Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Louise Benjamin / This experimental research builds upon the health communications study completed by Rustam Haydarov in 2010, with a similar approach to ascertain how an individual’s age might influence their reaction to political messages. Using a typology of frames by Levin, Schneider and Gaeth (1998), the study utilizes an older demographic (ages 55-70) and a younger comparison group (ages 18-33) to determine a) if both groups find positive advertising messages more favorable than negative advertising messages and b) if the older demographic is more wary than younger counterparts when discussing current events and the future of America. The study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to determine reactions to goal-oriented and loss-oriented message framing in four mock print political campaign advertisements focusing on the topics of healthcare and college education financing. There was greater prevalence of strongly negative and strongly positive reactions among the younger demographic, except in the case of the loss-framed healthcare ad. The older group reacted more strongly to that particular ad, concerning an issue which had great relevance to them. Of the two age groups, the older demographic registered a more even-keeled reaction across the four ads. Overall, this study has focused on how message frame, topic and age of the message receiver combine to affect message resonance in the context of political communications.

This dissertation encourages adoption of a message-oriented receiver perspective when developing new instructional communication theories and proposes a causal-process model derived from Knowledge Acquisition Theory to demonstrate how this perspective can be used to predict student cognitive learning outcomes. Three hypotheses are generated to test the propositions of the derived model. The first hypothesis seeks to determine which dimensions of instructional message clarity and course content relevance best predict student interactions with instructional content. The second hypothesis predicts that student self-reported knowledge gains are a function of student interactions with content. The third hypothesis predicts that a significant proportion of the variance in knowledge gains can be explained by the combination of message characteristics with student content interactions both in and outside the classroom. A cross-sectional survey research design was used to collect responses from undergraduate students at a large southern public research university (n=333). The hypotheses were tested using linear and hierarchical regression and results demonstrated statistical support for all three hypotheses. The first hypothesis revealed the dimensions of instructional message clarity and course content relevance that significantly predicted student interactions with content inside and outside of class. Support for the second hypothesis illustrated that both in class and out of class content interactions significantly predicted student self-reports of knowledge gains. Finally, hypothesis 3 tested the comprehensive causalprocess model derived from Knowledge Acquisition Theory. The derived model received strong support and ultimately accounted for 65% of the variance in student perceptions of knowledge gains. Student perceptions of knowledge gains increased when students perceived textbook messages as clear, course goals and expectations as clear, content as relevant to their own lives, and when students enacted knowledge acquisition behaviors outside of class. Surprisingly, in class content interaction, presentation clarity, and procedural clarity dropped out of the model. Implications and limitations of the present study are discussed, directions for future research are suggested, and a persuasive argument is presented for why instructional communication researchers should continue to develop a message effects research agenda supporting the development of strong instructional communication theories that produce practical results to inform educational practices.

Situated within the context of college students’ excessive drinking behaviors, the current study drew from dissonance theory, self-consistency theory, and hypocrisy induction methodology to evaluate the utility of the Communication Theory of Identity within persuasive health message design. Specifically, it examined whether hypocrisy induction manipulations that focused participants on salient identity layers made them mindful of corresponding identity gaps, which in turn caused them to experience cognitive dissonance that they sought to resolve by reporting intentions to change their excessive drinking behavior. Participants (N = 279) completed an online experiment in which they were randomly assigned either to one of four treatment conditions (i.e., traditional hypocrisy, personal-enacted identity gap hypocrisy, relational-enacted identity gap hypocrisy, communal-enacted identity gap hypocrisy) or one control condition. When compared to those in the control condition, participants in the personal-enacted and communal-enacted identity gap hypocrisy conditions reported significantly lower future intentions to engage in excessive drinking. There were no significant differences across conditions, however, in terms of identity gap magnitude or level of cognitive dissonance. These findings are noteworthy, considering that identity gap magnitude was significantly positively related to levels of cognitive dissonance and significantly negatively related to future intentions to engage in excessive drinking. Analyses also explored potential moderating variables in this process, finding that issue involvement moderated the relationship between level of cognitive dissonance and future intentions to engage in excessive drinking, such that intentions were lowest when cognitive dissonance was high and issue involvement was low. Finally, analyses indicated that there was a significant association between experimental condition and level of state reactance, such that participants in the personal-enacted identity gap hypocrisy condition experienced significantly lower levels of state reactance than participants in other conditions. Moreover, there was a significant positive relationship between identity gap magnitude and level of state reactance. The theoretical and contextual implications of these results are discussed. Namely, these results affirm that making message recipients mindful of identity gaps can be a viable persuasive health message design strategy; however, they also suggest that more research is needed to understand how best to make message recipients mindful of identity gaps and how best to integrate identity gaps into persuasive health messages.

This thesis aims to increase understanding of New Zealand consumer reactions to messages promoting genetically modified food products (GMFs) and to determine how the manipulation of three persuasion variables, message sidedness, source credibility and inward vs. outward focus impact upon consumer attitudes. To achieve this aim, the study integrated two frameworks, Bredahl's, (2001) determinants of attitudes towards GMFs and Wansink and Kim's, (2001) strategies for educating consumers about GMFs, into a new model. To empirically examine the model, a web-based experiment using a 2x2x2 between-subjects factorial design was conducted. The experiment exposed participants to one of eight treatment groups containing a promotional message for Genetically Modified foods. The participants then completed an on-line questionnaire detailing their responses to the messages. A total of 380 useable questionnaires were collected from a national sample of consumers and analysed using ANCOVA. The results of the study suggest that the outwardly focused, two-sided message was more powerful at lowering perceptions of risks, raising perceptions of benefits and positively influencing attitudes toward the ad than either the one-sided, outwardly focused message, or the inwardly focused messages of either sidedness condition. For purchase intentions individual differences appeared to be of greater influence than message factors.

Author's name: Bc. Mácha Slavomír School: Social Science & Philosophy Dept. Faculty of Education Charles University, Prague Graduate Program (Single Major): Master Degree (Mgr.) in Teaching Social Sciences, Philosophy, and Ethics in High Schools and Higher Professional Schools Title: The Role of the Media in Shaping Public perceptions and Political thinking in the Czech Republic Consultant: PhDr. Josef Stracený, CSc Number of pages: 97 + 1 attachments Number of attachments: 1 Number of marks: 202412 Number of literature: 56 Number of web pages: 33 Year: 2012 Key words: role of the media, political marketing, political thinking, public opinion, media manipulation, media function, advertising in politics, message effects, active and passive audience, voter, citizen, social networks, This thesis aims to prove the role of media in shaping the public perception and political thinking in the Czech republic. Thesis was worked up by analysing specialised literature concerning the above topics. The role of the media in shaping the public opinion and the views of major political and social problems are being investigated in the long-term surveys. It is legitimate (nebo generally accepted) that all we know, believe or think about what happens in the outside world is sometimes shaped into a form that reflects...