Meier, for example, took full cognizance
of the post factum nature of their research with alienation
and individual achievement of life goals. They inferred
that such variables as socio-economic status, class, age,
social isolation, etc. preceded in time and cause anomia.
They note:

Yet all these variables, except age, conceivably could
be a consequence of anomia. An individual who despairs
might become socially isolated, move down the social
and economic scale, identify himself with the working
or lower classes, get divorced or separated, and reject
religion. The possible ordering of these variables in
'reasonable' ways is manifold. Nonetheless the cog-
sistency of our findings should not be discounted. 5

Several communication researchers have tended to

treat alienation as an antecedent variable leading to

 

15Ibid., p. 545.

16Meier and Bell, 0p. cit., p. 201.

50

behavioral outcomes. For example, after a review of the
literature plus reference to the work of Klapper, Katz and
Foulkes find "impressive evidence that alienation or depri-
vation are associated with increased exposure to particular
media or particular kinds of media content [and] tend to
drive people to seek refuge in the mass media. ."17

McLeod et a1. likewise approached their exploration of

alienation "as an explanatory factor in the use of the

 

newspaper [emphasis supplied]."18 Thompson and Horton
projected political alienation, shown to be related to
general alienation, as a mediating factor between socio-

19

economic status and political participation. Their

results were, however, criticized by Gold.20
Use of a manipulative variable such as age of the
respondents may lead to a greater understanding of this
time order relationship between degree of alienation and
attitudes toward radio. We can measure the age of respond-

ents, and this suggests a partial analysis procedure through

which some information separating the effects of age,

 

17
18

Katz and Foulkes, op. cit., p. 381.
McLeod, Ward and Tancill, op. cit., p. 593.

19Wayne E. Thompson and John E. Horton, "Political
Alienation as a Force in Political Action," Social Forces,
Vol. 38, No. 3 (March, 1960), pp. 190-195.

20David Gold, "Independent Causation in Multi-
variate Analysis: The Case of Political Alienation and
Attitude Toward a School Bond Issue," American Sociological
Review, Vol. 27, No. 1 (February, 1962), pp. 85-87.

51

alienation and radio attitudes can be obtained. Gold has
presented one such paradigm in his analysis of the Thompson

and Horton study:

Among three variables, all of which are related to each
other at the zero-order level, the only non-trivial
sense in which the association between one independent
and one dependent variable can be independent of the
second independent variable is that of independent
causation. Demonstration of independent causation
requires that the association between the two indepen-
dent variables tends to diaappear when the dependent
variable is held constant. 1

Peter Blau gives another example of how chronological age

can be used as a control for determining the time-order

22 To him,

relationship between two other variables.
The general principle is that the dependent variable
in a correlation can be determined by establishing that
the partial relations between it and a common antece-
dent factor disappear when the other variable in the
original correlation is held constant. In attitude
surveys and other studies where it is impossible to
date crucial variables, it is often possible to obtain
information about common antecedents.23

Under Blau's paradigm, a comparison of the partial relation-
ships with one another may "make the direction of influence
of the two original variables evident, and thereby indi-

cate the time sequence of their development, about which no

direct data existed."24

 

21

22Peter M. Blau, "Determining the Dependent Vari-
able in Certain Correlations," Public Opinion Quarterly,
Vol. 19, No. 2(Spring, 1955), pp. 100-105.

23Ibid., p. 105.
24

Ibid., p. 87.

Ibid.

52

Background factors used as an aid to determining
causal sequences will not themselves be thought of as
"causes". Gordon Allport's observation, set forth in his

review of The American Soldier, warns that

Nothing ever causes behavior exceptin mental sets
(including habits, attitudes, motives . . . . Back-
ground factors never directly cause behavior; they
cause attitudes; and attitudes in turn determine
behavior. I am not, of course, arguing against the
use of breakdowns or matched groups. They should,
however, be used to show where attitudes come from,
and not to imply that social causation acts automati-
cally apart from attitudes.25

Hyman likewise urges special caution when using

26

background factors as controls. Blalock, however, notes

that frequently they are so used, often with good reason.27

Both men admit the difficulty of determining whether the

background variable is truly part of a developmental

sequence or spurious. Blalock suggests the use of further
safeguards in making these interpretations:

Since Hyman's caution against controlling in the case
of a developmental sequence will be exceedingly dif-
ficult to apply in practice, we would recommend that
controls for background variables be made as a safe-
guard against spuriousness, provided that slopes
rather than correlations are examined and provided

 

25Gordon W. Allport, ”Review of 'The American
Soldier,'" Journal of Abnormal and Social—ngchology,
Vol. 45 No. 1 (January, 1950) p. 172.

26Hyman, op. cit., pp. 254-263.

27Hubert Blalock. "Controlling for Background
Factors: Spurious Versus Developmental Sequences,"

Sociological Inquiry, Vol. 34 No. 1 (Winter, 1964) p. 29.

 

53
that one can be reasonably certain that he is not
controlling for an intervening variable.28
Following Blalock's suggestion, the behavior of both cor-
relation coefficients and that of slopes were examined and
interpreted.

In summary, support for alienation as a variable
preceding in time an individual's attitudes toward radio
comes from what appears to be the logical relationship
between the variables and from the several indirect tests

which were performed.

 

281bid., pp. 39-40.

CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS OF THE DATA

Description of the Sample

Data were collected from a heterogenous sample of
adults, using a self-administered questionnaire. The pro-
cess of determining the final sample for this study may
have imposed certain limitations upon the overall results.

Due to a lack of extensive financial support it
was not possible to follow the necessary procedures to
assure a random sample, either of the entire United States
population or of any single large metropolitan area. Use
of such a sample would have required extensive personal
contact and interviewing.

The sample for this study was constructed by at-
tempting to simulate a sample of the general adult
population. Intact groups of adults were used whenever
possible in the attempt to obtain a heterogenous sample
approximating population parameters.

In an attempt to overcome intentional biases, the
study purposely excluded college faculty and students, and
mass media employees. It was felt that college individuals

are not by themselves representative of the general

54

55

population and, additionally, may have come into previous
contact with the alienation scales. To include a propor-
tionately high number of mass media employees might have
overly weighted the sample with persons having professional
criteria for radio.

There were two waves of data collection used to
derive a sufficiently large sample of respondents for the

study.

Philadelphia Sample

Through the cooperation of the Westinghouse Broad-
casting Company it was possible to administer the
questionnaire to a group of Philadelphia residents at-
tending the videotaping of The Mike Douglas Show. These
members of the "studio audience" are assembled for approxi-
mately one hour before being admitted to the television
studio.

Respondents were asked to participate in a study
about radio in general. When they agreed they received a
questionnaire which contained both the complete instructions
and the actual questions. The survey administrators were
cautioned not to provide extraneous information about the
nature of the study or the hypotheses under investigation.
Each audience member took as long a time period as he or

she needed to complete the survey.

56

A total of 164 completed questionnaires was received
from the Philadelphia sample on September 18 and 19, 1968.
Of these, 143 were from women and 13 came from men. Eight
respondents who failed to indicate their sex were removed

from the analysis.

Chicago Sample

Because the first sample contained an over-
representation of women, a second attempt was made in
October and November of 1968 and directed specifically
toward male respondents living in the Chicago area.

Arrangements were made to administer the question-
naire to five varied intact groups. These included 17 IBM
office machine salesmen; 13 technical writers for the
Automatic Electric Company; 17 union officials participating
in a "short course" on public speaking; 12 individuals with
varying occupations in a business publications company; and
30 members of a suburban church choir.

A total of 89 completed questionnaires was received
from the various Chicago groups. Eighty-two of these came

from men and seven from women.

Total Sample

The combined sample of 245 adults includes 150 women
and 95 men. A demographic analysis of the sample, including

separate listings for men and women, is presented in Table 2.

57

TABLE 2

SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

% Male % Femal % Total
(N=95) ( =150) (N=245)
Marital Status
Single 20 9 13
Married 77 83 80
Other 3 8 6
Chi Square=8.668, d.f.=2,
p=<.02
Last Grade Completed by Respondent
0 to 11 years 4 l8 13
12 years (high school diploma) 21 55 43
1 to 3 years college 31 17 22
4 years college 20 7 12
More than 4 years college 24 2 10
Chi Square=66.796, d.f.=4,
p=<.001
Education of Main Wage Earner
O to 11 years 2 17 ll
12 years (high school diploma) 24 4O 34
l to 3 years college 32 25 27
4 years college 18 12 14
More than 4 years college 24 6 13
Chi Square=32.983, d.f.=4,
p=<.001
Age of Respondent
Under 24 14 13 13
25-29 17 ll 13
30-34 19 13 15
35-39 21 10 14
40-44 15 l8 17
45-49 4 l3 9
50-54 2 15 10
55 and over 8 7 7

Chi Square=22.375, d.f.=7,
p=<.01

 

58

There was a higher proportion of married women than
men, but not much. Over three-fourths of the respondents
of both sexes were married. The men in the sample tended
to be somewhat younger, on the average, than the women.

Two measures in the educational realm helped distinguish
between the demographic profiles of men and women. The
last grade completed in school by the respondent and by
the main wage earner of the household was higher for men

than for women in the sample.

The Independent Variable--Alienation

Five attitude statements were included as those
items to be combined to generate the main independent vari-
able. These five sentences comprise the Alienation scale.
Subjects could indicate their degree of agreement with each
item. As mentioned earlier, the Alienation scale questions
were "masked" to some extent by four additional neutral
attitude questions. Table 3 shows the frequency of response
to each of the five statements.

The distributions of each statement appear to be
bimodal in character. By far the largest percentages of
respondents fall into the "agree" or "disagree" categories.
The percentage of those who express either mild or strong
agreement with a statement ranges from a low of 32 to a
high of 54 percent. Similarly, those claiming mild or

strong disagreement range from 32 to 58 percent, depending

59

 

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60

upon the statement. Respondents who felt "undecided" about
an alienation statement were between five and fourteen per-
cent of the sample. The mean scores ranged from 2.73 to
3.32, where 3.0 would be the predicted mid-point. Standard
deviations for all five statements were remarkably similar.
Pearson product-moment correlations were computed
for all five alienation statements, and these are presented

in Table 4. The correlations are all significant beyond

TABLE 4
CORRELATIONS BETWEEN ALIENATION STATEMENTS

 

 

Statement Number
1 2 3 4 5

 

1. Most public officials --- .41 .30 .41 .28
pe0ple in public office)
are not really interested
in the problems of the
average man.

2. These days a person really .41 --- .44 .38 .41
doesn't know whom he can
count on.

3. Nowadays a person has to .30 .44 --- .38 .30

live pretty much for today
and let tomorrow take care
of itself.

4. In spite of what some .41 .38 .38 --- .36
people say, the condi-
tion of the average man
is getting worse, not
better.

5. Most people don't really .28 .41 .30 .36 ---
care what happens to the
next fellow.

 

61

the .001 level, and range from a low of .28 to a high of
.44, with a median of .38.

The scores of each individual on each of the five
statements were combined to produce a total alienation
score for that person. Scores of between 5 and 25 were

possible, resulting in the distribution shown in Table 5.

TABLE 5
DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL ALIENATION SCORES

 

 

 

Alienation Score % of Respondents
5 0.4
6 0.4
7 1
8 3
9 6

10 7
ll 5
12 8
l3 7
l4 9
15 5
16 15
17 7
l8 7
l9 4
20 6
21 3
22 1
23 2
24 2
25 l

 

Table 5 shows a bell-shaped distribution of scores with a
mean of 14.89 (15.0 would be expected) and a standard

deviation of 4.20.

62

The relationships between this final measure of
alienation and other demographic characteristics paralleled
those found in earlier literature. A negative association
between it and an individual's educational level (r= -.36)
and the educational level of the household's main wage
earner (r= -.39) was found. Similar results were obtained
when the related variable was occupational prestige
(r= -.29). The expectation that increased alienation

would be found among older respondents was not supported.
The Dependent Variable--Radio Attitudes

The first part of the questionnaire contained the
27 radio attitude statements used as the basis for gener-
ating the dependent variable of this study. They were the
same statements, and presented in the same order, as those
of the earlier Troldahl and Skolnik study.1 Respondent
reactions to the statements were scored on the 5-point
scale and subjected to factor analysis to determine the
major attitudinal dimensions for this extension. The
factor analysis solution was a principal factor solution,
using a varimax rotation, with 1.00 in the diagonals of
the correlation matrix. Factoring was extended to six
factors, although more stringent criteria might have sug-

gested termination at five.

 

1Troldahl and Skolnik, op. cit.

63

The attempt at extension of the six dimensions
found earlier met with only partial success. Table 6
presents the rotated factor matrix for all 27 statements.
The interpretation of each factor, and the percentage of
total variance accounted for, are given below for both this

and the earlier study:

 

 

Present Per- Earlier Per-
cent of Total cent of Total
Variance Variance
Companionship 23% 12%
Music Evaluation 13% 10%
Abrasiveness 6% 7%
(undefined; 5% -
undefined 4% -
(undefined) 4% -

Patterns of Response

Of the patterns or "clusters" of variables found,
the following were selected as meaningful:

Companionship--This again emerges as the strongest
dimension of attitudes toward the medium of radio. Several
statements of a "companionship" nature in the previous
Troldahl and Skolnik study now come through with more posi-
tive force. Use of radio.for companionship appears to be
a personal feeling for a medium which "makes the time go
faster for me" or "makes me feel like someone is home with
me." Other companionship attributes include listening to
radio while a person works, and perceiving radio as a "good

companion when you are alone." Radio is also seen as a

64

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68

medium "which cheers me up" and one whose music "lessens
the tension of the day."

Music Evaluation--The second strongest attitudinal
dimension is an essentially negative appraisal of a major
ingredient of contemporary radio programming, its music.
Appearing with almost equal strength are the feelings that
"the music on radio nowadays is rotten" and more specifi-
cally that "radio is only half as good as it could be
too much rock and roll." Another statement expressing
views on music evaluation suggests there "is too much talk
and not enough good music on radio."

Abrasiveness--An attitudinal dimension quite
similar in outlook to Music Evaluation is that of Abrasive-
ness. Whereas the former centered around criticisms of the
music on radio, Abrasiveness seems to be concerned with
harsh talk in general and advertising in particular. Almost
identical in structure to the earlier Troldahl-Skolnik
dimension, Abrasiveness refers to "the millions of little
ads that are now on radio" and to people who "don't like
when radio commercials break into news and other programs."
This concept spreads also to the disc jockeys who "talk too
much and say very little." Correlating in a strong but
opposite direction to the main thrust of Abrasiveness is a
statement of praise for radio commercials, the notion that

"radio advertisements are helpful."

53/79
Analysis of Replication Results

It was felt that, for the sample as a whole, the
three major dimensions cited above represented the only
clear-cut dimensions consistent with the earlier Troldahl
and Skolnik research. The final three factors as indicated
in Table 6 accounted for fairly small amounts of the total
variance. The fourth dimension accounted for 5% of the
total variance, and appears to be the beginning of a Porta-
bility factor. The remaining two factors each accounted
for only 4% of the total variance. Factor Five bears some
resemblance to the Companionship dimension, but its major
defining statements are not very clear and appear to be
heavily mixed with other factors. The sixth extracted
factor has but one high-loading statement reacting nega-
tively to the "silly slogans in radio commercials."

Table 7 summarizes the dimensions of radio at-
titudes delineated in the present study and compares them
with those in the earlier Troldahl-Skolnik research. Since
only three dimensions appeared, it was decided to utilize
the extant data as the dependent variable and thus to
eliminate 3 hypotheses from further consideration within
the framework of this study. The dimensions which failed
to appear concerned radio as a means of portability and

worldly awareness and the radio medium as one providing a

71

 

 

 

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74

pleasant environment. A portion of Chapter 4 deals with
the problem of extension and its implications for further
research.

To some extent the processes of extracting and
naming factors is a subjective one. Different methods of
rotation yield slightly different factor structures, de-
pending upon the criteria a researcher has established.

Decisions also need to be made concerning what
level of magnitude is meaningful vis-a-vis the percentage
of total variance accounted for by a given factor. In the
present study the first three factors accounted for twenty-
three, thirteen and six percent of the total variance. The
three remaining undefined factors accounted respectively
for five, four and four percent.

A second criterion in the process of properly
identifying useable factors is the number of items which
belong on a given factor and how much "sense" they seem to
make. In the present extension there are four items com-
prising the Abrasiveness dimension, all of which seem
related to one another. Although the Abrasiveness dimen-
sion accounts for only six percent of the total variance,
the relatedness of the four items on it suggests the need
to accept Abrasiveness for further study. The same cannot
be said for the remaining three undefined factors, with
equally low variance, yet all containing low numbers of

unexplainable clustering items.

75

A third criterion concerns the choosing of names
for all the definable factors. While Companionship and
Abrasiveness strongly mirrored their Troldahl-Skolnik study
counterparts, it was felt that in this extension the former
"Programming Evaluation" factor now only really concerned

Music Evaluation, and therefore was renamed accordingly.

Method of Scorigg

Scores for each individual on each of the three
major dimensions were obtained by summing the scores for
each statement assigned to an attitude dimension. That sum
became the respondent's total score for a dimension.

Table 8 lists the means and standard deviation for each of
the three major attitude dimensions, while means and
standard deviations for each of the twenty-seven state-

ments are contained in Appendix E. The relationships of

TABLE 8
DESCRIPTION OF MAJOR RADIO ATTITUDES

 

 

 

Number of Standard

Dimension Title Statements Mean Deviation
Companionship 7 26.25 4.90
Music Evaluation 3 7.93 2.80

Abrasiveness 4 14.29 2.18

 

76

the radio dimensions to the other major social and demo-
graphic variables is detailed in Table 9, which will be

referred to during the subsequent analysis of each

 

 

hypothesis.
TABLE 9
RELATIONSHIP OF MAJOR VARIABLES
Variable Variable Number'

 

1 2' 3 4’ 5 6 7

 

l. Companionship

.28 -.02 -.O1 .48 -.O9 .57

2. Music Evaluation -.15

3. Abrasiveness .01 .35

4. Respondent Education -.37 -.08 -.12

5. Age .16 .36 .02 -.17

6. Main Education -.36 -.ll -.12 .64 -.19
7

. Occupational Prestige

Alienation .20 .26 .22 -.36 .07 -.39 -.29

OD

 

Results of Majgr Hypotheses

Hypothesis One

It was suggested that the more alienated a person
is, the more likely he will think of radio as a companion.
For purposes of testing this hypothesis a person's score

on the Companionship dimension of radio attitudes was

77

related to his total score on the Srole alienation scale.
In the total sample, the zero-order correlation between
Companionship and Alienation is .20 (N=245).

As Table 9 indicated, the demographic variables
of age and the main wage earner's educational level are
also related to scores on the Companionship dimension.
Partial correlations are suggested as the means of deter-
mining the effects of both of these variables upon the
simple correlation above. These social-demographic vari-
ables may have produced a spurious correlation between
Alienation and Companionship.

Both respondent age and the educational level of
the main household wage earner were simultaneously par-
tialed out of the relationship between the main dependent
and independent variables. The educational level of the
main household wage earner was chosen as representative
of the overall socio-economic background of the respon-
dent. This conforms with the data in Table 9 showing a
correlation between main wage earner education level and
respondent education level of .64, and the correlation
between main wage earner education level and occupational
prestige of .57 for the total sample.

The relationship between Alienation and Companion-
ship drops below the minimum acceptable standard for
statistical significance (r -.O7) when the combined

partial-
effects of age and main wage earner education are removed.

78

This seems to be due almost entirely to the effect of
education, since the removal of only age from the Alienation-
Companionship relationship leaves that correlation almost
unchanged.

Troldahl and Skolnik suggested that the Companion-
ship relationship might be "strongest among women, who must
spend more time alone during the day than men."2 Addi-
tional analyses for each sex indicated that the first
hypothesis held up neither for men nor women by themselves.

Hypothesis one therefore fails to win confirmation

when examined in respect to what apparently are more over-

riding influences of age and educational level.

_Hypotheses Two, Three and Four

As previously indicated, the factor analysis failed
to yield a clear measure of the Worldly Awareness, Porta-
bility and Pleasant Environment dimensions found in the
earlier study. Thus these hypotheses could not be tested

in the present research.

Hypothesis Five

Here it was thought that the more alienated a person
was, the more positive would be his score on the former
Programming Evaluation, now Music Evaluation dimension.

Support for this hypothesis suggested that alienated

 

2Troldahl and Skolnik, op. cit., p. 64.

79

individuals have an essentially negative disposition when
it comes to areas of concept evaluation. Since both the
Music Evaluation and Abrasiveness dimensions are cast in
the form of negative criticisms, it was felt that alienated
respondents would agree with these factors, and the re-
sulting correlations would be positive.

In the total sample the zero-order correlation
between Music Evaluation and Alienation was .25 (N=245).
Table 9 seems to indicate that a person's age is related
to his score on the Music Evaluation dimension; the older
a person, the more likely he will have a negative view-
point toward the music programming offered on radio. Con-
trolling for age by itself still fails to diminish the
hypothesized relationship. The partial correlation is .25
when age is removed. Likewise, holding constant a person's
educational level left the relationship unchanged

( 25).

rpartial='
A subsequent analysis revealed that the sex of the
respondent is important for understanding this hypothesis.
For women alone the zero-order correlation between Music
Evaluation and Alienation is quite high (r=.39), while at
the same time it almost disappears for men alone (r=.01).
Men and women were.examined separately to see if the
relationship between Alienation and Music Evaluation would

change when the effects of age and main wage earner's

educational level were simultaneously controlled. For men

80

the partial correlation still fails to yield statistical
significance (rpartial='07) while its strength remains

almost as strong for women (rpartial='37)‘

Hypothesis Six

The relationship between Alienation and Abrasive-
ness was conceived structurally in a manner parallel with
the Music Evaluation dimension. Abrasiveness is more
concerned with the annoying talk and advertising aspects
of the medium. Four statements comprised the scale used
to define the Abrasiveness dimension.

Results for the total sample confirmed the expected
relationship between Alienation and Abrasiveness at the
zero-order level with a correlation significant beyond the
.001 level (r=.22). This held with almost the same
strength when the effects of main wage earner education
level and respondent age were partialed together from the
relationship (rpartial='19)'

Sex of the respondent again appears to be important
for understanding this hypothesis. For men the relation-
ship is negligible (r=.OO4) at first, and remains so when
the chosen measure of educational level and age are

removed (r -.O3). The strength of the hypothesis

partial=
increases when women by themselves are considered (r=.32).

Removing the effects of age and main wage earner education

81

simultaneously only slightly diminishes the female relation-
ship between Alienation and the Abrasiveness dimension of

radio attitudes (rpartia1='3])'

CHAPTER IV

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

This study was designed to test the relationship
between psychological alienation and attitudes people hold
toward the mass medium of radio. "Alienation" as used in
this research refers to "an individual feeling or dissocia-
tion from self, from others, or from the world at large."1

A five-item scale devised by Leo Srole was used to

measure alienation. This scale asks respondents to indicate
the amount of their agreement with five statements expressing
distrust of public officials and others, desire to live only
for today, the worsening condition of the average man, and
a lack of interest in what happens to the next fellow.
Scores were summed for all five statements, such that the
greater the agreement with these statements, the greater
was a person's total alienation score.

Earlier research by Troldahl and Skolnik was the

basis for defining attitudes toward the radio medium. Their

study yielded six dimensions of attitudes: Companionship;

 

1Gerson, op. cit., p. 144.

82

83

Programming Evaluation; Worldly Awareness; Portability;
Pleasant Environment; and Abrasiveness.

Data collection for the present study consisted of
the administration of a questionnaire which elicited scores
for each individual for alienation, radio attitudes, and
certain control variables. A heterogeneous group of adults
in two metropolitan areas was the sample. The first step
of the analysis consisted of.a factor analysis of the radio
attitude dimensions in order to assign each subject a score
on each dimension. Later statistical tests included Pearson
product-moment correlations and partial correlations de-
signed to test the major hypotheses.

Only three of the.original Troldahl-Skolnik atti-
tudinal dimensions appeared in this extension. They were
Companionship; Music Evaluation; and Abrasiveness. For
each of these dimensions an.hypothesis between it and
alienation had been made.

The first hypothesis predicted a relationship be-
tween alienation and Companionship. It suggested that the
more alienated a person is, the greater will be his score
on the Companionship dimension of radio attitudes. This
hypothesis was at first confirmed by a zero-order correla-
tion of r=.20. When the effects of respondent age and
educational level were removed from the relationship,
however, its significance was reduced below the minimum

acceptable standard (rpartia1='07)'

84

The next hypothesis.which could be tested dealt
with how alienated individuals perceive music programming
on radio. It was felt, and the data supported this con-
tention, that the more alienated a person is, the stronger
will be his negative criticism.of the music on radio. This
hypothesis was confirmed only for women and was independent
of the effects of age and educational level.

In the last hypothesis a relationship was suggested
between how alienated a person felt and his score on the
Abrasiveness dimension of radio attitudes. Abrasiveness is
concerned with the annoying talk and advertising aspects of
the medium. Like the previous one, this hypothesis was
confirmed only for women and held up even when the effects
of age and education were controlled.

The remainder of this chapter will be devoted to a
closer examination of selected aspects of the study. It
will first discuss the implications of the attempt to extend
the earlier Troldahl-Skolnik attitude dimensions, and then
suggest some possible future directions in this area. Next
will follow a deeper examination of each of the hypotheses,
together with some alternate approaches to understanding
the data. The chapter concludes by discussing some of the
limitations of the study and implications for future

research.

85
Dimensions of Radio Attitudes

Implications of Extension

The original Troldahl and Skolnik research had sug-
gested six independent ways in which people might assess
the radio medium. In their study about half (51%) of the
respondent's total variability could be accounted for by
these six dimensions. The present research could justify
the naming of only 3 different ways of thinking about radio,
which taken together account for forty-two percent of the
total variability in responses. Table 10 compares the

strength of factor structures for both studies.

TABLE 10
PERCENT OF TOTAL VARIANCE

 

 

 

Troldahl Present

Factor Title and Skolnik Study
Companionship 12% 23%
Programming/Music Evaluation 10% 13%
Abrasiveness 7% 6%
Portability 8% -
Worldly Awareness 7% -
Pleasant Environment 7% -

Total Variance Accounted For 51% 42%

 

86

Both times the use of radio as a source of com-
panionship emerged as the strongest factor; in the present
research it is almost twice.as strong as the Programming/
Music Evaluation factor, which remains the second dimension
in both studies. The Abrasiveness factor is about equal
strength in both instances, while the perception of radio
as a means of Portability did not materialize in this
extension.

Worldly Awareness as a dimension of people's atti-
tudes toward radio failed to materialize in this study.
This factor earlier had described radio as a good means of
learning what's going on in the world. Despite the emphasis
by media practitioners upon its news advantages, radio as
a window to the world's happenings was not described as
such in this study.

The Roper studies of media credibility may help
explain why this is so. They indicate radio ranks third
behind television and newspapers as a source of news, and
lowest of the mass media Roper subjects were inclined to

2 It is

believe in the case of conflicting news reports.
possible that future research may pinpoint this function.

Intuitively, however, the possibility of a separate news

 

2Burns W. Roper, Emerging Profiles of Television
and Other Mass Media: Public Attitudes 1959-1967)(New York:
Télevision Information Office, 1967), pp. 7-lTl

87

of Worldly Awareness factor to describe one function served
by radio remains valid.

The earlier-discovered Pleasant Environment factor
also failed to materialize in the extension for this study.
Originally the factor contained a cluster of statements
indicating that there is no good talent left on radio, that
you can enjoy radio without too much concentration and can
listen while you work. A final statement asserted that
radio advertisements are helpful.

In this extension the statement about "listening to
radio while I work" appeared with the Companionship factor,
while the feeling that radio ads are helpful became part of
the Abrasiveness dimension. The other statements failed to
appear on a major factor.

Here again it would seem intuitively valid that
radio serves as a background medium and provides a pleasant
environment for its listeners. One suspects that the propo-
sition, if presented in stronger language using additional
attitude statements, might emerge in a more easily recog-

nizable form.

Directions in Radio Attitudes

What seems clear is the confirmation of three major
dimensions of people's attitudes toward the radio medium:
Companionship, Music Evaluation, and the Abrasiveness

dimension. The original Troldahl-Skolnik research

88

suggested the existence of other possible dimensions. The
nature and extent of additional attitudinal factors will
have to be determined by further studies.

A first step appears to lie in a more exhaustive
search for attitude statements upon which the factors are
ultimately based. The list of 27 statements used in the
present research may not adequately reflect the true popu-
lation of possible statements. For example, the great
strength of the Companionship factor may just be an arti-
ficial inflation due to an abnormally high number of
similarly-phrased statements.

Perhaps the entire process for generating state-
ments should be repeated once again. This time personal
interviews rather than telephone interviews might be used,
since this technique could allow an experienced inter-
viewer to more carefully probe respondent radio attitudes.
Also, matched positive and negative statements might be
included in the final measuring instrument. These would
help guard against response sets.

The result would.be a measuring instrument hope-
fully more sensitive to the ways in which people think
about radio. Such an instrument might contain within it
statements designed to better interpret the role of such
variables as educational background upon the development

of media attitudes.

89

Chapter One lists in some detail the major methodo-
logical limitations of the original Troldahl and Skolnik
study. And in Chapter Two.are found some differences
between the original and this present study which might
account for different sets of factors. These include the
use of two different response scales and the earlier use
of telephone rather than self-administered interviews.

Thus there would appear to.be enough differences between
both studies to suggest that the present one did not suf-
ficiently replicate the first one, and more research is

needed.

Discussion of Major Hypotheses

This study was designed to link certain approaches
people take toward radio with the personality trait called
"alienation." The hypotheses centered around both "uses"
people associated with.the medium as well as more general
ways in which they expressed evaluations of radio's pro-
gram fare. In all, six major hypotheses were presented,
along with the results of a questionnaire designed to test
them. The section which follows focuses more tightly on
each hypothesis and its implications in light of the overall
study. Alternate ways of approaching these research ques-

tions will also be discussed.

9O

Alienation and Companionship
LHypotWesis One)

 

The first hypothesis set forth a relationship be-
tween how alienated a person feels from his environment
and a communication activity in which he perceives a mass
medium as providing a sense of companionship. It rested
on the logical extension of two statements: First, there
is a relationship between alienation and the phenomenon of
"social isolation"; and second, there is a relationship
between "social isolation" and the seeking of companionship.

At first a moderately strong correlation (r=.20)
between a person's alienation and Companionship scores
appeared. A more detailed analysis showed, however, that
the relationship almost disappeared when the effects of a
person's educational level were controlled.

It would thus appear that the relationship between
alienation and the Companionship score is spurious, due to
the effects of a person's educational level. Further sup-
port for this was found when removing the effects of
Alienation from the significantly negative relationship
between educational level and the score on the Companion-
ship dimension only slightly diminished that relationship.

In sum, a person's education remains strongly
related to how alienated he feels, and also to how much he

feels radio is a companion. It is this educational

91

background rather than his alienation which plays a strong
part in his notion of radio as a companion.

The great strength of the Companionship factor
itself may have emerged as the most important finding for
this first hypothesis. Earlier it was noted that the large
number of similar-sounding statements may have artificially
inflated the factor. Yet it holds together remarkably well
in this and the original Troldahl-Skolnik study, giving
evidence that there is indeed an element of striving for
companionship through this mass medium. People do have
this predisposition.

The rationale for this hypothesis made it clear
that there was no direct evidence that alienated or even
socially isolated people seek companionship more than
others, especially from the mass media. This present
research has reinforced the complex relationship which
must exist between all these variables, and it has shown
that the additional impact of such elements as educational
background must also be taken into account. Perhaps there
are additional elements which need to be considered in
this not-so-simple set of relationships.

Alienation and Music Evaluation
(Hypothesis Five)

This hypothesis dealt with the way alienated indi-

viduals perceive the music on radio. Its rationale noted

92

that alienated people carry an essentially negative view-
point toward a great many societal institutions over which
they have no control. Therefore it was felt that this
approach would carry over into an evaluation of music on
radio. The hypothesis predicted that the greater a person's
alienation socre was, the greater would be his score on the
Music Evaluation dimension..

For the total sample this hypothesis was confirmed
by a relatively strong correlation (r=.26). The greater a
person's alienation was, the greater his score on this
dimension. Even when the effects of age and main wage
earner's educational level were simultaneously removed the
strength of the relationship remained. It was noted that
major support for this hypothesis came from women, for
whom the zero-order correlation of r=.39 was quite high.
Male-only correlations never attained statistical signifi-
cance.

The three statements which comprised the Music
Evaluation factor all had to do with the music on radio
today:

"The music on radio nowadays is rotten."

"Radio is only half as good as it could be ... too
much rock and roll."

"I don't listen to radio much because of its poor
music."

It would at first appear that this factor is essentially

an anti-music one. The author has received informal

93

evidence that the statements which loaded highly on Music
Evaluation were confusing.to.many respondents. For example,
some people commented that radio was not as good as it

could be, but for reasons other than the alleged rock and
roll music. So although radio is predominantly a music
medium, it is possible.that the Music Evaluation dimension
is broader than these findings presently indicate.

While educational level greatly affected the rela-
tionship between Alienation and Companionship, it apparently
does not work similarly when the dependent variable is
Music Evaluation. Indeed, whatever low relationship there
is between education and Music Evaluation (r=-.08) is
itself erased when Alienation is partialled out of the
correlation (rpartial='0])' Perhaps the Music Evaluation
variate is too gross a measure of reaction to really be
affected by differences in the educational backgrounds of
people who apply it. It may amount to a "general uneasi-
ness" about some aspects of the programming, rather than
criticism for which formal education is useful.

The differences between men and women on this
dimension remain unclear. It seems highly unusual that a
strong relationship between alienation and Music Evaluation
should exist for women, while for men it fails to appear.
Perhaps normative work environments hold the answer: Women

who feel alienated may be more likely to spend a great deal

of time in situations where radio is a major alternative

94

for their alienated feelings; whereas men who may be just
as alienated are in work environments where radio is not
as convenient an alternative.

Alienation and Abrasiveness
(Hypothesis Six)

In many ways this hypothesis parallels the previous
one. Abrasiveness was presented as an approach focusing on
radio advertising and talk. When tested, the findings for
this hypothesis behaved similarly to those for Music Evalu-
ation. A significant relationship was found between
alienation and Abrasiveness, such that the greater a
person's alienation was, the greater was his score on this
dimension. This held when.the effects of main wage earner
educational level and respondent age were simultaneously
controlled. The same pattern of differences between men
and women also appeared.

In its present form the Abrasiveness dimension
represents a reaction to the non-music ingredients of the
medium. People who score highly on it "Don't like the

millions of ads that are now on radio, nor do they approve
"when the radio commercials break into the news." And the
statement "Radio advertisements are helpful" is negatively
correlated with the dimension.

But also appearing on the Abrasiveness dimension

is the statement that "The disc jockeys on radio talk too

much and say too little." This supports the notion that

95

Abrasiveness could be an anti-talk feeling, mainly mani-
fested in the commercials which interrupt radio music.

Comparison of Original
and Current Dimensions

In a special analysis the original Troldahl and
Skolnik factors were reconstructed from the present data.
This was done so that they might be compared with the cur-
rent dimensions vis-a-vis similarities and differences in
Alienation correlations.

The method for reconstructing comparable scores
first involved looking at the statements which loaded
highly on the original Troldahl-Skolnik factors. Using the
old cluster of statements as the basis for an attitude
dimension, scores for each statement assigned to a cluster
were then summed for each subject. That sum became the
respondent's total score for the attitude dimension. The
results of this analysis are presented in Table 11.

Reference to Table 7 in the previous chapter shows
some differences in factor structure make-up between the
two studies, particularly for the thirteen statements
which did not load on any of the major factors in the
present study.

Given these differences, the similarities are most
encouraging. The Companionship and Abrasiveness dimensions

correlate about the same with Alienation under both indices.

96

TABLE 11
ZERO-ORDER ALIENATION.CORRELATIONS OF BOTH STUDIES

 

 

 

Troldahl Present
and Skolnik Study
Attitude Dimension Statements Statements

Companionship .18 .20
Worldly Awareness .19 -
Pleasant Environment .26 -
Portability .09 -
Programming/Music Evaluation .34 .26
Abrasiveness .19 .22

 

The strength of the correlation grows when the Programming
Evaluation dimension is reconstructed to the original
Troldahl-Skolnik statements. No direct comparison is
possible for the Worldly Awareness, Portability and Pleasant

Environment dimensions.

Possible Limitations of the Study

Response Set Control

A variable thought to be important in an attitudi-
nal investigation of this kind is response set, in general
the tendency of individuals to respond in a particular way.
Various researchers have studied such behavioral character-

istics as the tendency to respond in a positive way to

97

attitude statements, the affinity toward socially desirable
traits, and the tendency to specifically deviate from
normal response patterns.

Response set is particularly interesting in per-
sonality assessment. It is felt that an individual's
"set" may interact with the "content" of such measures as
the alienation or authoritarianism scales and thus invali-
date them as true measures of a particular variable.
Several techniques have been established as partial attempts
to control the influences of various kinds of response sets.
These range from pre-experimental design of suitable scales
to post hoc statistical manipulations of data. The former
approach seems preferable, for as Jackson points out,
"statistical techniques may be considered largely salvage
operations that attempt to isolate a source of error that
might better have been controlled at the stage of test
construction."3

The present study made no attempt to account for
possible response biases of the respondents. Where such
a phenomenon might be critical is with the Srole Alienation
Scale used to measure the independent variable. In that

scale Srole appears not to be concerned with the response

set problem. All five sentences which comprise it are cast

 

3Douglas N. Jackson, “Acquiescence Response Styles:
Problems of Identification and Control," in: Irwin A. Berg
(ed.) Response Set in Personality Assessment (Chicago:
Aldine PubTishing Co., T967), p. T13.

98

in the same negative direction. None of the subsequent
studies using this scale and reviewed by this author have
considered the Srole Scale in light of response sets.

A similar situation is found with the Troldahl and
Skolnik scale for measuring attitudes toward radio. Their
original study did not take this problem into account. As
a result, these authors did not use sets of matching posi-
tive and negative statements which might have provided the
means for measuring response set bias. Since their scale
was transferred in toto for purposes of extension, the
present research is marked with the same constraint.

In sum, there is no direct evidence in the present
study which might indicate how individual response bias is
operating. Neither statistical controls nor questionnaire
design safeguards were provided. It is suggested that
further studies in this area take the response set variable
into account.

Limitations from the
Original Study

Since a portion of this study consisted of an
extension of the original Troldahl and Skolnik research,
some of the limitations of that original study must be
considered while reviewing the present research.

The first chapter noted a number of decisions which

concerned the final choice of twenty-seven statements that

99

comprised the radio attitudes scale. .These statements were
generated by telephone interviews conducted by relatively
inexperienced interviewers. In addition, the number of
statements used was limited to only twenty-seven because
the second phase of the Troldahl-Skolnik study was again
conducted by telephone.

It was also earlier noted that not all six factorial
dimensions in the original study were of equal strength.
Although hypotheses were made for all six in this present
research, only three of.the six dimensions appeared with
sufficient strength in extension. That a different scaling
system for responding to the radio attitude statements was
used in this present study may also contribute to the
realization of different results.

In sum, there were a number of limitations of the
original base-line Troldahl and Skolnik study which became
limitations of this one. These limitations were inherently
carried over when the decision was made to build hypotheses
upon the foundations of the first study. Perhaps future
research will avoid carrying over these limitations by

striving for more precise definitions of radio attitudes.

Time Order Relationship

The question to be answered here is simply which
comes first, a person's general feeling of alienation or

his attitude toward the mass media. Although the hypotheses

100

are built around the premise that alienation leads to cer-
tain radio attitudinal predispositions, it is nevertheless
tenable that patterns of exposure to the radio medium might
lead to an increase in the amount of alienation a person
feels.

A controlled experiment carried out over a long
period of time might provide information with which this
time order relationship could be solved. But a one-time-
only survey can only yield approximate answers based upon
inferential evidence. This is usually done by using a
"background" variable such as education or age as a control.
The sections which follow will look at different aspects of
time order relationships. It is necessary first to deter-
mine which variable is the dependent one, after which one
can talk about causal relationships.

Determining the Dependent Variable--The approach
taken by Peter Blau uses the three-variate elimination
technique in order to determine which variable is the
dependent one. Again citing his rationale,

The general principle is that the dependent variable
in a correlation can be determined by establishing
that the partial relations between it and a common
antecedent factor disappear when the other variable
is held constant.

In our comparison we will use an individual's educational

background measure as our."common antecedent factor."

 

4Blau, loc. cit.

 

101

 

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mm.H- Hm.- upgmcopcoosou ocm coppooaom
mo.H- Hm.- opsmcopcoaeou mcpoHo; coppocoHH< oco coppooaom
NH.H- om.- coppocoHH< oco coppooaom
pcoHoHHHmoo pcopopwmoou opcmcoppoHom oHnopco>
copmmocmom coppoHoccou

 

 

mzomHm<mzoo mmomo mth mom monh<Hmmmoo 4<Hhm<m.omhumpum
NH mpm<k

102

Blau's paradigm translates into the following
expectations: If a person's radio attitude score is the
dependent variable, we would expect the correlation be-
tween it and educational level to disappear when alienation
is held constant. If, however, alienation is the dependent
variable, we would expect the correlation between educa-
tional level and alienation to disappear when a person's
radio attitude score is held constant.

Table 12 presents selected comparisons between
educational level and the three radio attitude dimensions
whose zero-order correlations with alienation were signifi-
cantly positive. The discussion in the remainder of this
section will be based upon the data in Table 12, although
portions of this table are additionally set forth below.

The first set of necessary comparisons is between
radio attitude score and educational level, with alienation
held constant. If Companionship, Music Evaluation and
Abrasiveness are the dependent variables we expect the
partial correlations to "disappear," subject to sampling
errors. The actual relationships are as follows:

Correlation of Education and Attitude

 

 

Zero-order Alienation Partialled
Companionship -.37 -.33
Music Evaluation -.08 .01

Abrasiveness -.12 -.O4

103

None of the three lends complete support to the notion of
radio attitudes as the dependent variable. Companionship
does not "disappear" as expected, and the zero-order cor-
relations for Music Evaluation and Abrasiveness are too
low at the outset. Were they initially significant, then
the direction of the partials would encourage the naming
of Music Evaluation and Abrasiveness as the dependent
variables.

The second set of necessary comparisons is between
educational level and alienation, with the radio attitude
score held constant. If alienation is the dependent vari-
able, we expect the partial correlations to "disappear,"
subject to sampling errors. The actual relationships are
as follows:

Correlation of Education and Alienation

 

 

Zero-order Attitude Partialled
Companionship -.36 -.31
Music Evaluation -.36 -.35
Abrasiveness -.36 -.34

Here it is quite clear that, under Blau's paradigm, aliena-
tion could not be the dependent variable.

Comparing both alternatives, it would seem that the
three attitude dimensions are the "best choice" as depend-

ent variables, although support is weak.

104

Time Order as a Developmental Sequence--The question

 

arises as to whether or not a person's educational back-
ground is part of a developmental sequence linking
educational level to alienation and from there to a radio
attitude score. If this were the case the correlation
between alienation and radio attitude score should be
decreased when educational level is removed. Our results
have already indicated that this is not always the case.

In two of the three hypotheses which are significant at

the zero-order level the removal of educational background
leaves the basic correlation untouched. Only in the case
of Companionship does educational level seriously lower the
Alienation-Companionship correlation. Thus in two of three
instances a person's educational background level does not
precede both alienation and a radio attitude.

If educational level is not part of an ordered
developmental sequence, then does it affect pppp aliena-
tion and radio attitude scores? Again the data show that
although educational level is always strongly linked to
alienation, at the zero-order level it is related only to
one of the three radio attitude dimensions, that of
Companionship.

Determining Independent Causation--David Gold has
provided an analysis scheme for indirectly determining

whether alienation leads to certain radio attitudes. This

105

scheme makes use of a third interrelated variable, in this
case educational level. According to Gold,
Among three variables, all of which are related to
each other at the zero-order level, the only non-
trivial sense in which the association between one
independent and one dependent variable can be inde-
pendent of the second independent variable is that of
independent causation. Demonstration of independent
causation requires that the association between the
two independent variables tends to disappear when the
dependent variable is held constant.
This scheme can only be applied to Companionship. When it
is applied, the association between the two independent
variables (educational level and alienation) does not dis-
appear. Unfortunately neither the Music Evaluation nor the
Abrasiveness dimensions can be tested under this scheme,
since their zero-order correlations with educational level
are non-significant.

Blalock warns that our inferences with regard to
causality could be affected by the inappropriate use of
correlation coefficients rather than regression coeffi-
cients. His position is that "As a general rule, we might
rather dogmatically assert that whenever one's attention
is to be focused on the nature of causal laws, he will be
on safer grounds comparing the behavior of regression

"6

coefficients rather than correlation coefficients. This

 

5Gold, loc. cit.

6Hubert M. Blalock, Jr., Causal Inferences in Non-
experimental Research (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1964), p. 87.

106

is especially true with regard to the use of "background"
variables such as educational level.

A glance at the data in Table 12 indicates that
changes in regression coefficients usually followed changes
in correlation coefficients for this study. Thus Blalock's
warning is largely accounted for in the comparisons made
throughout this section.

Summary--No clear-cut evidence supported the sup-
position that the radio attitudes of Companionship, Music
Evaluation and Abrasiveness are the dependent variables
in this study. By the same token, the evidence indicates
that alienation clearly is not the dependent variable.

Only in the case of the Companionship dimension
could a person's educational background be part of a
developmental sequence. In that instance the question of
whether alienation and education are linked together as
part of the same configuration or indeed part of a develop-
mental sequence is left unanswered.

The scheme for indirectly determining "causality"
could be applied only to the Companionship dimension. It
appears that neither educational level nor alienation
"causes" a person's score on Companionship.

It should be noted, however, that failure to ade-
quately describe this time order phenomenon only slightly
diminishes the import or usefulness of the hypothesized

relationships. It might intuitively be said that

107

post factum research with hypotheses is at least better

 

than the same research with no hypotheses at all: We are
not capitalizing upon just any chance relationships which

occur.
Conclusions

On the basis of the data presented, the following
conclusions concerning this study seem appropriate:

1. Three attitudinal dimensions toward the radio
medium were extended in this research. These are the
Companionship, Music Evaluation and Abrasiveness dimensions.

2. A person's educational background is related
to how alienated he feels toward society, and also to how
he feels about radio as a companion. The greater his
education, the smaller his score on the Companionship
dimension of radio attitudes. The overriding effects of
education have precluded any direct relationship between
alienation and use of radio for companionship.

3. The more alienated a person is, the stronger
will be his score on a dimension critical of the pro-
gramming on radio, specifically its music. This
relationship holds primarily for women.

4. The more alienated a person is, the stronger
will be his score on a dimension critical of various talk
elements on radio, particularly the commercials. This

relationship also holds primarily for women.

108

Recommendations for Further Study

 

The following kinds of studies should be of value
in further attempts to extend and improve the methods and
findings of the present research.

1. As indicated throughout this study, a more
precise definition of the dimensions of radio attitudes is
needed. It is perhaps necessary to start this effort anew,
by once again generating a very long list of statements
that people have spontaneously made about the radio medium.
This list would be carefully tested so that possible minor
dimensions would not be eliminated because of seeming
unimportance.

The present radio attitudes scale was generated
through telephone interviews. It is possible that the
personal interview technique with an extended interview
might be used to develop some attitude statements of
greater depth than those in the present scale.

In order to guard against future response set
limitations an alternative measure to the present Srole
Alienation Scale might be developed. This alternative
would contain positive as well as negative statements.

2. Once a better radio attitudes scale has been
devised, it would of course be desirable to replicate the
present study, with psychological alienation as the main

independent variable. But future research using additional

109

personality variables is also quite appropriate. It would
be useful to assess the impact of such variables as Dogma-
tism, Sociability, or perhaps Inner-Other Directedness
upon the ways in which people use radio.

3. The present study was limited to a heterogeneous
sample of adults living in large metropolitan areas. The
method of obtaining subjects for the present research was
admittedly not one designed to guarantee maximum repre-
sentativeness. Further replication should therefore
consider a more careful selection of adult samples.

Beyond that, there remain important sub-groupings
within the population for whom the uses of radio might be
quite different from those of city adults. For example,
teenagers are heavy consumers of radio with potentially
different needs and uses for radio. Perhaps also a sampl-
ing of farmers might yield some minor attitudinal dimensions
helpful in understanding all the ramifications of this
medium. Thus a combination of several major sub-groups
might prove useful in accurately assessing the full impact
of radio in contemporary society.

4. Future replications will want to allow for
several control mechanisms not present in the current
research. An important variable is that of time spent
with the media, and of course with radio in particular.

The possibilities that time spent with radio yield

110

differing attitudes by which people assess that medium
need further exploration.

5. As a means of adding further insight into the
time order problem, a future study might well look at the
phenomenon of self-selection as it applies to radio at-
titudes. Hyman suggests looking for two factors which
might be present in the self-selection process:

First, an assumption that there is motivation to engage
in selective behavior . . . and second, a set of condi-
tions insuring or permitting thg individual's engagement
in the particular act of self-selection. (emphasis
author'sl7
Each of these factors might well be incorporated into an
extended questionnaire. If we call psychological aliena-
tion the motivation to engage in radio listening behavior,
then such variables as available time, home environment or

automobile travel time become sets of conditions leading

to the use of radio in certain specified ways.
Implications for Further Research

This is a study of the effects of one mass medium's
normative communication upon its audience. Early findings
in the field came when researchers from other disciplines
studied communication phenomenae as part of their broader
designs. By contrast, the present study is a communica-

tion study, delving into psychological alienation only

 

7Hyman, op. cit., p. 211.

111

to the extent that it helps explain a broader pattern of
communication behavior.

If the focus of this research is an individual's
behavior amidst competing stimuli, then several kinds of
communication are taking place. First, the individual
receives messages from and about the world around him,
including information about the mass media. His processing
of these messages leads to a predisposition manifested in
what we have called "degree of alienation." The amount of
alienation a person feels affects, in turn, the way he
communicates. It helps determine, among other things, the
way he uses the media to try to influence forces leading
to his alienation. How he "uses" the mass media is thus
related to how he feels the mass media use him.

This illustrates what Richard F. Carter calls "the
problem of the context of audience reaction, or as it may
be called, the process of audience reaction."8 Carter
speaks of audience behavior toward media programming going
beyond interest arousal and approval to the reinforcement
stage:

The impact of the content on the audience, that is,
the extent of the audience reaction, must consider

the applicability of the content to the usual modes
of audience member behavior.9

 

8Richard F. Carter, "On Reactions to Mass Media
Content," Audio-Visual Communication Review, Vol. 8 No. 4
(July-AuguEt, 1960), p. 210.

91bid., p. 211.

112

The process Carter describes is a communication
process, into which the relationship between audience
member alienation and media offerings fits. As he explains,

The circle is never ending, but it does expand and
shrink, including new media content and rejecting the
old, representing the selective biases of the audience
and the congruence of the content to its needs.10

From a broader viewpoint this process involves the
total impact popular culture has on individuals. Ernest
van den Haag speculates on why psychological alienation
feeds upon, and is fed by the way one approaches media
offerings:

All mass media in the end alienate people from personal
experience and, though appearing to offset it, intensify
their moral isolation from each other, from reality and
from themselves. One may turn to the mass media when
lonely or bored. But mass media, once they become a
habit, impair the capacity for meaningful experience.
Though more diffuse and not as gripping, the habit

feeds on itself establishing a vicious circle as
addictions do.11

This hypothesized relationship of man to his media world
suggests to others a further reaction. Gunther Anders

feels it deceptive "that the radio listener or television
viewer, although living in an alienated world, is made to
believe that he is on a footing of the greatest intimacy

with everything and everybody."12

10

11Ernest van den Haag, "Of Happiness and Despair We
Have No Measure," in: Bernard Rosenberg and David M. White
(eds.) Mass Culture, (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1957), p.529.

12Gunther Anders, "The Phantom World of TV," in:
Bernard Rosenberg and David M. White (eds.) Mass Culture,
(Glencoe: The Free Press, 1957), p. 365.

 

Ibid., p. 212.

 

113

Horton and Wohl have termed this phenomenon "para-
social interaction" and have suggested it as "of the same
order as, and related to the network of actual social

relations."13

Recent research by Perrow confirms the
dimension of this characteristic in terms of the similarity
between television viewer personality traits and attraction

to television characters with perceived parallel traits.14

Implications for Radio
Prggramming

A study such as this may hold several implications
for professional radio programmers and others involved
with decision-making within the broadcast industry. Both
this and the original Troldahl and Skolnik studies con-
firmed several ”hunches" professionals have had about why
people use radio. Among these has been the need for Com-
panionship, which emerged as the strongest factor in both
studies. The six dimensions of the original study and the
three re-confirmed by this present extension would all
appear to make sense to the professional broadcaster within

the context of his daily contact with the community.

 

13Horton and Wohl, op. cit., p. 565.

14Maxwell V. Perrow, "A Description of Similarity
of Personality Between Selected Groups of Television
Viewers and Certain Television Roles Regularly Viewed By
Them," (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of
Southern California, 1968).

114

As the radio attitude scales are more clearly
defined, it may be possible to use them to objectively
measure differences between radio station formats. In this
way broadcasters might begin to have psychological feedback
about their product framed in the language they are some-
what familiar with. Thus a radio programmer might learn
his station provides more “Companionship" than another
when both are used as referents rather than "radio in
general." In a similar manner the manager of an "all news"
radio station might learn what other functions besides
"Worldly Awareness" his station fulfills.

From a broader standpoint this study has provided
additional information about how alienated individuals use
radio. There is evidence to suggest that how alienated a
person is, can be related to the role of radio in his life.

The professional broadcaster can better understand
his audience if he has some knowledge about the relation-
ships confirmed in this study. For example, radio
broadcasters regularly receive complaints about music
programming similar to statements found on the Music Evalua-
tion dimension of radio attitudes. Knowledge that
individuals making these statements mpy be somewhat more
alienated from society than others can be helpful toward

understanding the context in which such statements were

115

made. In a similar way, this research has provided
broadcasters with information about what specific attri-

butes of radio make it a companion for many people.

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A
STATEMENTS COMPRISING THE TROLDAHL-SKOLNIK
SCALE OF RADIO ATTITUDES

sooowaim

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

APPENDIX A
STATEMENTS COMPRISING THE TROLDAHL-SKOLNIK
SCALE OF RADIO ATTITUDES

Without radio, a person wouldn't know what is happening
in the world.

There is too much talk and not enough good music on
radio.

I like to listen to radio while I work.

I like the chatter on radio . . . it makes my day
brighter.

I don't like the silly slogans in radio commercials.
Radio is a good companion when you are alone.

The music on radio nowadays is rotten.

Radio is a good way to learn what's going on.

There is no good talent left on radio nowadays

it all went to television.

Radio cheers me up . . . I forget my problems.

Radio advertisements are helpful.

There is too much silly stuff on radio now . . . like
the contests they run.

It is important to have a portable radio in case of
emergencies.

Radio has better weather coverage than television does.

122

15.

16.

17.

18.
19.

20.
21.
22.
23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

123

I don't listen to radio much anymore because of its
poor music.

You can enjoy radio without too much concentration on
it.

I don't like when radio commercials break into the
news and other programs.

I enjoy listening to radio in my car.

The disc jockeys on radio talk too much and say very
little.

The music on radio lessens the tensions of the day.
Most of the time I find radio wholesome.

I like radio because you can take it with you anywhere.
Radio is only half as good as it could be . . . too
much rock and roll.

Radio makes me feel like someone is home with me.
Radio makes the time go faster for me.

I don't like the millions of little ads that are now
on radio.

I like the entertainment on radio.

APPENDIX B
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

APPENDIX B
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

INSTRUCTIONS: I'd like you to read several statements
people have made about radio in general.
After you read each statement, please tell
me how much you agree or disagree with it.
For each statement put an "X" by the one
choice which best expresses your opinion.
Remember, the statements are ppLy about
radio in general. I want to know what you
personally think.

1. Without radio, a person wouldn't know what is happening
in the world.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

124

125

2. There is too much talk and not enough good music on
radio.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

3. I like to listen to radio while I work.
_____§trongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

4. I like the chatter on radio . . . it makes my day
brighter.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

5. I don't like the silly slogans in radio commercials.
______strongly agree
agree
undecided
_____disagree

strongly disagree

126

Radio is a good companion when you are alone.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

The music on radio nowadays is rotten.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

Radio is a good way to learn what's going on.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree
strongly disagree
There is no good talent left on radio nowadays
all went to television.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

127

10. Radio cheers me up . . . I forget my problems.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

11. Radio advertisements are helpful.
__strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

12. There is too much silly stuff on radio now . . . like
the contests they run.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

13. It is important to have a portable radio in case of

emergencies.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

128

14. Radio has better weather coverage than television does.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

15. I don't listen to radio much anymore because of its

poor music.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

16. You can enjoy radio without too much concentration on

it.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
._____disagree
_____strongly disagree
17. I don't like when radio commercials break into the

news and other programs.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

129

18. I enjoy listening to radio in my car.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

19. The disc jockeys on radio talk too much and say very

little.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

20. The music on radio lessens the tensions of the day.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

21. Most of the time I find radio wholesome.
_____strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

130

I like radio because you can take it with you anywhere.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

Radio is only half as good as it could be . . . too

much rock and roll.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

Radio makes me feel like someone is home with me.
._____strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

Radio makes the time go faster for me.
I_____strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

131

26. I don't like the millions of little ads that are now

on radio.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

27. I like the entertainment on radio.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

INSTRUCTIONS: Here are several statements which are not
about radio, but concern other things which
may be of interest to you. After you read
each statement, again please tell me how

much you agree or disagree with it.

28. Most public officials (people in public office) are not
really interested in the problems of the average man.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

132

29. I ought to go to church more than I do.
strongly agree
agree
_____undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

30. These days a person really doesn't know whom he can

count on.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

31. Children should not get married until they finish
college or technical school.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

133

32. Nowadays a person has to live pretty much for today
and let tomorrow take care of itself.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

33. I prefer to travel on trains for long trips because
I'm afraid of airplane travel.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

34. In spite of what some people say, the condition of
the average man is getting worse, not better.
strongly agree

agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

134

35. Teachers should be allowed to hold public office.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

36. Most people don't really care what happens to the next
fellow.
strongly agree
agree
undecided
disagree

strongly disagree

*************

1. Now I'd like to finish with just a few questions about
yourself. First, What is your marital status? Please
check one of the answers below:

Single

Married and living with spouse
Separated

Widowed

Divorced

2. What was the last grade you completed in school or
college?

0 to 4 years

5 to 8 years

9 to 11 years

12 years (High School Diploma)
1 to 3 years of college

4 years of college

More than 4 years of college

 

 

 

 

135

3. And what is your age?

Under 20
20-24

25-29

30-34

35-39

40-44

45-49

50-54

55-59

60 and over

 

 

 

4. What kind of work does the main wage earner in your
household do?

Please tell me in a few words:

 

 

What type of business or industry does he work for?

 

5. And what was the last grade in school or college com-
pleted by the main wage earner in your household?

0 to 4 years

5 to 8 years

9 to 11 years

12 years (High School Diploma)
l to 3 years of college

4 years of college

More than 4 years of college

 

 

 

6. About how often . . . on the average . . . do you get
together with your relatives? Would it be several
times a week, once or twice a week, once or twice a
month, or less often?

several times a week
once or twice a week
once or twice a month
less often

136

About how often do you get together socially with
friends or neighbors or people you work with?

several times a week
once or twice a week
once or twice a month
less often

 

What is your sex?

male
female

 

Now I'd like to know what organizations you are active
in . . . that is . . . organizations such as civic
groups, clubs or lodges, PTA, church groups, veterans'
organizations, and the like?

How many meetings

 

 

 

Are you an have you attended
Name of Organization: officer? out of the last four
Yes No 0 1 2 3 4
Yes No 0 l 2 3 4
Yes No 0 l 2 3 4
Yes No 0 l 2 3 4

 

APPENDIX C
OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE SCALE

APPENDIX C
OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE SCALE

High
Prestige
13 MORE PRESTIGE THAN A LAWYER
12 LAWYER
(Sociology professor)
11 ASSISTANT PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT
(Aircraft instructor for air force)
10 CONSULTING CHEMICAL ENGINEER
(Grade school teacher)
9 SALES ENGINEER FOR ELECTRONICS PARTS COMPANY
(Purchasing agent for electric company)
8 SOIL CONSERVATION WORKER
(Automotive cost accountant manager)
7 CREDIT MANAGER FOR ADVERTISING SERVICE
(Cost estimator for a glass company)
6 RATE CLERK FOR TRANSPORTATION COMPANY
(Offset photographer)
5 AUTO MECHANIC
(Salesman for thread corporation)
4 BOILER OPERATOR FOR PICKLE FACTORY
(Service station operator)
3 WAITRESS
(Newsstand operator)
2 BEAN AND BERRY PICKER
(Garbage collector)
1 LESS PRESTIGE THAN A BEAN AND BERRY PICKER
low
Prestige

137

138

Coding Instructions

OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE SCALE

We want to know how much prestige different people
have. One way to estimate how much prestige a person has
is by obtaining a description of his occupation. This
information is useful because, for most people, certain
jobs carry more prestige than other jobs do. For example,
say that you meet two people for the first time. You find
out that they have different types of jobs. Even if you
know nothing about them but their jobs, you often get a
feeling that one of these persons has more prestige than
the other one. Another way to put it is that people tend
to show more respect for persons in some jobs than for
persons in other jobs.

We want you to read some descriptions of the occupa-
tions held by several persons we studied recently. We need
your estimate of how much prestige each occupation has. To
assist you, we have already had some people rank several
occupations from high prestige to low prestige. From this,
we have prepared an "Occupational Prestige" scale, which
varies from 1 (very low prestige) to 13 (very high prestige).
At each point on the scale, an occupation is shown in
capital letters to tell you one type of job which has that
amount of prestige. For additional information, a second
example is shown in parentheses at every point on the scale.
An extra category is provided at the top and bottom of the
scale in case you find some occupation that has either
higher prestige or lower prestige than any of the occupa-
tions shown on the scale.

Before you begin your coding of the occupational
descriptions I give you, read over the master Occupational
Prestige Scale very carefully. Notice that a LAWYER has
more prestige than an ASSISTANT PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT,
who has more prestige than a CONSULTING CHEMICAL ENGINEER,
who has more prestige than a SALES ENGINEER FOR AN ELEC-
TRONICS PARTS COMPANY, and so forth down the scale.

Coding each occupational description we give you
will take a little time. Make each decision carefully,
because your decisions will have an important influence on
our study. Code each occupation in this way: Say that the
first occupational description you are asked to code is a
GLASS INSTRUMENT MAKER. Starting at the bottom of the
scale, say to yourself that a glass instrument maker is
higher in prestige than a berry picker, higher than a

139

waitress, hi her than a boiler operator, hi her than ..... ,
until you Tina that you don't agree with the statement you
just made. For example, you may believe that a glass
instrument maker is higher in prestige than an auto
mechanic, but not be sure he is higher than a rate clerk
for a transportation company. As soon as you get this
unsure feeling, you are nearing the prestige level of the
occupation you are coding. When you get this unsure
feeling, assume for the moment that you have found the
prestige level of a glass instrument maker. Before you
make a final decision, however, check whether you believe

a glass instrument maker has less prestigg than the occupa-
tion mentioned in the prestige category above the one you
are about to place him in. If this is not so, you may want
to make your rating of the occupation higher than the
prestige level you first considered as appropriate. When
more than one level seems to fit, pick the one you think
fits best. When you have made your final decision, place
the number of the prestige level, from 1 to 13, on the
recording sheet provided.

APPENDIX D
GROUP CLASSIFICATIONS

APPENDIX D

GROUP CLASSIFICATIONS]

l. Fraternal/Social - Masons, Elks, Moose, Rotary, Opti-
mists, Shriners, Toastmasters, Eastern Star, alumni
associations, country clubs, and fraternities and sororities.

2. Professional - American Medical Association, American
Associition of University Professors, National Office-
Manager Association, Radio-TV News Directors Association,
American Institute of Banking.

3. Public Affairs - League of Women Voters, Citizens
Leagues, American Civil Liberties Union, Parent-Teachers
Association, White Citizens Councils, NAACP.

4. Pgblic Seryice - Red Cross, Alcoholics Anonymous,
Civil Defense, Scout Leaders.

5. Business - Chamber of Commerce, Goodwill Industries,
Development Associations.

6. Farm Associations - Farm Bureau Federation, Farmers
Union.

7. Church or Religious - (apart from simple church affili-
ation) - Knights of Columbus, Ladies Aids and Guilds, Choir.

8. Veteran/Patriotic - American Legion, Veterans of
Foreign Wars, National Guard, Reserve Officers Association.

9. Cultural/Esthetic - Great Books Club, Theatre Group,
Symphony Orchestral Association.

10. Hobby/Sports - Garden Clubs, bridge clubs, dance
groups, Classic Car club, golf clubs, bowling leagues.

 

1Charles H. Cackstrom and Gerald D. Hursh, Surve
Research (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, I963),
p. 102.

140

141

11. Miscellaneous - Credit union.

Note: Political parties, trade-unions, and religion are
obtained separately in the model.

APPENDIX E
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS
OF RADIO ATTITUDE STATEMENTS

APPENDIX E
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS
OF RADIO ATTITUDE STATEMENTS

Statement

 

Without radio, a person wouldn't know what
is happening in the world.

There is too much talk and not enough good
music on radio.

I like to listen to radio while I work.

I like the chatter on radio ... it makes
my day brighter.

I don't like the silly slogans in radio
commercials.

Radio is a good companion when you are
alone.

The music on radio nowadays is rotten.

Radio is a good way to learn what's going
on.

There is no good talent left on radio now-
adays ... it all went to television.

Radio cheers me up . . . I forget my
problems.

Radio advertisements are helpful.

There is too much silly stuff on radio
now ... like the contests they run.

It is important to have a portable radio
in case of emergencies.

142

 

143

Statement

Radio has better weather coverage than
television does.

I don't listen to radio much anymore
because of its poor music.

You can enjoy radio without too much
concentration on it.

I don't like when radio commercials
break into the news and other programs.

I enjoy listening to radio in my car.

The disc jockeys on radio talk too much
and say very little.

The music on radio lessens the tensions
of the day.

Most of the time I find radio wholesome.

I like radio because you can take it
with you anywhere.

Radio is only half as good as it could
be ... too much rock and roll.

Radio makes me feel like someone is home
with me.

Radio makes the time go faster for me.

I don't like the millions of little ads
that are now on radio.

I like the entertainment on radio.

3
' 9’

(A)
O

 

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