Mass Communication Functions in a Media-Rich Developing Society

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Abstract
Several research models developed in recent years in postindustrial societies are applied to a field setting in Venezuela where mass media are highly advanced but the society remains highly stratified in education, income, and other socioeconomic hierarchies. Indices of functional uses and avoidances of the media show strong consistency across media and are good predictors of media use patterns. Simple exposure to the media, rather than motivations for use or avoidance, is the better type of predictor of knowledge gained from media, however. Evidence of a "correlation function" based on a common agenda of public issues set by the media is weak.