The relationship between cognitive orientation, media usage, political activism, and political deviance from the perspective of context theory.
The purpose of the present study was to examine and replicate some of the predictions of context theory regarding the relationships between media usage, cognitive orientation, political activism, and political deviance. The present study extended upon the model by including a behavioural aspect, namely, political activism. Subjects for the study consisted of 120 undergraduate Psychology students at the University of the Western Cape. The characteristics of the sample were as follows: 44.4% females and 55.6% males, the mean ages was 23.7 years with ages ranging from 18 to 40 years old. The overall pattern of the results was consistent with context theory when the index of political deviance was modal deviance. All the results involving the PEC (political-economic conservatism) dimensions as indices of political deviance were not significant. These results, however, do not disconfirm the context hypothesis. The context theory model could not be tested adequately as a result of the weakness of the PEC scales in the study. The construction of the PEC variable needs considerable attention in future studies of context theory. It was found that cognitive orientation was a significant predictor of both mass media usage (newspapers, radio, television, and pamphlets) and alternative media usage (academic articles, periodicals, books, and political discussion and debates). It was also found that political deviance (modal deviance) was a significant predictor of media usage (both mass and alternative media), which indicates that, not only are deviants more likely to be better informed than political moderates, but that they also actively seek information about socio-political issues.
Context theory, Media usage, Cognitive orientation, Political activism, Political deviance
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