MEDIA LITERACY AND ATTITUDE CHANGE: ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MEDIA LITERACY TRAINING ON CHILDREN'S RESPONSES TO PERSUASIVE MESSAGES

WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL OF PERSUASION

By

BRADFORD L. YATES

A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2000

Copyright 2000
by

Bradford

L.

Yates

This dissertation

is

dedicated to the

memory of my
Daddy.

father,

Alvin L. Yates, and to

dearly.

my

mother. Jean F. Yates.

Mama and

love

you so very

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many times
for

during this journey

thought

would never reach the goal

had

set

myself over ten years ago. However, the unending support of those around
I

me

is

the

reason

survived the most difficult task in

my

life to date.

would

like to

thank those

who have

helped

me make my dream come

I

true.

First

and foremost,

must thank

my

advisor. Dr. Debbie Treise, for her constant

guidance, support, and motivation over the past four and a half years. Whether
her laughing or crying, Debbie

came

to

was always

available with the right

words

to rebalance

my

emotions and insightful comments that helped

me

understand and focus

but she reassured

my work.
me
that
I

There
could

were many times

told her

was not going

to

make

it,

and would survive.

fully express

was

fortunate to have such a wonderful chair.

Thank you does not

my

gratitude.

I,

too,

owe a

debt of gratitude to the other

members of my committee. Thanks

of experimental design and
for

to

Dr. Michael Weigold for teaching

me

the foundations

offering useful advice that will be applied throughout

my

career.

Thank you

to Dr.

John

Wright for being a source of support and knowledge throughout

experience, whether

my

entire doctoral

it

was during a meeting

in his office or

on the basketball

court.

Many thanks to

Dr. Julie

Dodd

for sharing her expertise in

media education and

for

offering encouragement during the

good and bad

times.

Thank you

also to Dr. Colleen

Swain

for challenging

me to

find

my

passion and for bringing a practical perspective to

this

the process.

was

fortunate to

work with

group of outstanding scholars.

This dissertation would not have been completed without the help of my cousin.
Phyllis Jackson.

She willingly and graciously assisted me

in securing subjects for the

experiment. She was instrumental in obtaining permission for

me

to conduct

my

study

at

Statham Elementary School and

in

garnering support from the fourth and

fifth

grade

teachers. In addition, her persistence

is

the reason nearly all of the fourth and fifth grade

students returned their parental permission forms. She has

my

deepest appreciation and

love.

also

want

to

thank Statham Elementary School, principal Mike Mize, and the

fourth and fifth grade teachers: Lorey Baggett, Teresa Huggins, Kristie

McHugh, Barbara

Morris, Pamela Royster, Janie Williams, and Roslyn Williams. Their cooperation and

participation helped

make

this study possible.

also

must thank the children

who

participated in

my experiment.
to Jerry

Without them,

this

study would not have been completed.

Thanks
allowing

Lane and the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County

for

me to

conduct

my

pretest with the children at the

Boys and

Girls Club's facility.

appreciate

Wes

Corbett, director of research, and teachers Suzanne Legare and

Lawson

Brown of P. K. Yonge Research and Developmental

pretests with their fourth

School, for allowing

me

to run

my
of P.

and

fifth

grade students.

also

am

grateful to the students

K. Yonge for their participation. Thank you to Robyn Purvis for taking an interest
study and for helping

in

my

me

carry out

my

pretests at P. K.

Yonge.

truly appreciate her

encouraging words and constant support during

this ordeal.

Many

thanks to

my

fellow

Ph.D. student colleagues and friends Lori Boyer, Brigitta Brunner,

Michelle O'Malley, and Janas Sinclair for helping

Naeemah

Clark,

me

with

my

study and for supporting

me

throughout the entire process.

A special

thank you

is

extended to Brigitta Brunner

and Tony Fargo for being there during the lowest and highest points
thank them for being
frustrations, for

in this process.

my

friend, for

keeping

me

sane, for listening to

me

vent

my

making me laugh, and

for never

wavering

in their

support of my efforts.

never would have pursued a Ph.D.

if

it

had not been for Rex Mix,

my

late

undergraduate advisor and friend. Rex's encouragement, advice, and love pushed
strive for excellence in

me
I

to

my

academic

pursuits.

He was

like a

second father

to

me.

thank

him

for his

guidance and counsel, which continue to guide me.

grateful to

miss him very much.

am

Mary Dziuba, my Cookie Mommy,

that brightened

for her unconditional love and

support.

She was always a ray of sunshine

my

life

when

things were

dark.

thank her for being by

my

side along this difficult journey.

Her encouragement,
heart and loving

understanding, and loyalty are beyond compare.

appreciate her

warm

spirit.

To
I

her

give

all

my

love.

cannot begin to express

my

gratitude to

my
I

mother and father

filled

for their

unwavering support and endless

project has

love.

Although

am

with happiness that this

alive to see

come
I

to fruition,

am

saddened that

my

father

was not

its

completion.

miss him

terribly.

On many

occasions

my

mother would offer from Proverbs, which

encouragement by quoting

my

father's favorite Bible verses

reminded

me of his

infinite

wisdom through God and

that he

was

still

by

my

side.

My

mother's constant prayers, daily messages of support, and regular supply of inspirational
cards were just what

needed to keep
to give up,

me
I

pressing toward the goal

set for myself.

During the times

stay positive

wanted

heard

my

mother and

father's voices saying to

and keep going.

My mother was my rock and

I

inspiration,

and

never would

have completed

this project without her.

am truly

blessed to have the most wonderful

and loving parents anyone could ask

for.

They taught me the most important thing

them
for always being there, physically

in life.

how to

love and be loved.

love and thank

and

spiritually,

without

fail.

praise the

Lord

for blessing

my

life

with a mother and a father

too, praise the

that are the

epitome of love.
to the

love

them both so very

I

dearly.

I,

Lord

for

carrying

me

end of this journey. Even though

am unworthy

of His love, He has

truly blessed

my

life.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ESge

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTERS
1

iv

INTRODUCTION
Empirical Studies Focusing on Media Literacy

2
5

ELM as a Framework
2

LITERATURE REVIEW
Media Literacy Critical Viewing Skills Programs The Current Media Literacy Movement
Evolution of Persuasion Research
Elaboration Likelihood

9
11

17

24

Model

26 39 47
53

Child Development Literature Children and Advertising

Attitude

Toward Advertisements

Research Questions

57 58 60 60 66
78 79

The Hypotheses
3

METHODS
An Overview
Operational Definitions of Key Variables

Path for Analysis

RESULTS
Descriptive Analysis

79 79
83

The Scales
Manipulation Checks
Tests of Hypotheses

87

DISCUSSION
Summary of Results
Post-Hoc Analysis
Study Limitations
Implications

92
93

94

98
101
1

Future Research

03

APPENDICES

A
B C

PARENTAL CONSENT FORM

QUESTION GUIDE FOR CONTROL GROUP

105

107
108 115

MEDIA LITERACY TRAINING LESSON

POSTTEST QUESTIONNAIRE PRETEST QUESTIONAIRRE FOR PRODUCT OF INTEREST

D
E

127
150

ARGUMENT QUALITY PRETEST

REFERENCES
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

159
173

Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School

of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

MEDIA LITERACY AND ATTITUDE CHANGE: ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MEDIA LITERACY TRAINING ON CHILDREN'S RESPONSES TO PERSUASIVE MESSAGES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL OF PERSUASION

Bradford L. Yates

August 2000
Chair:

Deborah M. Treise

Major Department: Journalism and Communications

The average American

various products each year.

child sees in excess

of 30,000 television commercials of reality

for

Most commercials

are constructions

that attempt to

sell

a product or advocate an idea. Children need to understand

how

to evaluate

and

analyze critically the values and ideologies that accompany commercial messages. In

short, children

need to be media

literate.

This dissertation adds to the small but growing body of literature that examines

the effectiveness

of media

literacy training

on children's responses

to persuasive

messages. Within the framework of the Elaboration Likelihood Model

persuasion, this research investigates whether media literacy training

(ELM) of
a moderating

is

variable in the persuasion process and whether such training affects children's attitudes

toward a product of high personal relevance.

A posttest-only experimental design with

random assignment was used

to test five

independent variables: Active cognitive

processing; attitude toward product; attitude toward advertisement; attitude toward

advertising in general; and attention to peripheral cues.

TV

It

was hypothesized

that subjects

exposed

to

media

literacy training

would follow

the central route to persuasion, as

opposed
product

to the peripheral route,

and have more positive attitudes toward an advertised

strong quality arguments.

when exposed

to

many and few

Test results suggested that media literacy training was not a moderating variable

in the

ELM.

Additionally, no evidence

was found

to support the prediction that

media

literacy,

argument

quality,

and number of arguments influence children's

attitudes.

However,
attitudes

results indicated that

media

literacy training did

produce differences

in

among

subjects.

Subjects exposed to the training had

more negative

attitudes

toward the product, the advertisement,

cues.

TV

advertising in general, and certain peripheral

The

findings suggest that media literacy training

makes

subjects

more

skeptical of

commercial messages because they are more aware of the techniques used by advertisers
to try

and persuade viewers.

If children

can become more aware of the persuasive

techniques used by advertisers, then they will be better equipped to analyze commercials

more

critically

and hopefiilly make better decisions about products. Moreover, media

literacy training built into existing school curricula could be very effective at creating

critical

viewers.

CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
1

Children are exposed to persuasive messages

in the

media every day. The

average American child sees in excess of 30,000 television commercials for various
products each year (Condry, Bence,

& Scheibe,

1988).

By

the time a student graduates

high school "he or she will have spent twice as

much

time in front of the television set as

in the

classroom" (Pungente, 1996,

p. 9).

The influence and pervasiveness of television

is

evident in children's basic values, clothing choices, and interpersonal interactions

(Pungente, 1996). Since most commercials and other media messages are constructions of reality

that

have a specific purposeusually to

sell

a product or advocate an idea children need

to understand

how to

evaluate and analyze critically the values and ideologies that

accompany these products and

media
literate.

ideas

(Melamed,

989). In short, children need to be

Through media education students

learn

how

to identify

such ideological

messages and analyze the underlying values that are communicated. Although several researchers have argued
that

media

literacy training will

improve students' evaluation of media messages (Considine, 1990; Duncan, 1989; Kahn

& Master,

1992; Melamed, 1989; Wulfemeyer, Sneed,

Ommeren,

& Riffe,

1990), few

studies have tested the effectiveness

of such training empirically. Therefore, the purpose

of this investigation

is

to assess the effectiveness

of media

literacy training

on

children's

evaluation of persuasive media messages.

Empirical Studies Focusing on Media Literacy

Scholarly research suggests that media portrayals-particularly in advertising-are
linked to children's attitudes and behaviors toward health issues such as alcohol

consumption (Aiken, Leathar,

Johnson. 1997b; Austin

& O'Hagan,

1985; Austin

& Johnson,

1997a; Austin

&

& Nach-Ferguson,

1995). Recent

work by Austin and her

colleagues (Austin, 1995; Austin

& Freeman,

1996; Austin

& Johnson,

1997a; Austin

&

Johnson, 1997b; Austin

& Meili,

1994; Austin

& Nach-Ferguson,

1995; Austin, Roberts,

& Nass,

1990) suggests that more effective health-related interventions should target

children's decision-making strategies rather than inform or persuade based

on campaign

priorities.

Austin and colleagues developed the Message Interpretation Process (MIP)

model based on work

media

in

decision-making theory, social-cognitive development and

effects research.

The MIP model views children

their skills, needs, goals,

as active decision-makers

who

make

decisions based

on

and environment. The model posits a

theory of media decision-making and identifies logical and emotional decision-making processes of children. Message designers can use the model to identify the most effective
point of intervention. Austin and Johnson (1997a, 1997b) found that children's

understanding of persuasive content

is

a key variable in the decision-making process. In

their studies,

media

literacy training

was

identified as

an effective means of improving

children's understanding

of persuasive media content.

Austin and Johnson

997b) tested the immediate and delayed effectiveness of

media

literacy training

on

third-graders' "perceptions

of alcohol advertising, alcohol

(p.

norms, expectancies for drinking, and behaviors toward alcohol"

323) using a
schools were

Solomon four-group

style

experiment (N=246). Third-graders

in three

randomly assigned to four groups (each with an n=60).

four groups by classroom.

A fourth

school was

split into

Two

groups of children were pretested.

A month after the

pretest, children in the

experimental groups received media literacy training. The

Kids' Survival Guide to

children watched

Buy Me That! A

TV Advertising,

a half-hour

Consumer Reports (Consumers Union of United

States, 1989) video focusing

on

advertising techniques. After the video the youngsters discussed the techniques with the

experimenter. Materials produced by

Consumer Reports

to

complement the video guided

the discussion. Following the discussion, the children

were shown a randomized-order

that

series

of soda and beer

in

ads.

There were two soda ads and two beer ads

were shown
the skills

to

each group

a different order. After each ad, the tape

was stopped and

learned in the

Consumer Reports video were discussed

in

terms of the specific

theoretical principles

advertisement.

The discussion followed Messaris' (1982)

of

mediation, focusing on the extent to which the ad showed "(a) what was

real, (b)

what

was

right or

wrong, and

(c)

how what was shown relates

to real life" (Austin

& Johnson,

1997b,

p. 323).

After training, children received

bookmark

style

handouts to reinforce
"(a)

the "Three R's" of critical viewing (Austin, 1993),

which include

Realism, (b) Right

and Wrong, and

Johnson, 1997b,
teacher.

(c) Relating the

information source to what other sources say" (Austin

&

p. 332).

Control groups engaged in a different activity planned by the

media All groups (control and experimental) took a posttest immediately after the
literacy lesson

and the teacher-planned

Pretest

activity.

A delayed posttest was administered

three

months

later.

and posttest were nearly identical with the posttest containing

several critical viewing

knowledge questions as a manipulation check. The delayed

posttest,

which was administered by the teacher without assistance from the researcher.

was

identical to the posttest except for the behavioral question,

which asked subjects

to

indicate their level

of desire for selected products

(e.g.,

"How much would you want

to

own

item A?").
Short-term effects were found for understanding of persuasive intent, perceptions desirability, social norms for alcohol use, and predrinking behavior.

of realism,

Results retained significance at delayed posttest for perceived realism and Johnson, 1997b, identification. Some gender differences existed. (Austin

&

p.

323)
Austin and Johnson (1997a) also examined the immediate and delayed effects of
general and specific media literacy training on third-graders' decision-making processes

about alcohol. Areas of examination included children's perceptions of alcohol ads,

alcohol norms, expectancies for drinking, and behaviors toward alcohol.

A Solomon

four-group style experiment with two treatment levels (general and specific) assessed the
effectiveness

of in-school media

literacy training.

Both treatments involved a general

purpose media literacy videotape about television advertising; however, one treatment

showed alcohol

specific television ads followed

by discussion of alcohol specific

advertising while the other

showed

clips

of non-alcohol advertisements followed by

discussion of advertising in general. Results indicated immediate and delayed effects of

media

literacy training.

Immediate
intent,

effects included the children's increased understanding

of persuasive
and
less

viewing of characters as

less similar to

people they

knew

in real life

desirable, decreased desire to be like the characters, decreased expectation

of positive

consequences from drinking alcohol, and decreased likelihood

related product. Indirect effects also

to

choose an alcohol-

were found on

their perceptions

of television's

realism and their views of social norms related to alcohol. Delayed effects were

examined and confirmed on expectancies and behavior. The treatment was more
effective

when

alcohol-specific, and

it

also

was more

effective

among

girls

than boys

(Austin

& Johnson,

1997a,

p. 17).

These two empirical studies identified media

literacy as

an effective means of

improving children's understanding of persuasive media content within a decision-

making framework. The present study, which builds on Austin and Johnson's
attempts to understand

research,

how media

literacy helps to

improve children's understanding of

persuasive media content by examining media literacy within the framework of an

established

model of persuasion.

ELM as a Framework
In order to measure effectively the impact of media literacy training

on

children's

responses to persuasive messages the Elaboration Likelihood

Model of persuasion (ELM)

(Petty

& Cacioppo,
The

1986a, 1986b) will be used to provide a framework for this

rationale for choosing the

investigation.

ELM as a framework lies in the desire to

determine

if

media

literacy skills

of a message recipient are a moderator of persuasion.

Petty and his colleagues (Cacioppo

& Petty,

1979; Petty, Cacioppo,

& Goldman,

1981a;

Petty, Harkins.

& Williams.

1980; Petty, Wells,

& Brock,

1976) noted several variables

could play a moderating role in the persuasion process. These include personal

involvement, forewarning of persuasive intent, argument quality, number of arguments,

source attractiveness, source expertise, mood, message repetition, and distraction. This
researcher believes that media literacy skills can have a moderating effect

on

the

persuasion process. Therefore, this study aims to test the moderating effect of media

literacy training

on

children's attitude

toward the persuasive message(s) contained

in

product advertisements.

The

ELM has developed

into a general

framework

for the study

of persuasion

in

the field of social psychology, but

it

also has

been applied effectively to advertising

communications (Petty

& Cacioppo,

1983; Petty, Cacioppo,

& Schumann,

1983) and
his

become popular

in the field

of consumer behavior (Scholten, 1996). Petty and

in

colleagues have tested the

ELM

terms of issues

(e.g.,

comprehensive exams) (Petty

et al.,

&

Cacioppo, 1979a; Petty

Others have used the

et al.,

1981a) as well as advertised products (Petty

1983).

ELM to explain advertising effectiveness and tested the influence of

ELM.

attitude

toward the ad within the framework of the

Scholten

( 1

996) argued that the

ELM is useful for advertising research because of

its

heuristic advantages rather than

its

integrative merits.

ELM overcomes a critical limitation of traditional hierarchy-of-effects models by relaxing the assumption that cognitively complex changes in consumer attitudes are necessary for effective advertising. By identifying two distinct
The
routes to attitude change, the

model generates valuable suggestions concerning

advertising effectiveness. (Scholten, 1996, p. 100)

Other researchers have found the

ELM useful for analyzing comparative

advertising ((Droge, 1989), "while accounting for the potential influence of attitude

toward the ad" (MacKenzie

& Lutz,

1983, cited in James

& Hensel.

1991,

p. 60).

Lutz.

MacKenzie, and Belch

( 1

983 ) found

that attitude

toward the ad may serve as a positive or

Petty and Cacioppo (1983) reported

negative peripheral cue within the

ELM framework.

that attitude

toward the ad had stronger effects on attitude change than brand cognitions

under low involvement and low knowledge conditions. Additionally, attitude toward the ad was found to have a greater impact on attitude than brand cognitions under high
elaboration likelihood conditions (Petty

& Cacioppo,

1983). In other words, the findings

revealed that subjects' attitudes toward an advertised product were influenced more by

their attitude

toward the ad than

their thoughts about the actual product.

Lord, Lee, and Sauer (1995), tested two competing hypotheses relative to the
formation of attitude toward the ad and found that "results supported the combinedinfluence hypothesis across varying levels of processing motivation and opportunity with

differences in the relative magnitude of argument and cue effects consistent with the

Elaboration Likelihood Model" (p. 73).

The

ELM is an excellent framework to

adequately explain the effectiveness of advertising; however, "the influence of attitude

toward the ad as a negative cue within

this

framework

is

not fully understood in the

context of negative advertising" (James

& Hensel,

1991, p. 62).

More

specifically, the

ELM explains the effectiveness of advertising well, but

toward the ad has when
advertisement.
it

it

is

unclear what effect attitude

is

considered a negative influence within a negative

Over time, the

ELM has developed into one of the most comprehensive models of

much of the

persuasion in the media effects research. However,

ELM research has

focused on college-age students, and no studies have examined the moderating role of

media

literacy skills.

This study attempts to apply the

ELM to a younger population and

determine the role of media literacy within the persuasion process.

The average American

television as in the classroom

child will spend twice as

much

time in front of the

by the time he/she graduates high school (Pungente. 1996).

It is

evident that children need to be equipped with skills that help them evaluate the

enormous number of persuasive media messages. In order

is

to

be sure that media literacy

an effective means of inoculating children against persuasive messages, a closer look

at

the impact of media literacy skills

on the persuasion process

is

necessary.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

The following review of literature

literacy

will highlight the evolution

of the media

movement and provide a formal

definition of media literacy.

The discussion

also

will address the evolution

of persuasion research and key components of the Elaboration

Likelihood Model of persuasion through a review of relevant experiments and

commentaries. In addition, literature relating to television and child development and

attitudes

toward advertisements will be reviewed.

Finally, research questions

and

hypotheses based on the relevant literature will be advanced.

Media Literacy

What
comes
via the

individuals

know about

the world

beyond

their

immediate surroundings

media (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1989). Unfortunately, the media do

not present their messages in a neutral and value-free way; they shape and distort reality

(Considine, 1990; Melamed, 1989). These value-laden messages and constructions of

reality

pose a problem for society because individuals, especially children, are unable to
It is

distinguish between truthful and misleading messages sent by the media.

through

media
media.

literacy that they

can be taught to be informed and responsible consumers of the

10

Several researchers

made

calls for the inclusion of media education within

existing U.S. school curricula in the late 1980s

and early 1990s (Considine. 1990;

Duncan, 1989; Kahn

Riffe, 1990).

& Master,
that

1992; Melamed, 1989; Wulfemeyer, Sneed,

Ommeren,

&

They argued

media education makes students

critically

aware of what

they see, hear, and read, and

it

should be taught regularly in elementary and secondary

schools.

Several states, including Georgia,

New Mexico,

North Carolina, Minnesota, and

literacy within

Massachusetts, heeded this call by instituting

some component of media

their school curricula (Considine, 1995; Darlington, 1996).

Support and advocacy groups such as the Center for Media Education, the Center
for

Media

Literacy, the National

Telemedia Council, Citizens

for

Media

Literacy, the

National

Media Citizenship

Project,

and the Children's Media Policy Network were

created to push for a media literate society. National conferences, like the annual

Media

Education Conference and the Media Literacy Citizenship Project conference, have
brought together educators, media professionals and concerned citizens
create a unified voice for
in

an

effort to

media

literacy.

At the Aspen

Institute's'

National Leadership

Conference on Media Literacy

in 1992, participants

developed a formal definition of

media

literacy:

media literate person and everyone should have the opportunity to become one can decode, evaluate, analyze and produce both print and electronic media. The fundamental objective of media literacy is critical autonomy in relationship to all media. Emphases in media literacy training range widely, including informed
a

"The Aspen

Institute is

an international nonprofit educational institution dedicated to enhancing the

. .
.

quality of leadership through informed dialogue.

integrated, values-based decision

[Its]

making

in the fields

Communications and Society Program promotes of communications and information policy. It

accomplishes this by bringing together representatives of industry, government, the media, the academic
world, nonprofits, and others to assess the impact of modern communications and information systems on

democratic societies. The Program also promotes research and distributes conference reports
the communications and information fields and to the broader public" (Aspen Institute,
1

to' leaders in

996, available

http://www.aspeninst.org/Index.html).

11

citizenship, aesthetic appreciation and expression, social advocacy, self-esteem,

and consumer competence. (Aufderheide. 1993, p.l)

This comprehensive definition illustrates the wide range of skills needed to be

media

literate.

Media

literacy teaches students

how to

deconstruct, analyze, and critique

media messages. However, media

media messages
that are the focus

literacy

goes beyond the creation and production of

(e.g.,

of school media

school newspaper, television

productions, and yearbook).

Media education provides the opportunity

goal.

for students to

learn to

work together toward a common

In the process they learn about

responsibility, cooperation,

and problem solving.

No

matter what they do

in life,

they

will

always encounter situations

that require these skills.

In addition, students identify

their strengths

and weaknesses, develop varied

interests,

and accept new challenges.

for

The National Communication Association (1998) developed standards

speaking, listening, and media literacy in

K-12 education. Furthermore, media

the National

literacy

is

also reaching the

community through workshops conducted by

It is

PTA and
building a

"Cable in the Classroom" (Considine, 1995).

evident media literacy

is

strong network of committed educators, media professionals, and citizens to create a

more media

literate population.

Critical

Viewing

Skills

Programs

Although the media

years, several

literacy

movement has

received increased support in recent

three decades.

of the central issues have been addressed over the

"Critical

last

James A. Brown's book, Television

Viewing

Skills" Education:

Major Media

Literacy Projects in the United States and Selected Countries

( 1

99 1 ),

is

an excellent

review of the beginning of the media literacy movement.

Many of the

central issues

were

12

first

investigated in

the United States by the federal government; however, funding for

such projects was eliminated during the early 1980s. These early federal programs
the foundation for future research by scholars and public interest groups about the

laid

potential benefits

and necessity of media

literacy

programs.

Evolution of Critical Viewing Skills

Critical thinking

is

one of the fundamental elements of media

literacy.

It

was

the

goal of early Greek philosophers and continues to be a priority in education. Critical

analysis has been applied to

all

forms of communication. Early forms of print

(e.g.,

communication

(e.g.,

books), mass media forms of print communication

newspapers, magazines), and visual communication

(e.g.,

motion pictures) have been

critically

read or viewed over the years in an attempt to better understand what then-

messages are and

how they

are created (Brown, 1991).

Despite this history of critical reading and viewing, educational institutions were

slow to recognize the value of formally teaching audiences

how to

evaluate critically

mass media experiences. In the 1920s and 1930s, film appreciation courses began

to

spread throughout the United States and England, due in part to the growing number of

contemporary movies (Brown, 1991).

integrated fully into the curriculum

It

was not

until the

1960s that film studies were

of U.S. high schools and colleges, despite the

930s (Worth,
1

presence of film courses since the

98 1 ). Finally, in the

late

970s,

cinema courses began

1991).

to incorporate film skills

along with theory and criticism (Brown,

While educators were gradually recognizing the value of aiding audiences

in their interpretation

and analysis of the cinema, television was making

its

own

13

impact. In the beginning, educators used television as an instrument for teaching.

The U.S. and Great

Britain developed and studied the instructional use of

television during the 1950s

and 1960s. Also during

that time, '"some curricular

designs for teaching better understanding and use of television were developed
but not widely used" (Brown, 1991, p. 58).

An UNESCO
meeting
in

(United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)

Norway

in

962

laid the

framework

for "critical

viewing

skills" education.

Due

to the scope

and power of television, meeting participants suggested

that educators

accept the responsibility to teach young people

how to

use the

medium

constructively

(Hodgkinson, 1964). The aims of "critical viewing

follows:

skills"

education were stated as

I.

To

help viewers to increase their understanding of what they see on the

screen.

II.

To encourage viewers to become more

program.

selective in their choice

of

III.

To

help viewers to

become more aware and discriminating

factual,

in their

responses and to develop their power of judgment so that they

may

benefit

from those programs, both imaginative and

capacity to enrich their lives.

which have the

The aims of screen education thus consort with those of a

truly democratic

education, namely, to help the individual to respect and uphold truth and, on the
basis of the richest possible personal development, to share and enjoy with his

fellow
heart.

men the

treasures

which our
p.

civilization offers to the

human mind and

(Hodgkinson, 1964,
later the

78)

Eleven years

Ford Foundation echoed the perspective of UNESCO. The

Foundation saw a need for increased and improved mass media instruction within public
schools (Ford Foundation, 1975).

The

report of a Television and Children conference

funded by the Ford, Markle, and National Science Foundations recommended several

14

courses of study as part of a curriculum.

Among the

subjects were analysis

of media

appeals, interpretation of non-verbal cues, review of the broadcasting industry"s history

and

structure, the

economic aspect of television, analysis of program formats, analysis of

values within television content, standards for criticism of content, and production skills

(Ford Foundation, 1975).

USOE's Four Seed

Critical

Projects

viewing

skills

education received additional support

in

978 when the

United States Office of Education

(USOE) funded
critical

four "seed" projects for elementary

and secondary teachers to teach students

project

viewing

skills

(Brown, 1991). Each

viewing
skills

was funded
them only

for

two

years.

USOE narrowly defined critical

Such
skills

by

relating

to television.

included understanding the psychological

impact of commercials; recognizing fact and

fiction; identifying

and respecting different

points of view; understanding the style and content of various types of programming; and

understanding the relation between

Kolkin, Wheeler,

TV

programming and

the printed

word (Lloyd-

& Strand,

1980). These seed projects were established in response to

research that found a link between television violence and subsequent aggressive

behavior in children (Bandura, Ross,

& Ross,

1963; Surgeon's General Scientific

Advisory Committee, 1972; Tyner, 1991).

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (Grades K-5) Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL), the
first

of the four

seed projects, was established for teachers of grades K-5 as well as students' parents and

youth leaders. The

critical

viewing

skills

(CVS)

activities

were designed
it

for classroom

and

home

use as well as within community organizations. Since

was

difficult to

add

15

new

components to existing school schedules.

SEDL

incorporated the program into

existing courses.

SEDL was designed to

teach eight essential television viewing

skills.

For example, students were taught

how to

distinguish fact and fiction, understand

psychological effects of advertising, and identify various production techniques such as

music, special effects, and color (Brown, 1991).

WNET

13,

New

York City (Grades 6-8)

Since 1972, the Education Division of New York City's noncommercial

television station

WNET

13 had been conducting critical viewing skills workshops in

New York area schools.

With federal funding

in 1978,

WNET developed and tested

formalized curriculum materials and conducted workshops for educators and community
leaders across the nation.

Ten

training sessions

were

set

up

for school administrators

and

teacher trainers to help

them conduct

their

own CVS

workshops. Ten more sessions were

arranged for community leaders and public librarians to help them train parents and
children in critical

home

viewing.

WNET's critical

viewing

skills

program was designed

for students in grades 6-8, but could be adapted for children at different cognitive levels.

Creators of the program intended the concepts and materials to be part of the language
arts or social studies curricula as well as to

be used

at

home.

A special workbook was

skills.

developed for students to practice

students might watch a television

critical writing

and thinking

For example,
ideas, specific

program and

identify

and analyze main

details, literary

elements, and draw conclusions based on their interpretations (Brown,

1991).

16

Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development (Grades 9-12)

With a grant of $410,000, the Far West Laboratory

for Educational Research and

Development (FWL) developed a

CVS

project directed to secondary students. This third

USOE project

had a fourfold mission.

First, the project

was

to identify

TV

skills

appropriate for teenagers; second, develop and field test course materials for teachers,
students and families; third, create materials and provide workshops for educators,

parents,

and leaders of organizations; and fourth, publish and distribute those materials
their initial curriculum,

(Brown, 1991). After testing

FWL determined their CVS

abilities; 1) to assess

program should address

one's

five areas

of critical viewing

and manage

own television viewing

behavior; 2) to question the reality of television; 3) to

identify persuasive techniques

and messages and counter-argue them; 4)

life;

to recognize

television effects

on one's own

and

5) to use television to facilitate family

communications (Brown, 1991).

FWL sought to develop these skills by helping students

TV
production

understand the economic basis of television, by teaching them about

techniques, and encouraging

them

to question

TV

messages and seek answers to

their

questions (Brown, 1991).

Boston University (Post-secondary and Adults)

In September 1978, the

USOE

devoted $400,000 to

its

fourth and final project,

which was conducted by the School of Public Communication

project ended

at

Boston University. The

on July

31, 1981.

The

project

was

directed to college students, parents, and

teachers with the intention of affecting the

medium

itself.

The program was

built

around

four modules that presented introductory material that

was applied through various

activities.

The

first

module examined the

structure

of the television industry, including

17

production, programming, economics, regulations, and effects. Module two focused on

the persuasive elements of television programming, including credibility and effects of

advertising, while

module

three

examined various program genres. The fourth module

explored the news media and governmental constraints. The project's director. Donis

Dondis (1980), argued

that the effort to create critical viewers

must begin with future

it

gatekeepers, teachers, and television program producers in order for

to

be successful.

More

specifically, critical

viewing

skills training

"enables these audiences, in their

present or future roles as parents, educators, business people, and

community
p. 3).

leaders, to

comprehend and influence programming decisions" (Dondis, 1980,

Funding Withdrawn
Despite the success of the four

CVS projects,

the government withdrew additional

funding in the wake of a deep economic recession. The recession cultivated the

widespread belief that students needed to

marketplace, which meant,

know how

to

compete

in the global

among

other things, that they needed to be computer

literate.

Since media education was associated with the recreational nature of television, critical

viewing
literacy

skills

programs were deemed unnecessary

critical

frill

and new funding for computer

programs replaced

viewing as a top educational priority (Dondis, 1980).

The Current Media Literacy Movement The media

(Considine, 1995;
the Center for
literacy

movement

in the

United States grew rapidly

in the late

990s
like

Kubey

& Baker,

1999).

Numerous support and advocacy groups

Media
Literacy, the National

Media Education, Media

the Center for

Telemedia

Council, Citizens for

Literacy, and the Children's

Media Policy Network have

IS

been created to educate the public about the need for media education. The National

Communication Association has developed standards

for

media

literacy in

K-12

education (National Communication Association, 1998).

Kubey and Baker (1999)

states contained

examined

all

50 state curricular frameworks and found that 48

that called for

one or

more elements

some form of media education. Media

literacy

components
For

appeared most frequently

in

language arts and communication

in

arts curricula.

example, Florida's Sunshine State Standards

the student "understands

language arts for grades 3-5 requires that

...

a variety of messages can be conveyed through mass media"

998). In the

(Florida Department of Education,

communication

arts area,

one of the

theatre standards for grades preK-2 requires that "the student understands context

by

analyzing the role of theatre, film, television, and electronic media in the past and
present" (Florida Department of Education, 1998).

The

social science curricula followed

language arts

in

terms of frequency of media education elements. Based on the results of

a survey of teachers, Tuggle and his colleagues (Tuggle, Sneed,

reiterated a call

&

Wulfemeyer, 2000)

made 10

years earlier for media literacy to be part of the high school

social science curricula.

Health and consumerism curricula were third behind social

science curricula in terms of frequency of media literacy components followed by media

strands in fourth place (e.g., newspaper, yearbook, television production)

(Kubey

&

Baker, 1999).
Further examples of media literacy around the nation are found in Minneapolis,

where students receive media where students

in

literacy grades

on

their report cards,

and

in

North Carolina,

grades K-12 are required to learn to "access, analyze, evaluate and

create media" (Darlington, 1996, p. 9E). Another

example of media education

that has

19

been

in

place for years

is

the

Newspaper

in

Education program. "The Newspaper

in

Education program

is

a cooperative effort of newspapers and thousands of U.S. and

Canadian schools where the newspaper

1 ).

is

used as a tool of instruction" (ANPA, 1990,

citizens,

p.

The program helps students be informed

develop

critical

reading

skills,

and

foster personal growth.

N1E

provides educators a cost effective and exciting opportunity

to use

newspapers

to teach students lessons in writing, history,

math, and

many

other

subjects

(ANPA,

1990).

number of texts and

to

guides, such as Using

Newspapers

to

Teach Journalism and Using the Newspaper

Reinforce Reading and

Writing

Skills,

have been written to help teachers use an ever present mass

learn.

medium to

help students

For example, teachers can use the sports and business sections of the newspaper to

teach math skills or give current events quizzes to

make

students aware of their world.

Teachers also can help students develop writing

skills

by having them choose an event

in

a poem, essay, or novel and write a newspaper article about the event

(ANPA,
in

1990).

Research indicates that journalism courses help students do better

(Dvorak, Lain,

school

& Dickson,

1994; Robinson, 1996; The

Freedom Forum,
1

1994).

Dvorak

et al.

(1

994) reported that journalism students do better in

out of 1 2 major academic

areas, write better,

and are active participants

in extra-curricular

and community

activities.

Dvorak and colleagues maintain

that journalism courses are

worthy of

permanent

status in the language arts curriculum.

Students

who took

a class called "Journalism" found

it

superior in meeting well-

recognized language arts competencies than did either required English courses or
other English electives. These indications from academically superior students

affirm the worthiness of Journalism as a course at the heart of the language arts

curriculum, not to be relegated to distant or second-class or adjunct status within

the English curriculum, and not to be squeezed out during times of budget crunch.

(Dvorak

et al.,

1994, p. 49)

20

Moreover, with the face of media changing as the

digital

age evolves, journalism

courses as well as others must incorporate lessons about and with

new

media. Katz

(1996) suggests that children must have access to the technology and be taught to use
safely

it

and responsibly and

in

way
is

that will serve a

broader social purpose beyond

set forth

entertainment.

Media education
literacy
is

one way to meet the challenges

by Katz.

Media
Critical

reaching the community through the "Family and

Community

2 Viewing Project" sponsored by the National

PTA (Parent

Teacher Association).

Cable

in the

Classroom, and the National Cable Television Association (Considine,

1995). With the passage of the Children's Television Act of 1990 and the subsequent

debate over

how to

enforce the requirements of the Act, more attention has been given to
to

the types and

amount of media messages children are exposed

on a

daily basis.

New Mexico
New
States.

Media Literacy Project

Mexico has been the
leader in the

media

literacy

movement

in the

United

In 1993, the

Downs Media Education Center (DMEC),

with other supporters,

funded the

New

Mexico Media Literacy Project

(NMMLP)

(Darlington, 1996).

Hugh
The
the

Downs of ABCs
Project
is

"20/20" and his daughter, Dierdre, founded the

Downs

Center.

now

sponsored by Albuquerque

3 Academy Outreach and supported by

New

Mexico

State

Department of Education and public and private sources. The goal of

"The Family & Community

Critical

Viewing

Project, a partnership

of the National Parent Teacher

Association, Cable in the Classroom, and the National Cable Television Association, provides free "Taking Charge of Your TV" workshops to help families view television carefully and critically. Since this

nationwide

initiative

began

in

1994, over 800 local cable operators, parents, and educators have been

trained as presenters to give critical viewing

workshops

in their

communities.

This project has the

support of national education organizations including the National Education Association, the American Association of School Administrators, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the
National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National School Boards Association" (Cable
in the

Classroom, 1996, available http://www.ciconline.com/home.htm).

a non-denominational, coeducational, independent day school for
It

Albuquerque Academy

is

,000

students in grades six through twelve.

houses the

New

Mexico Media Literacy

Project.

21

NMMLP

is

to

make New Mexico

the most

media

literate state in the

nation and introduce

the basic principles of media literacy to the state's population

(New Mexico Media

workshops
for students,

Literacy Project, 1998).

The Project conducts media

literacy

teachers, and parents that train participants to

become more aware of media

practices

and

help them analyze media messages in a systematic and critical manner.

also provides resources, including curriculum guides, videos,

The

NNMLP
to help

and

CD-ROMs,

teachers and parents develop and refine media literacy skills in children as well as

themselves. The Project has been recognized by local and national media as one of the

"state

and nation's most successful community-based educational matching grant

1

programs" (New Mexico Media Literacy Project,

995b,

p.

1 ).

Feedback about the

positive.

NMMLP's effort to

create a

media

literate citizenry

has been

The Project's

director.

Bob McCarmon,

is

essentially a

media

literacy

salesperson,

who

travels the state giving

workshops

to public

and private schools (Nissen,

1996).

As

part

of McCannon's workshops and teacher training programs, "the concept of

is

taking back our children's culture from the dominant media

resonating in

New

Mexico" (New Mexico Media Literacy

message
realize that they,

Project, 1995b, p.

1).

Those who hear the

whether parents, teachers, churches, or media representatives,

life in their

must reclaim from the media the task of teaching children lessons for
formative years and beyond

(New Mexico Media Literacy

television and other powerful

Project, 1995b). Project

members equate commercial

media with strangers who

come

into the

home and

give thousands of hours worth of lessons on anti-intellectualism,

gratuitous violence, addiction, and other anti-social values

(New Mexico Media

Literacy

Project, 1995b).

Media

literacy exists to

combat these "strangers."

22

National Media Literacy Efforts

On
U.

a national level, media literacy finds support from top government officials.

S. Secretary

of Education Richard Riley has

said,

'"young people need to

stretch their

minds and avoid being passive consumers

...

Television

is

here to stay, and our young

people need to become savvy and thinking people

when
.

it

comes

to understanding the

media'" (Rubel, 1996). In her book,

It

Takes

A Village

Hillary Clinton alludes to media

literacy.

She suggests

that television affects

what and

how Americans think and

argues

for teaching children to

watch television

critically (Rubel, 1996).

The concern about how The objective of such

training

citizens think is at the heart

of media

literacy training.

is

to

produce

critical thinkers

who can

evaluate and

analyze media messages. But, for teachers to train students to be

the media, they

critical

consumers of

must have specific objectives

for their students

and be trained

themselves.

National Communication Association Standards for Media Literacy

The National Communication Association has recommended standards

teaching and learning about media literacy.

for

The K-12 Standards

for Speaking, Listening,

and Media Literacy (National Communication Association, 1998) are the result of the
call for a

system of voluntary standards

in the

"core" subjects of English, math, history,

geography and science by the National Education Goals Panel (National Education Goals
Panel, 1992) as well as the national education reform legislation, "Goals 2000: Educate

America Act." This

act

proposed the development of standards

in several subjects,

including communication (U.S. Department of Labor, 1991).

23

NCA made several assumptions about these standards.

administrators and teachers
is

Acceptance by school

voluntary; the standards are not a national curriculum; they

serve as a framework for each state, school districts, or local schools to use to develop
all-inclusive; rather, they provide the opportunity for

curricula;

and the standards are not

state,

necessary additions by each

school districts, schools, and individual teachers

(National Communication Association, 1998). These assumptions are important because

they leave the decision about adopting and implementing the standards up to the
individual states and their respective school districts.

Such freedom and

flexibility

may

be the catalyst to get other states and school districts to adopt the standards and help
students

become media

literate.

NCA also provided guidelines for implementing these standards.

It is

clear that

only those trained in the designated areas should be allowed to teach the specific

skills

and concepts associated with media

literacy.

Lack of training has been a problem

for the

media

literacy

movement from
1

the start. Teachers

who

participated in the four "seed"

projects in the late

970s complained they did not know

how to

use the materials given to

them. Today, with projects like

the National

NMMLP and workshops conducted by organizations like

Classroom, there should be more teachers (from
literacy skills.
all

PTA and Cable

in the

subject areas) qualified to teach

media

Training teachers from

all

subjects

is

in

accord with

NCA recommendations that the concepts and skills of media literacy be

NCA also recommends that teachers receive ongoing

taught across the entire curriculum.

in-service training to help

them

create and adapt assignments to help foster students'

communication competence (National Communication Association, 1998).

24

Evolution of Persuasion Research

In order to

comprehend more

fully the research questions

and hypotheses guiding

in

this study,

it

will be useful to review briefly the evolution

of persuasion research

order

to understand

how

the elaboration likelihood

model of persuasion developed. This

effects research that

established

model of persuasion developed out of years of media

began with Walter Lippmann (1922) and Harold Lasswell (1927).

Early persuasion research suggested that mass media had direct effects on

attitudes

and behavior (Doob, 1935; Lippmann, 1922). However,

much of the
(Petty

early

research

was based on anecdotal evidence and not empirical research was a

shift in

& Priester,

1994). In the 1940s and 1950s there

media

researchers' thinking. Evidence

of an

indirect effects

model of persuasion began

to

emerge. The work of Hyman and

in

Sheatsley

947) suggested that persuasion could not be achieved by a mere increase

rather, effective

message flow;

message dissemination requires consideration of specific

psychological barriers. Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet's (1948) famous presidential

campaign study found

creating

that

media tend

to reinforce existing attitudes as

opposed

to

new

ones.

Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) suggested the idea of a "two-step" flow of

communication. They believed the media were not as powerful as early researchers had
thought. Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) argued that media tend to influence opinion leaders

who

in turn influence the general public.

The

studies of Carl

Hovland

also contributed to

the indirect effects view of the media. Hovland, Lumsdaine, and Sheffield (1949)

reported that military films had

little

effect

on mass changes

in attitude

and behavior.

Findings indicated a significant number of moderating variables that contributed to the

persuasive

power of the

military films

(Hovland

et al., 1949).

Subsequent research

25

focused on these moderating variables as contemporary models of persuasion were

developed.

Over the years the

research focusing

attitude construct has

been popular

in social

psychological

on media influence

(Petty

& Priester,

1994). In essence, the concept of

attitudes can be described as "peoples' general predispositions to evaluate other people,

objects,

and issues favorably or unfavorably" (Petty

it is

& Priester,

1994,

p. 94).

Attitude

is

important because

believed to be a mediating variable for knowledge acquisition as

well as behavioral change (Petty

& Priester,

1994). Although a

number of theories of

attitude

change have been developed over the years, the one

that laid the foundation for

the elaboration likelihood

model

is

the communication/persuasion matrix

model of

influence elaborated by

McGuire (1985,

1989).

The model suggests

that there are five

inputs to the persuasion process. These include (1) source, (2) message, (3) recipient, (4)

channel, and (5) context.

The outputs involve

(1) exposure, (2) attention, (3) interest, (4)

comprehension, (5) acquisition, (6) yielding, (7) memory, (8)

action, (11) reinforcement,

retrieval, (9) decision, (10)

and (12) consolidation (McGuire, 1989). While thorough, the

is

communication persuasion matrix model

Further research has

not complete.

shown

that information processing

does not have to be

sequential as suggested by the model.

Many of the

steps

may be completely independent

of the others (Petty

& Priester,

1994). For example, learning and comprehension can

occur without attitude change and attitudes can change without learning of specific
information (Petty, Baker,

& Gleicher,

1991; Petty

& Priester,

1994). Secondly, the

model

is

deficient in explaining the factors that produce yielding,

one of the outputs of

the matrix model.

While individuals may accept a persuasive communication based on

26

their exposure,

attention, interest,

comprehension, and acquisition of a message,

it is

not

guaranteed that they will yield to

it

(Petty

& Priester,

1994).

Greenwald (1968) and

Petty,

Ostrom, and Brock (1981b) developed the cognitive

response theory in order to address these two drawbacks. Cognitive response theory
suggests that the level of "yielding
related to the idiosyncratic cognitive responses (pro

is

and counter-arguments) generated to the message rather than learning of the message,
and persistence of persuasion
is

related to

memory
1994,

for these cognitive responses rather

than the message per se" (Petty

& Priester,

p. 98).

However, the cognitive response theory only focused on individuals who were
active

message processors and

failed to consider

what happens when individuals do not

actively think about the information they receive (Petty

& Priester,

1994). Thus, Petty

and Cacioppo (Petty

& Cacioppo,

1981a; Petty

& Cacioppo,

1986a; Petty

& Cacioppo,

1986b) developed the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, which holds that
there are

two routes

to persuasion, central

and peripheral.

Elaboration Likelihood

Model
tested in a

The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion has been

empirical studies.

number of

The

ELM posits that there are two routes to persuasion, a central route
2.1).

and a peripheral route (see Figure

The

central route

of persuasion

is

characterized

by active cognitive processing and leads to attitude changes that are more enduring and
predictive of future behavior (Cialdini, Petty,

& Cacioppo,

1981; Petty

& Cacioppo,

1980).

The peripheral route

(e.g.,

is

characterized by the attention given to positive and

negative cues

source attractiveness, number of arguments) within the persuasion

27

context. Attitude changes tend to be temporary and unpredictive

of behavior (Petty

et al..

1983).

The following review of the

literature will

examine the empirical research

that

has tested and validated the

Central Route of Persuasion

ELM.

The

central route to persuasion involves active cognitive processing

of persuasive

communications. This route of persuasion "views attitude change as resulting from a

person's diligent consideration of information that s/he feels
is

central to the true merits

of a particular attitudinal position" (Petty

et al.,

1983,

p. 135).

In other words, a person

uses his/her prior knowledge and experience to scrutinize

all

of the relevant information

in

a message in order to evaluate the merits of the advocated position (Petty

& Cacioppo,

986a; Petty

& Priester,

994).

An

individual's motivation

and

ability to process

information and generate favorable and/or unfavorable thoughts characterize the central
route. Other characteristics include

cognitive justification of behavior different from

existing attitudes

(Cummings

& Venkatesan,

1976; Festinger, 1957) and 2)

understanding, learning, and retaining issue/product relevant information (Bettman, 1979;

Ho viand,

Janis,

& Kelley,

1953; McGuire, 1976).

28

PERIPHERAL ATTITUDE SHIFT

PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION

Attitude

is

relatively temporary,

susceptible,

and unpredictive of

behavior

MOTIVATED TO PROCESS?
Personal relevance need
;

for cognition;

personal responsibility.

PERIPHERAL CUE PRESENT?

Yes
Positive/negative affect;
attractive expert

ABILITY TO PROCESS?
Distraction; repetition; prior knowledge;

sources;

number of

arguments.

message comprehensibility.

Media Literacy Training

Yes

NATURE OF COGNITIVE PROCESSING

(initial attitude,

argument quality)
Unfavorable

Favorable

Thoughts
Predominate

Thoughts
Predominate

COGNITIVE STRUCTURE CHANGE:

Are new cognitions adopted and stored in memory? Are different responses made more
salient than previously?

Yes
(favorable)

CENTRAL POSITIVE ATTITUDE CHANGE

Attitude
is

CENTRAL NEGATIVE ATTITUDE CHANGE

and

relatively enduring, resistant,

predictive of behavior

Figure 2.1. Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (Petty

& Cacioppo,

986b).

29

Additionally, the central route

is

characterized by individual cognitive responses

to external

messages (Cacioppo

& Petty,

1980; Greenwald, 1968; Petty

et al.,

1981b;

Wright, 1980) and the

way

a person integrates issue/product-relevant beliefs into a

summary

evaluation (Azjen

& Fishbein,

1980; Lutz

& Bettman,

1977; Troutman

&

Shanteau, 1976). Careful processing leads to an attitude that becomes part of a person's

belief structure.

However, research has shown

that considerable cognitive

work does not

The key

imply the formation of rational or accurate attitudes (Petty

point
that careful

& Priester,

1994).

is

and thoughtful evaluation of a persuasive message can change

attitudes.

Attitudes changed

by the central route "have been found to be

of behavior, and
resistant to

relatively

accessible, persistent over time, predictive

change

until

they

are challenged by cogent contrary information" (Cialdini et

al.,

1981; Petty et

al.,

1980;

Petty

& Priester,

1994,

p.

100-101).

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

The

peripheral route of persuasion espouses that attitude change can occur

without effortful evaluation of a message.

A person's motivation and ability to process

information are low along this route. This route relies on simple cues within the
persuasion context to influence attitude change. These cues include,

among

others,

source attractiveness, perceived expertise, and the number of arguments. Attitude change
via the peripheral route of persuasion can be highly effective; however, research has

shown

that

such attitude changes are "less accessible, less enduring, and

less resistant to

subsequent attacking messages" (Petty

information (Petty

& Priester,

1994, p. 101) than carefully processed

& Cacioppo,

986a).

30

Unlike the central route, attitude

change along the peripheral route

it

is

not the result

the result of a

of an individual's consideration of the pros and cons of an issue; rather,

is

person associating the attitude issue or product with positive or negative cues. Also,
attitude

change

may

result

because a person makes an inference about the merits of the

et al.,

argued position based on simple cues within the persuasion context (Petty

1983).

For example, a person

may

accept an advocated position because he/she received good

news before exposure

to the persuasive

communication.

The Role of Involvement

One of the most important

persuasive message
is

variables that affect the

amount of thinking about a

personal relevance. High personal relevance tends to dictate the

level

of interest and motivation

to process the

message information. Several studies

reported that an increase in personal relevance resulted in an increase in persuasion

strong arguments were used.

when

However, when weak arguments were presented, the

low relevance conditions (Burnkrant

message was
1989; Petty

less persuasive than in the

& Unnava.

& Cacioppo,

1979b).

Involvement as a determinant of argument-based persuasion

Petty,

Cacioppo, and Goldman (1981) conducted an experiment to examine

personal involvement as a determinant of argument-based persuasion. Undergraduates

expressed their attitudes toward an issue after exposure to a mediated message with either
strong or

weak arguments from a source of high or low

expertise.

The communication

had either high or low personal relevance to subjects.

The authors hypothesized

that high personal relevance

of a topic would lead to

(i.e.,

thoughtful consideration of the issue-relevant arguments in the message

the central

31

route).

Low persona]
al.,

relevance would

make

peripheral features of the argument

more

potent (Petty et

1981a).

Although the central and peripheral routes

support
at the time.

to persuasion

had received much

is

Petty et

al.

(1981a) pointed out that "attitude change

not

determined exclusively by either issue-relevant argumentation (central) or simple cue

association (peripheral)" (p. 848). Therefore, they suggested a closer examination of the
differences between each route and an identification of variables that determine which

route will be followed.

Personal involvement

is

one variable

that influences

how much

consideration

is

given to issue-relevant arguments. For example, Cialdini, Levy, Herman, Kozlowski,

and Petty (1976) found that subjects generated more supportive arguments
anticipation of a discussion with an opponent

in

an

when

the attitude issue

was of high

personal relevance. Petty and Cacioppo (1979a, 1979b) reported that issues of high

rather than

low personal relevance generated higher correlations among

subjects'

message-relevant thoughts and message acceptance.

While high personal relevance tends to

dictate subjects following the central route

of persuasion, low personal relevance typically engages the peripheral route of

persuasion. Johnson and Scileppi (1969) and Rhine and Severance (1970) found

manipulation of source credibility had more impact under low involvement conditions
than high. After exposing subjects to a message containing two or six arguments from a
likable or dislikable source,

Chaiken

( 1

980) found that message manipulation impacted

persuasion more under high involvement conditions.

On

the other hand, varying the

32

source had a greater impact under low involvement conditions. However. Chaiken's
findings do not provide

definitive support for the

two routes

to persuasion because the particular

message

manipulation employed by Chaiken (number of arguments) has the ability to serve as a simple cue much in the same way that a source manipulation (likable or
dislikable source) can serve as a cue. (Petty
et al.,

1981a,

p.

849)
test

Petty,

Cacioppo, and Goldman's (1981a) study was designed to more directly

is

that

under high-involvement conditions thoughtful message evaluation

the most

important factor in persuasion, but under low-involvement conditions, peripheral cues

have the most impact. Their formal hypothesis was that

[u]nder conditions of high personal involvement, persuasion would be affected quality of the message arguments employed but that under lowinvolvement conditions, persuasion would be tied more strongly to the expertise of the source. (Petty et al., 1981a, p. 849)

more by the

A2

(issue involvement: high or low) x 2 (argument quality: strong or

weak) x 2
Subjects

(source expertise: high or low) factorial design

to radio broadcasts

was used

to test the hypothesis.

were exposed

about potential policy changes

at the University

of

Missouri. In order to create high involvement

policy changes (comprehensive

among

subjects, half were told that the

exam requirement

for graduation)

would be

instituted the

following year. The other half were told the changes would not take effect for 10 years,
thus creating low involvement. Additionally, source expertise

was

varied

among

the

subjects as well as argument quality. Strong arguments included statistics, data, etc. in

support of the comprehensive exams.

Weak message arguments

relied

on quotes,

personal opinion, and examples. The messages contained eight arguments each and were
1981a).

equivalent in length (Petty et

al.,

33

Two

attitude

measures were taken

after the subjects listened to the radio

broadcasts. Subjects

were asked

"to rate the

concept

of Comprehensive Exams' on

four

9-point semantic differential scales (good/bad, beneficial/harmful, foolish/wise, and

unfavorable/favorable)" (Petty et

al.,

1981, p.850). Subjects were also asked to rate the

extent of their agreement with the proposal for comprehensive

exams on an

1 1

-point

scale (1-do not agree at

all

and

-agree completely). These attitude measures were

converted and averaged into an index of attitude toward comprehensive exams. Subjects
also rated the quality

of the broadcast and the announcer

in order to maintain the

cover

story.

They answered

three questions to evaluate the effectiveness

of the manipulations.
the

Furthermore, subjects were given four minutes to

list

as

many arguments from

message they could

recall.

Independent coders blind to the experimental manipulations

rated each argument listed for accuracy (r

.92).

Findings suggested that under certain circumstances factors other than message
content, like source credibility and attractiveness, might be

more important

as

determinants of persuasion. Results indicate that a persuasive message high in personal

relevance
effective because

is

of the cogency of its arguments. However, persuasive

messages low
results, Petty

in personal relevance

were effective because of peripheral cues. Given the

and

and

his colleagues suggested that issue-relevant argumentation

peripheral cues must be examined to determine the path to persuasion. "Each type of

persuasion occurs in some instances, and the level of personal involvement with an issue

appears to be one moderator of which type of persuasion occurs" (Petty

et al.,

1981a,

p.

853).

34

The authors offered two reasons why increased personal relevance might be
associated with increased reliance

on message arguments

for persuasion. First, there

is

greater motivation to form a reasoned opinion

when

personal interests are high.

Individuals tend to scrutinize arguments about a highly personal issue

more thoroughly

than issues low in personal relevance.

Few

people want to do the cognitive work

the issue

necessary to evaluate message arguments

when

is

not relevant to them (Petty

&

Cacioppo, 1981b).
Besides motivation, ability
a second reason personal relevance might be

is

associated with increased message evaluation.

The authors suggest

that people tend to

have a better schema for thinking about things relevant to them. Thus, people
greater ability to process messages relevant to

may have

them

(Petty et

al.,

1981a).

The authors conclude

that there are

two

distinct routes to persuasion

and

"that

these routes are characterized by different antecedents and consequents" (Petty et

al.,

1981a,

p. 854).

They suggested

that future

work examine other

potential moderators

of

the route to persuasion. This suggestion

is

a catalyst for the present study.

The moderating
Petty et

role

of involvement
test the

al.

(1983) conducted an experiment to

moderating role of
at the University

involvement

in the

ELM. Over

150 male and female undergraduates

of

Missouri-Columbia were randomly assigned to each of the

involvement) x 2 (strong
factorial design.
vs.

cells in a 2 (high vs.

low

weak argument) x 2

(celebrity vs. non-celebrity status)

Subjects were told they were part of a study concerning the evaluation

of magazine and newspaper ads conducted by the psychology department and journalism
school (Petty etal., 1983).

35

Subjects were presented with two booklets. The

first

contained instructions and

advertisements.

The second was a questionnaire booklet. Each booklet varied on

al.,

level

of

involvement, argument quality and peripheral cue (Petty et

1983).

Involvement was manipulated by offering a

participation.

free gift to the subjects for their

To

establish high involvement, subjects

were offered a disposable

in the booklet.

razor,

which happened

to be the brand advertised in

one of the ads

Additionally,

subjects were told that the razor and advertisement

would be

test

marketed

in

Midwestern

cities,

including their own.

Low involvement was established

To
further establish

by offering a brand of

toothpaste not advertised in the booklet.

low involvement, subjects

were

told the razor

and advertisement would be test-marketed on the East Coast. Thus,

high involvement subjects were led to believe they would

product
in the

make

a decision about a

experiment and that the product soon would be available

in their area.

Low

involvement subjects were led to believe they would not have to make a decision
in the

about razors

experiment and that

1983).

it

would not be available

in their area in the

foreseeable future (Petty et

al.,

Argument
the razor

quality

was

either strong or

weak. The strong arguments ad suggested

about the razor
(e.g.,

was
is

"scientifically designed"

and

listed five statements

"Handle

tapered and ribbed to prevent slipping"). The

weak arguments ad

characterized the razor as "designed for beauty" and listed five statements about the

product

(e.g.,

"Floats in water with a

minimum of rust")

(Petty et

al.,

1983).

Celebrity and non-celebrity endorsements were used to vary the peripheral cue. Celebrity endorsed ads featured famous golf and tennis athletes. Non-celebrity ads
featured average looking people unfamiliar to the subjects (Petty et

al.,

1983).

36

The questionnaire booklet contained the dependent measures. On the

subjects were asked to
list all

first

page,

the product categories that

were advertised and asked

to

recall the

brand name of the products

in

each category. The second page asked subjects

with one of the 12

to select the correct brand

name from seven choices and match

it

product category descriptors. These brand recall and recognition measures were used for
"their practical

importance and for purposes of comparison with the attitude data" (Petty

etal., 1983, p. 139).

After responding to questions about one of the legitimate ads in the booklet,
subjects answered questions about the crucial

Edge razor ad. These questions were

placed early in the booklet to avoid subject fatigue and boredom and achieve

maximum

manipulation effectiveness. Subjects responded to questions about purchase intentions

and their overall impression of the product. These measures were averaged into a general
positive or negative attitude toward the product (Petty et
al.,

1983).

Next, subjects answered questions consistent with the cover story and then were
instructed to
their thoughts while they

list all

examined the Edge

ad. This thought listing

activity

was designed

to

be a "cognitive response" measure; however, subjects did not

list

many thoughts about

manipulations.

the product. Results indicated this

measure was unaffected by the

if
it

The authors suggest

that the

measure may have been more sensitive

had been administered immediately after exposure to the Edge ad (Petty

et al., 1983).

Findings indicate that manipulation of argument quality influences attitudes to a

greater degree

when involvement

is

high. Manipulating the product endorser resulted in

a greater impact on attitudes under low involvement conditions rather than high. These

37

results are consistent with the

ELM and confirm there are two distinct routes to

persuasion (Petty et

al.,

1983).

Forewarning of subjects
Petty and Cacioppo (1979a) studied the effects

of forewarning subjects of the

persuasive intent of a communication under high and low involvement conditions.

Foreknowledge of persuasive communications can take two forms (Papageorgis, 1968).

"Persons

may

be forewarned of a) the topic and position of an impending

communication, or b) the communicator's persuasive intent" (Petty

p. 173).

& Cacioppo,

1979a

The

researchers' hypothesis,

which was based on reactance theory (Brehm,

1966), suggested that the reactance to foreknowledge of persuasive intent would affect

how the message was

accepted on
its

processed. Without forewarning, the communication would be

own merits. With

forewarning, subjects would be motivated to counter1979a). Petty and Cacioppo (1979a)

argue the communication (Petty

& Cacioppo,

believed the greater the personal relevance of the attitude under attack, the greater the

reactance to the communication and the greater the inhibition of persuasion.

Subjects were placed in

two groups (warned of persuasive

intent or not).

Within

each group subjects experienced one of three involvement levels (one high and two low).
Subjects read booklet covers that either warned them of the impending persuasive

communication or

not.

Subjects then listened to three-minute radio editorials that argued

for the requirement

of senior comprehensive exams

in one's

major before graduation.

in

The researchers manipulated high involvement by providing an introductory paragraph

the editorials that stated the comprehensive

exams were

to be instituted with the

upcoming graduating

class.

Thus, the subjects were likely to be affected personally. The

38

two low involvement conditions used a paragraph

1

that stated the

exams would begin

in

years or they would begin with the

upcoming graduating

class, but at another college.

Thus, the personal relevance of the editorials was greatly reduced (Petty

& Cacioppo.

1979a).

After hearing the editorials, the subjects expressed their attitudes toward the

proposed policy change on an

-point Likert-type scale.

Subjects also listed their

thought and ideas about the radio editorial and rated them as positive, negative or neutral
in favor

(i.e.,

of the exams, opposed,

indifferent). Additionally, subjects

completed

ancillary questions

and attempted

to recall all

message arguments (Petty

& Cacioppo,

1979a).

The

results

confirmed Papaeorgis' suggestion that forewarning of persuasive

intent inhibits attitude

change more for issues of high than low involvement.

Additionally, Petty and Cacioppo's hypothesis that forewarnings

of persuasive

intent

on
is

issues

of high involvement

inhibits persuasion

by producing counter-arguments, which

based on reactance theory, was also confirmed. Forewarning of persuasive intent inhibits
persuasion on highly involving issues by producing counter-arguments, not only before

the

message (Petty

& Cacioppo,

1977), but during message presentation (Petty

&

Cacioppo, 1979a).
Interestingly, in the

absence of forewarning, high involvement subjects tended to

show more

attitude

change than low involvement subjects (Petty

& Cacioppo,
more

1979a).

Petty and Cacioppo suggest that increased personal relevance produces

critical

message processing. However, when forewarning

is

introduced, the nature of

information processing changes because subjects become less objective and more intent

39

on finding problems with the arguments presented as a way of reasserting

freedom (Petty

their attitudinal

& Cacioppo,

1979a). Higher correlations were found for attitude under

high rather than low involvement conditions and under warned rather than unwarned
conditions.

"This suggests that both involvement and warning increase the importance of

message relevant cognitions

in

producing persuasion" (Petty

& Cacioppo.

1979a,

p. 176).

Child Development Literature

Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

is

one of the most

influential

researchers in the area of cognitive development. His developmental stages have been

used time and again to explain and categorize children's mental and physical growth.
Piaget's

work

in cognitive

development suggests
to

that children learn

by what they do;

however they must be ready

move

to the next level

of learning. Moving children

It

through the steps necessary to get them to where they need to go can create readiness.
clear

is

from Piaget's work

that children tend to follow

an established pattern of
set forth

development. Communication researchers have applied and tested the ideas

Piaget and other psychologists and educators through

by

numerous research

studies.

Understanding which age group possesses the necessary cognitive

skills to

process and

evaluate persuasive messages will provide vital information for the design of this study.

Therefore, a brief review of theories about child development as

it

relates to television

is

essential to this study.

Jean Piaeet and Cognitive Development

Before examining the developmental literature as

useful to

it

relates to

communication

it is

summarize

Piaget's theory

of cognitive development. Having a working

40

knowledge of Piaget's ideas

Piaget

will provide a foundation

on which

to build.

Piaget (1983;

& Inhelder,

1964) and other stage theorists believe there are distinct qualitative
in contrast to learning theorists

stages of child development. This

is

who

suggest there

is

a step-by-step quantitative process of acquiring knowledge

According

to Piaget, the various stages are

achieved as children mature.

relative ease) are

Maturation and readiness

(i.e.,

the capability

of learning with

key to

children developing the skills that help

them acquire and organize knowledge. Piaget

believed physical action and experience with the environment were important for

learning.

He

also believed in the importance

of schemata, which are the basic units of

cognitive, and verbal

cognition, speech, and behavior.

Examples include sensorimotor,

schemata. Sensorimotor schemata refer to things like walking and opening doors;
cognitive schemata refer to concepts, images, and the ability to reason from causes to
refer broadly to

effects;

and verbal schemata

communication

skills.

Schemata

in

newborn

infants are simple reflexes;

however, new schemata develop quickly and

coordinate into larger schemata. For example, grasping schemata are the coordination of

acquired schemata such as the abilities to,

first,

focus on an object, and, second,

determine

if the

object can be grasped or not.

According to Piaget, schemata are modified through the constant process of

adaptation,

which
is

is

achieved via assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.

that helps individuals learn to predict

Adaptation

an on-going process

and control
their

their

environment as they develop additional schemata through interactions with

Learning theorists,

like

Bloom (Bloom,

Englehart, Furst, Hill,

& Krathwohl,

1956),

Gagne

(1977), and

Briggs (Gagne

& Briggs,
is

differences in what

based- on 1 979), have developed typologies that classify types of learning being learned. These typologies suggest that specific types of learning take place

within each category.

41

surroundings. Individuals accommodate, or change, their behavior

when

they encounter

new experiences by developing new schemata

situations.

or adapting existing schemata to the

new

They assimilate by

transferring established schemata to

new

situations.

Accommodation and

assimilation exist in every behavior. Individuals also try and

maintain a sense of equilibration, or balance, as they explore and attach order and

meaning

to their daily experiences

(Good

& Brophy,
is

1990).

According to Piaget's theory, development

divided into four basic periods: "1)

sensorimotor (birth to eighteen months), 2) preoperational (eighteen months to seven

years), 3) concrete operations (seven to twelve years),

and 4) formal operations (twelve

is

years and beyond"

(Good

& Brophy,

1990,

p. 72).

Schemata development

characterized by sensorimotor skills in the sensorimotor stage, while the preoperational

stage

moves

into thought

and imagery. Classification

skills,

negation, identity,

reversibility

of operations, and reciprocity develop

is

in the

concrete operations stage. The

period of formal operations

propositions contrary to

highlighted by the use of symbols, abstractions, and

fact.

Developmental Differences
Attention

Among
is

Children

Attention level

based on more than just aural and visual stimuli.

level.

The nature of the stimulus and

its

complexity dictate attention

Studies

show

that

children pay attention to the formal features of television (e.g., program pace, cuts, sound

effects,

presence of dialogue) as well program content (Huston, Greer, Wright, Welch,

&

Ross, 1984; Huston

features signal

& Wright,
is

1983). Huston and Wright (1983) suggested that formal

what content

forthcoming, and such features serve as the syntax and

grammar of program

content.

42

Age

Animation, differences exist in attention to formal television features.

and sound effects appeal to peculiar voices, upbeat music, rhyming, auditory changes,
younger children (Anderson

& Levin,

1976; Calvert

& Gersh,

1987). Older children do

they tend to depend not rely on such salient features unless they are informative;
learned signals (Calvert, Huston, Watkins,
learn that the end

on

& Wright,

1982). For example, older children

of a dramatic show

is

when revelations

are

made and problems

are

resolved.

They understand

that the last part

of the program

is

the time to really pay

attention.

As

children's experience with television increases, the cognitive

demands of a

show grow

in

importance (Van Evra, 1998). Wright and colleagues (1984) noted that

salient features are important, especially to

young viewers,

in establishing initial

attention,

which

is

based largely on perception. These formal features become

less

increases. important as cognitive skills develop and experience with television

Zuckerman, Ziegler, and Stevenson (1978) noted

children grasp television content as accurately as
that older children are using

that despite a lower attention level older

young viewers do. Research suggests

more
is

active

and schematic processing and selectively

al.,

attending to what they perceive

important for processing (Wright et

1984). This

explains

why

older children do not need to pay attention as

much

as

young viewers.
most

Their ability to process information

is

more

sophisticated, so they can attend to the

important elements and

still

accurately interpret what

is

happening on the program.

"These data run counter to the idea that children passively absorb television information, and they suggest that children's cognitive processing
abilities

and strategies are active and

43

fairly sophisticated"

(Anderson

& Smith,

1984; Pezdek

& Hartman,

1983, cited in

Van

Evra, 1998, p.

6).

Comprehension Numerous researchers have found developmental differences

,

among

children in terms of children's understanding television (Dorr, 1980;

Hayes

&

Kelly, 1984;

Young, 1990). For

instance, three-year olds believe television characters are

real;

they lack the ability to understand narrative or dramatic structure; and they don't

understand sarcasm and irony (Van Evra, 1998).

Children's comprehension levels vary depending

on

age.

Young

children's

understanding of a television program and recall of program content are adversely

affected

by an

inability to associate cause

and

effect events

(Hayes

& Kelly,
fire

1984). For

example, a five-year old watching "Beavis" and "Butt-head" play with

associate lighting a

does not
difficult

match with the destruction of property. Children also have a

time distinguishing between program content and commercials and real and imaginary
characters (Canadian Association of Broadcasters, 1985).

Of course, some programming

practices, like bringing

an action figure to

"life,"

make

distinguishing between real and

TV life

more

difficult (Dorr, 1980).

According

to a study

of children's comprehension of temporal aspects of content

by Calvert (1988), 10-year old children were better able to understand flashbacks than
six-year olds. Calvert concluded that formal features, like flashbacks, influence

children's understanding

of time-ordered concepts presented on television. Hirsch and

in

Kulberg (1987) found age to be a factor

accuracy of temporal judgments. Children

underestimated the length of 45-second segments and overestimated 15-second segments.

According to the study, children, especially preschoolers,

who watched

less television

44

overall tended to

make more

accurate estimates. Thus, the

more

television a child

watched, the more mistakes he/she made

in

estimating time length. Older children

made

more accurate estimates

despite the

amount of television watched. Hirsch and Kulberg

(1987) suggested that the age of a child and amount of TV viewing during preschool are

key factors

that influence children's ability to

make temporal judgments.

is

Spontaneous organization and integration of plot information

capability

beyond the

of most children, and those younger than 7 or 8 rarely grasp abstract lessons
in

embedded

some shows (Christenson

& Roberts,

1983). Rubin (1986) suggested that

preoperational children rely

on perception

to guide their behavior; thus, their judgments

are based

on perceived appearances and the immediate environment. However, by age

or 8 changes occur and conceptual and symbolic skills develop. These help youngsters

mediate television content and understand the complexities of television portrayals better
(Rubin, 1986).

Hoffher and Cantor (1985) point out that young children rely on more perceptual
features and information (e.g., personal appearance) than conceptual information and

actual behavior

when watching programs. Thus, they

often misinterpret important

information. Additionally, children's comprehension

of social interaction on

television

is

influenced by their ability to understand certain character depictions (Babrow, O'Keefe,

Swanson, Meyers,

& Murphy,

1988). Their ability to

comprehend

television characters'

social interaction is largely

based on

their

own

interpersonal experience

(Van Evra,

1998).

Retention

Differences in retention levels

among

children are due to

developmental level as well. Recall

is

greatest for verbal encoding

of auditory

input, but

45

such encoding

is

an age-related

skill

not available to young children.

They

rely

more

heavily on visual input; therefore recall of auditory information

is

poorer (Van Evra.

1998).

Researchers have found that format variables involved

in various

media

affect

younger children more than older ones. Meringoff, Vibbert, Char, Fernie, Banker, and
Gardner (1983) reported that preschooler's memory of figurative language improved
greatly after a story

was read
al.

to

them

as

compared

to watching a television story.

However, Meringoff et

(1983) noted that older children remember language from

stories; although, older children

television as well as they

do from

may be more

sensitive

to

language delivery than younger ones.

Oyen and Bebko (1996) compared

the performance of 4- to 7-year olds

on a

memory task that was

instructions.

either

embedded

in

a computer

game or given

via simple

Although significantly more rehearsal time was observed

in the

game

context, the difference

between groups was not so large when covert rehearsal was

included in the comparison. Rehearsal in either context led to greater recall, but those

playing the

game remember

less than those

following simple instructions. Conclusions

suggested that the games, although interesting,

the

may have

distracted the subjects and

made

memory task more

in task

difficult

because of competing goals. The authors explained that

changes
children

and

interest value

do not necessarily lead

the information

to

spontaneous rehearsal

in

who do

not want to

remember

(Oyen

& Bebko,
skills,

1996).

Children, 5- to 8-years old with advanced story

schema

processed

information with less effort, had better

memory recall memory

for central content,

and

demonstrated a higher level of attention and

coordination in a study by

46

Meadowcroft and Reeves (1989). Beagles-Roos and Gat (1983) found

that

younger

children develop basic television skills early, but general cognitive skills

become more

important as time passes.

Although effective learners process information via visual recognition and verbal
encoding,
it

is

older children

who

process, encode, and

remember language more

that children learned

easily

(Van Evra, 1998). Beentjes and van der Voort (1993) found
from television
stories than print stories.

more
stories

Interestingly, television stories

and print

were recalled equally when immediate

better than print stories

recall

was

tested;

however, television stories fared

on delayed

tests.

Age-differences also exist for type of material that

is

recalled.

Hayes and Casey

(1992) reported that preschoolers mention of the emotional states of characters on

"Sesame

Street"

and "The Cosby Show" made up

less than

1%

of the reactions recalled

after viewing.

Recognition of affective states lasted longer for

cartoons.

human portrayals

than for

Muppet shows and

The children

also described basic emotions

more accurately

than complex ones. Despite verbal labels, the preschoolers did not remember the

emotional states of the Muppets or cartoon characters, nor did they mention the physical
states

of the characters

in retelling the stories

(Hayes

& Casey,

1992).

Winn (1985) noted

in

a significant age-related difference

among

children and adults

terms of the television viewing experience;

it

is

the background of actual experiences

one can bring to television viewing. For children, television

is

a primary activity, and

they do not have a vast amount of experiences, fantasies, and relationships to shape their

viewing experience

like adults do.

Often, real-life experiences evoke

memories of

47

television content for

young children rather than the reverse, which

is

the case for adults

(Winn, 1985).

Although much of the

literature suggests that

young children remember

little

of

what they see on

retention.

television,

it is

necessary to identify the measures used to assess their

Young

children tend to perform better

on

tests

of recognition than on ones of

recall,

and several researchers have reported

that older children recall

more of television

content than younger viewers (Meringoff, 1980;

Odom,

1972; Roedder, 1981).

Therefore, younger children

who

focus on visual stimuli are at a disadvantage

when
results for

open-ended

recall

measures are used. Previous research might yield different

performance
if these studies substitute

young viewers'
recall

recall

recognition measures for

measures (Van Evra, 1998). Such findings were reported by Hayes and Kelly

(1984)

when

a recognition measure

was used

in

place of a recall measure to assess

retention of visual material.

Moreover, Cullingsford (1984) explained that

recall, unlike

recognition,

is

a voluntary process.

He

suggested that children recognize a

lot

about

television because

of repetition and

familiarity, but they recall

little.

Children and Advertising

Since the focus of this study
children's understanding
to determine the role

is

of media

literacy training in

of persuasive messages

(i.e.,

television advertisements),

it

is

necessary to discuss the literature relating to children and advertising. Although a review

of all the children and advertising

brief discussion

literature

is

beyond the scope of this

investigation, a

of the relevant research on children and advertising follows.

4S

Martin

(1

997) conducted a meta-analysis of children's understanding of the

that

intent

of advertising and found several study characteristics

in

have produced varying results

previous research. The meta-analysis examined studies that addressed these questions:
a commercial?" and

"What

is

"Why

is

a commercial on television/What

is

a commercial

trying to do?" (Martin, 1997).

Twenty-one

articles

met the

criteria

and were included

in

the meta-analysis. Although most studies suggest a positive relationship between age and

children's understanding

of the

intent

of advertising,

it is

not clear which factors impact

the strength of the relationship.

Young (1990)

classified the research

on children and advertising

into

two

categories with several subcategories:

Cognitive processes activated as a result of watching and listening to

advertising
a. b. c.

attention to advertisements
ability to distinguish

between advertising and programs

understanding of ad intent
interpretation

d.
e.

of advertising content
and
recall,

memory

for advertisements (recognition

awareness of

advertisements)
f.

other processes involved (cognitive mediators)

the child does with the information processed

2.

What
a. b.
c.

effect effect effect

on knowledge, attitudes, and values on other people (e.g., parents) on choice/consumption behavior or other types of behavior

(e.g.,

antisocial behavior) (cited in Martin, 1997, p. 206).

Young's (1990) breakdown of the children and advertising

because

literature

is

useful

it

provides a clearer picture of the numerous areas of research that have been

explored.

The present
first

investigation

is

concerned with both categories

set forth

by

Young. The

category involves cognitive processing of messages. This study will

focus on the sub-categories of children's understanding of ad intent, their interpretation of

ad content, and other cognitive mediators

(i.e.,

media

literacy training).

The second

49

category deals with what the child does with the processed information. The focus within

this

category

is

the sub-category of effects

on

attitudes.

In her meta-analysis, Martin (1997) focused

on the

relationship

between age and

understanding of ad intent and examined potential moderator effects. These moderator

effects included

measurement of children's understanding of the

intent

of advertising,

type of intent assessed, type of ad exposure, publication year, and publication type.

The

first

three moderator effects are most relevant to the present study; publication year and

publication type will not be discussed.

Verbal assessments, including personal interviews (Macklin, 1983) and written

questionnaires (Boush, Friestad,

& Rose,

1994), have been the primary

means of

measuring children's understanding of advertising's intent (Martin, 1997). However,

there

is

some question about

This task

children's ability to articulate their understanding about ad

intent.

may be

too difficult for kids (Macklin, 1987). Other studies have

assessed children's understanding through nonverbal tasks, like pointing at pictures to

demonstrate understanding (Donohue, Henke,

& Donohue,

1980; Kunkel, 1988; Macklin,

1987). Children's inability to articulate their understanding of ad intent has led to the

conclusion that they do not understand the intent of advertising intent. This
problematic because they

is

may

understand but cannot explain

it

(Macklin, 1987).

In terms of understanding the intent of advertising, Martin's (1997) meta-analysis

revealed a significant difference between the effect size for verbal assessment and the
effect size for nonverbal assessment.

Results indicate that

it

is

problematic to draw

conclusions from the entire set of studies because several study characteristics, especially
differences in methods, moderate the relationship between age and understanding of ad

50

intent (Martin. 1997).

The

findings suggest nonverbal assessments tend to be

more

appropriate for younger children than verbal assessments. Nonverbal measures appear to

reveal understanding of ad intent that

was previously undetected

(Martin. 1997).

According

to

Martin (1997), the literature distinguishes between an informational

function of advertising and a persuasive function.

The informational function simply

lets

the audience

know the
is

products are available in the store (Macklin, 1987). The

persuasive function

more complex and

1 )

requires an understanding of four attributes.

Audience members must

understand the message source has other interests and

perspectives; 2) realize the source intends to persuade; 3) understand persuasive

messages are biased; and 4) realize biased messages must be interpreted differently than
informational messages (Macklin,
1

987; Roberts, 1982). Robertson and Rossiter

there are

974)

made

similar distinctions.

They suggested

two types of attributional

intent:

assistive

(i.e.,

ads inform us) and 2) persuasive (ads encourage us to buy products). Other

types of intent identified by Blosser and Roberts (1985) are the intent to inform, teach,

entertain, sell,

and persuade.

Despite the differences put forth by Blosser and Roberts (1985), Martin (1997)

found that much of the

that

literature

equated selling intent with persuasive

intent.

She noted

little

empirical evidence exists to support differences between informational intent

and persuasive

intent.

Her meta-analysis focused on the

distinctions

between

persuasive/selling intent and informational/assistive intent (Martin, 1997).

Results indicate a significant difference in effects sizes for persuasive/selling

intent

and informational/assistive

intent.

Martin (1997) suggests that across age groups,

children tend to understand the informational/assistive intent of advertising better.

51

Robertson and Rossiter (1974) explained

surmised,
is

that "persuasive intent, as

would be

clearly

a higher order of attributional sophistication and

is

dependent upon

maturational development and, by implication, cumulative exposure to television

commercials"

(p. 17).

It is

clear that children, even

young ones,

better understand the

informational concept that commercials

tell

them about

things, and their ability to

comprehend the persuasive concept of advertising depends on

their

age (Martin. 1997).

Type of ad exposure has varied among the

understanding of the intent of advertising.

studies measuring children's

Some

studies (e.g.,

Ward, Wackman,

&

Wartella, 1975, 1977) do not expose children to commercials or programming.

They

simply ask general questions about children's understanding of ad intent via surveys or
personal interviews. Other studies
(e.g.,

Rubin,

974) have exposed children to a series

others (e.g., Stutts,

of commercials only or
Vance,

to

commercials and other programming.

Still

& Hudleson,

1981) exposed children to commercials imbedded in other types of

"no ad," "ad
the

programming. Martin (1997) suggests that "the type of ad exposure

only," or "ad

(i.e.,

mixed" advertisements and other types of programming) may moderate

strength of the relationship between age and understanding of ad intent" (p. 207). Seeing

an advertisement

may

help subjects explain

more

clearly the intent

of advertising than not

seeing an ad. Moreover, seeing an ad in an unnatural setting with few distractions

may

cue subjects to the

that type

ad's informative

or persuasive

intent.

Meta-analysis results indicate

of exposure before measurement of understanding of ad

intent does, indeed,

affect the level

of understanding shown by children (Martin, 1997).

to

According

Martin (1997), further research must explore children's

understanding of the distinction between informational/assistive intent and

52

persuasive/selling intent. Martin argues that conceptually the

two

types of intent

lie

on a

continuum, with informational intent requiring a lower level of understanding and

persuasive intent requiring a higher level of understanding.

Her meta-analysis

reveals

that the research has not treated

them as such (Martin, 1997). Roberts (1982) argued

intent is based

that

children's understanding

of advertising

on

their perspective.

If they

approach advertising from the consumer's perspective, then they see

informational
(i.e.,

its

intent as

show products that

are available for purchase). If they approach

advertising from the advertiser's perspective, then they understand advertising

is

way
1

to

persuade the audience to buy products so the advertiser can

make

a profit (Martin,

997).

Martin (1997) also argued for further development of reliable nonverbal measures
to assess children's (especially

younger

children's) understanding

of ad

intent.

Macklin

(1987) questioned those studies (Donohue

et al

1980; Macklin, 1985) that claimed to

measure persuasive/selling
the Trix Rabbit wants

intent via nonverbal measures.

Asking kids

to point to

what

them

to

do may not accurately assess

their understanding

of

advertising's selling intent (Macklin, 1987). Martin (1997) suggested that researchers

"...continue to develop nonverbal measures with the goals of determining whether these

tasks are ascertaining informational/assistive intent, persuasive/selling intent, or

some

other type of information, and the extent to which the results are affected by the nature of
the task" (p. 214). Furthermore, additional verbal assessment measures should be

developed (Martin, 1997).

53

Attitude

Toward Advertisements
is

While the focus of this investigation

selected, high-involvement products,
it

to

determine changes

in attitude

toward

is

also necessary to understand that subjects

may

develop an attitude toward the actual advertisement that could influence their attitudes

toward the products. Therefore,

been done
in the area

it

is

useful to examine briefly

some of the work

that has

of attitude towards advertisements (Haley

& Baldinger,

1991

Holbrook, 1978; Mitchell

& Olson,

1981; Shimp, 1981).

A Meta-Analvsis
In their meta-analysis

of pairwise relationships involving

( 1

attitude

toward

advertisements,

Brown and Stayman

992) found that a number of methodological

variables moderate the strength of relationships

among

the research studies focusing

on

ad attitudes. Results also provided support for the indirect influence of ad attitudes on

brand attitudes via brand cognitions (Brown

& Stayman,

1992).

This meta-analysis offered several insights into the effects of ad attitudes. The

aggregated study effects showed a significant relationship between ad attitudes and

constructs such as feelings, ad-related cognitions, brand-related cognitions, brand

attitude,

and purchase intentions.

A notable result was that even in studies where ad

attitude

was not

the central focus, relationships involving ad attitudes remained strong.

Thus, ad attitude plays an important role in explaining advertising effects (Brown

&

Stayman, 1992).

Brown and Stayman's (1992)

et al., 1983),

study also supported the dual mediation model (Lutz

"which posits a direct effect of ad attitude on brand attitude as well as an

54

indirect effect via brand cognitions" (p. 46).

However, the

results suggest the indirect

path

may

be more important than previously thought (Brown

& Stayman.

1992).

Moderator analyses yielded useful findings. Although Peter and Churchill (1986)
suggest that multiple-item scales should be more reliable for measuring ad attitude,
results indicated that multi- versus single-item scales

had

little

effect

on average

correlations.

Significance

was found only

for

ad attitude and brand attitude relationships.

Additionally, student samples were found to produce large effects sizes, especially

between ad

attitude

and feelings and ad-related cognitions. This possible upward bias

in

effects sizes led the authors to caution against generalization to other populations

(Brown

& Stayman,

1992).

Product-related moderator variables affected ad attitude relationships in different

ways. Use of novel brands in studies tended to produce stronger relationships between ad
attitude

and brand attitude and purchase intentions. Familiar brands tend to weaken the

impact ad attitudes can have on such outcomes (Brown

& Stayman,

1992).

Stronger relationships existed between ad attitudes and feelings and ad attitude

and brand cognitions when products other than consumer nondurables were used
studies.

in the

The authors suggested

that increased

involvement with services and higher-

priced durable products (e.g., automobile, and refrigerator) might account for the stronger

relationship.

Brown and Stayman (1992) concluded

that

mixing product types within

for

studies might help reduce biasing effects

of product type and allow

more accurate

generalizations.

Other moderator variables that affected ad attitude relationships included

subjects' processing goals
(i.e.,

advertising

medium, whether ads were imbedded

in other

55

material,

and whether subjects were instructed to attend

to the ad).

"As expected, these

variables had different effects

on

the feelings and ad attitude relationship than they had

on the cognitive and behavioral outcomes of ad

47). Increased cognitive elaboration,

attitudes"

(Brown

& Stayman,
print ads, the

1992,

p.

which typically occurs with

nonimbedded
feelings

ad.

and instructions

to

pay attention to the ad, resulted

in smaller effects

of

on ad

attitude.

However, such conditions produced "higher correlations between

ad attitudes and the downstream constructs of brand cognitions, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions" (Brown

& Stayman,

1992,

p. 47).

Such findings support

earlier

results

(Madden, Allen,

& Twible,

1988) and "strongly suggest that processing goals that

enhance cognitive responses may

p. 47).

inhibit affective responses"

(Brown

& Stayman,

1992,

A test of study design as a moderator of ad attitude relationships yielded

significant findings.

Significantly larger effects sizes for the ad attitude and brand

attitude relationship

were produced by within-subjects designs. Substantially

for the

large

effects sizes

were also found

ad attitude and purchase intention relationship. The

within-subjects design produced the opposite effect on the ad attitude and feelings
relationship

(Brown

& Stayman,

1992).

The authors concluded

that strong relationships exist

between ad

attitude

and

other variables; however, these relationships vary according to several methodological

factors

(i.e.,

subjects' processing goals, product-related variables, study design).

Furthermore, ad attitude influences advertising effectiveness via paths, especially the

indirect path, set forth in the dual mediation

model (Brown

&

Stayman, 1992).

56

Affective Reactions on Attitudes

Toward the Advertisement

meta-analysis offered considerable support for the

Brown and Stayman's (1992)

notion that attitude toward the ad
is

a predictor of brand attitude. However, the stream of

research examined in the meta-analysis dealt mainly with evaluative judgments. Other
researchers have examined the significant contribution of affective responses

on ad
of affective

attitudes.

Batra and

Ray

(1

986) were one of the

firsts

to report the influence

responses on ad attitudes. Stayman and Aaker (1988) demonstrated that the affective responses of warmth, amusement, and irritation could affect attitude toward the brand

without affecting ad attitudes. Edell and Burke (1987) reported that feelings created by
the actual advertisement are, by themselves, useful in explaining advertising effects.

Such

affective reactions are

more than an

additional measure of subjects' evaluation of

advertisements. According to Edell and Burke (1987),

when semantic judgment

scales

(evaluation, activity, gentleness)

were combined with feelings (upbeat, negative, warm)

in

a regression analysis, results indicated a unique contribution of feelings to ad attitude,

brand

attitude,

and beliefs about the brand

attitudes.

Burke and Edell (1989) noted the

importance of feelings on ad-based affect and cognition. They examined the

relationships

among

feelings elicited

by "new television ads

for unfamiliar products,

judgments of the

ads' characteristics,

brand attribute evaluations, attitude toward the ad,

and attitude toward the brand

in

a simultaneous equation model" (Burke

& Edell,

989, p.

69). Findings indicated that feelings directly

and

indirectly affect

ad and brand attitudes

(Burke

& Edell,

1989). While the aforementioned studies (Batra

& Ray,

1986; Edell

&

Burke, 1987; Stayman

& Aaker,

1988), used laboratory settings and verbal measures to

57

assess the impact of affective reactions

on

attitudes

toward the ad and the brand. Derbaix

(1995) used more natural settings and included facial expression measures.

Derbaix (1995) investigated the impact of affective reactions produced by

television advertisements

on the following

variables: attitude

toward the advertisement

a natural setting (waiting

and postexposure brand

attitude.

The study was conducted

in

room) using a

real

program and

real

commercials for known and unknown brands.

Affective reactions were measured through facial expressions and traditional verbal

measures. Verbal measures indicate that affective responses contribute to ad attitude and

postexposure brand attitude, but

facial

measures do

not. Findings

show

that unfamiliar

brands are more influenced by verbal affective reactions generated by the advertisement.

The author concludes

expressions)
is

that the nonverbal

measure of affective reactions

(facial

a poor indicator of the impact of affective reactions on ad attitude and

postexposure brand attitude. The results indicate that verbal measures are better
indicators

of the influence of affective

reactions. Furthermore, the contribution

of verbal

affective responses to ad attitude

and postexposure brand attitude

is

greater for unfamiliar

brands than familiar ones (Derbaix, 1995).

Research Questions
This study explores the effects of media literacy training on children's attitudes

toward specified products within the framework of the Elaboration Likelihood Model

(ELM) of persuasion

(Petty

& Cacioppo,

1986a; Petty

& Cacioppo,

1986b)

in

order to

understand better the effectiveness of media literacy training on children's attitudes

toward persuasive messages. The catalyst of this empirical investigation

is

the question:

58

"What are the

effects

of media

literacy training

on

children's attitudes

toward persuasive

messages?" While

this

question serves as a focus for the study, the following research

questions guide this empirical investigation.

Does media

literacy training increase the likelihood

of persuasion via the

central route?

2)

What

role

does media literacy training play

in influencing children's attitude

toward a product of high personal relevance?

The Hypotheses The proposed hypotheses

relevant literature. are based

on

the research questions above and the

The

first

two hypotheses deal with the

ELM as a whole.

They suggest

that

media

literacy training plays a

moderating role in the persuasion process. The

hypotheses are grounded

In general,

in

previous research by Petty and his colleagues.

we

suspect that any variable that increases the likelihood that people

and able to engage in the difficult task of evaluating the message arguments increases the likelihood of the central route to persuasion. On the other hand, any variable that reduces a person's motivation and/or ability to think about the message content would make the peripheral route more likely.
will be motivated

(Petty etal., 1981a, p. 854)

To

test the effectiveness

of media

literacy training to increase the likelihood

of

children following the central route to persuasion for an advertised product the following

hypotheses are advanced.

HI

Media

literacy training will increase the likelihood

of children following the

central route to persuasion for an advertised product.

H2:

No media

literacy training will increase the likelihood

of children following

the peripheral route to persuasion for an advertised product.

59

Four additional hypotheses are advanced to

training

test the effectiveness

of media
that

literacy

on changing

children's attitude

toward a particular advertised product

is

of

great personal relevance.

H3: Media

literacy training, as

compared

to

no training, will yield greater

positive changes in children's attitude toward an advertised product

when many

strong

arguments are used.

H4: Media

literacy training, as

compared

to

no

training, will yield greater

positive changes in children's attitude toward an advertised product

when few

strong

arguments are used.

H5: Media

literacy training, as

compared

to

no

training, will yield greater

negative changes in children's attitude toward an advertised product

when many weak

arguments are used.

H6: Media

literacy training, as

compared

to

no training, will yield greater

negative changes in children's attitude toward an advertised product

when few weak

arguments are used.

CHAPTER 3

METHODS
An Overview

A2

(argument quality) x 2 (number of arguments) x 2 (media literacy training)

posttest-only between-subjects experimental design with

random assignment was used

to

test the

moderating role of media literacy training on children's attitude toward an

advertised product within the

framework of the ELM. The

central focus

of the
by which

experiment was to assess

children's attitudes

if

media

literacy training influences the process

toward products are changed.

As

discussed in Chapter

1,

few studies have tested the effectiveness of media

have suggested media
literacy

literacy training empirically; although several researchers

training will

improve students' evaluation of media messages (Considine, 1990; Duncan.

1989;

Kahn

& Master,

1992; Melamed, 1989; Wulfemeyer et

al.,

1990). Recent research

by Austin and Johnson

997a, 1997b) empirically tested the immediate and delayed

effectiveness of general and specific

media

literacy training

on

children's decision-

making processes about

alcohol.

Austin and Johnson used a Solomon 4-group

test their

experimental design in both studies to

children's understanding

hypotheses. Results indicated that a key variable in the decision-making

of persuasive content

is

process. In their studies,

media

literacy training

was

identified as

an effective means of

improving children's understanding of persuasive media content.

60

61

Subjects

Subjects were recruited for the experiment from fourth and

fifth

grade classes

at

Statham Elementary School

in

Statham, Georgia. Parental consent forms (see Appendix

A for the
grades.

informed consent form) were sent

incentive, all students

home with every

child in the fourth and fifth

As an

who

returned their consent form were eligible for a

gift certificate

drawing.

A drawing for each grade awarded

local mall gift certificates

of

$25, $15, and $10. Additionally, the class in each grade that returned the most parental

consent forms was awarded an ice cream party. Furthermore, a substantial monetary

donation for instructional materials was

made

to the school principal

and distributed

evenly

among
The

the fourth and fifth grade teachers.

total

number of subjects

that participated in the

experiment was 148. Fourth

grade subjects were tested on December

1999.

1,

1999 and

fifth

grade subjects on December

2,

Proce dure

The same procedure was followed on both days of testing. Students numbered off
by twos
in their

homeroom

class.

All "ones" remained in their

homerooms and viewed

videotaped broadcast of "Bill

Nye

the Science

Guy" and

discussed the content of the

program on caves (see Appendix B

gathered in a separate

for the control

group discussion guide). All "twos"

room and were

taught a media literacy training lesson (see

Appendix

for the lesson script)

by the experimenter. After the discussion and lesson

to

were completed, students were randomly assigned

one of four groups. Each student

was handed an index card with a number

table.

that

had been generated from a random numbers

to

Each card

also

had a teacher's name. Students were instructed

go to the

62

appropriate teacher's classroom

5
.

Students viewed one of four versions of a Pringles

Potato Chips commercial (discussed below) twice in their respective classroom.

Afterwards, students

filled

out a colored, 12-page questionnaire (see Appendix

for the

questionnaire) that

was read out loud by

the teacher. At the top of each page subjects

were given brief instructions on

how

to

complete the items on the page. At the bottom of

so.

each page, subjects were instructed to turn to the next page when they were told to do

The

first

page, which included basic demographic questions, instructed students that they

would be asked questions about

the

commercial they just saw. They were instructed

list

to

respond as best that they could. The second page asked students to

their thoughts

about the commercial and then go back and rate those thoughts as positive or negative.

The

third

page asked students

to

list

the arguments they recalled in the commercial.

The

fourth and fifth pages included measures of attitude toward the product and attitude

toward the ad, respectively. Pages

attitude

six

and seven included items

that

measured subjects'

toward television advertising

in general.

Items on pages eight and nine served as

manipulation checks for the media literacy training lesson while pages
questions about peripheral cues contained in the commercial.

and

1 1

asked

The
last

final

page served as a

measure of the overall persuasiveness of the commercial. The

question on page 12,

which asked

if

subjects had seen the "Bill

Nye

the Science

Guy"

video, served to double-

There were only two rooms available for use when the

student

was

sent to

one of two rooms. Once

to

in the

fifth grade students were tested. Therefore, each room, approximately half of the students were sent

outside while one version of the Pringles Potato Chips commercial aired.

The students

in the

classroom

were then instructed

go outside while the other students returned

in

to

view another version of the Pringles

commercial. All students reconvened

the appropriate classroom to fill-out the questionnaire. Colored

questionnaires were used to ensure that the version of the commercial corresponded with the teacher's

name and number on

6

students' index cards.

Colored questionnaires corresponded with level of argument quality and number of arguments commercial as well as whether subjects were in the control or experimental group.

in

each

63

check that subjects were

filling

out the appropriate questionnaire. After

all

items were

completed, subjects placed the index card they had received inside their questionnaire

and the teacher collected them. Students were debriefed and thanked for their
participation in the study.

Product of Interest

A pretest

was conducted

to identify the

product of interest to be used

in the

experiment (see Appendix

for the product

of interest

pretest).

A product that generated

7
.

moderate attitudes but was high

in

personal relevance

was desired

Eighteen subjects
rate 21

aged 8-12 years old were administered a 23-page questionnaire that asked them to

consumer products. The

first

and second pages, respectively, asked for demographic

information and provided examples of how to complete the form. The same 12 items

were asked about

all

21 products. The

first six

items represented an attitude toward the

8
.

product scale developed by Stayman and Batra (1991)

with a Cronbach's alpha of .98. The
final six

The

scale

was highly

reliable,

items represented the General Scale to

Measure Involvement (GSMI), which was developed by Tray lor and Joseph( 984) 9
1

The

GSMI was highly reliable as

well (a

.88).

Subject responses were analyzed and potato

chips were identified as a product that elicited moderate attitudes but high involvement.
Therefore, a potato chips commercial

was sought.

The

ELM purports that subjects who have the motivation and ability to scrutinize a message will
message about the product.
Initial
It

likely to follow the central route to persuasion. Therefore, a product

be more of high personal relevance ensures

subjects are motivated to process a

will

is

predicted that media literacy training

produce the

ability necessary to

follow the central route. Subjects must have moderate attitudes so that
strong positive or strong negative attitudes

their attitudes can will

8

change either positively or negatively. produce an unwanted ceiling effect.

Stayman and Batra (1991) reported a Cronbach's alpha of .96.

Traylor and Joseph (1984) reported a Cronbach's alpha of .92.

'

64

The Commercial
Several commercials were reviewed and a nationally broadcast Pringles Potato

Chips commercial with a music bed and without voice-over

experiment. The commercial shows young children'
several scenarios enjoying Pringles Potato Chips.

10

was

identified for use in the

'

(approximately 8-12 years old) in

The theme of the commercial

is

"Once

you pop, the tun don't

stop."

The music bed plays throughout

the 30-second commercial

with the lyrics "I want Pringles" repeating.

To

test the

proposed hypotheses, four different voice-overs (see below) were

written and added to the Pringles commercial.

The four versions represented various

levels

of argument quality and number of arguments consistent with previous research by

Petty and Cacioppo (1986).

The

original

copy of the commercial was taped

off-air

on high

quality videotape.

The experimenter recorded

the voice-overs in a sound studio at the University

12
.

of Florida

and edited them on professional editing equipment

high audiovisual quality.

Copies shown to subjects were of

Design

The hypotheses suggested the need

for eight experimental groups. Subjects either

received media literacy training or watched the control video about caves. Subjects in

both the control and experimental groups viewed one of the four versions of the Pringles
Potato Chips commercial.

The four versions of the commercial were

1) strong

argument

10

voice-over free commercial

was necessary

to effectively manipulate

argument quality and number of

arguments.

There were approximately 1 6 males and 4 females depicted in the commercial. The racially diverse characters (African American, Asian, and Caucasian) were seen in various costumes including a caveman, pirate, deserted islander, and astronaut.
'

65

quality x high

number of arguments;

2) strong argument quality x

low number of

arguments: 3) weak argument quality x high number of arguments; and 4) weak argument
quality x

low number of arguments. Therefore, the study used a 2 (strong

vs.

vs.

weak

argument quality) x 2 (high

low number of arguments) x 2 (control

3.1).

vs.

experimental

group) between-subjects factorial design (see Figure

No media
Weak

literacy training

Media

literacy training

Few arguments
Strong

Weak

Many arguments
Strong

Figure 3.1. Graphic representation of 2

X2X2

factorial

experimental design.

To
among

ensure that the experimental manipulations were responsible for differences

groups, the groups had to be equivalent prior to the experiment.

Random

assignment to one of the four groups was employed to be able to infer treatment-caused

changes

in this study.

According to Campbell and Stanley (1963), randomization

is vital

to equate control

and experimental groups or several treatment groups. Randomization

can rule out dangerous threats to internal validity, including testing, instrumentation,
regression, and the interaction

of selection and maturation. Furthermore,

it

creates

conditions appropriate for analysis in the most

common

statistical

models. However,
threats to validity.

Cook and Campbell (1979) warn

that randomization

does not cure

all

'"

The experimenter has appeared

in

and voiced-oyer several television commercials and teaches courses

in

television production.

66

Despite acknowledged limitations, random assignment to

groups was considered

the best

available

method

to test the hypotheses in this study. Therefore, as noted above, subjects

randomly numbered off by twos

groups.

for inclusion in either the control or experimental

From

these groups, subjects were assigned to the four groups representing the

levels

of argument quality and number of arguments using a random numbers

table.

Operational Definitions of Key Variables

Based on the

literature review, the

moderating role of media literacy training on

tested utilizing the following variables.

the persuasive impact of advertisements

was

The

independent, manipulated variables were argument quality,

number of arguments, and

as

media

literacy training.

The dependent variables were active cognitive processing

attitude

measured by favorable and unfavorable thoughts,

toward the product,

attitude

toward

the advertisement, attitude

toward

television advertising in general,

and attention

to peripheral cues (see

Table

3.1).

Table

3.1.

Independent and dependent variables within the study.

Independent Variables
1 )

Dependent Variables
1)

Argument

quality

Active cognitive processing

a)

2) 3)

Number of arguments
Media
literacy training

Favorable thoughts

b) 2)
3)

Unfavorable thoughts

Attitude toward product Attitude toward advertisement Attitude toward

4)
5)

TV

advertising

Attention to peripheral cues

67

Independent Variables

To

test

whether subjects are following the central or peripheral route to

persuasion, argument quality and

number of arguments within a

selected commercial

advertisement were manipulated.

A discussion of how the arguments were manipulated

follows.

Argument Quality
Manipulation of argument quality
either a strong
.

Argument

quality

was operationalized

as

argument or a weak argument. Petty and Cacioppo (1981a. 1986b)

individuals rate the quality

explain that

when

of the same argument there

will

always be

some

differences.

However, the key

to testing hypotheses within the

framework of the

ELM

is

to develop

arguments that the majority of a particular population considers strong

or weak. Following the steps suggested by Petty and Cacioppo (1981a, 1986b), this
study generated "strong" and "weak" arguments for use in the Pringles Potato Chips

commercial.
Pilot-testing

arguments

Based on previous research by Petty and Cacioppo

(1986b), the researcher generated a series of 26 arguments that were perceived to be

either strong or

weak statements about

Pringles Potato Chips.

A group of subjects

similar

to those

who would be used

in the actual

experiment were asked to rate the arguments

in

a pilot

test.

Subjects were asked to rate the persuasiveness of each statement by

responding to a four-item semantic differential scale (see Appendix F for the pilot-test
questionnaire).

Semantic differentials are

common

measures of peoples' attitudes

(Osgood, 1965). To measure the quality of arguments, subjects were asked to rate each

68

statement (on a seven-point scale'

3
)

on four dimensions

14
:

Don't want it/Want

5

it;

Doesn't

make sense/Makes

sense;

Not believable/Believable; Weak/Strong.'

in the

Twenty-nine subjects participated

ranged in age from 10-1

argument quality-rating

test.

Subjects

years old, 48 percent were male and 52 percent were female.

The mean score was calculated by averaging responses on the four dimensions used
rate

to

each argument. The median score was 4.75 with means ranging from

to 7.

The

lowest eight means were identified as

weak arguments while

the highest eight

means

were selected as strong arguments. To assess whether the strongest and weakest
arguments were significantly different from one another, a multiple analysis of variance

(MANOVA) was conducted.

(7,

Results indicated a significant difference

among means

(F

161)

5.86,

p<

.000). Pairwise

comparisons identified the weak argument seven

(M

4.35) as significantly different from strong argument seven

(M =

3.80), but in the

opposite direction.

Weak argument

eight

(M =

5.13) and strong argument eight

(M =

5.14) were not significantly different. Therefore, only six

weak and

six strong

arguments

were used to develop voice-over copy for the Pringles Potato Chips commercial.
Persuasiveness of commercial

For the sake of general curiosity and potential

comparison, the persuasiveness of each commercial version was assessed using the same

13

Subjects were instructed that

numbers

and

7,

each closet to one of the words

in the adjective pair,

represented a very strong feeling on the negative (bad) side and positive (good) side, respectively.

Numbers 2 and 6
5 indicated fairly

indicated strong feelings on the negative

weak

feelings on the negative

and positive side, respectively. Numbers 3 and and positive side, respectively, and number 4 represented

an undecided view of the dimension.

The wording of two of the dimensions was changed

in

order to

make the language more

it

age-appropriate.

Instead of Unconvincing/Convincing the terms Don't want it/Want

were used, and the terms Doesn't

make sense/Makes
15

sense replaced Irrational/Rational.

After testing for persuasiveness. Petty and Cacioppo (1986b) suggest testing for believability with another panel of subjects in order to develop strong and weak arguments "that do not strain credulity"
134).

(p.

However, due

to a limited

number of subjects, the

believability

and persuasiveness dimensions were

tested at the

same

time.

69

four-item semantic differential scale used in the pilot-test for argument quality (see page
12 of the questionnaire in Appendix D). This measure focused

on the

overall perceived

persuasiveness of the commercial rather than the level of quality of each individual

argument.

Number of Arguments
Using the theme of the Pringles Potato Chips commercial ("Once you pop, the fun
don't stop") and the pilot-test of argument quality, four voice-overs were written. Petty

and Cacioppo (1986b) suggest that number of arguments can be used as a peripheral cue
to persuasion.

They

distinguish between a high

number of arguments

(6-8) and a

low

number of arguments

(1-3) (Petty

& Cacioppo,

1984). Therefore, six arguments were

used to represent a high number and two arguments represented a low number.

Manipulation check for number of arguments

manipulation check for the number of arguments
in

Two

items served as a

each version of the Pringles

commercial. The

first

item asked

if the

commercial presented many arguments and the

for eating Pringles Potato

second item asked

Chips.

if the

commercial presented few arguments

Commercial voice-over copy

The four voice-overs

are as follows:

Strong argument quality x high number of arguments

stop!

Once you pop, you

can't

That's because Pringles Potato Chips taste great. They're so delicious, and

they crunch

when you munch.

Pringles are less greasy than other chips, and

they're packed in airtight cans for freshness.

With a unique shape and great

today.

taste,

you and your friends

will love Pringles.

Pop open a can of Pringles

Once

you pop,

the fun don't stop!

70

Strong argument quality x low number of arguments Once you pop. the fun
:

won't stop! That's what happens when you pop open a can of Pringles Potato
Chips. Pringles are really great snacks. They're less greasy than other chips, and

they're packed in airtight cans for freshness.

Pop open a can of Pringles

today.

Once you pop,

the fun don't stop!

Weak argument
stop!

quality x high

number of arguments Once you pop you

:

can't

That's because Pringles Potato Chips are good for you. They're really

healthy snacks. Pringles have less

fat

and more vitamins and minerals than other

snacks. Pringles are fun to eat because they stay in one piece.

They don't break

like

bags of chips. Pop open a can of Pringles today. Once you pop, the fun don't

stop!

Weak argument
stop!

quality x

low number of arguments Once you pop, the fun won't

:

That's what happens

when you pop open

a can of Pringles Potato Chips.

Pringles are really great snacks. And, they're even

good

for you. Plus, Pringles

are fun to eat because they stay in

one piece. Pop open a can of Pringles today.

Once you pop,

Message
to write recall

the fun don't stop!

As a manipulation check on message

or claims that they could

recall, subjects

were asked

down

as

many arguments

remember from

the Pringles

Potato Chips commercial they saw. Subjects were given three minutes to complete the

task.

Twelve six-inch by one-half inch boxes were provided

for their responses.

Three

independent coders coded responses for accuracy. Inter-coder

reliability

was high (a =

.94).

Recall items were coded as correct (1) if they appeared in the appropriate

71

corresponding voice-over copy. All other items were coded as incorrect

(0).

Summing

the

number of correct responses produced an

overall

argument

recall score.

As

a manipulation check, two items asked about the number of arguments

in the

Pringles commercial.

One

item asked

if the

commercial presented a

lot

of reasons

for

eating Pringles, while the other asked if the commercial presented few reasons for eating

Pringles.

Responses were on a seven-point Likert-type scale (disagree/agree).

Media Literacy Training Lesson

For the purposes of this study, media literacy training was operational ized (see

Appendix C) as a 50-60 minute

used by advertisers to
sell

lecture

and discussion about the persuasive techniques

products and

how to

detect strong and

weak arguments
1)

in

commercials. The learning objectives of the lesson were designed so that

students will

be able to identify persuasive techniques used by advertisers and 2) students will be able
to distinguish

between strong and weak arguments

in

commercials. The experimenter

introduced various media literacy principles by showing video clips from

Consumer

Reports'

Buy Me

That! series and selected broadcast commercials.

for children (ages

The

three half-hour

Buy Me That! programs, which were produced

and
their families, focus

to 12, specifically)

on the sophisticated and sometimes deceptive techniques used

to

by television advertisers

persuade children to buy or ask for certain brands of products.

These programs provide parents and children with helpful hints for managing the sales
pitch

(Consumers Union of United

first

States, 1989). Austin

and Johnson

( 1

997a; 1997b)

used the

of these videos

in their

experiments to assess the effectiveness of media

literacy training

on

children's decision-making about alcohol.

The

selected broadcast

commercials were used to reinforce and help the subjects apply the principles introduced

72

in the

Buy

Me

That! videos. Seventy-three of the subjects were exposed to the 50-60

minute media literacy training session while the other 75 subjects watched an episode of
"Bill

Nye

the Science

Guy" on caves and engaged

in

a discussion about the program

content.

Subject Variables

According to the

ELM.

in

order for an individual to follow the central route to

persuasion, the person must be motivated to process a message and have the ability to do

so (Petty

& Priester,

1994).

By design,

all

subjects were to have a high level

of
of

motivation. Subjects' ability to process the message depended

upon

their level

exposure to media literacy training.

Motivation to process a message was operationalized as high involvement with
Pringles Potato Chips. Subjects had a high level of motivation to process a message

because of the personal relevance of Pringles Potato Chips, which were used
experiment.

in the

As noted above,

personal relevance

was measured using an adaptation of the

General Scale to Measure Involvement with Products (GSMI) developed by Traylor and

Joseph (1984). "The

GSMI

is

a six-item scale

composed of Likert statements scored on

seven-point basis (disagree-agree)" (Bearden, Netemeyer,

applicable to a varying range of products and

& Mobley,

1993,

p. 141).

The

scale

is

is

unidimensional.

Summing
The

the

scores of each item produces an overall

GSMI
one
16
,

score (Bearden et

al.,

1993).

six

items, with a slight modification to item

are as follows: 1)

When

other people see

me

using this product, they think of me in a certain way; 2)

You can tell

lot

about a
express

person by seeing what brand of this product he uses; 3) This product helps

me

The

original item

was "When other people see

me using this product, they form

an opinion of me."

73

who
lot

am; 4) This product

is

"me"; 5) Seeing somebody else use

this

product

tells

me

about that person; and 6)

When I

use this product, others see

me

the

way

want them

to see

me.
Ability to process

a message was operationalized

as

media

literacy training or lack

thereof.

Level of subject ability was established by whether or not they received training.

Subjects were asked questions on the posttest about their media literacy training as a

manipulation check. The manipulation check included a series of seven-point

(disagree/agree) Likert-scale statements that assessed subjects' recall of the material

presented during the media literacy lesson. The

first

eight items dealt with topics like

persuasive tactics, editing, camera angles, humor, color, strength of claims, attractiveness

of actors/performers, and identification with actors/performers. The

latter eight

items

were techniques

17

potentially used

by advertisers

to convince

consumers

to

buy products.

Subjects were asked to indicate which methods they believed were used by advertisers.

Three bogus items were included to clearly distinguish lesson content from irrelevant
information.
I8

The

scale

was not previously

tested.

Dependent Variables
Active cognitive processing

was operationalized

as favorable

and unfavorable
1981).

thoughts elicited through the thought- listing technique (Cacioppo

& Petty,

Twelve

six- inch

by one-half inch boxes were provided for subjects to write down

all

of

their thoughts during the

commercial. They were given three minutes to complete the

task.

Afterward, subjects were asked to rate their thoughts as good, bad, or not sure by

The

eight items included quick cuts,

bad language, catchy music, ugly people, humor, arguments, mad

people, and famous people.

18

The bogus items were bad language, ugly people, and mad

people.

74

circling

"G," "B," or "NS"

in the

boxes where they had written

their thoughts.

Research

on

attitude

change suggests there are three dimensions that characterize the classification

of responses (Cacioppo

& Petty,

1981).

The

polarity dimension,

which

is

comprised of

favorable, unfavorable, or neutral/irrelevant thoughts,

was used

in this

experiment. Three

independent coders

who were

blind to the experimental conditions coded the thought-

listings.

Coders

identified subjects' thoughts as favorable (1), unfavorable (-1), or

neutral/irrelevant (0) based

on the descriptions below. Coders had a high

reliability

(a =

.94)". Disagreements were resolved through discussion and majority vote.

An

overall

attitude score

was achieved by summing coded responses.

Favorable thoughts are statements that mention specific desirable attributes or

positive associations, statements that support the validity or value

of the stimulus

(Pringles Potato Chips commercial), and statements of positive affect about the product

and/or commercial. Example of favorable thoughts include, "I want some," "I

am

hungry," and "

was thinking how good Pringles

are." Favorable thoughts could not be

mere

recall items.

There should be evidence of a positive disposition toward Pringles

Potato Chips and/or the commercial for Pringles (Cacioppo

& Petty,

1981).

Unfavorable thoughts are statements that mention specific undesirable attributes

or negative associations, challenges to the validity of the stimulus (Pringles Potato Chips

commercial), and statements of negative affect about the product and/or commercial.

Examples of unfavorable thoughts

include, "It

was weird," "They

are not healthy," and

"Pringles are not the best." Thoughts could not be mere recall items. There should be

"

Interestingly,

when

student ratings of their thoughts were included

.86).

in

the reliability analysis Crobach's

alpha remained high (a =

75

evidence of a negative disposition toward Pringles Potato Chips and/or the commercial
for Pringles

(Cacioppo

& Petty,

1981

).

Neutral/Irrelevant thoughts are statements that express no affect with regards to

the stimulus (Pringles Potato Chips commercial).

Examples of neutral thoughts include

"My cat," "My mom

is

getting married," "Dancing," and "Pirates." Neutral thoughts positive or negative disposition

include recall items and items that

show no evidence of a

toward Pringles Potato Chips and/or the commercial for Pringles (Cacioppo
1981).

& Petty.

Attitude toward the product

was measured by a

0-item. seven-point semantic

differential scale.

The

scale

is

a combination of hedonic and utilitarian items used by

attitude.

Stayman and Batra (1991)

to

produce an overall measure of brand

Stayman and

Batra (1991) reported Cronbach alphas of .90 and .94 for an eight-item and ten-item
version of the scale, respectively. Sample items included bad/good,
unfavorable/favorable, disagreeable/agreeable, unpleasant/pleasant, negative/positive,

dislike/like, useless/useful, not beneficial/beneficial,

low quality/high

quality,

and

worthless/valuable.

Attitude toward the advertisement

was measured by

a 13-item, Likert-type scale.

Several researchers have used varying versions of the scale to measure consumers'
20

attitude

toward an advertisement

(Burke

& Edell,

1989; Edell

& Burke,

1987; Wells,

Leavitt,

& McConville,

97 1 Zinkhan, Locander,
;

& Leigh,

1986). Previous

administrations of the scale used 14 items

2
'

and asked subjects

to indicate

how

well a

list

20

Previous reliability analyses resulted

in

alphas of .89 and .95.

21

Informal testing revealed subjects did not comprehend the term "valuable" well enough to include

it

in

the scale. Therefore, the scale

was reduced from

14 items to

3.

76

of words describes the advertisement they are exposed to by placing a number next to the
word. For example,
if

a subject believes a

word

describes the ad extremely well, he/she

well, the subject

places a "5" next to the word. If the

"

word does not describe

the ad at

all

places a

"

next to the word. However, the format

was changed

to

make

it

consistent

with the other scales used to measure attitude toward advertising in general. The
items included (1) Not believable/Believable; (2)

list

of

Not

for

me/For me;

(3)

Not

informative/Informative; (4) Not interesting/Interesting; (5) Irritating/Not irritating; (6)

Not meaningful/Meaningfiil

to

me;

(7)

Phony/Not phony;

(8) Ridiculous/Not ridiculous;

(9) Terrible/Not terrible; (10)

Not worth remembering/Worth remembering;

(1 1)

Did not

like

ad/Liked ad; (12) Did not enjoy ad/Enjoyed ad; and (13) Did not find ad to be
to

good/Found ad

be good.

Attitude toward advertising in general

was measured by a compilation of three

scales developed by Alwitt

and Prabhaker (1992) that have been used to measure beliefs

in the items

and perceptions about television advertising. The language used

so that

was adapted

it

was appropriate

for the

age of the subjects.

Perceptions of the personal and social benefits or costs of TV advertising

were

measured by the
to

first set

of items.

23

The

list

included: (1)

TV advertising

is

a good

way

leam about what products and services are

available; (2)

TV advertising results

in

better products for

you and your family

(4)

24
;

(3) in general,

TV

advertising presents a true

picture

of the product advertised;

you can

trust

product brands advertised on

TV

more

22

Alwitt and Prabhaker (1992) reported a Cronbach's alpha of .86.

The original scale included 10-items, but this item, "TV advertising helps raise our standard of living," was eliminated because it was determined subjects would not comprehend "standard of living.''
23 24

The

original item

was "TV advertising

results in better products for the public."

77

than product brands not advertised

on

TV25

(5)

TV advertisements help me

find products

that

match

my

personality and interest; (6)

TV

advertising helps
26
;

me know which

product

brands have the qualities or features

am

looking for

(7)

TV

advertising gives

me

good idea about products by showing the kinds of people who use them;
advertising helps

(8)

TV
to

me buy

the best product for the price

27
;

and (9)

am willing

pay

more

for a product that is advertised

on TV.
that

The second
information.
28

set

of items measured perceptions

TV

advertising does not offer

Alwitt and Prabhaker's (1992) scale included the following items: (1)

most

TV

ads today are not about products themselves, but just

make me

feel a certain

way

(e.g.,

happy, excited, good)

30
;

29
;

(2) today's

TV

ads don't give you as

much
the people

information as they could

and

(3) today's

TV

ads

tell

you more about

who

use a product than about what the product does for you.

The
deceptive.
32

third

and

final set

of items focused on perceptions

that

TV

advertising

is

The four items

33
;

included: (1) most

TV ads try to

work on

(affect) people's

emotions (feelings)

(2) there

is

a critical need for more truth in today's

TV

advertising;

25

The The The

original item

was "You can

trust

brands advertised on

TV more than

brands not advertised on TV."

26

original item

was "TV

advertising helps

me know which

brands have the features

am

looking for."

27

original item

was "TV advertising helps me buy the

best brand for the price."

28

Alwitt and Prabhaker (1992) reported a Cronbach's alpha of .61.

29

The The

original item

was "Most

TV ads today TV

are not about products themselves, but just create a mood."

30

original item

was "Today

ads don't give you as

much

information as they used to."

" The

original item

was "Today's

TV

ads

tell

you more about the people

who

use a brand than about what

the brand does for you."

32

Alwitt and Prabhaker (1992) reported a Cronbach's alpha of .71.

33

The

original item

was "Most

TV ads try to work

on people's emotions."

78

(3)

TV

commercials do not show

life

as

it

really

is;

and (4)

TV

advertising mostly tries to

create small differences between products that are a lot alike.

Attention to peripheral cues

was operationalized through a

which

series

of questions
(i.e..

posed to the subjects.

Two

questions,

dealt with the peripheral

cue of interest

number of arguments), asked

eating Pringles Potato Chips.

if the

commercial presented many or few arguments

earlier, these

for

As noted

two items

also

were used as a
if

manipulation check for number of arguments. Four questions asked

kids in the commercial, if they

subjects liked the

wanted were

to be friends with the kids, if they

had friends

like

the kids in the ad, and if the kids

attractive.

Three other questions dealt with the

credibility

of the announcer. Items asked

if subjects

if

subjects thought the announcer

knew

lot

about Pringles,

believed what he said, and

if

he was telling the

truth.

Path for Analysis

The next chapter includes an examination of descriptive

statistics

of the data

followed by an analysis of the manipulation checks used in this experiment. The

reliabilities

of the scales will be discussed and the hypotheses will be tested using

experimental Analysis of Variance

(ANOVA).

34

The original item was "TV

advertising mostly tries to create imaginary differences between products that

are very similar."

CHAPTER 4
RESULTS

Analysis of variance

(ANOVA) was used

literacy training

to test effects

of argument quality,

number of arguments, and media

toward the product,
attitude

on

active cognitive processing, attitude

toward the ad,

attitude

toward

TV

advertising in general, and

attention to peripheral cues.

The presentation begins with descriptive demographic data on

subjects. Next, scale properties

the participating

and

reliabilities

used as independent and dependent

tests

measures are examined. Finally, results of the manipulation checks and

hypotheses are presented.
Descriptive Analysis

of the

Demographic Data

One hundred
(n

forty-eight subjects participated in the study.

Of those, 54

percent

80) were male and 46 percent (n

= 68) were

female. Subjects ranged in age from 8

to 12

(M =

10,

SD =

.79).

Ninety of the subjects were

in the fourth

grade and 58 were

fifth graders.

Seventy-nine percent of the subjects were white, 15 percent black, two

percent Asian, and the remaining four-percent reported being Native American or Other.

The Scales
This study relied primarily on six measures for the
initial tests

of hypotheses.

Four

scales, attitude

toward the product,

attitude

toward the ad, attention to peripheral

79

80

cues, and attitude toward advertising in general

35
,

measured the dependent variables.

Two

other scales were used as manipulation checks for the independent variables. Four

of the scales had proven to be highly

reliable in previous research.

Scales for attention to

peripheral cues and the media literacy training manipulation check were not previously

tested.

A reliability analysis,
correlation coefficients

in

which Cronbach's alpha and average

inter- item

were examined, was used to analyze the

internal consistency

of

all scales.

Scale properties for the media literacy manipulation check and attention to

peripheral cues also were scrutinized via factor analysis. Factor analysis

is

a procedure
if more basic,

used to assess construct validity (Huck

& Cormier,

1996) and to determine

underlying variables represent clusters of inter-correlated items (Williams, 1986).

Principal

components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used

if

to analyze the

scales.

Items were considered to load on a factor

factor scores

were .40 or higher.

Results for each scale are discussed below.

Attitude

Toward

the Product Scale

The

attitude

toward the product scale

is

a compilation of two separate scales that

measure the pleasure-related and value-related aspects of a consumer's

specific product. Reliability analysis

attitude

toward a

of the ten-item

scale

produced a Cronbach's alpha

reliability

of .90. Deletion of any of the items would have reduced the

Therefore, a single- factor solution

of the

scale.

was suggested, and

the 10-item scale

was

retained as a

measure of attitude toward the product. The average inter-item correlation for the
items

was

.47.

Attitude toward advertising in genera]

was measured by three separate

scales: (1) perceptions of the

personal and social benefits or costs of

TV advertising; (2) perceptions that TV advertising does not offer

81

Attitude

Toward

the

Ad

Scale

Reliability analysis

of the

attitude

toward the ad scale indicated a highly

reliable

scale (a

.92).

Deleting any of the items would have decreased the reliability. The

mean

inter-item correlation

was

.47.

The 13-item

scale

was

retained as a single measure

of attitude toward the

Attitude

ad.

Toward

TV

Advertising Scale

Three previously tested scales measured various dimensions of attitude toward

TV

advertising in general.

A nine-item scale that measured perceptions of the personal

reliable

and social benefits or costs of TV advertising was highly

with a Cronbach's alpha

of .81. Deletion of any items would have reduced the

correlation

reliability.

Average inter-item

was

.33.

A three-item scale that measured perceptions that TV advertising does not offer
information had a relatively low reliability (a

.34).

Deletion of one item would have

slightly increased the reliability

(a =

.38).

Mean

inter-item correlation

was

.15.

Given

the low reliability and average inter-item correlation, this scale

was

discarded.

A four-item scale that produced a Cronbach's alpha of .59 measured perceptions

that

TV

advertising

is

deceptive. Deletion of any item

would have decreased the

reliability.

Average inter-item correlation equaled

.27.

Media Literacy Training

Man pulation Check

i

Scale

13-item media literacy training manipulation check scale

was used

to

measure

the effectiveness

of the media
in

literacy lesson.

Principal

components

factor analysis with

varimax rotation resulted

two

factors with Eigenvalues greater than

.0.

Seven of the

information; and (3) perceptions that

TV

advertising

is

deceptive.

82

items loaded on the

first factor,

which explained 30.1 percent of the variance and had an

Eigenvalue of 3.9. Six items loaded on the second factor, which explained 19.2 percent

of the variance and had an Eigenvalue of 2.5. The seven items that loaded on the
factor had a reliability

first

of .82 and an average inter-item correlation of .40. Although

deletion of one of the items increased the reliability slightly (a

.83), the entire

seven-

item scale was retained. The six items that loaded on the second factor had a reliability

of .75 and a mean inter-item correlation of .34. Although deletion of one item would
have increased the
reliability slightly

(a =

.77), the increase

was not

significant.

The

six-

item scale was retained as a manipulation check.

Number of Arguments Manipulation Check and

Attention to Peripheral

Cue

Scale

A two-item scale was used to

number of arguments

assess the effectiveness

of the manipulation of

in the four versions

of the Pringles Potato Chips commercial and

Item two was reverse-coded because the
initial

subjects' attention to the peripheral cue.

correlation matrix indicated a negative correlation.

A principal components factor

analysis with varimax rotation produced one factor that explained 60.1 percent of the

variance (Eigenvalue

.2).

Reliability analysis

produced a small Cronbach's alpha of

in the scale.

.34,

which

is

likely

due

to

having only two items

reliability, the

The

correlation of the

two

items

was

.20.

Despite the low

two-item scale was retained as a single

to the

measure of the number of arguments manipulation check and as the attention

peripheral cue

of interest

scale.

Attention to Additional Peripheral Cues Scale

Additional peripheral cue measures were included in the questionnaire for

potential comparison. Principal

components

factor analysis with

varimax rotation on the

83

additional seven-item peripheral cue scale produced

two

factors with Eigenvalues over

.0.

Four of the items loaded on the

first

first

factor and three loaded

on the second

factor.

The

factor produced an Eigenvalue

of 2.3 and explained 33.1 percent of the variance.

of
1

The second

factor produced an Eigenvalue

.7

and explained 24. 1 percent of the

variance. Reliability analysis

of the four-item

scale,

which included items

that addressed

how well

subjects liked the kids in the commercial, produced a CronbaclTs alpha

of .76.

Average inter-item correlation was

.44.

Deletion of any item would have resulted in a

lower alpha. Therefore, the four-item scale was retained as one additional measure of
attention to peripheral cues. Reliability analysis

of the three-item

scale,

which included

items that assessed the credibility of the commercial announcer, revealed a Cronbach's

alpha of .58 and a

mean

inter-item correlation

of .33. High factor loadings suggested

scale

all

three items represent the

same dimension. The three-item

to peripheral cues.

was

retained as a second

additional measure

of attention

Persuasiveness of the Commercial Scale

A previously tested four-item scale was used to assess persuasiveness of the

commercial. This measure assessed the overall persuasiveness of the four commercial
versions rather than the level of argument quality. Reliability analysis of the four-item

scale

produced a Cronbach's alpha of .76 and an average inter-item correlation of .45.

Manipulation Checks

Media Literacy Training Media

literacy training

was manipulated by exposing

literacy lesson.

the experimental group

of

subjects to a 50-60 minute

media

Subjects in the control group were not

84

exposed to the lesson; they watched and discussed a television program about caves.

It

was suggested

that subjects

exposed

to

media

literacy training

would have greater would increase

ability

to process the Pringles Potato

Chips commercial. Increased

ability

the

likelihood of following the central route to persuasion as suggested by the

ELM (Petty &

Cacioppo,

986b). In contrast, subjects not exposed to the media literacy lesson would

have

less ability to process the

commercial message via the central route. Therefore,

likely to follow the peripheral route to persuasion

control group subjects

would be more

(Petty

& Cacioppo,
To
test

1986b).

whether subjects attended

to

and remembered the media

or disagreed with

literacy lesson
36

subjects were asked

how much they agreed

3 statements

about

information contained in the media literacy lesson. Subjects

who were exposed

to the

media

literacy lesson

were expected

to score higher

on

the measure than subjects not

exposed.

As noted above,
media
literacy

factor analysis

and

reliability analysis

produced two separate

t-test

manipulation check scales.

An

independent-samples

found no

significant difference

between the control group and experimental group on the seven-

item scale

(t

(142)

-.80,

p<

.43) or the six-item scale

(t

(139)

-1.64,

p=

.10).

Therefore, the media literacy training manipulation check

was

unsuccessful.

Argument Quality

Argument
(weak
test

quality

was manipulated by varying

the level

of argument quality

vs. strong)

within the four versions of the Pringles Potato Chips commercial. Pilot

data provided statistical evidence (F (7, 161)

5.86,

p < .000)

that the

arguments

* Although
media

sixteen items

were presented

to subjects, only 13

were used

to assess the effectiveness

of the

literacy lesson

because three items were bogus.

85

used in the commercial versions were considered strong or weak by subjects similar to
those

who

participated in the experiment (see Chapter 3 for a complete description of

pilot test results).

Number of Arguments
Subjects in the different treatment groups were exposed to varying numbers of

arguments within the versions of the Pringles Potato Chips commercials. Therefore,

number of arguments was manipulated by including a high number

(2)

(six)

or a low number

of arguments

in the various

commercial versions.
attention to the

It

was expected

that subjects in the

control group

would pay more

number of arguments contained

in the

in the

commercial than the quality of the arguments. In contrast, subjects group would not pay as much attention to the number of arguments;
scrutinize the quality

experimental

rather, they

would

of the arguments.
to

To

test

whether subjects attended

and remembered the number of arguments,

they were asked to disagree or agree with two statements.

The statements were: "The

commercial presented many (a

lot of)

reasons (arguments/claims) for eating Pringles reasons

Potato Chips" and "The commercial presented few (not a

lot of)

(arguments/claims) for eating Pringles Potato Chips." Subjects' responses to the second

item were reversed coded. Subjects

who were exposed

first

to a

high number of arguments

were expected
exposed
to

to score higher

on the

statement and lower on the second. Subjects

a low number of arguments were expected to score lower on the

first

statement and higher on the second.

Unexpectedly, the manipulation was not successful.

test

An

independent samples
subjects

t-

compared means of subjects exposed

to a high

number of arguments and

86

exposed to a low number of arguments.

Mean

scores were not significantly different

among

subjects exposed to a high

number (M = 4.55) and

g<
.44).

subjects exposed to a low

number (M =

4.78,

(144)

-.78,

The two-item

scale

produced a low

Cronbach's alpha of .34. Therefore,

unsuccessful.

this

might be a reason the manipulation check was

Further analysis compared the means of subjects on the single item. "There are

many

(a lot)

of reasons (arguments/claims) for eating Pringles Potato Chips." Results of

the independent samples t-test revealed no significant difference

among

subjects

(M =

4.81, high number;

M = 5.40, low number;

(145)

-1.57,

g=

.117).

When means of

subjects' responses

were compared on the single

item,

"The commercial presented few

(not a lot of) reasons (arguments/claims) for eating Pringles Potato Chips," no significant

difference

was found (M =

4.30, high number;

M = 4.23, low number;

(145)

.17,

g<

.87).

These results confirm that the manipulation check for number of arguments was not

successful.

Attention to Additional Peripheral Cues

As mentioned
peripheral cues.

earlier,

two

different scales

measured attention to additional

One-way
if

ANOVA results for the first attention to peripheral cues scale,

which assessed
difference

subjects liked the kids in the commercial, indicated a significant

among
.021).

the experimental

(M =

3.1 1)

and control

(M =

3.80) groups (F (1, 145)

5.43,

p=

A significant difference was also

(M =
3.82) groups (F (1, 145)

found between the experimental

7.32,

(M

= 3.08) and

control

g = .008)

for the second

peripheral cues scale, which assessed the credibility

of the announcer.

87

Persuasiveness of Commercial

As

previously noted, the persuasiveness of the commercial

was assessed

for

potential comparisons.

four-item scale, identical to the one used in the pilot

test,

was

employed. However, subjects were not asked what they thought about each individual
argument; rather, they were asked

how

persuasive they thought their version of the

Pringles Potato Chips commercial was. Subjects rated the overall commercial

on the

following semantic differentials: Doesn't

Pringles; Doesn't

make me want Pringles/Makes me want

makes sense/Makes sense; Not believable/Believable; Weak/Strong.

1

Attitudes were gauged on a seven-point scale, with

and 7 representing the extremes.

three-way
significant

ANOVA (2x2x2) testing the persuasiveness of the commercial revealed a

main
9.74,
effect for control

(M =

4.74) versus experimental

(M =

3.79) groups (F

(1,

123)

p=

.002).

No

interactions or additional

main

effects

were found.

Tests of Hypotheses

To

test the

general research question

"Does media

literacy training increase the

likelihood of persuasion via the central route?'

two hypotheses were proposed. The two

hypotheses are as follows:

HI

Media

literacy training will increase the likelihood

of children following the

central route to persuasion for an advertised product.

H2:

No media

literacy training will increase the likelihood

of children following

the peripheral route to persuasion for an advertised product.

88

Stated concisely,

it

was expected

that subjects in the experimental condition

would

follow the central route to persuasion while subjects in the control condition would
follow the peripheral route.

To

test

these two hypotheses, subjects exposed to media literacy training (n

= 73)

were compared

to subjects in the control

group (n = 75) on each dependent measure.

one-way

ANOVA for the first dependent variable, active cognitive processing,

(M =
.69)

revealed

no significant difference between the experimental

groups (F
145)

and control

(M =

1-03)

(1,

.73,

g>

.39).

Therefore, Hypothesis

was not supported.

The same

scale used for the manipulation check for

number of arguments was

used as the attention to the peripheral cue of interest scale. One-way

indicated no significant difference

ANOVA results
and control

among

the experimental

(M = 4.50)

(M =

4.83) groups (F (1, 144)

1.22,

p=

.271). Thus,

Hypothesis 2 was not supported

either.

Four hypotheses were proposed

to test the effectiveness

of media

literacy training

on changing

children's attitude

toward a particular advertised product

are as follows:

that

was of great

personal relevance.

The hypotheses

H3: Media

literacy training, as

compared

to

no

training, will yield greater

positive changes in children's attitude toward an advertised product

when many

strong

arguments are used.

H4: Media

literacy training, as

compared

to

no

training, will yield greater

positive changes in children's attitude toward an advertised product

when few

strong

arguments are used.

89

H5: Media

literacy training, as

compared to no

training, will yield greater

negative changes in children's attitude toward an advertised product

when many weak

arguments are used. H6: Media

literacy training, as

compared

to

no

training, will yield greater

negative changes in children's attitude toward an advertised product

when few weak

arguments are used.

Stated simply,

it

was expected

that a three-way interaction

between treatment

(media

literacy training or lack thereof),

argument
It

quality,

and argument number would

that subjects

produce significant differences among subjects.

was thought
attitude

exposed to

media

literacy training

would have higher scores on

measures when strong

arguments were used despite the number of arguments. Moreover,

subjects exposed to

it

was believed
attitude

that

media

literacy training

would produce lower scores on

measures when weak arguments were used despite the number of arguments.

To

test the four

hypotheses a three-way (treatment x argument quality x number

Results indicated no three-

of arguments)

ANOVA was run for each dependent variable.

way

interactions.

Therefore, hypotheses 3-6 were not supported and must be rejected.

Further examination of the three-way

ANOVA results revealed

1

interesting

findings.

A two-way

interaction (see Figure 4.

was found

for treatment group

by

number of arguments (M =

7,

control x high number,

M=

-89; control

x low number;

M=

-92,

experimental x high number; M.

-39,

experimental x low number) on active

cognitive processing (F (1, 139)

8.71,

p=

.004).

Main

effects

were found

for treatment

group
121)

(M = 5.21,
18.29,

control;

M = 4.17, experimental) on attitude toward the product (F

attitude

(1,

p < .000) and

toward the ad

(M = 4.73,

control;

M = 3.59,

90

18
1.6

1.4
(U

o o
CO
<D

1.2
1

Ugh number of arguments

Low number of arguments

T3

0.92
0.8

| <

0.6

04
0.2

ft39-

Control

Experimental

Treatment Group

Figure

4.

Two-way

interaction

of treatment group and number of arguments on

active cognitive processing.

91

experimental; F

( 1

1 1

6.82,

p<

.000).

A main effect was found

for treatment

group on the perceptions of the personal and social benefits or costs of TV advertising
scale

(M =

4.07, control;

M = 3.04, experimental; F (1,

measured
attitude

133)

16.56,

p<

.000),

which

was one of the

scales that

toward

TV

advertising in general.

However,

the perceptions that

TV advertising

is

deceptive scale, which was the other measure of

attitude

toward

TV

advertising in general, did not produce a

main

effect for treatment

group
that

(M = 4.89,

control;

M = 5.06, experimental; F

(1,

136)

.47,

p<

.50).

Both

scales

measured additional peripheral cues produced a main

effect for treatment

group

(M =

3.77, control;

M = 3.13, experimental; F
F
(1,

(1,

139)

= 4.69, p =

.032;

M = 3.80, control; M =

3.07, experimental;

139)

7.21,

p=

.008).

A main effect was found for argument quality on attitude toward the product (M =
4.95, strong quality;

M = 4.42, weak quality; F

TV

(1,

121)

= 4.76, p is

.03), attitude

toward

advertising in general (perceptions that

advertising

deceptive)

(M =

5.30, strong

quality;

M = 4.65, weak quality; F (1, 136) = 7.44,

p.

.007),

and attention

to

an

additional peripheral cue (liking kids in the commercial)

(M =

3.85, strong quality;

M=

3.05,

weak

quality;

(1,

139)

7.51,

p=

.007).

A summation of the

findings for the hypotheses reported above

is

presented in the

next chapter, along with a discussion of the results and limitations of the study. The

chapter will conclude with practical implications and suggestions for future research.

CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION

This dissertation investigated the effectiveness of media literacy training on

children's responses to persuasive messages within the

framework of the Elaboration

to

Likelihood Model of persuasion.

More

specifically,

an experiment was conducted

determine

if media literacy training

increased the likelihood of children following the

central route to persuasion rather than the peripheral route.

Two

groups of hypotheses, six

in all,

were presented
five

in detail in

Chapter 2

to

predict the effects

of three independent variables on

dependent variables. The

independent variables under investigation were argument quality, number of arguments,

and media

literacy training.

The dependent measures

tested

were active cognitive

processing, attitude toward the product, attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward

TV

advertising in general, and attention to peripheral cues.

The key findings discovered from

tests

of these hypotheses are summarized

below. Post-hoc analyses designed to provide insight into the findings follows the

summary. Study

limitations are presented along with implications

of the research.

Suggestions for future research conclude the dissertation.

92

93

Summary of Results
Tests of Hypotheses

The
training

first

group of the hypotheses suggested that exposure to media

literacy

would increase the likelihood

that subjects will follow the central route to

persuasion and no exposure to media literacy training would increase the likelihood that
subjects will follow the peripheral route to persuasion.

It

was predicted

that

media

literacy training

would provide the

ability necessary to scrutinize

arguments more
first

critically,

thus using central processing. However, no differences were found for the

two hypotheses.

The second group of hypotheses, which numbered

effectiveness of media literacy training

four, investigated the

on changing children's

attitudes

toward a
that a

particular advertised product that

was of great personal

relevance.

It

was predicted

three-way interaction between treatment (media literacy training or lack thereof),

argument
subjects.

quality,

and number of arguments would produce significant differences among

the
first set

As with

of hypotheses, no significant differences

in attitude

were

found for subjects based on level of treatment, argument quality, or number of arguments.
In sum. the relationships predicted about the effectiveness of media literacy
training

on children's responses

to persuasive

messages within the framework of the

analysis

Elaboration Likelihood

Model of persuasion were not supported. Data

level

showed

that there

were no differences among groups of subjects when

quality,

of treatment,

argument

and number of arguments were considered. However, some interesting

findings were revealed during a post hoc analysis of the data.

A summary of the

findings

is

presented

in the

next section.

94

Post-Hoc Analysis

Although no three-way interaction was found between the independent variables,

other unexpected findings emerged

when

ANOVA results were examined more closely.

group by number of arguments on active
Simple effects
tests

A two-way

interaction

was found

for treatment

cognitive processing (F (1, 139)

8.71,

p=

.004).

showed

that

subjects in the control group exposed to a

low number of arguments

(M =

1.89) had

more

favorable thoughts while watching the Pringles Potato Chips commercial than other
control group and experimental group subjects. Experimental subjects exposed to a high

number of arguments (M =
exposed
to a

-86)

had more favorable thoughts than experimental subjects

low number of arguments

.14).

(M =

.51)

and control subjects exposed

to a high

number of arguments (M =

If experimental group subjects learned to scrutinize

commercial messages more closely as a

result

of media

literacy training, then

one might

expect the number of favorable thoughts to be less than control group subjects. However,
the findings reveal that control group subjects exposed to a high

number of arguments

had

less favorable

thoughts than any other subjects did. Furthermore, a high number of

arguments produced more favorable thoughts for experimental subjects, while a low

number of arguments produced more favorable thoughts

a logical explanation for these curious findings

for control subjects.

Therefore,

is difficult to

suggest.

Both manipulation

checks for these findings were unsuccessful; therefore, no definitive conclusions can be drawn.

Main
attitude

effects for treatment

group were found for attitude toward the product,

toward the ad, and perceptions of the personal and social benefits or costs of TV

advertising.

These

results suggest that

media

literacy training

had some influence on

95

children's attitudes.

The

findings indicate that subjects in the control group had a

more

positive attitude toward Pringles Potato Chips after watching the

commercial than

subjects in the experimental group.

Similar results for attitude toward the ad were found

as well.

One

explanation for these findings

is

that

media

literacy training

made

subjects

skeptical

of the message and the commercial because they were more aware of the

techniques used by advertisers to try and persuade viewers. The attitude toward the ad

measure was included to ensure that the

attitude

toward the product was the only

like

dimension being measured because commercial viewers might

like a

a commercial, but not

product and vice versa. These two measures suggest that experimental subjects had

a negative attitude toward the product and the commercial.

Two

measures of attitude toward advertising

in

general (perceptions of the

personal and social benefits or costs of TV advertising and perceptions that

advertising

TV
would not be
in

is

deceptive) were used in this study.

It

was expected

that there

any differences between groups on the dependent variable, attitude toward advertising
general, because the

two groups were considered equivalent. Results indicated

that both

groups thought

TV

advertising

was deceptive (M =

4.89, control;

M = 5.06,

experimental), but the experimental group

the personal and social benefits or costs of

(M =

3.04) had

more negative perceptions of

TV advertising than the control group (M =

in

4.07).

One could argue

that the

two groups were equivalent

terms of their perception

of TV advertising as being deceptive because of personal experience with products. For

example, subjects

may have

seen a toy commercial, accepted the claims about the toy's

did not perform as the

performance, but found out after purchasing the toy that

it

commercial suggested.

96

Subjects diverged on their perceptions of the personal and social benefits or costs

of TV advertising. One explanation

for this disparity

is

that treatment effects

may have

occurred. Responses from subjects exposed to media literacy training might have been

influenced by their newfound knowledge about the persuasive techniques used by

advertisers.

Given the
for attitude

results,

it is

difficult to

draw

definitive conclusions about the

measures

toward advertising

in general.

Further testing must be done to determine the

best possible scale for measuring attitude toward advertising in general.

Interestingly,

measures for attention to additional peripheral cues also produced

groups (control
vs.

main

effects for treatment

experimental). Although the peripheral cue

of interest was number of arguments, other items were included that measured
subjects liked the kids in the Pringles commercial and the credibility

how much

of the announcer.

Subjects in the experimental group

subjects in the control group

(M =

3.

13) liked the kids in the commercial less than

(M =

3.77). Experimental subjects also

found the announcer

results cannot

to

be

less credible

(M =

3.07) than the control subjects

(M =

3.80).

These

be used to offer support for the hypotheses that suggested that media literacy training

would increase the likelihood of subjects scrutinizing message arguments and

of training would tend to increase the likelihood
the peripheral cue of interest.
that subjects

that a lack

would pay more

attention to

However, the findings do provide

media
literacy training
is

potential areas

of future

study. If future studies establish that

a moderating variable in

the persuasion process, then the peripheral cue

of interest could be changed

if

to liking the

kids in the commercial and announcer credibility to determine

certain cues receive

more

attention than others during the persuasion process.

97

Main
attitude

effects

were found

for

argument quality on

attitude

toward the product and

is

toward advertising

in general (perceptions that

TV

advertising

deceptive).

Subjects exposed to strong quality arguments

(M =

4.95) had

more favorable

attitudes

toward Pringles Potato Chips than subjects exposed to weak quality arguments
4.42). This finding suggests that the strong

(M =

arguments contained

in the

commercial

message were compelling enough

to

to

produce favorable attitudes among subjects exposed

arguments of a strong

quality.

This would be expected since the pilot test for argument

quality

produced very

distinct strong

arguments and weak arguments. The differences

found among the groups provide additional evidence that the quality of the arguments

were

distinctively strong

and weak.
for

The difference among the groups

general measures (perceptions that

one of the
is

attitude

toward advertising
is

in

TV

advertising

deceptive)

intriguing.

Strong

quality

argument subjects

(M =

5.30)

felt

TV

advertising

was more deceptive than weak

to explain because

quality

argument subjects did

that the strong

(M = 4.65).

This finding

is difficult

one

would expect

arguments would be more compelling and produce more

indicated the opposite happened. Subjects exposed to

favorable attitudes.

The findings
felt

weaker arguments

that advertising

was

less

deceptive than those exposed to strong

arguments. Further research

is

needed to determine
if the results

how

important this finding might be

in

terms of the persuasion process or

are an anomaly.

An odd

finding

emerged

for

one of the attention

to peripheral

cues measures

(liking kids in the commercial).

Subjects exposed to strong arguments

subjects exposed to

(M =

3.85) liked

the kids in the commercial

more than

weak arguments (M =

3.05).

However, both groups had neutral or

fairly

weak

feelings about the kids in the

98

commercial.

One

explanation for the finding

is

that subjects

exposed

to

weak arguments

may have had

difference

an overall negative feeling toward the commercial. However, there was no

the

among

two groups

for

announcer

credibility; therefore, this finding could

be an aberration.

Study Limitations

The Manipulations

The manipulation checks

for

media

literacy training

and number of arguments

were not successful. This poses a problem because there

suggest that exposure to the manipulations actually

is

no

statistical

evidence to
the groups

made

a difference

among

of subjects.

Media

literacy training .

Although the media

it

literacy training lesson

was

pretested

with children of the same age group,

was not

as effective as expected.

One reason

for

the lack of effectiveness might be the setting of the lesson for the fourth graders (n

90).

The only room

available for the lesson at the time

was a

large

room without

desks.

Subjects sat very close to one another on the floor.

Many of the examples

used

in the

lesson initiated enthusiastic reactions, which included laughing, shouting, and physical

movement. Such reactions

led to increased energy

and restlessness. Several subjects

moved

(e.g.,

walked or crawled) around the room despite being reprimanded by the

experimenter for doing so. Four subjects had to be separated for continuous talking and
physical contact. Therefore, the lack of a traditional classroom setting

may have

contributed to the subjects' lack of attention to the lesson. In addition, a regular

classroom teacher was not present during the presentation by the experimenter. All of the

99

teachers were monitoring control group subjects in their respective classrooms.

The

presence of a teacher might have alleviated behavioral problems and helped focus
students' attention.
Fifth graders (n=58)

were exposed

to the lesson seated at desks with

a teacher present.

Another explanation for the unsuccessful manipulation

the lesson. Ideally,

is

the single exposure to

media

literacy training

should be an on-going process. However,

scheduling restraints limited the amount of time that could be spent with the students.
future study should expose the students to

media

literacy training

more than once.

Multiple exposures would be more like typical lessons taught in other subjects. Teachers
typically spend several class periods

on various

units.

An

additional explanation deals with the length

of the

lesson.

Subjects were

taught media literacy training skills for 50-60 minutes. Perhaps an hour-long lesson for
fourth and fifth graders

is

too long. Shorter lessons, but more frequent lessons, might

if the lecture/discussion

have been more effective. Furthermore,

had been coupled with

an activity the manipulation might have been more successful.

A further explanation focuses on the questionnaire items.

Although the scale

items were directly related to the content of the lesson, the scale had not been previously
tested.

Factor analysis revealed that two dimensions were being measured by the scale
Further testing
is

items.

needed

to

develop a valid and reliable manipulation check.

A final explanation is that media literacy training does not work within the
context used in this study.

Media

literacy training

may

not be an effective moderating

variable of persuasion within the

ELM. One

could argue that the media literacy training

lesson did not provide the ability necessary to produce central processing within subjects.

100

Furthermore, the video used

advertising.

in the

lesson

was designed

as a children's survival guide to

The need

to have a survival guide to advertising implies that advertising

is

inherently negative; this implication

is

clear in the video because

it

points out the "tricks"

that advertisers use to sell products. Thus, the lesson

may have

trained subjects to be

skeptics of advertising rather than

more responsible consumers. Further testing of the

produce different
results.

lesson

is

needed to determine

if content variations

Number of arguments There

.

are

two possible explanations

for the unsuccessful

manipulation of number of arguments.

the

First, the

two-item scale that asked subjects about

number of arguments
if there

in the Pringles

commercial were ambiguous. The two items

in the

asked

were many or few arguments

commercial.

A more appropriate

measure would have been a single self-report measure. Subjects could have been asked,

"How many
more
direct

arguments were
and easier to

in the

commercial you just saw?' This would have been

interpret.

The second explanation

arguments
the
in television

is

that subjects

may

not have experience counting

commercials. Although number of arguments was addressed in

media

literacy training lesson, subjects

may have had

a difficult time distinguishing

between

all

the claims

made

in the

commercial. Previous studies (Petty

& Cacioppo,

1984; Petty et

al.,

1981a) used print advertisements, which made

it

easier to count the

number of arguments.
The Scales
Several of the scales used in the experiment were previously used in other attitude
studies.

Although these scales were designed

for adults, they all

had high

reliabilities.

Problems were encountered with the scales not previously

tested.

These include the

101

media

literacy training

manipulation check (noted above) and the attention to peripheral

cues scales. Factor analyses revealed more than one dimension being measured by the
items in the scales. Further scale development and testing

is

necessary to identify valid

and reliable

scales.

The Subjects

The

scales measuring attitude toward advertising in general produced

contradictory results.

The

scale assessing perceptions that

TV

advertising

is

deceptive

suggested that there were no differences

literacy training or lack thereof).

among

subjects in the treatment groups (media

However, the

scale assessing perceptions

of the

personal or social benefits or costs of TV advertising revealed a difference between the

two groups. These findings

noted
in

call the

equivalency of the two groups into question. As

literacy training

an

earlier section, the

media

may have

influenced the

experimental subjects' perceptions of the personal and social benefits or costs of TV

advertising by

making them even more

attitudes

skeptical

of commercial messages and producing

pretest-

more negative

toward advertising. Future studies might employ a

posttest experimental design to eliminate this treatment effect

and ensure equivalency

among

the groups.

Implications

Despite the limitations of the study, the findings suggest that there are potential
differences between experimental and control subjects' attitudes toward the advertised

product, but definitive conclusions about media literacy training's effectiveness cannot be

drawn. However, results of this study can provide a foundation for future research.

102

First,

perhaps the manipulation check for media literacy training worked, but not

in the

way

expected.

It

was predicted

that

media

literacy training

would provide subjects

in a systematic

with the ability to scrutinize and evaluate

critically

commercial messages

and objective manner. However, the findings suggest that media literacy training

may

have contributed to more negative attitudes for experimental subjects toward Pringles
Potato Chips as well as the commercial. This implies that the media literacy training

may

make

children

more

skeptical

of commercials and products being advertised. The data

to training or not, perceive advertising to

indicate that

all

subjects,

whether exposed

be

deceptive. If this

is

the case, then

what purpose does media

literacy training serve other

than increasing skepticism toward advertising?

It is

important for children to learn to question the media messages they

encounter; however, media literacy

is

more than just teaching children

is

to

be skeptics.

The

overall goal

of media

literacy in

terms of advertising

to

make

children scrutinize

advertised messages so that they will

become

better consumers.

If children

can become

more aware of the persuasive techniques used by

analyze commercials more critically and

advertisers, then they will be able to

make
is

better decisions about products.

Moreover, media literacy's overall goal

viewing
skills that will

to equip individuals with critical thinking and

help them evaluate media messages critically as well as help them

Critical thinking has

make other

decisions throughout

life.

been a staple of education

throughout the ages. What has changed over the years

educators teach such
skills.

is

the

medium through which medium

until radio

The printed word was

media

the dominant

and

television developed. Today,

literacy training teaches critical thinking

and

viewing

skills

by using

all

media, whether print or electronic. Children are multimedia

103

consumers; therefore,
to be critical thinkers.

it

makes sense
it

to use the

media they encounter daily to teach them

Therefore,

is

important that the media literacy training used in

this

study be revised so that

it

more

accurately teaches critical thinking skills rather than

skepticism.

Second,

if a single

exposure to a media literacy lesson can produce differences

among groups

as the findings suggest, then

media

literacy training built into existing

school curricula could be very effective at creating critical viewers. Although 48 of the

50

states already

have a media literacy component

1999),

built into their existing curricula

(Kubey

& Baker,

more

efforts

need to be made to recognize the benefits of media

literacy training

on

students. This study contributes to the belief that

media

literacy

makes a
it

difference in children's abilities to evaluate

media messages more

critically,

and

can be used as an example of how media literacy equips students with

lives.

skills that

can be

used throughout their

Future Research
This study
a foundation for future experimental studies that will test the

is

effectiveness of media literacy training

on

children's responses to persuasive messages.

Given the

results

of this study, several areas of future research are needed

to provide

more

definitive

answers to the research question, "What are the effects of media

literacy

training

on

children's attitudes toward persuasive messages?"

Future research must focus on validating the media literacy training manipulation

check

scale.

A study could

be designed using the same media literacy lesson and

manipulation check scale used in this study. Four groups of subjects could be presented

104

the lesson and asked to

fill

out the questionnaire.

fifth

group could serve as a control

group. Findings would validate the scale and provide evidence of its reliability or

suggest that changes need to be made.

A replication of this study is

literacy

needed to provide

statistical

evidence that media

does work.

By

replicating the study with valid measures

more

definitive

conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of media literacy training.

that could be

One change

made

to the study is to

make

it

a pretest-posttest experimental design. This

change would provide more support for equivalent groups of subjects

study.

at the start

of the

Another change could be

to

expose subjects

to the

media

literacy lesson

more than

once.

A4x2

x 2 design would be useful to compare control subjects with subjects that

literacy training once, for a

are

exposed to media

week, and for two weeks. One would

expect larger effects for subjects exposed for two weeks, but

it

would be

interesting to see

how

great the difference between groups might be. Furthermore, delayed posttest effects

could be measured after three months to determine

the delayed effects

if they

were

lasting or not.

Measuring

would also address the contention

that persuasion via the central route

is

more enduring than persuasion

via the peripheral route.

The

current research takes a step toward producing empirical evidence that

suggests media literacy training has an effect on children's attitudes toward persuasive

messages. However, additional investigations are needed to answer more completely

whether media
of persuasion.

literacy

is

a moderating variable within the Elaboration Likelihood

Model

APPENDIX A PARENTAL CONSENT FORM

Parental Consent

Dear Parent/Guardian,

My name is Bradford L. Yates and I am a doctoral candidate in the College of at the University of Florida under the supervision of Dr. Debbie Treise, associate professor of advertising, conducting research on television commercials and children's attitudes toward consumer products. The purpose of this
Journalism and Communications
research study
is

to assess the effectiveness

of media

literacy training

on children's

responses to commercial advertising. Media literacy training helps students learn to evaluate more critically media messages. The results of this study may help teachers and
parents prepare children to evaluate

more

critically television

commercials. These results

may

not directly help your child today, but

may

benefit him/her in the foture.

Half of the children participating

in the

study will be taught a media literacy

lesson while the other half will watch and discuss an educational program, "Bill
will take approximately

Nye

the

Science Guy," which airs in syndication on selected broadcast channels. These activities

45-60 minutes. Children will then watch a commercial and answer several questions about its content, but they do not have to answer any question they do not wish to answer. Trained adult assistants will help your child fill out the questionnaire. This should take about 20 minutes. The activities will take place in the

same

location (school or

community

center) your child attends each day. Although the

names on the questionnaires for matching purposes, be kept confidential to the extent provided by law. Their names will be replaced with code numbers. Results will only be reported in the form of group data.
children will be asked to write their
their identity will

Participation or non-participation in this study will not affect the children's grades or

placement
activities,

in any programs. Although this project is not part of the regular curriculum or your child will not need to make up any work. Non-participants will watch an

age-appropriate video under adult supervision.

You and your child have

benefits to the participants.

the right to

withdraw consent

for

your child's

no known risks or immediate No monetary compensation is offered for participation, but your child will receive a small item (pen or sticker) and a bookmark that highlights key
participation at any time without consequence. There are

points on how to become more media literate. Group results of this study will be May 2000 upon request. Results will be shared with media communication and education scholars at academic conferences and in academic journals. If you have any questions about this research project, please contact me at (352) 376-1874 or my
available in

105

106

faculty supervisor. Dr. Treise. at

participants' rights

(352) 392-9755. Questions or concerns about research

1

Florida, Gainesville,

may be directed to the UFIRB office. Box FL 3261 1-2250; ph: 392-0433.

12250. University of

Sincerely,

Bradford L. Yates

have read the procedure described above.

,

voluntarily give

my

consent for

my

child,

to participate in Bradford L. Yates' study

I

of television commercials and

children's attitudes.

have received a copy of this description.

Print

Name

Signature

Date

Approved by tbe University of Florida

Institutional

Review Board for use through September

20,

2000

APPENDIX B QUESTION GUIDE FOR CONTROL GROUP

Caves
Question Guide for
"'Bill

Nye

the Science" video

The following questions are to be used to stimulate discussion about the video. Please allow the students to share their own thoughts about the video as much as possible. Discuss the video for 20-25
minutes.

Have any of you ever been

saw.

in

a cave?

Allow students

to respond.

Let's talk about the video you just

2.

What

is

a cave? (Answer:

A natural

hollow space

in

the earth)

3.

How are caves

underground.)

an underground space

formed? (Answer: Caves form wherever materials or rock or ice are carried away from stiff enough to support a roof. There are caves under ice, under water, and

4.

What

is

limestone? (Answer:

It is

white chalky rock that

is

made of ancient

seashells.

years of water flowing through the ground like a river, limestone gets washed
the surface and a cave forms.)

After many away from underneath

5.

What

creatures live in caves? (Answer:

light to live

Bats, bacteria, fungi, spiders, insects, fish,

and amphibians.

These creatures don't need

6.

and they

live

mostly

in caves.)

What

is

the temperature

in

caves? (Answer: The temperature

it

is

cool and

it

stays about the

same

all

year round.

The weather

forecast called for

to be

damp, dark, and 12 degrees Celsius.)

7.

What
to

are stalactites and stalagmites? (Answer:

It

loaded with minerals.

all starts

They are rocks formed by dripping water that is on the surface. Water drips through earth and leaves minerals behind
Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling. Stalagmites

form

stalactites

and stalagmites.

might reach the

roof from the floor of the cave.)

8.

What

are Trogloxenes? (Answer:

They are cave

outsiders or cave guests.

These creatures

live outside

of the cave. Examples include bats, birds such as owls, bears, skunks, and moths. Bats sleep in caves during the day and fly out at night. Bears go into caves in the winter to hibernate (sleep). Birds, skunks, and moths live near the mouth of cave where there is a little bit of light.)
9.

What are troglophiles? (Answer: They are cave lovers. These creatures love the deep, dark, wet environment of a cave. Earthworms are troglophiles.) What
fish,

10.

are troglodytes? (Answer: They are true cave dwellers such as insects, spiders, amphibians, and crustaceans. These creatures can't live anywhere else. They typically have no color and are

often blind;

some have no eyes

at all.)

107

APPENDIX C MEDIA LITERACY TRAINING LESSON

Media Literacy Training Lesson

The following
outline describes the
It is

media

literacy training lesson that is the treatment in

this lesson will

the proposed experiment.

hypothesized that subjects exposed to

have

greater ability than subjects not exposed resulting in the greater likelihood that the central

route of the

ELM will be followed.

Media Literacy Training Defined

For the purposes of this study media literacy training will be operationalized as a lecture and discussion about the persuasive techniques used by advertisers to sell products and how to detect strong and weak arguments in commercials. The lesson will feature video clips from Consumer Reports' Buy Me That! series and selected commercials.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to identify persuasive techniques used by advertisers Students will be able to distinguish between strong and

1.

2.

weak arguments

in

commercials
Introduction
will begin by introducing him/herself and explain to the students what going to happen for the next 45-50 minutes. He will introduce the topic by asking the

The experimenter
is

students if they like commercials and what their favorite ones are.

Do you
What

all like

to

are

some of your

watch commercials? favorite commercials?

let

(Take a few moments and

the students respond)

Today we

are going to talk about television commercials

(i.e..

and learn about some of

methods, ways) advertisers use to make us want the products we see in their ads. Commercials can provide useful and helpful information but sometimes commercials leave things out about products or mislead us. We need
the techniques
,

to be able to tell

when

they are giving us good information and

when they

leave

108

[09

things out.

One way

to help us be

more aware

is

to understand

how

advertisers

persuade or convince us to buy their products. We already know about some of the techniques (ways) advertisers use to persuade
us to buy their products because

we use them ourselves. Think about this: If you want your parents to buy you a Christmas gift don't you tell them about the best features of the toy and how great it will be for you to have it? You might even say that everyone else has it so you have to have it, too. Well, advertisers do the same thing when they try to persuade or convince us to buy their products. They tell us how great their products are and how wonderful we will feel if we use their
from you and I when we try to convince buy us something or do something for us. Therefore, since you about some of the methods (ways) that can be used to persuade, then you should be able to identify those techniques (ways) in commercials and make better decisions when you buy things. Let's talk about some of these techniques so you can look out for them when you watch commercials. Remember, the more you know about commercials, the better chance you have of
products. So, they are no different

someone
already

to

know

choosing the right products to buy and use.

The experimenter will then play a brief montage of commercials and kids' reactions from the Consumer Reports' video, Buy Me Thai Too! as an attention-getting device. (Video clip includes the montage of commercials and kids' reactions as well as a closer look at the Typhoon II remote controlled car commercial). After the video, the experimenter will ask the students the following questions and take a few minutes to listen to responses.

What do you think about the Typhoon II after seeing the video clip? What were some of the persuasive techniques (or ways) the advertiser used make the Typhoon II look so appealing? (Take a few moments and let the students respond)

to

Persuasive Techniques: Part

The next segment

will begin

plus a Trix cereal commercial.

cereal and uncovers
(e.g.,

how much

sugar

with edited clips from Buy Me That! and Buy Me Thai 3!, The first part of the clip explores how advertisers sell some of the things advertisers do not include in their commercials is in cereal). The second part of the clip is a series of children's

head bites talking about cereal commercials and the nutritious value of advertised cereals.

The

third

segment
eat

is

a Trix cereal commercial.

for Breakfast?

Do you
(Show

Candy

Watch this video

clip

and then

listen to

what

other kids have to say about cereal commercials.

video).

Well, what did you see in that clip?

(Take a few moments and

let

the students respond)

Let's look at a Trix cereal commercial.

110

Did you hear the man say

"A

fruity part

of a good breakfast, too"?

balanced breakfast,
breakfast, right?

So, you learned that even though the commercial says the cereal is part of a we don't even have to eat the cereal to have a nutritious

Well, this

is

just

one example of the arguments (or claims) advertisers

their products.

try

and use

to get us to

want

Do you
Well,
in

all

few words)

know what an argument is? It is very important to understand this. terms of commercials, an argument (or claim) is a statement (or just a that is used to make you like the product and hopefully buy it. For

example, "Trix are for kids" and

"A

fruity part

of a good breakfast."
to look for

am going

to play

you a commercial, and

the product.

want you

arguments or

claims

made about

(Show

Tartar Control Listerine commercial)

So, what are

some of the arguments

let

or claims

made

in this

commercial?

(Take a few moments and

chalkboard)

students respond. Write their responses

on a

Very good! You have listed (#) arguments in the commercial. Do you think it better to have lots of arguments in the commercial or is it better to have just a
few? (Allow students to respond) Well, lots of arguments can be good, but what if the arguments are not strong ones? Would it be better to have a few really strong claims about the product
rather than lots

is

of very weak ones?

I

Let's look at the claims

found

in the Tartar

Control Listerine commercial to help

that Tartar Control

us answer these questions.

Here are the ones

Listerine
1)

came up

with.

The commercial claimed

Is

new
only

2) 3)

Is the

mouthwash

that helps fight tartar build

up

Has

the

4)
5) 6)

Kills

Is better

same germ killing power as regular Listerine germs that cause bad breath, plague, and the gum disease gingivitis than brushing alone (when compared to regular toothpaste)
starts,

What brushing

(Tartar Control) Listerine finishes

Can we be

sure these arguments are strong ones?

fights tartar build
its

How do we know that Control Tartar Listerine

Does the commercial have evidence
sets

up?
it

to

back up

claim? (Does

show

several

of teeth

that

have
it

less tartar as a result

kills

How can we be sure

germs

that cause

What about our tooth

paste? Isn't that

of Tartar Control Listerine?) bad breath, plague, and gingivitis? enough?

) )

11!

Notice the hard-to-see graphic '"When brushing and flossing regularly

isn't

enough"
(Allow students
advertisement)
to

encourage them to think about

respond to these queries, then show another commercial and how strong the claims are as they scrutinize the

Let's

made

watch another commercial. This time pay close attention to the claims being in the commercial and try and figure out if they are really strong arguments weak ones. Also, pay attention to how many claims are made. (Show Swiffer Sweeper commercial)
(claims) or pretty

What were the claims the advertiser made about Were they strong claims or weak claims? How many claims were made?
(Allow students to respond to these questions)
Swiffer Sweeper commercial claims
1

the Swiffer sweeper?

Simple

to

assemble (easy to use)

4)

and durable) it sweeps (easy to use) and trap hair, crumbs, and common allergies 5) Toss the cloth (disposable. .not a lot of extra work to use it) 6) Swiffer's the one, consider it done (meaning swiffer is all that you need)
2) 3)

Built to last (strong

Slides and glides as

Electrostatic action to attract

.

Let's take a look at another commercial.

Tyco R/C Tantrum commercial claims

1

It It

smashes
crashes
stunt

2) 3) 4) 5) 6)
7) 8)

The meanest
It It

machine you've ever seen

has cyclone steering

can do out of control stunts

control
it

You
It
It is It

can do bone-breaking back

unstoppable
has airborne twister action

flips

9) 10)
1

The madder it gets the badder it gets, until it throws an all out tantrum l)Use Tyco 6.0 V premium pack for maximum stunt power

12)

Maximum

heat

13) Battery pack sold separately

This commercial has

exciting and cool?
to respond).

lots

of claims

in

it,

but they are rather weak. Did you notice

the other techniques (ways) the advertiser used to

make the Tantrum seem really What were some of those techniques (ways)? (Allow students

112

Let's look at the commercial again. Listen to the driving (upbeat) music and how man speaks. Notice the quick cuts (a way of editing pictures together) from one scene to another. The commercial is very up beat and exciting, which makes you believe that the Tantrum will be just as exciting.

quickly the

This commercial

is

a great example of how advertisers use other persuasive

techniques (methods) to convince us to buy their products. The claims about the

Tantrum are not very strong, so the advertiser decided to use special editing and cool camera angles to make the Tantrum seem like a great toy. This remote controlled toy is probably not that different from other remote controlled toys, so
the advertiser tries to use these special

TV

techniques (fancy editing and neat

better than other remote controlled

camera angles)
toys.

to

make

the

Tantrum seem

Did the

Trix, Listerine,

and Swiffer Sweeper commercials use some of the

techniques

Reinforce

we identified in the Tantrum commercial? (Allow students to respond. how other techniques (methods) can be used to persuade with or
we
learned so far about advertisers and commercials?

without arguments.)
So, what have

We've learned
the hope that

that advertisers

make arguments

or claims about their products in

we

will believe their claims

to convince us that their products are the best.

and buy their products. They are trying We've also learned that there can

be strong arguments and weak arguments. In addition,

we have

learned that

commercials use other persuasive techniques with or without arguments. As commercial watchers and product buyers we need to pay close attention to the
arguments
quick cuts,
in

commercials and to the other persuasive techniques (e.g., music, colors, pacing) so we can make wise decisions about the products we
to buy.

buy and ask our parents

Persuasive Techniques: Part
II

This segment will focus on more methods (peripheral cues) besides arguments that
advertisers use to help sell products.

The segment begins with

McDonald's commercial
the discussion

featuring baseball slugger,

Mark McGwire. The commercial opens up

about celebrity endorsers. Following the McDonald's ad, a clip from

that deals with

Buy Me That

3!

the video clip

is

commercials about sports drinks will be shown. One of the key points of that sports drinks are often endorsed by star athletes, which implies that
will

whoever drinks the product

perform

like the celebrity athletes.

We know that commercials make claims about products, but are we always told what those claims are? (Show McDonald's commercial featuring Mark McGwire)
it mean when you see Mark McGwire of the McDonald's commercial?

What does

St.

Louis Cardinals

in

(Take a moment to

let

the students respond)

113

That's right.

We

might think that

I

if

we

eat at
it

a baseball like
this short

Mark McGwire.
clip.

know

McDonald's we would be able to hit hasn't worked for me. Take a look at

video

(Show video

clip

from Buy

Me

That 3!)

What

did the video clip

show us?

(Allow students
drink Gatorade

to respond)

all

the time, but

can't play basketball like

important for us to
not
the

mean
same

that

know that just we will be like that

because a celebrity
individual if we

Michael Jordan. It is is in a commercial it does wear the same shoes or drink

drink.

Michael Jordan has several commercials. Let's look (Show Michael Jordan's MCI Long Distance)
Michael Jordan
batteries?

at

one of them.

is connected to a lot of products. Can you name some others? McDonald's, Gatorade, Nike, Hanes, Michael Jordan cologne, Ray-o-vac

Why do

you think Michael Jordan (Allow students to respond)

Michael Jordan
is

is

in so

many commercials?

one of the most well known individuals in the world. Since most of us recognize him and like him, advertisers believe we would want to use the same products he does. But, we know that just because we use the same products as Michael, we "won't be like Mike." We will still be who we are. So,

when you watch commercials, be aware

that celebrities are in

them

for a reason.

As we

discussed earlier, advertisers use other techniques (methods) to get us to

really pretty girls

buy products. They use

and handsome boys. They use flashy

images, quick cuts, catchy music, and even humor. They also

make

the setting or
talk

environment look really cool. Let's take a look

about the techniques used to persuade
us.

at four

commercials and
Jr.)

(Show (Show (Show (Show

a clip of Pepsi
Jif

One commercial with Cuba Gooding,

peanut butter commercial)

AT&T commercial with David Arquette - Football) AT&T commercial with David Arquette - Hip-hop, bouncing car)

(Pause in between the commercials and talk about the techniques)

Closing

Now, what have we

sell their

learned? We've learned that commercials use celebrities to

products and they also use quick cuts, eye-catching images, attractive
result in implied (i.e., they are not said) claims or
in

people, catchy music, bright colors, and really nice locations. These techniques

(ways or methods)
about the products

arguments

commercials.

It is

important for us to recognize these

techniques and really think about what commercials are saying. Don't just accept

114

commercials' claims. Be sure to analyze the claims and think about them before deciding to buy products. Pay attention to the other persuasive techniques like
quick cuts and bright colors that might be used as well. Here's a little assignment for you... when you watch commercials count the number of claims made and

determine

if they are

strong or weak, just like

It

we

did today. Also, identify what

other persuasive techniques are being used.

literate.

will help

you be more media

Thank you

for

your attention.

(At this point, the children will be sent to a screening

room where

they will see

the appropriate version of the manipulated commercial (argument quality x

number of arguments))

APPENDIX D POSTTEST QUESTIONNAIRE

What Do You Think?

want

to

know what you

think about the commercial you just saw...

There are no right or wrong answers. Answer the questions as best you can. Just mark answers that reflect what YOU THINK!

Read and

listen to the directions carefully.

Name:
School Grade:

How old

are vou?

Circle One:

Boy
White
Native American

Girl

Circle One:

Black

Hispanic

Asian

Other

ID#:

(the

nun

Turn to Next Page

->

Wait

until

vou are

told to

do so

115

116

Write down all of the thoughts you had while watching the commercial about Pringles Potato Chips. You will have 3 minutes. Print your answers. Only write one thought per box. You don't have to use all of the boxes. After the 3 minutes, go back and tell me if your thoughts about the Pringles commercial are GOOD (positive) or BAD (negative) or NOT SURE (undecided). CIRCLE (C) or (B) or (NS) in each box.

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

NS

Turn to Next Page

->

Wait until vou are told to do so

117

Write down as many arguments (claims) that you remember from the Cringles Potato Chips commercial. You will have 3 minutes. Print your answers. Only write one argument per box. You don't have to use all of the
boxes.

Turn to Next Page

-^

Wait until vou are told to do so

118

Please check the box under the

number that

best represents

how you

feel

about

Pringles Potato Chips based on the commercial you just saw.

Here are what the numbers stand

for:

Number 7 Number 6 Number 5 Number 4 Number 3 Number 2 Number 1

means means means means means means means

that that that

that

that that
that

you you you you you you you

have a

have a have a
have a have a have a have

VERY STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side
FAIRLY FAIRLY

WEAK FEELING on the positive (good) side WEAK FEELING on the negative (bad) side
side

NEUTRAL FEELING (undecided) one way or the other

STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side a VERY STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad)

think about Pringles Potato Chips based on the commercial you just saw? (Check one box on each line to indicate what you think)
1

What do you

Bad
Unfavorable

a a

Good
Favorable

Disagreeable

a a a

Agreeable

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Negative

Positive

Dislike

Like

Useless

a
a a a

Useful

Not

beneficial

Beneficial

Low quality
Worthless

High quality

Valuable

Turn to Next Page

->

Wait until you are told to do so

11"

Please check the box under the

number that
is

best describes the commercial you just

saw. (For example,

the ad
is

if you

think the ad

not at

all

believable,

check

1).

Be sure

extremely believable, check 7. If you think to think about the COMMERCIAL,

NOT THE PRODUCT.

Here are what the numbers stand
for:

Number 7 means Number 6 means Number 5 means Number 4 means Number 3 means Number 2 means Number 1 means

that

that
that that that

that
that

you you you you you you you

VERY STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side have a STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side
have a have a have a have a have a have

FAIRLY FAIRLY

WEAK FEELING on the positive (good) side

NEUTRAL FEELING (undecided) one way or the other

WEAK FEELING on the negative (bad) side

side

STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side a VERY STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad)

What do you

think about the

COMMERCIAL you just saw? (Check one box on

3
4
5

each line to indicate what you think)

1

Not believable
Not
for

Believable

me

For

me

Not informative
Not
interesting

Informative

Interesting

Irritating

a
a a a a a
LI

Not

irritating

Not meaningful

Meaningful

Phony
Ridiculous

Not phony
Not ridiculous

Terrible

Not

terrible

Not worth remembering

Worth remembering

Did not

like

ad

a a a a

Liked ad

Did not enjoy ad

Enjoyed ad

Did not

find

Found ad
be good

to

ad to be good

Turn to Next Paae

->

Wait until vou are told to do so

120

Please check the box under the

number that

best represents

how much you agree or

in general.

disagree with the following statements about

TV advertising (commercials)

Here are what the numbers stand

for:

Number 7 Number 6 Number 5 Number 4 Number 3 Number 2 Number 1

means means means means means means means

that that

that
that that

that
that

you you you you you you you

have a have a have a have a

VERY STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side
FAIRLY
FAIRLY

WEAK FEELING on the positive (good) side

NEUTRAL FEELING (undecided) one way or the other

have a have a have a

WEAK FEELING on the negative (bad) side

side

STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side VERY STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad)
about what products and services are
4
5

TV advertising
available.
Disagree

is

a good

way

to learn

12Q

J
you and your family.
5

Agree

TV advertising

results in better products for

12
Disagree

Agree

In general,

TV advertising

presents a true picture of the product advertised.

4 6
7

Disagree

12J 12G

Agree

You can

trust

product brands advertised on

3

TV more
5

than product brands not

6
7

advertised on TV.
Disagree

U
match
5

Agree

TV advertisements help me

find products that

my
6

personality and interest.

7

Disagree

12U
helps

Agree

TV advertising
am
looking
for.

me know which

product brands have the qualities or features

4
5

Disagree

12U

Agree

TV advertising gives me a
who
use them.
Disagree

good idea about products by showing the kinds of people

3

12

Agree

Turn to Next Page

->

121

TV

advertising helps

me buy
1

the best product for the price.

3

Disagree
I

Q
pay more for a product that
2
3 4
is

a
advertised on
5

Agree

am

willing to

TV.
7

Disagree

Agree
feel a

ads today are not about products themselves, but just certain way (e.g., happy, excited, good).
3

Most

TV

make me

Disagree

G
as

a
much information
3
4

Agree

Today's

TV ads don't give you

as they could.
6

Disagree

Agree

Today's TV ads tell you more about the people who use a product than about what the product does for you.
I

Disagree

Q
to

a
(affect) people's

Agree

Most

TV ads try

work on
1

emotions (feelings)
5

Disagree

a
more
truth in today's
4

Agree

There

is

a critical need for

TV advertising
5

Disagree

-J

Agree

TV commercials do

not show
2

life

as

it

really

is.

Disagree

Agree

TV advertising
lot alike.

mostly

tries to create

small differences between products that are a

4
5

12

Disagree

Agree

Turn to Next Page

->

Wait until vou are told to do so

122

Please check the box under the number that best represents disagree with the following statements.

how much you agree or

Here are what the numbers stand

for:

Number 7 Number 6 Number 5 Number 4 Number 3 Number 2 Number 1

means means means means means means means

that that that that that that that

you you you you you you you

have a have a
have a have a have a

VERY STRONG FEELING on the positive good) side STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side
(

FAIRLY FAIRLY

WEAK FEELING on the positive (good) side

WEAK FEELING on the negative (bad) side
side

NEUTRAL FEELING (undecided) one way or the other

STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side VERY STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad)

have a have a

Advertisers use some of the same persuasive methods (ways) to convince us to buy

products that

we

use to convince people to do things for us.

Disagree

12O
which
is

6
LI

Agree

Through

editing,

cutting from one picture to another, advertisers put

pictures of products together so they look really good

and make us want them.

6
7

12
Disagree

Agree
to

Commercials use interesting camera angles

really do.

make products

look better than they

12
Disagree

Agree

Advertisers sometimes
feel

make commercials funny

so

we

will

be

in a

good mood (we

happy) when we think about the products.

12
Disagree

Agree
to

Commercials use bright colors

stores.

make products

stand out so

we

will notice

them

in

Disagree

12 Q
O

Agree

TV

commercials make weak and strong claims about products.

Disagree

12O

Agree

Turn to Next Page

->

[23

Advertisers try to

make products

that are a lot alike seem different by showing

them

being used by attractive (pretty) people in really cool (nice) places.

12
Disagree

Q
will

Agree

TV

commercials make you believe that you if you use the product he/she does.

be

like the

person

in

the commercial

Disagree

12

Q
lots

Agree

TV commercials
Quick
edits (cut

persuade us to buy products in Which of the following ways (methods) are used

of ways.

in

TV commercials?
fast) 6
7

from one picture

1

to
3

another really
4 5

Disagree

Agree

Bad language
1

Disagree

Agree

Catchy music
1

Disagree

a
1

Agree

Ugly people
2
3

Disagree

Agree

Humor (make

us laugh)
2

Disagree

a
i

a
3

Agree

Arguments
2

Disagree

a
i

Agree

Mad

people
2
3

Disagree

a
i

Agree

Famous people
2
3 4 5 6

Disagree

Agree

Turn to Next Page

->

Wait until vou are told to do so

124

Please check the box under the

Dumber that

best represents

how much you agree or

disagree with the following statements about the Pringles Potato Chips commercial you just

saw.

Here are what the numbers stand

for:

Number 7 Number 6 Number 5 Number 4 Number 3 Number 2 Number 1

means means means means means means means

that

that that
that

that that that

you you you you you you you

have a have a
have a

VERY STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side
FAIRLY FAIRLY

WEAK FEELING on the positive (good) side

WEAK FEELING on the negative (bad) side
side

have a have a have a

NEUTRAL FEELING (undecided) one way or the other

STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side have a VERY STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad)
(a lot of) reasons

The commercial presented many

Pringles Potato Chips.

(arguments/claims) for eating

12
Disagree

Agree

The commercial presented few

Pringles Potato Chips.

(not a lot of) reasons (arguments/claims) for eating

12
Disagree
I

Agree

like the kids in the

commercial for Pringles Potato Chips.

12
Disagree
I

Agree

would

like to

be friends with the kids

in

the commercial for Pringles Potato Chips.

4
5

12
Disagree
I

Agree

have friends

like the kids in the

commercial for Pringles Potato Chips.

3

Disagree

12Q 12

Agree

The

kids in the commercial for Pringles Potato Chips are attractive

(pretty/handsome).
3

Disagree

Agree

Turn to Next Page

->

125

The man

in

the commercial,

whose voice you heard, knows a

lot

about Pringles

Potato Chips.

12
Disagree
LI LI
I

4
LI

LI

LI

Agree

believe

what

the

man

in

the commercial said about Pringles Potato Chips.

3

12
Disagree
L)

4
LI

6 LJ

LI

LI

Agree

The man

in

the commercial for Pringles Potato Chips

is

telling the truth.

12
Disagree

Agree

Turn to Next Page

->

Wait until you are told to do so

126

Please check the box under the

number to

indicate

how

persuasive you think the

Pringles Potato Chips commercial was. Persuasive means the commercial convincing arguments about Pringles Potato Chips.

made

Here are what the numbers stand

for:

Number Number Number Number Number Number Number

7 means that you have a

6 means that you have a 5 means that you have a

4 means that you have a

VERY STRONG FEELING on the positive good) side STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side
(

FAIRLY

WEAK FEELING on the positive

(undecided) one

good) side
or the other

NEUTRAL FEELING
FAIRLY

way

3 means that you have a 2 means that you have a 1 means that you have a

WEAK FEELING on the negative (bad) side

side

STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side VERY STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad)

How

persuasive was the commercial for Pringles Potato Chips? (Check one box on

each line to indicate what you think)

2
3

Doesn't make

Makes me
want Pringles

me want
Doesn't
sense

Pringles

make

Makes
sense

Not believable

a a 3

Believable

Weak

Strong

Did you see the video of Bill Nye the Science

Guy today?

(Circle one)

Yes

No

Stop!

Good Job!

APPENDIX E PRETEST QUESTIONNAIRE FOR PRODUCT OF INTEREST

What Do You Think?

If you

want to know what you think about certain products... want to tell me what you think, please fill in the blanks below.

Name:
School Grade:

How Old Are You?_

Boy or
ID#:
There are no right or wrong answers. Just Here's what you should do.
Circle the
circle the

Girl:

number you think

best represents

how you feel.

number

that best represents

how you

feel

about each product See example below.

Snack Cakes

Bad
1

Good
2
3
(4)

Unfavorable
1

Favorable

(5)

You

will also Circle the

number

that best represents

how much you agree

or disagree with 6

sentences about each product. See example.

When other people see me eating Snack Cakes, they think of me in a

Disagree
1

certain way.

Agree
3 5

(2)

Let's

do one for practice together!

Turn

to the next page.

127

128

Example: Snack Cakes

Circle the

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
represents

agree or disagree with the

number that best how you feel about

sentences below.
the

product listed above.

other people see me eating Snack Cakes, they think of me in a certain way.

When

Bad

Good
Disagree

Agree
4
5

12
12 12

12
You can
Disagree

Unfavorable
4

Favorable
tell

a lot about a person by seeing

eats.

what brand of Snack Cakes he/she

Agree
3

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12
Disagree

Snack Cakes help me express who

Unpleasant
Pleasant

am.

12
Negative

Agree

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Snack Cakes are "me".

3

Agree

Like

12
Go
to

12
7
tells

Seeing somebody else eat Snack Cakes

me

a lot about that person.

Top of Next Column ->

Disagree

Agree
3

12
When
the
I

eat
I

way

Snack Cakes, others see me want them to see me.

Agree
3

Disagree

12

Next Page

->

12')

Sneakers/ Athletic Shoes

number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
way.

other people see

Sneakers, they think of

me wearing me in a certain

Bad

Good
3

12
12 12 12
Negative

Disagree

Agree
3

12
7

Unfavorable
4

Favorable
6

You can tell a lot about a person by seeing what brand of Sneakers he/she wears.
Disagree

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4
5 6 7

Agree
3

12
Disagree

Sneakers help
Unpleasant
4
Pleasant

me

express

who I am.
Agree

12
Disagree

Positive

12
Dislike

Sneakers are "me".

3

Agree
3

Like
4 6

12

12
me
Disagree

Seeing somebody else wear Sneakers

a lot about that person.

tells

Agree
3

Go to Top of Next Column

12
I

When wear Sneakers,

way
I

others see

me

the

want them

to see

me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

130

2.

Video Games
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me

playing Video

Games, they think of me

in a certain

way.

Bad

Disagree

Agree

12
12 12

12
You can
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable
tell

a lot about a person by seeing

plays.

what Video Games he/she

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4 6

Agree
3

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Video Games help

me

express

who I am.

12
Negative

Agree
3

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Video Games are "me".

3

Agree
3

Like
4

12
Go
to

12
7
tells

Seeing somebody else play Video

Games

me

a lot about that person.

Top

Disagree of Next

Column

Agree
3

12
When
the
I

play Video
I

way

Games, others want them to see me.

Agree
3

see

me

Disagree

12

Next Page

->

131

3.

Cereal
number that best how you feel about
above.

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product

listed

When

other people see

me

eating Cereal,

they think of

me

in

a certain way.

Bad

Good
Disagree

Agree

12
12 12 12
Negative

12
You can
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable
tell

a lot about a person by seeing

eats.

what kind of Cereal he/she

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4 6
7

Agree
3

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Cereal helps

me

express

who 1 am.
Agree

Positive

12
Cereal
is

12
Dislike

"me".
Agree

Disagree

Like

12

12
lot

Seeing somebody else eat Cereal

tells

me

about that person.

Agree
3

Go to Top of Next Column

Disagree

12
When
I
I

eat Cereal, others see

to see

me

the

way

want them

me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

132

4.

Pizza
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me

eating Pizza,

they think of

me

in

a certain way.

Bad

Disagree

Agree
3

12 12 12

12
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable
4
5

You can tell a lot about a person by what kind of Pizza he/she eats.
Agree
3

seeing

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4
6 7

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Pizza helps

me

express

who I am.
Agree

12
Negative

Positive

12
Pizza
is

12
Dislike

"me".
Agree
3

Disagree

Like
4

12

12
7
lot

Seeing somebody else eat Pizza

tells

me

about that person.

Agree
3

Goto Top of Next Column ->

Disagree

12
When
I

eat Pizza, others see

to see

me

the

way

want them
Disagree

me.

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

133

5.

Candy
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me

eating Candy,

they think of

me

in

a certain way.

Bad

Disagree

Agree
3

12

12
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable

12
12

You can tell a lot about a person by what kind of Candy he/she eats.
Agree

seeing

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12
Candy
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

helps

me

express

who I am.
Agree

12
Negative

Positive

12
Candy
is

12
Dislike

"me".
Agree
3

Disagree

Like

12

12
lot

Seeing somebody else eat

Candy

tells

me

about that person.

Agree
3

Go to Top of Next Column

Disagree

12
When
I

Candy, others see me the way want them to see me.

I

eat

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

134

6.

Chewing

Gum
the

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

represents

number that best how you feel about

above.

sentences below.

product

listed

When other people see me with Chewing Gum, they think of me in a certain way.
Disagree

Bad

Good
3

Agree
3

12

12
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable

12
12

You can tell a lot about a person by seeing what kind of Chewing Gum he/she chews.
Agree
3

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4
5

12
Chewing
am.
Disagree

4
helps

6
express

Gum

me

who

Unpleasant

Pleasant

12
Negative

Agree
3

Positive

12
Chewing
Disagree

4
is

12
Dislike

Gum

"me".
Agree

Like
4 6

12

12
7
tells

Seeing somebody else chew Chewing

Gum

me

a lot about that person.

Go to Top of Next Column

Disagree

Agree

->

12
Disagree

When I chew Chewing Gum, others see me the way I want them to see me.
Agree
4
5

12

Next Page

l.i

7.

Potato Chips
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me
in

eating Potato
a certain way.

Chips, they think of

me

Bad

Disagree

Agree
4 6

12 12
12 12
Negative

12
You can
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable
tell

a lot about a person by seeing

eats.

what brand of Potato Chips he/she

Agree
3

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4
6 7

12
Disagree

Unpleasant
3

Pleasant

Potato Chips help

me

express

who I am.

Agree
3

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Potato Chips are "me".

3

Agree

Like

12
Go
to

12
7
tells

Seeing somebody else eat Potato Chips

me

a lot about that person.

Disagree

Top of Next Column

Agree

12
When
the
I

eat Potato Chips, others see

I

me

way

want them

to see me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->Q

136

8.

Soda
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me

drinking Soda,

they think of

me

in

a certain way.

Bad

Disagree

Agree
3

12
12

12
Disagree

Unfavorable
4

Favorable

You can tell a lot about a person by what brand of Soda he/she drinks.
Agree

seeing

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12 12
Negative

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Soda helps me express who

am.

Agree
3

Positive

12
Soda
is

12
Dislike

"me".
Agree
3

Disagree

Like

12
Go
to

12
7

Seeing somebody else drink Soda

a lot about that person.

tells

me

Top

Disagree of Next

Column -

Agree
3

12
When
I

drink Soda, others see want them to see me.

I

me

the

way

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

137

9.

Roller Blades
number that best how you feel about
above.

Circle the

number

that best represents how-

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product

listed

When

other people see

me

using Roller

Blades, they think of me in a certain way.

Bad

Good
Disagree

Agree

12 12 12 12
Negative

12
You can
Disagree

4
a
lot

Unfavorable

Favorable
tell

about a person by seeing

has.

what brand of Roller Blades he/she

Agree

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Roller Blades help

me

express

who I am.

Pleasant

Agree

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Roller Blades are "me".

3

Agree

Like
4

12
Go
to

12
7
tells

Seeing somebody else use Roller Blades

me

a lot

about that person.

Agree

Disagree

Top of Next Column

12
When
the
I

use Roller Blades, others see

I

me

way

want them

to see me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

138

10.

Dolls
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me

playing with

Dolls, they think of

me

in a certain

way.

Bad

Disagree

Agree

12 12 12 12
Negative

12
You can
what
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable
tell

a lot about a person by seeing

Dolls he/she has.

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4 6

Agree
3

12
Dolls help

Unpleasant
4

Pleasant
Disagree

me

express

who I am.
Agree

Positive

12
Dolls are

12
Dislike

"me".
Agree
3

Disagree

Like
3

12
Go
to

12
7

Seeing somebody else play with Dolls

tells

me
Top of Next Column

lot

about that person.

Agree
3

Disagree

12
When
way
I I

play with Dolls, others see

to see me.

me the

want them

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

139

1 1

Action Figures
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When

me playing with Action Figures, they think of me in a

other people see
certain way.

Bad

Good
3

12
12

Disagree

Agree
3

12
Disagree

7 seeing

Unfavorable

Favorable

You can tell a lot about a person by what Action Figures he/she has.
Agree

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4 6

12 12
Negative

12
Disagree

6
express

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Action Figures help

me

who I am.

Agree
3

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Action Figures are "me".

Like
4
6

Agree
3

12
Go
to

12
Disagree

Seeing somebody else play with Action Figures tells me a lot about that person.

Top of Next Column

Agree
3

12
Disagree

When I play with Action Figures, others see me the way I want them to see me.
Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

140

12.

Stuffed Animals
number that best how you feel about
above.

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you agree

Circle the

or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product

When

other people see

me

playing with

listed

Stuffed Animals, they think of

me

in a

Bad

Good
3

certain way.

12

Disagree

Agree
3

12
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable
4 6

12 12

You can tell a lot about a person by what Stuffed Animals he/she has.
Agree

seeing

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12
am.
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Stuffed Animals help

me

express

who

12
Negative

Agree
3

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Stuffed Animals are "me".

Like

Agree

12

12
Animals
Disagree

Seeing somebody else play with Stuffed

tells

me

lot

about that person.

Agree

Go to Top of Next Column

12
Disagree

When I play with Stuffed Animals, others see me the way I want them to see me.
Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

141

13.

French Fries
number that best how you feel about
above.

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you agree

Circle the

or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product

listed

When
Good

other people see

me
in

eating French

Fries, they think of

me

a certain way.

Bad

Disagree

Agree
3

12 12

12
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable

You can tell a lot about a person by seeing what kind of French Fries he/she eats.
Agree
3

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12 12
Negative

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

French Fries help

me

express

who I am.

Agree
3

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

French Fries are "me".

3

Agree
3

Like

12

12
tells

Seeing somebody else eat French Fries me a lot about that person.

Go to Top of Next Column

Disagree

Agree
3

12
When
the
I

eat French Fries, others see

I

me

way

want them

to see

me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

142

14.

Hamburgers
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
way.

other people see

me

eating
in a certain

Hamburgers, they think of me

Bad

Good
3

12 12
12

Disagree

Agree
3

12
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable

You can tell a lot about a person by seeing what kind of Hamburgers he/she eats.
Agree
3

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4
5

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Hamburgers help me express who

Agree
3

am.

12
Negative

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Hamburgers are "me".

Agree
3

Like
4

12

12
tells

Seeing somebody else eat Hamburgers

me

a lot about that person.

Go to Top of Next Column

Disagree

Agree
3

12
When
the
I

eat
I

way

Hamburgers, others want them to see me.

see

me

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

143

15.

Sports Drinks
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you agree

Circle the

or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me

drinking

Sports Drinks, they think of

me

in a

Bad

certain way.

12
12

Disagree

Agree
3

Unfavorable
4

Favorable
6

12
You can
Disagree

4
a
lot

about a person by seeing what kind of Sports Drinks he/she drinks.

tell

Disagreeable

Agreeable

Agree
3

12
12
Negative

12
Disagree

Unpleasant
4

Pleasant

Sports Drinks help

me

express

who 1 am.

Agree
3

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Sports Drinks are "me".

Like
4

Agree
3

12

12
tells

Seeing somebody else drink Sports Drinks

me

a lot about that person.

Go to Top of Next Column

Disagree

Agree

12
Disagree

When I drink Sports Drinks, others see me the way I want them to see me.
Agree

12

Next Page

->

144

6.

Board Games
number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me
in

playing Board
a certain way.

Games, they think of me

Bad

Disagree

Agree

12

12
You can
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable
tell

a lot about a person by seeing

has.

12
12

what Board Games he/she

Disagreeable

Agreeable

Agree

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Board Games help

me express who I am.

Agree

12
Negative

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Board Games are "me".

3

Agree
3

Like
4

12
Go
to

12
tells

Seeing somebody else play Board

Games

me

a lot about that person.

Top of Next Column

Disagree

Agree
3

12
When
the
I

play Board
I

way

Games, others want them to see me.

Agree
3

see

me

Disagree

12

Next Page

->

145

17.

Yo-yos
number that best how you feel about
above.

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you agree

Circle the

or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product

listed

When
Good

other people see me playing with Yo-yos, they think of me in a certain way.
Disagree

Bad

Agree
3

12

12
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable

12 12 12
Negative

You can tell a lot about a person by what kind of Yo-yos he/she has.
Agree
3

seeing

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4
5 6

12
Disagree

Unpleasant

Pleasant

Yo-yos help

me

express

who I am.
Agree

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Yo-yos are "me".

3

Agree
3

Like

12
Go
to

12
tells

Seeing somebody else play with Yo-yos

me

a lot about that person.

Top of Next Column

Disagree

Agree
3

12
When
the
I

play with Yo-yos, others see

I

me

way

want them

to see

me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->Q

146

18.

Bicycles
number that best how you feel about
above.

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you agree

Circle the

or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product

listed

When
Good

other people see

Bicycle, they think of

me riding a me in a certain way.

Agree

Bad

Disagree

12 12

12
Disagree

Unfavorable
4

Favorable
6
7

You can tell a lot about a person by seeing what kind of Bicycle he/she has.
Agree
3

Disagreeable

Agreeable
4
6 7

12 12
Negative

12
Disagree

Unpleasant
4

Pleasant

Bicycles help

me

express

who I am.
Agree

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Bicycles are
3

"me".
Agree

Like
4

12
Go
to

12
me
a
lot

Seeing somebody else ride a Bicycle

tells

about that person.

Agree
3

Top of Next Column

Disagree

12
When
way
I I

ride a Bicycle, others see

to see

me

the

want them

me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

147

19.

Skateboards
number that best how you feel about
above.

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you agree

Circle the

or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product

listed

When
Good

other people see

me

riding a
in a certain

Bad

Skateboard, they think of me way.

Disagree

12
12

Agree
3

Unfavorable
4

Favorable
6

12
Disagree

You can tell a lot about a person by seeing what kind of Skateboard he/she has.
Agree
3

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12 12
Negative

12
Disagree

Unpleasant
4

Pleasant

Skateboards help

me

express

who I am.

Agree
4
6

Positive

12
Disagree

12
Dislike

Skateboards are "me".

Agree
3

Like
4 6

12
Go
to

12
tells

Seeing somebody else ride a Skateboard me a lot about that person.

Top of Next Column

Disagree

Agree
3

12
When
the
I

ride a Skateboard, others see

I

me

way

want them

to see me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

I4S

20.

Juice
number that best how you feel about
above.

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product

listed

When
Good

other people see

me

drinking Juice,

they think of

me

in a certain

way.
Agree

Bad

Disagree

12
12 12 12
Negative

12
You can
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable
tell

a lot about a person by seeing

what kind of Juice he/she drinks.

Agree

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12
Disagree

Unpleasant
4

Pleasant

Juice helps

me

express

who I am.
Agree

Positive

12
Juice
is

12
Dislike

"me".
Agree
3

Disagree

Like

12
Go
to

12
Disagree

Seeing somebody else drink Juice

a lot about that person.

tells

me

Top

of Next

Column

Agree
3

12
When
way
I I

drink Juice, others see

to see

me

the

want them

me.

Disagree

Agree
3

12

Next Page

->

144

Compact Discs (CDs)

number that best how you feel about

Circle the

number

that best represents

how

much you
Circle the

agree or disagree with the

sentences below.
the

represents

product listed above.

When
Good

other people see

me

playing CDs,

they think of me in a certain way.

Bad

Disagree

Agree
3

12

12
Disagree

Unfavorable

Favorable

12 12 12
Negative

You can tell a lot about a person by what kind of CDs he/she has.
Agree
3

seeing

Disagreeable

Agreeable

12
CDs
help

4
express

Unpleasant

Pleasant

me

who I am.
Agree

Disagree
3

Positive

12
CDs
Disagree

12
Dislike

are "me".

Agree
3

Like
4

12
Go
to

12
Disagree

Seeing somebody else's

CDs

tells

me

a lot

about that person. Agree

3

Top of Next Column

12
When
I

play CDs, others see

to see

me

the

way

want them
Disagree

me.

Agree
3

12

Stop!

Good Job!

APPENDIX F

ARGUMENT QUALITY PRETEST

What Do You Think?

want

to

know what you

think about several arguments (claims) for Pringles Potato Chips...

There are no right or wrong answers. the questions as best you can. Just mark answers that reflect what YOU THINK!

Answer

Read and

listen to the directions carefully.

Name:
School Grade:

How old

are vou?

Circle One:

Boy
White
Native American

Girl

Circle One:

Black

Hispanic

Other

Zip code (for your school):

ID#:
(leave blank)

Turn to Next Page

->

Wait until you are told to do so

150

151

DIRECTIONS:
Please tell me how persuasive (believable) you think each statement about Pringles Potato Chips is. Persuasive means how convincing an argument or claim about a product is. For example, if a commercial says Pringles Potato Chips are the best potato chip ever made, then I might think that is a very persuasive claim. It might make me want to buy Pringles. So, I would rate that statement very high. If a commercial says Pringles cost a lot, then I would rate that statement really low because it doesn't make me want to buy Pringles. I don't want to know what you think about Pringles based on how you feel about Pringles from eating them before (prior experience). I want to know how persuasive (believable) or convincing you think each statement is. Let's look at an

example.

EXAMPLE
Here are what the numbers stand
for:

Number Number Number Number Number Number Number

7 means that you have a 6 means that you have a

VERY STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side STRONG FEELING on the positive (good) side
FAIRLY

means that 4 means that 3 means that 2 means that 1 means that
5

you you you you you

have

WEAK FEELING on the positive (good) side WEAK FEELING on the negative (bad) side

have a have a have a have a

NEUTRAL FEELING (undecided) one way or the other

FAIRLY

STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side VERY STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side
what you think about the argument
for Pringles Potato

CHECK one box on each

Chips.

line to indicate

Pringles Potato Chips are fabulous to eat.

Doesn't

make
it

a
a a a

a a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Turn to Wert Page

->

Wait until you are told to do so

152

CHECK one box on each line to indicate what you

Chips.

think about the argument for Pringies Potato

Number Number Number Number Number Number Number

7 means that you have a 6 means that you have a

5

VERY STRONG FEELING on the positive STRONG FEELING on the positive (good)
FAIRLY

(good) side
side

means

that

you have a

WEAK FEELING on the positive (good) side WEAK FEELING on the negative (bad) side
side

4 means that you have a

NEUTRAL FEELING (undecided) one way or the other

FAIRLY

means 2 means means

3
1

that
that

that

you have a you have a you have a

STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad) side VERY STRONG FEELING on the negative (bad)

Pringies Potato Chips are good for you.

Doesn't make

Makes me
want
it

me want
sense

it

Doesn't make

Makes
sense

Not believable

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringies Potato Chips taste good.

Doesn't

make
it

a
a a

Makes me
want
sense
Believable
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Pringies Potato Chips have less

fat.

Doesn't make

a
a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want it
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes

Not believable

a
a

a a

Believable

Weak

Strong

Turn to Next Page

->

153

Pringles Potato Chips have

more vitamins and minerals than other snacks.

3 4 5

Doesn't make

a a
LI

a
a
LI

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want it
Doesn't make
sense

Makes

Not believable

a
a

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips give you energy.

Doesn't

make
it

Makes me
want
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

make

a a a

Makes
sense
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips are

made with
1

real potato flakes.

Doesn't

make
it

Makes me
want
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes
sense

Not believable

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips are

made with wholesome

1

ingredients.

Doesn't

make
it

Makes me
want
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes
sense
Believable

Not believable

a
a

Weak

Strong

Turn to Next Page

->

154

Pringles Potato Chips are less greasy than other chips.

Doesn't

make
make

a
a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want it
Doesn't
sense

Makes

Not believable

Q
a

a
a

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips are packed in special cans for freshness.

Doesn't

make make

Q
a

a
a

a a a

Makes me
want
sense
Believable
it

me want it
Doesn't
sense

Makes

Not believable

Weak

a
chips.

Strong

Four out of five kids choose Pringles Potato Chips over other
2
3 4

Doesn't make

Q
a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

it

make

Makes
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Once you pop open

a can of Pringles Potato Chips you can "t stop eating them.

Doesn't

make
it

Makes me
want
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes
sense

Not believable

Believable

Weak

Strong

Turn to Next Pane

->

155

Once you pop open

a can of Pringles Potato Chips the fun don't stop.

Doesn't

make
make

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want it
Doesn't
sense

Makes

Not believable

a a a

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips are really healthy snacks.

Doesn't

make

Makes me
want
it

me want it
Doesn't make
sense

Makes
sense

Not believable

a
a a a

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips are delicious.

Doesn't

make
it

Makes me
want
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes
sense
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips have a fresh potato flavor.

Doesn't

make
make

a
a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want it
Doesn't
sense

Makes
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Turn to Next Page

->

156

Pringles Potato Chips are stacked in special cans.

Doesn't make

Makes me
want
it

me want it
Doesn't make
sense

Makes
sense
Believable

Not believable

Weak

a
make
1

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips

lunch better.

Doesn't make

LI

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want it
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes

Not believable

a
a

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips have a unique shape.

Doesn't make

a
a a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want it
Doesn't make
sense

Makes
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

You and your

friends will love Pringles Potato Chips.

Doesn't

make

a
a a a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want it
Doesn't make
sense

Makes
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Turn to Next Page

->

157

Pringles Potato Chips are fun to eat.

Doesn't make

Makes me
want
it

me want it
Doesn't make
sense

a a a

Makes
sense
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips stay in one piece.

Doesn't

make
make

Makes me
want
it

me want it
Doesn't
sense

Makes
sense
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips do not break like bags of chips.

Doesn't make

a
a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want
sense

it

Doesn't make

Makes

Not believable

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips crunch

when you munch.

2
3

Doesn't

make
make

Makes me
want
it

me want it
Doesn't
sense

Makes
sense
Believable

Not believable

a
a

a
a

Weak

Strong

Turn to Next Page

->

15S

Pringles Potato Chips are seasoned chips.

Doesn't

make
it

a a a a a

Makes me
want
sense
it

me want
sense

Doesn't make

Makes
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips are crispy chips.

Doesn't

make
it

Makes me
want
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

make

Makes
sense

Not believable

Believable

Weak

Strong

Pringles Potato Chips are the Stacked Snack.

Doesn't make

Makes me
want
it

me want
Doesn't
sense

it

make

Makes
sense
Believable

Not believable

Weak

Strong

Stop!

Good Job!

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.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Bradford L. Yates was born
received the
in

Lynchburg, Virginia, on September 24, 1967. He

BA. summa cum

laude in communication studies from Lynchburg College

in 1989.

He

earned the M.S. in radio/television from Syracuse University in 1991 and the

M.Ed,

in

curriculum and instruction from Lynchburg College in 1993. In 1995. he began

doctoral studies in mass communication at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

During his undergraduate and graduate

intern at the

studies,

Yates served as a news production

ABC affiliate, WSET-TV

in

13, in

Lynchburg, Virginia, and a sports intern

as an associate producer at Little

at

NBC's WRC-TV 4

Washington, DC.

He worked

Pond Productions, an audiovisual production company

returning to

in

Lynchburg, for a year before

specialist.

Lynchburg College as an

instructor

and video production

For

three years. Yates taught courses in audiovisual communication, broadcast journalism,

and public speaking

in addition to

producing and editing the cable access program. "Eye

life at

On LC,"

a video newsmagazine about

Lynchburg College and beyond. While

at

the University of Florida, he taught Introduction to Telecommunications,

TV

and the

American Family, Electronic Field Production, and Advanced Television Production.

In 2000, Yates joined the faculty as an assistant professor of mass

communications

at the State University

of West Georgia.

173

certify that

have read

this

study and that

in
is

my

opinion

it

conforms

to the

acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and

fully adequate, in

scope and quality,

as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Deborah M.

Treise, Chair

Associate Professor of Journalism and

Communications
I

certify that

have read

this

study and that in

is

my

opinion

it

acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and

as a dissertation for the degree

fully adequate, in

conforms to the scope and quality,

of Doctor of Philosophy.

Michael

F.

Weigold

Associate Professor of Journalism and

Communications
I

certify that

have read

this

study and that

in

my

opinion

it

conforms
in

to the

acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and

as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor

is fully

adequate,

scope and quality,

of Philosophy.

ihn W. Wright, iKN John Professor of Journalism and Communications

I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to the acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Jujieji.

Dodd

Professor of Journalism and

Communications
I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to the acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Colleen R. Swain
Assistant Professor of Teaching and

Learning

This dissertation was submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the College of Journalism and Communications and to the Graduate School and was accepted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

August 2000

A^-t-l^i

H~y

,.,^

Dean, College of Journalism and

Communications

Dean, Graduate School

"N^ERSITV OF FLORIDA

3 1262 08556 6551