This study examined the hypothesis that media exposure and attention partially mediate the effects of variables such as demographics and personal experience on risk judgments. Risk judgments, including perceived severity, prevalence, controllability, familiarity, and concern about alcohol-related injuries, comprised the outcome measures. Alcohol-related injuries included assaults, motor vehicle crashes, and other injury incidents such as falls, fire, and drowning. Results supported the hypotheses of partial mediation with respect to most risk judgment factors. In particular, effects of education, gender, sensation seeking, and prior firsthand or secondhand experience with alcohol-related mishaps on judgments of concern and/or severity were partially mediated by media variables. The authors concluded that media effects on risk judgments can be usefully understood as part of a larger social process in which media are selectively attended to due to exogenous influences; part of the effect of these exogenous influences on these social risk judgments was via these media influences. Media use variables also retain a degree of influence after controlling for these exogenous factors.
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