Relationship of media usage to attitudes toward police

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics for select independent variables.

	n	%
Gender
Female	228	71.0
Male	91	28.3
Other	2	.6
Age	M = 20.9, SD = 3.8
Race/Ethnicity
African American	42	13.1
Asian/Pacific Islander	10	3.1
Caucasian	229	71.3
Latino/Hispanic	22	6.9
Other	18	5.6
Highest Level of Parents’ Education
Less than high school	6	1.9
High school degree	38	11.8
Some college, technical or associate degree	96	29.9
Bachelor’s degree	109	34.0
Master’s degree	56	17.4
Doctorate, law or medical degree	16	5.0
Political Views
Extremely conservative	3	.9
Conservative	34	10.6
Slightly conservative	35	10.9
Moderate	97	30.2
Slightly liberal	44	13.7
Liberal	84	26.2
Extremely liberal	24	7.5

Table 2. Factor analysis for media repertoires.

Survey Item	Liberal	Conservative	TV News	Print/radio	Social
Network morning news	.371	.237	.601	.176	.087
News satire programs	.641	.213	.201	.145	−.019
CNN	.706	−.007	.286	.109	.098
MSNBC	.795	.122	.101	.138	.003
FOX	.181	.557	.524	−.097	.247
News on PBS	.721	.311	.198	.055	.023
Network evening news	.409	.070	.675	.149	.090
Local television news	.164	.073	.789	.266	.023
News programming on NPR	.554	.138	.140	.233	.192
National newspaper	.410	.050	.012	.669	.081
Local newspaper	.196	.162	.178	.843	.008
Local radio news	.046	.158	.302	.673	.124
Conservative political blogs	.091	.884	.163	.152	−.022
Liberal political blogs	.418	.700	−.023	.192	−.039
Internet news aggregators	.131	.048	.191	.008	.667
Conservative talk radio	.162	.883	.116	.128	−.032
Social Media	−.066	−.213	.067	−.038	.799
Social networking or e-mail	.102	.151	−.091	.248	.744
Eigenvalue	6.11	1.93	1.45	1.24	1.08
% of Variance	33.93	10.74	8.04	6.89	5.98
Cronbach’s alpha	.80	.81	.76	.73	.60

Note. Boldface factor coefficients show factor loadings for the corresponding items and factors.

Table 3. OLS regression analyses for procedural justice, moral alignment, police effectiveness, and misconduct.

	Procedural Justice	Moral Alignment	Effectiveness
Age	.07 (.01)	.13** (.01)	.06 (.01)
Gender^a	−.02 (.13)	−.02 (.13)	−.04 (.11)
Race^b	−.16** (.15)	−.21*** (.16)	−.18*** (.13)
Parents’ education	.03 (.05)	.04 (.05)	.09 (.04)
Political ideology^c	−.46*** (.04)	−.47*** (.04)	−.34*** (.04)
Police contact	−.14** (.11)	−.10* (.11)	−.10* (.09)
Neighborhood	.15** (.09)	.09 (.10)	.07 (.08)
Fear of crime	−.14* (.07)	−.17** (.07)	−.17** (.06)
Liberal media	−.24*** (.11)	−.28*** (.11)	−.27*** (.09)
Conservative media	−.01 (.11)	.03 (.11)	.12 (.09)
TV news	.10 (.08)	.14* (.09)	.14* (.08)
Newspaper/radio	.04 (.08)	.03 (.08)	.02 (.07)
Social	.04 (.07)	.01 (.07)	.02 (.06)
Police TV dramas	−.05 (.06)	−.03 (.06)	−.02 (.05)
Police reality TV	.01 (.08)	.05 (.08)	.04 (.07)
Constant	5.16***	5.56***	4.30***
R^2	.39	.47	.34

Note. Standard errors in parentheses.

^a1 = females, 2 = males, all other = system missing

^b1 = all others, 2 = Black

^c1 = extremely conservative, 7 = extremely liberal

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.