Mass Media Use in the Family During War and Peace

Abstract

Based on the "uses and gratifications" approach to the mass media, a two-wave panel study during and following the October 1973 Middle East War was conducted to determine the relative contribution of television, radio, and newspapers in fulfilling cognitive, affective, social-integrative, and escapist needs of a sample of housewives. The findings indicate that (a) cognitive needs were most important and escapist and affective needs were least important in both periods, (b) there was more exposure to the electronic media in war-time but no difference for newspapers, and (c) television and radio were generally more helpful in fulfilling most of the media-related needs in war-time compared with peace-time, whereas newspapers generally were less beneficial in fulfilling most of the needs in war-time compared to peace-time.