Reflections on News Event Diffusion Research

Abstract

This evaluation of fifty-two research studies of the diffusion of news events summarizes prior work and discusses the need for future research. Emphasis here is on the 1960 investigation by Paul Deutschmann and Wayne Danielson. This paradigmatic study of news event diffusion led mass communication scholars to focus on the S-shaped rate of diffusion over time, media and interpersonal channels, and the salience of news events. Salience may be related (1) to the relative importance of interpersonal communication channels in diffusing a news event, and (2) to the number of others an individual tells about the news event. Future news event diffusion research should emphasize new dependent variables (in addition to awareness-knowledge of the news event), such as knowledge about the news event, attitude change, and overt behavior change.

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