A telephone survey of lay and clerical uses of Church of God media

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Authors
Miller, David L.
Advisor
Popovich, Mark N.
Issue Date
1989
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (M.A.)
Department
Department of Journalism
Other Identifiers
Abstract

This thesis was designed to determine the uses of media distributed by the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana). The study compared laypersons' and ministers' respective uses of seven church media.A telephone survey was conducted of 597 subscribers of Vital Christianity magazine: 382 laypersons and 215 ministers. Participants' responses were analyzed by mean scores, t-tests, Pearson correlations, multiple regression analysis, partial correlation tests and factor analysis. Demographic data concerning lay and ministerial status, participation in church life, educational level and age was cross tabulated with 14 statments related to Blumler's three categories of media uses and gratifications: surveillance, interaction and diversion.The study found significant differences in the amount of church media used by ministers and laypersons. Whereas ministers use Vital Christianity primarily for surveillance, laypersons value interaction uses as highly as surveillance uses. Laypersons' also indicated significantly greater interest in both interaction and diversion uses of the magazine than did the ministers. Finally, the study found a modest correlation between age level and use of Vital Christianity to gratify diversion needs.

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