<p> This project contends that the current conceptualizations of political knowledge as either general and domain-specific categories of knowledge, as well as the measurement of general political knowledge cannot capture knowledge relevant to the African American political experience. This project makes methodological and theoretical innovations using focus groups and survey data to develop two new categories of knowledge: Black political knowledge and concurrent knowledge. I center the voices and experiences of African Americans to showcase how the Black public sphere is instrumental in shaping the information that African Americans learn and retain about politics. In turn, this dissertation shows that the current racial “gap” is not due to African Americans’ lack of political knowledge but the parochial knowledge battery that excludes information relevant to the African American experience. </p>

To this point research on firms’ political behavior has contributed knowledge concerning large firms’ relationships and strategies with political actors and their surrounding environment. Less is known about small firms’ behavior towards political organizations. As a matter of fact, the fields of international marketing, international business and corporate political science have left the political behavior of small firms almost untouched. Therefore, extant literature assumes that small firms due to their resource constraints are passive receivers of political initiatives. About 99 percent of all firms within the European Union are small firms, and it is therefore questioned whether all these firms are passive receivers of political initiatives. The intention with this thesis is to challenge some assumptions regarding how small firms manage their relationships with political actors concerning EU related rules and regulations. Consequently, the study raises the overarching research question; how do small firms manage their political environment? Theoretically, the study takes a network perspective on business political interaction to examine both individual and/or collective political behavior of small firms. It develops a theoretical view constituted of knowledge, commitment and legitimacy. Methodologically, two sequential stages are followed: first an in-depth qualitative case study of three successful cases is presented and second, the in-depth understanding is broadened to a wider population of firms based on a quantitative survey. A central contribution of this thesis is to aid research on the political behavior of small firms. It is found that small firms, in contrast to prevailing assumptions, do possess political resources. They are not passive receivers of political initiatives. Instead, the findings show that small firms are active and can exercise influence. This, however, is shown to be dependent on the firm’s political commitment, political knowledge and competency and business-political legitimacy. It is also shown that small firms mobilize these critical resources not only directly, but also indirectly through various intermediating actors. Besides the theoretical contributions, these conclusions are important not just because of the managerial implications but also, and perhaps more importantly, for the policy implications that can be drawn from the study. Being exploratory and opening up the black box of small firm’s political behavior, the thesis ends with a number of future research directions.

本研究欲探討媒介使用對政治知識的影響，研究重點為台灣新興媒體有線電視的國會頻道，及大眾傳播媒介報紙和電視，以八十二年底的台北縣長選舉為例，希望能找出台灣的新興媒體和既有媒體，在報導選舉議題時，所造成的效果為何，不同媒體間是否有所差異。 　　知溝假設提出的人口因素，也屬本研究範圍，本研究採知溝假設提出的『教育程度』、『年齡』、「性別』、和『政治興趣』等變項，希望找出人口變項與政治知識間的相關性。 　　由於研究經費、人力和時間的限制，本研究以居住在台北縣六個月以上，年滿二十歲，擁有此次台北縣長選舉投票權的選民為研究對象，採電話抽樣法，本研究的電話抽樣是由聯合報系民調中心的四十七萬筆電話資料庫中，以隨機取樣法抽出2349組電話號碼進行撥號，於82年12月6、7兩日於中國國民黨文工會民意調查辦公室進行施測。有效成功樣本數為558人，其中男性285人，女性272人。 　　本研究發現，報紙暴露量高低在政治知識方面，呈顯著差異，即報紙暴露量愈高政治知識愈高。而電視暴露量、電視新聞暴露量高低在政治知識上，並無顯著差異。 　　此外在人口變項方面，發現性別與教育程度各組在政治知識方面有顯著差異，教育程度愈高，政治知識愈豐富齡各組在政治知識方面差異則不顯著。在政治興趣方面，由以往研究顯示，政治興趣是預測政治知識的重要變項，在此研究中，同樣發現政治興趣各組在政治知識方面，呈高度顯著差異，政治興趣愈高，政治知識愈豐富。 　　本研究主要目的是探討新興媒體有線電視國會頻道（公共事務頻道）對選民政治知識的影響力，研究發現，有線電視國會頻道暴露量高低對政治知識影響並不顯著。在控制『政治興趣」與『人口變項』的影響力之後，亦無顯著差異。推測其原因，可能是有線電視國會或政治頻道收視習慣並未養成，而且此類頻道多單純播放國會議事或公聽會，形式僵硬，內容呆板，流於各說各話，無法提昇觀眾的注意程度。

This dissertation seeks to improve our understanding of the process by which emotions enable citizens to learn about public affairs and engage in political activities during electoral campaigns. It advances a theoretical model that incorporates the dynamics of emotions, various forms of media use, interpersonal communication and political involvement. This affective citizen communication model integrates into a single framework the insights of affective intelligence theory (Marcus, Neuman, & MacKuen, 2000) and the work on communication mediation (McLeod et al., 1999, 2001) and its two iterations, cognitive mediation (Eveland, 2001) and citizen communication mediation (Cho et al., 2009; Shah et al., 2005, 2007). More specifically, it suggests that the effects of emotions triggered by political candidates (e.g., enthusiasm, anxiety, anger) on knowledge of the candidates’ stands on issues and on political participation are largely mediated by communication variables, including news media use, political discussion and debate viewing. By positing emotions as an antecedent of both mediated and interpersonal communication, the study extends current research based on affective intelligence theory. At the same time, the study adds emotions to communication mediation processes, which to date have been studied from a mostly cognitive perspective. To test the relationships between the variables identified in the affective citizen communication model, I rely on panel survey data collected for the 2008 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections by the American National Election Studies (ANES) and the National Annenberg Election Surveys (NAES), respectively. Two types of structural equation models are tested, cross sectional (to relate individual differences) and auto-regressive (to relate aggregate change across waves). Results suggest that positive emotions spark media use, whereas negative emotions spark political discussions, and both types of communication behavior influence issue knowledge and participation in campaign activities. Furthermore, the theorized structure is found to perform better than an alternative structure where communication variables cause positive and negative emotions. Thus, results provide strong support for the proposed affective citizen communication model. Refinements to the proposed model, connections with existing theories of political communication, such as agenda setting and partisan selective exposure, and directions for future research are also discussed. / text

To this point research on firms’ political behavior has contributed knowledge concerning large firms’ relationships and strategies with political actors and their surrounding environment. Less is known about small firms’ behavior towards political organizations. As a matter of fact, the fields of international marketing, international business and corporate political science have left the political behavior of small firms almost untouched. Therefore, extant literature assumes that small firms due to their resource constraints are passive receivers of political initiatives. About 99 percent of all firms within the European Union are small firms, and it is therefore questioned whether all these firms are passive receivers of political initiatives. The intention with this thesis is to challenge some assumptions regarding how small firms manage their relationships with political actors concerning EU related rules and regulations. Consequently, the study raises the overarching research question; how do small firms manage their political environment? Theoretically, the study takes a network perspective on business political interaction to examine both individual and/or collective political behavior of small firms. It develops a theoretical view constituted of knowledge, commitment and legitimacy. Methodologically, two sequential stages are followed: first an in-depth qualitative case study of three successful cases is presented and second, the in-depth understanding is broadened to a wider population of firms based on a quantitative survey. A central contribution of this thesis is to aid research on the political behavior of small firms. It is found that small firms, in contrast to prevailing assumptions, do possess political resources. They are not passive receivers of political initiatives. Instead, the findings show that small firms are active and can exercise influence. This, however, is shown to be dependent on the firm’s political commitment, political knowledge and competency and business-political legitimacy. It is also shown that small firms mobilize these critical resources not only directly, but also indirectly through various intermediating actors. Besides the theoretical contributions, these conclusions are important not just because of the managerial implications but also, and perhaps more importantly, for the policy implications that can be drawn from the study. Being exploratory and opening up the black box of small firm’s political behavior, the thesis ends with a number of future research directions.

The purpose of this study is to explore to what extent and in what way Swedish quality newspapers cover the European Union. In this paper two questions are explored: 1. “Is there a communication deficit between the EU and the Swedish public? 2. “Are Swedish quality newspapers, through the visibility and quality of their coverage of the European Union, enhancing or bridging the communication deficit in the Swedish media?” To answer these questions a quantitative content analysis was conducted on news articles covering the European Union (EU) and Swedish national politics (S) in the quality newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. The content of the EU articles were analysed with regard to visibility and quality and were tested on five news aspects (frequency, prominence, volume, Europeaness and policy fields). The reporting of these variables, with the exception of policy fields, where also compared to the reporting of Swedish national politics. Central concepts in this study are the communication deficit and political knowledge in relation to the European Union. To understand the role of the media in relation to EU reporting and how it affects political knowledge, media logics are also discussed. The findings of this study support the existence of a communication deficit and show that Swedish print media struggle to deliver EU news of the quality and quantity necessary to bridge this communication deficit.

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政治知識之於民主社會有其重要性，在政治學界中與政治知識相關的研究產出相當豐富，研究者利用政治知識此一變數進行相關研究前，對於題目如何選定、選項如何提供、題型的差異都是研究者需要去關注的重點，而本文主要的研究目的即是聚焦於討論何種題型更適合用來測量民眾的政治知識。 目前國內測量政治知識的問卷題型較為常見的為開放題與選擇題題型，在這兩類題型的討論上，前者被認為會低估受訪者政治知識程度，後者的測量結果則被質疑提供猜題空間導致高估了受訪者的政治知識程度，然而目前國內外卻缺乏足夠的實證研究來證明這兩個題型的適用性。 本文採用具有實驗設計性質的二手資料，利用前後測的方式讓受測者填答相同題目不同題型的問卷，藉此檢視各種知識程度的受測者在面對不同題型時是否會產生回應模式上的差異。本研究發現，開放題會使得較高政治知識程度的受訪者被低估，選擇題反而能準確測量出此類受訪者的知識程度。為了進一步證實受訪者在偏難的題目上所增加的猜題比例並非是來自於盲猜，本文採用多項機率單元模型來檢視受訪者於於選擇題選擇各個答項的機率。研究發現，儘管選擇題無法避免受訪者猜題，但受訪者並非是盲猜，反而會根據其具有的知識依據來答題，故政治知識程度高的受訪者能採用猜題方式答對題目，政治知識低的受訪者無法利用猜題方式猜中答案。整體而言，選擇題比起開放題更適合用來測量民眾的政治知識。 / Political knowledge plays an important role in the democratic society, and therefore there has been much research on political knowledge in the discipline of political science. To study political knowledge, political scientists have to understand the way of questions and options presented, and also the differences between a variety of question formats. This paper aims to analyze which question format is better for measuring the political knowledge of the public. The open-ended and multiple-choice items are both common formats for measuring political knowledge in Taiwan. The open-ended question is always considered to underestimate the respondents’ level of political knowledge, while the multiple-choice format is thought of overestimating the levels of political knowledge for providing the respondents with opportunity to guess. However, a strong evidence to decide the most suitable format for the measurement of political knowledge is still lacking. This paper uses the secondary data which is collected by a pretest-posttest questionnaire to examine whether guessing behavior will emerge or not when the respondents facing the same question with different formats. This research finds that open-ended questions underestimate the respondents’ knowledge levels who has higher level of political knowledge originally, but the multiple-choice questions can estimate the levels more accurately. To further confirm that the higher guess proportions in the more difficult questions are not resulted from the blind guessing, the study examines the probabilities of options selected by Multinomial Probit Model. The research finds that though the respondents may have guess more in multiple-choice question, however, they tend to answer the questions based on their knowledge instead of blind guessing. Therefore, the respondents who have higher levels of political knowledge can guess correctly, while those who have lower levels of political knowledge cannot. In summary, the multiple-choice questions are more suitable to measure people’s political knowledge.

本研究意圖了解台灣選民媒介使用與政治知識間長期的關聯與其變遷，以及嘗試將政治知識區分為政治結構知識與非政治結構知識兩類個別檢視，以期能深入瞭解媒介使用與政治知識類別的關係。本研究採用二手資料分析，將國立政治大學選舉研究中心在1995年與1998年所作之立委選舉面訪案，及台灣選舉與民主化調查研究（TEDS）在2001年與2004年所作之立委選舉大型面訪案，總共四次的資料加以整合，以時間的縱貫角度切入，觀察民眾長期政治知識與媒介使用情況的趨勢變化，針對影響政治知識的各項因素作檢驗，並提出可能的解釋。 　　關於變化趨勢的部分，研究發現在1995-2004年期間，總體政治知識及非政治結構知識程度有逐年減少的趨勢，但在政治結構知識程度上則變動不大，沒有逐年提升的趨勢；報紙注意程度上沒有顯著變化，而電視注意程度則有逐漸減少的情形。 　　研究結果顯示，無論時序如何變遷、政治知識如何分類，性別、教育程度及報紙注意程度，對政治知識均具顯著且穩定的影響力。男性、教育程度愈高者及報紙注意程度愈高者，其政治知識程度愈高。 　　年齡對於各類政治知識程度也是一個相當顯著的解釋變項，唯獨在政治結構知識上，老年人口的解釋力則不顯著。本研究也發現政黨認同能夠顯著解釋總體政治知識與非政治結構知識；但在政治結構知識上的影響與解釋力較弱。在總體政治知識與非政治結構知識的影響上，電視注意程度均呈現正向顯著的關聯，電視注意程度愈高，其政治知識程度愈高；但在政治結構知識上，電視注意程度的解釋力則不如預期。值得注意的是，電視媒介注意程度在2004年的資料中，對於各類政治知識均呈現無顯著差異，且影響方向改變。 　　綜觀研究結果發現，不同類型之政治知識，在本質上、變遷趨勢上、獨立變項的解釋力上的確有所差異。最能解釋總體政治知識的變項為媒介注意程度；最能解釋政治結構知識的變項為教育程度；對非政治結構知識最能解釋的變項為媒介注意程度。然而，報紙注意程度比起電視注意程度來說，對於政治知識程度的解釋力要來得正向且穩定。 / The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships of news media use and political knowledge and their changes over time among voters in Taiwan. Political knowledge, by definition, is categorized into structural and non-structural ones. Data were from four national surveys in 1995 and 1998’s National Chengchi University Election Study Center’s surveys, and the 2001 and 2004’s Taiwan’s Election and Democratization Study during legislative elections, respectively. Data analysis shows that since 1995 till 2004, political knowledge and non-structural political knowledge are both slightly decreasing, but the variation of structural political knowledge is relatively stable. Attention to newspaper news is steady but attention to television news is decreasing. Gender, level of education, and attention to newspaper news all positively predict structural and non-structural political knowledge in the four data sets. Male, highly educated people, and those with higher attention to newspaper news have more political knowledge. Party identification significantly predicts non-structural political knowledge but not structural political knowledge. Attention to television news positively predicts non-structural political knowledge. What is noteworthy is that in 2004, attention to news media first time shows no significant relationship with political knowledge. Take a closer look at relationships between various predictor variables and different types of political knowledge. Our results show that attention to news media strongly predicts political knowledge; level of education highly predicts structural political knowledge; attention to news media effectively predicts non-structural political knowledge. However, attention to newspaper is a better predictor variable in predicting political knowledge.