A study investigated whether exposure to news media coverage of the 1988 Presidential campaign would be positively related to awareness of and perceptions of the saliency of the Southern regional primary. Subjects, 822 eligible voters from three locations (Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Birmingham, Alabama) were polled to determine their perceptions of the importance of the Southern Regional Primary. After controlling for variations in demographic and political involvement variables, results indicated that exposure to all news media was positively and significantly related to awareness of the primary, perceptions of increased campaign activity, and perceptions of increased Southern political saliency. Exposure to all partisan information was significantly related to only one dependent variable: perceptions of campaign activity. (Ten references and two tables are appended.) (MS)