ABSTRACT
This chapter explores cross-national variations in exposure to the intermediaries of mass media, personal discussion networks and secondary associations. It examines a wide range of societies with diverse political communication structures and political traditions, including very different experiences with democracy. The chapter tests the 'modernization hypothesis', that cross-national variations in exposure are products of general processes of cultural and socioeconomic change affecting all countries in roughly the same way at each level of development. The mass media and discussion networks in particular, one will examine how an individual political attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics, as well as key features of the country itself, are linked to those patterns of exposure. Using Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP) data compares exposure to the mass media and personal discussants across five Western societies. Mozambique and South Africa exhibit heavy reliance on radio as a source of political information, but they were at the bottom of the list with regard to newspaper and television exposure.
