ACKNOWLEDGMENTS<br > A gtant from the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation provided the<br >"~i，. seppt~rt [or the research on which this book is based. [ am gtatet ul to the<br > ~ r~ .~Isdde Foundation and I particularly wish to thank Dr. Lloyd Morrisett. pres-<br >，r， ident of Markle. and Jean Firstenberg 04" the Marlde staff for their assastance<br >~d~r~. denng tile research project. I am also deeply indebted to Forrest Chisman. who<br > ~ Was wtflt Marlde when I first inquired about support for a 1976 election prelect.<br > Out first correspondence occurred early in 1974 and， for the next I8 months.<br >1: :_ reoreest worked to make the project a reality， a selfless effort for which [ will<br >Jc~<. elwa~ be grateful.<br >~ire i am i~debted to the ~ocial ~;eienee Rose.arch Council (SSRC] for its help m<br > sin，. ~ Otms of the project， During the formative ~tage of the project， I had<br >~t~ ~ ~olmdetable assistance from Eleanca 8heldo~ (then president of the SSRC ~ and<br >mrv~.. Realkl Abel~. Later， Kenneth Prewttl (ewsrent president of the SSRC) and<br >~ ~ ~ RO~RtGtt~ provided thalt help，<br > he ~r A spe(iai debt is owed the members of the SSRC s Committee on Mass<br > TI~， ~ and l~litlcal Behavior， It was during meetings of this committee<br >ann~， ta 19"/5 ~t~ a number of the ideas underlying this research were developed. The<br >，~ v~ ~ of the committee， in addition to Eleanor Sheldon， Forrest Chisman，<br > we，. It~ tej~lf~ ~ editor-author-scholar Ben Bagdikian; Leo Bogart of the News-<br >pa~ ~ ]ttl~ Bureaul Richard Brody， political scientist from Stanford<br >palp. IJ~;$*~ve (~laffee， mass communications professor from the University<br >emb~ ~l~p Converse， political scientist from the University of Michigan;<br >mar llezb tlkjatm， mei~x~gist from Wesleyan University; Gerald Kline， then with the<br >t ~o~ ~]elaamaent at the University of Michigan and now department head<br >)rec)， ar ~e 11~ of l~a mesota; and Ithiel de Sola Pool， political scientist from<br > lhe ~ L， mitate of Technology，<br >~ed~. ~ ~ fielflwork for the project was conducted by Response Analysis<br >t" tet， ~ ~lhineetan， New Jersey. I am grateful to Response Analysis for<br > no，，， m~m~ee m，，d pa~tieafl~ly want to thank Robert Steen， the project officer，<br > f~r ~it~t~nt efforts. I also thank the staff of about 100 interviewers who<br > "， aired ~ hem~ of the survey respondents. Their skill in administering a series<br > of ehalkel~g q~es was the first step toward the data for this book.<br > 1 ~ l~mtefm! to ~b~n McClure， my colleague at Syracuse University. The<br > T ~tm，~ tlmhe and] jointly directed in 1972 was a forerunner of this study.<br >~. Althoa~ ~ did n~ im ol~ himseff in this project， his ideas had a continuing<br >