ABSTRACT

The study of political communication is a branch of contemporary communication studies that began at the turn of this century (Delia, 1987). Many of the earliest contemporary communication studies were generated by analyses of propaganda/persuasive messages, mass media effects on voting, and public opinion of political and social issues. Many of the most influential scholars in the development of modern communication studies left their footprints in the domain of political communication study, such as political scientist Harold Lasswell, sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld, and psychologists Carl Hovland and Kurt Lewin (Delia, 1987; Nimmo, 1977; Rogers, 1994). Today, political communication has developed into an academic field of inquiry. The importance of studying the structure of political communication research is obvious, but the structure itself is not. Studies utilizing traditional subjective and qualitativemethods have producedmany pictures of this structure. However, the quality of these pictures can be enhanced by information obtained from research using objective and quantitative methods. This study is such an attempt.