| This study examines the performance of the longitudinal media exposure measures used in the 1958 Passing of Traditional Societies in the Middle East by Daniel Lerner and the 1966 cross-sectional study of Causes and Consequences of Individual Change in Six Developing Countries by Alex Inkeles. Specifically Inkeles compares the 1958 media use surveys in the Middle East and the 1966 study results in Argentina, Israel, Pakistan, India, Chile and Nigeria. He finds: (1) The 1958 results are comparable to the 1966 results. The differences in the survey findings can be explained by question ordering effects. (2) The ranking of media exposure sources---radio, television and newspapers---are the same from 1958 to 1966, even though different ranking methodology was used. (3) Substantial relationships exist between the individual change items measuring modernism variables and interest in and satisfaction with media items, even though the surveys used different question frames. (4) A comparison across the samples demonstrates that individual modernity increases as the respondent's media exposure increases. Newspaper readership, on the other hand, is only modestly related to modernism variables.;The present study also confirms the results of previous studies. From a cross-sectional study investigating the diffusion and significance of media exposure variables among Nigerians aged 18 years and older, schooling and working in Lagos, the frequency of foreign media use outnumbered the frequency of local media use. As described in this project, the study has brought together multidimensional theories of development communication to develop a common conceptual and methodological framework with which to explore cultural variations in media use. This framework stresses the importance of, first, contextualizing mass media in relation to both pre-existing cultural practices and the broader contexts of developing societies; second, of drawing on and contributing to the integration of national development and media studies; and third, of theorizing contexts of media use in relation to processes of modernization. The present study concludes by performing factor and correlation analysis to gauge the validity and reliability of the media exposure measures and individual changes. |
