Suchergebnisse

Although source credibility's importance in communication, particularly in persuasion, is well documented, audience processes in assessing source credibility and the resulting impact are inadequately specified. We hypothesize message quality will have direct effects and mediate partially the effects of initial credibility assessments on subsequent source credibility assessments and on belief change. Also, subsequent credibility assessments are expected to mediate effects of initial credibility assessments and message quality assessments on belief change. Reanalyses of experimental data (N=74) support the hypothesized direct effects and several proposed mediating relationships.

This study of persuasion processes in a value-relevant context tests effects of the presence or absence of statistical evidence and the presence or absence of anecdotal evidence, crossed across three base messages regarding different alcohol use issues. Results suggest that a variant of central processing as described by Petty and Cacioppo (1986) was used: Involvement predicted greater message-relevant responses only when the message was congruent with recipients' own values regarding alcohol use. Among recipients for whom the message was value-congruent, messages with statistical evidence were rated more persuasive, more believable, and better written; anecdotal evidence had no effect. Among recipients for whom the message was value-discrepant, messages with anecdotal evidence were rated more persuasive, more believable, and (marginally) better written, and statistical evidence had no effect. Path analyses also suggest that peripheral-processing strategies are employed when the message is value-discrepant, and central-processing strategies are used when the message is value-congruent.

The role of confidence in beliefs as an outcome of message exposure and as a factor in the process of belief change has important theoretical implications for theories of media effects and theories of belief change. Using as stimuli messages portraying women of two different cultural backgrounds, this experiment identifies some effects of source expertise and message discrepancy on confidence in beliefs over three posttests (immediate, 10-14 days, and 6 weeks). Messages that were discrepant with existing beliefs had a greater impact on confidence in beliefs than did nondiscrepant messages; more expert sources also slightly increased confidence in beliefs. The direction of the effect of discrepancy (an increase) was opposite to that predicted. Path analyses suggest that the effects of confidence in beliefs on persistence of belief change in this study are largely indirect; the authors suggest that effects of message exposure on confidence and the effects of confidence on belief change persistence may depend on whether the beliefs addressed in the message are central or peripheral.

Using a nationally representative sample, this study examined the possible relationship between amount of alcohol and tobacco advertising and related news-editorial content. This study found less tobacco and alcohol advertising in newspapers than did previous research and no relationship between coverage and number of advertisements.

This experiment compared the effects of warnings placed before, during, or after television beer advertisements. Warnings before or after the ads led to higher knowledge scores and fewer negative comments about the warning presentation than did warnings scrolled during the ads; warnings after and during but not before the ads significantly decreased positive comments about the ads. Earlier findings regarding effects of warning topic and quantitative information in the warnings were replicated.

The purpose of this study was to determine the dimensional structure of mentoring and other communication support behaviors in an academic environment. Professors (N = 224) at two universities were surveyed. A communication support questionnaire was developed, and three separate factors emerged as elements of perceived communication support: the Mentor/Protégé Dimension, the Collegial Social Dimension, and the Col legial Task Dimension. The Mentor/Protégé Dimension appears to represent the tradition al concept of mentoring. The Collegial Social Dimension is more reciprocal and friendship oriented. The Collegial Task Dimension reflects reciprocal support that is work related. The study supported the idea of multidimensional support within an academic organization.

Research on children's comprehension of television suggests that very young children have difficulty ordering major scenes from a story, and generally do not have adultlike understandings of television. More recent research with young children using short and simple stimuli and a method designed to maximize children's communication abilities suggests that these earlier studies may have underestimated children's comprehension. In this study, three- to five-year-olds viewed an 8-minute version of Diff'rent Strokes, and then were asked to reenact the story with dolls and appropriate props. Analyses of the quality of the stories showed that 70% of the children comprehended most of the event clusters of the program. While their versions of the story were not nearly as detailed or rich as adults' versions, they did not indicate that the children had constructed qualitatively different meanings from the story.

This experiment examines gender and ethnic differences in adolescent responses to TV beer advertising in sports and entertainment programming, as well as the relationship between such responses and present and planned alcohol use behavior. Female adolescents responded less positively than males to beer advertisements and to sports content of advertising, and more positively to nonbeer advertisements. However, positive responses to beer ads predicted alcohol use among female and male adolescents. No differences in response patterns to ads due to Latino ethnicity were found.