Data were gathered in two phases during the 1984 presidential election campaign in an effort to examine the public's perceived information needs. In the first phase of the study, interviews were conducted with a small sample of Knoxville, Tennessee area adults to Tennessee area adults to ascertain their attitudes and perceptions concerning the election campaign, its coverage by the news media, and the types of information they found interesting or useful. In the second phase, respondents estimated the perceived distance between concepts representing the news media, types of information, and the attributes "interesting" and "decide how to vote." Findings suggest that respondents found information about candidate abilities and voting records to be significantly more useful in deciding how to vote than less substantive information. News media were perceived to emphasize information less useful and no more interesting. (Author/HOD) information less useful and no more interesting. (Author/HOD)