Reveals that attention to MTV and late-night programs is either unrelated to or negatively impacts campaign knowledge, while attention to talk shows is positively related to knowledge. Shows that, while respondents perceive themselves as being informed by talk shows, for the less educated, such attention is unrelated to campaign knowledge. (SR)

A study investigated the idea that the amount of knowledge viewers extract from exposure to television is a function of the amount of mental effort involved in processing the program content, and that the mental effort invested in viewing is partly a function of people's expectations about the demand characteristics associated with the content.…