ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a series of arguments that speak to ways in which political communication scholarship can expand its use of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The list of topics offered in the chapter is by no means exhaustive, but it represent uses of SEM that have become commonplace in other social scientific fields. The ultimate purpose of the chapter is to get political communication researchers to step beyond their own individualized use of SEM to more fully utilize the technique as a whole. The chapter focuses on three distinct areas: measurement, specification, and estimation/ evaluation. Karl Gustav Joreskog linked previous works by Kian Lawley on maximum likelihood and restricted factor analysis to create the SEM-based technique of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) that is common to all major SEM programs. Political communication researchers are familiar with exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, although the latter is not employed nearly as often as the former.
