How Pre-Existing Attitudes, Motivations, Message Processing and Media Frames Influence Beliefs About a Racially Charged Issue

• In Event: Persuasion I: Strategies

Abstract

A two-part experiment examined the interplay of prior attitudes and motivations with story framing and message processing to predict beliefs about a racially-charged issue. The Jena Six case, an incident that carried many racial tensions and cultural overtones, was used as the context for the tested processes. Results indicated that prior attitudes and motivations at time one predicted the message processing aspect of perceived story quality at time two. Perceived story quality then interacted with message frame (episodic or thematic) to predict subsequent beliefs. These results indicate that framing is highly important in predicting how a message will be received in a complex issue such as the Jena Six case, but that prior attitudes and motivations will also play a role in how those frames are processed.

Authors

• Lanier Frush Holt, Ohio State U

• Morgan E. Ellithorpe, University of Pennsylvania

• Rachel Ralston, The Ohio State University