Page 284 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

260 The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

histories, that the media can engage in both the attribute-level and central
meaning forms of second-level agenda setting. Successful campaigns pro-
duced messages that had the intent of influencing how people thought
about an issue. It must be noted that the nature of the empirical evidence
to support second-level agenda setting is a function of the issue; it is al-
most impossible to run a field experiment for this purpose.
Because the attribute version of the second-level agenda domain is sup-
ported by conventional laboratory studies, consistent case studies, and
consistent post-only field studies, it seems reasonable to accept the argu-
ment in Link “d” (see Figure 9.1). Moreover, it is assumed that the reader
is seeing clear parallels between scholarship in the agenda-setting domain
and scholarship in marketing communications. It could be argued that
agenda setting is simply a special case of the general communication model
widely accepted in marketing.

From Beliefs to Support

The next step in the process is the transition from the beliefs people have
to their support for the proposed policy initiative (Figure 9.1, Link “g”).
There is evidence in the agenda-setting literature that if individuals are
exposed to positive information about an issue, they will have a more posi-
tive attitude toward the issue. This evidence is derived from studies that
coded exposure to positive and oppositional negative messages in media
(e.g., Matthes, 2008; McCombs et al., 1997).
The more interesting area of inquiry and application addresses the
question of what types of beliefs will lead to support. Broadly, there are
two ways to address this question. Prior research in the public health and
social problems fields suggest that a person’s willingness to support or op-
pose a proposed restriction may be influenced by the extent to which that
person thinks: (1) the policy addresses an important public (or social)
problem, (2) the policy will be effective, (3) the policy is in the person’s
self-interest, and (4) the policy is consistent with the person’s ideological
beliefs. Because marketing views the issue of policy implementation as one
of exchange, a new set of considerations is introduced. These focus on the
characteristics of the party that must pay the cost of the benefit. Following
is a review of the current approach.
the importance of the social problem. One of the most common
perspectives is that media advocacy is designed to influence the way peo-
ple perceive an issue. It focuses on issues as social rather than as personal
problems, and it emphasizes the collective nature of the problem. The idea
is to get many people to care about and act on an issue, not just those who