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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Political Context, Issue Salience, and Selective Attentiveness: Constituent Knowledge of the Clarence Thomas Confirmation Vote
Contributor:
Hutchings, Vincent L.
imprint:
Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 2001
Published in:The Journal of Politics
Language:
English
ISSN:
1468-2508;
0022-3816
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<p>According to the issue salience hypothesis, citizens tend to acquire information on subjects they perceive as important. However, past efforts to demonstrate this have been mixed. I argue that this is because scholars often fail to recognize the importance of overlapping group memberships. I maintain that different group memberships-a traditional proxy for issue salience-can cancel out effects if they are in conflict. Some research has also shown that cues in the political environment increase levels of political information. Extending this line of research, I hypothesize that the interaction of salience with environmental cues influences both information and participation levels. I find that an examination of the confirmation vote for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas largely confirms these hypotheses.</p>