The Different Influences of Newspaper and Television News Reports of a Natural Hazard on Response Behavior

This article examines the public's responses to newspaper and television reports of an impending natural hazard that threatened local water supplies. A conceptual model is developed in which we argue that distinct characteristics of the two media differentially affect response behavior. The results provide strong support for the hypotheses derived from the conceptual model, suggesting that different aspects of reports in the two media affect response behavior, as measured by wholesale sales of bottled water.