Michael D. Slater

Violent Media Content and Aggressiveness in Adolescents A Downward Spiral Model

Theory and research on media violence provides evidence that aggressive youth seek out media violence and that media violence prospectively predicts aggression in youth. The authors argue that both relationships, when modeled over time, should be mutually reinforcing, in what they call a downward spiral model. This study uses multilevel modeling to examine individual growth curves in aggressiveness and violent media use. The measure of use of media violence included viewing action films, playing violent computer and video games, and visiting violence-oriented Internet sites by students from 20 middle schools in 10 different regions in the United States. The findings appear largely consistent with the proposed model. In particular, concurrent effects of aggressiveness on violent-media use and concurrent and lagged effects of violent media use on aggressiveness were found. The implications of this model for theorizing about media effects on youth, and for bridging active audience with media effects perspectives, are discussed.

How Message Evaluation and Source Attributes May Influence Credibility Assessment and Belief Change.

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

Theory and Method in Health Audience Segmentation

Audience segmentation is widely regarded as essential to effective health communication campaign efforts. Nonetheless, its practice is typically ad hoc. The conceptual history and theoretical bases for audience segmentation are reviewed, and typical audience segmentation strategies for health communication efforts are described and critiqued. An analogy is drawn between the methodological problems associated with audience segmentation and those of multivariate classification and taxonomy in botany and zoology. Cluster analytic techniques responsive to these issues are described, as are applications of these techniques for analysis of health communication campaign audiences. Approaches that would permit widespread use of such segmentation strategies are discussed, and recommendations for such efforts are made.

Operationalizing and Analyzing Exposure: The Foundation of Media Effects Research

The ability of researchers to empirically test theories of media effects and to assess impact of communication campaigns depends on their ability to identify levels of exposure to the media or messages of interest. This paper critically examines exposure operationalization and analysis strategies, including some not yet widely used in the communication field.

Translating Health Psychology into Effective Health Communication The American Healthstyles Audience Segmentation Project

This article presents a health lifestyle audience segmentation analysis based primarily on social cognitive theory. Two linked mail surveys were conducted among a representative group of US adults (N = 2967). Segmentation variables included data on five health behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, nutrition and weight control), internal personal and social/ environmental variables associated with each of the health behaviors, as well as health value, sensation- seeking, life satisfaction and age. K-means classification analysis was employed; seven health lifestyles were identified. The majority of the health lifestyles are reliable, and as a whole, all demonstrate both discriminative, construct and predictive validity. The health-lifestyle audience segments are briefly profiled, and an argument is made that health- lifestyle segmentation, more than demographic or behavioral segmentation alone, can advance the goals of public health communication.

Value-Affirmative and Value-Protective Processing of Alcohol Education Messages That Include Statistical Evidence or Anecdotes

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

A test of conversational and testimonial messages versus didactic presentations of nutrition information.

OBJECTIVEnConversational and testimonial approaches to presenting messages relevant to fruit and vegetable consumption were compared with a traditional didactic message.nnnDESIGNnA Greco-Latin square, within-subjects experimental design was employed with 3 formats and 3 topics.nnnSETTINGnCommunity centers.nnnPARTICIPANTSnThirty-one ethnically diverse adults.nnnINTERVENTIONnPresented conversational, testimonial, and didactic nutrition messages.nnnVARIABLES MEASUREDnBelievability, clarity, and perceived usefulness of messages presented; identification with sources in message; and self-efficacy with respect to produce consumption.nnnANALYSISnAnalysis of variance.nnnRESULTSnConversational formats were perceived as more believable than the control newsletter article. No differences were found with respect to clarity, usefulness, or self-efficacy. Identification with characters did significantly interact with message format in predicting the message assessment variables. However, the conversation and testimonial versions did not increase identification with persons in the message over the didactic presentation.nnnCONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONSnAudience response to narrative messages is contingent upon identification with persons portrayed in the message. The results underscore the need for careful pretesting of involvement with the story and identification with persons portrayed to maximize the effectiveness of narrative messages in health interventions.

Sensation-Seeking as a Moderator of the Effects of Peer Influences, Consistency with Personal Aspirations, and Perceived Harm on Marijuana and Cigarette Use Among Younger Adolescents

Concurrent effects of peer influence and protective cognitive variables on marijuana and cigarette use are hypothesized to be contingent on adolescent sensation-seeking. The hypothesis was tested in 1999–2000 using a survey given to eighth graders (N = 3127) in 20 U.S. middle schools. Results largely supported the hypothesis that peer pressure and perceived peer marijuana use had only a relatively trivial effect on low sensation-seekers and a much greater effect on high sensation-seekers. In addition, aspirations inconsistent with marijuana use appeared protective for high sensation-seekers.

Vulnerable Teens, Vulnerable Times: How Sensation Seeking, Alienation, and Victimization Moderate the Violent Media Content–Aggressiveness Relation

We hypothesize that the relationship between teen use of violent media and aggressiveness is contingent on personality and situational variables. Concurrent effects are modeled in four waves of data collection using multilevel analyses. Results indicate that the effect of violent media on aggression is more robust among students who report feelings of alienation from school and during times of increased peer victimization. Although overall use of violent media is associated with higher levels of aggression, a robust within individual effect also exists; that is, during times when a student is viewing elevated levels of violent media content relative to the student’s own norms for use of such media, he or she is also more likely to demonstrate heightened levels of aggression. This relationship is more robust among students who are victimized by their peers and experiencing increased sensation seeking.

US news media coverage of tobacco control issues

Objective: To characterise the relative amount and type of daily newspaper, local and national TV newscast, and national news magazine coverage of tobacco control issues in the United States in 2002 and 2003. Design: Content analysis of daily newspapers, news magazines, and TV newscasts. Subjects: Items about tobacco in daily newspapers, local and national TV newscasts, and three national news magazines in a nationally representative sample of 56 days of news stratified by day of week and season of the year, from 2002 and 2003. Main outcome measures: Story theme, tobacco topics, sources, story prominence, story valence (orientation), and story type. Results: Tobacco coverage was modest over the two-year period as estimated in our sample. Only 21 TV stories, 17 news magazine stories, and 335 daily newspaper stories were found during the two-year sampling period. Noteworthy results for the newspaper data set include the following: (1) government topics predominated coverage; (2) government action and negative health effects topics tended not to occur together in stories; (3) tobacco stories were fairly prominently placed in newspapers; (4) opinion news items tended to favour tobacco control policies, while news and feature stories were evenly split between positive and negative stories; and (5) tobacco coverage in the southeast, which is the country’s major tobacco producing region, did not differ from the rest of the country. Conclusion: Results suggest mixed support in news coverage for tobacco control efforts in the United States. The modest amount of news coverage of tobacco is troubling, particularly because so few news stories were found on TV, which is a more important news source for Americans than newspapers. When tobacco was covered, government themed stories, which often did not include mentions of negative health effects, were typical, suggesting that media coverage does not reinforce the reason for tobacco control efforts. However, some results were encouraging. For example, when newspapers did cover tobacco, they accorded the stories relatively high prominence, thus increasing the chance that readers would see tobacco stories when they were published.