Remembering the News: A LISREL Model

Abstract

The aim of this study is to describe and explain with the aid of a LISREL model the process of news reconstruction by television viewers. Proceeding from theoretical considerations and empirical results of news research, eighteen hypotheses are formulated concerning the reconstruction of news by recipients who saw the main German television news programme. Using a LISREL-model, an analysis is made of the way the factors involved in news reconstruction are causally interlinked. The results show that background knowledge and understanding are essential selection criteria of news recipients.