Page 172 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

7. MASS MEDIA ATTITUDE CHANGE 161

the message at the recipient’s own pace (e.g., reading a magazine or
browsing the Internet), whereas other media control the pace externally
(e.g., radio and television). Finally, the message is presented to the recipi-
ent in some context. That is, the persuasion context may be one of group or
individual exposure, noisy or quiet environment, and so forth.

Matrix Outputs. Each of the inputs to the persuasion process can
have an impact on one of the outputs depicted in Fig. 7.1. The Communi-
cation/Persuasion Matrix model contends that in order for effective influ-
ence to occur, a person first needs to be exposed to some new information.
Media are often selected by potential persuaders after an estimation of the
number and type of people the message is likely to reach. Also, by decid-
ing what to present, those who control the mass media help define the
range of issues to which the public is exposed (e.g., Iyengar, Kinder,
Peters, & Krosnick, 1984).
Second, the person must attend to the information presented. Just
because a person is sitting in front of the television doesn’t mean that he
or she knows what is going on. For example, in order to gain and attract
attention, TV commercials often present attractive women and men in
proximity to the attitude object. Even if the person does notice the infor-
mation, this doesn’t mean that the person’s interest will be engaged. The
next two stages involve comprehension and acquisition, or the question of
what part of the information presented the person actually understands
and learns. It is only at step 6 that attitude change or yielding occurs. Once
the person accepts the information in the message, the next step in the
sequence involves memory or storage of the new information and the atti-
tude that it supports. The next three steps detail the processes involved in
translating the new attitude into a behavioral response. That is, at some
subsequent behavioral opportunity, the person must retrieve the new atti-
tude from memory, decide to act on it, and perform the appropriate action.
Finally, the model notes that if the attitude-consistent behavior is not rein-
forced, the new attitude might be undermined. For example, if you act on
your attitude and become embarrassed, that attitude will not persist. If
the behavior is rewarding, however, the attitude consistent behavior
might lead to attitudinal consolidation, making the new attitude more
likely to endure over time and guide future behavior.
Variants of this general information processing model were sometimes
interpreted in theory and in practice as suggesting that a change early in
the sequence (e.g., attention) would inevitably lead to a change later in the
sequence (e.g., yielding). McGuire (1989) noted, however, that the likeli-
hood that a message will evoke each of the steps in the sequence should
be viewed as a conditional probability. Thus, even if the likelihood of
achieving each of the first six steps in a mass media campaign was 60%,