PERIOD, COHORT, AND AGING EFFECTS

Abstract

This research investigated effects of audience generational composition, aging, and period on exposure to televised presidential campaign information from 1952 to 1980. A categorical regression cohort analysis, controlling for sex and education, revealed that cohort effects explained 40% of the variance in such television exposure. The hypothesis was supported that the cohort in midlife when television initially diffused used television in later life at a higher rate than did other cohorts. Period effects explained 36% of the variance. As hypothesized, the more closely contested the election campaign, the higher the audience's television exposure. Aging showed no significant relationship to campaign television exposure. Previous investigators may have mistakenly assumed that age differences observed in cross-sectional studies were maturational rather than generational.