ABSTRACT
If participation in public affairs really is a prerequisite to the functioning of democratic systems, it is amazing that systems have survived for so long and so successfully. Media coverage provides mobilizing information that might be locational—the time and place for an event to occur or the site of a particular problem; identificational—a name or physical description; or tactical—the modus operandi or behavioral models that have been used. The mass media play an important role in defining the nature and extent of political participation. Participation can be influenced by many different individual, institutional, and environmental or situational factors. On an informal level, family socialization patterns also influence participatory behavior. At the lowest level, the media provide the public with information that legitimates the system, a basis for a reaffirmation of faith that arises from the coverage of mundane things as a trial being concluded, an election being conducted, a mechanism being set up to facilitate a labor dispute.
