1. MESSAGE DESIGN ISSUES
Constructing Persuasive Messages
10/10/2012

2. Inputs
Source (who?)
Message (says what?)
Channel (via which media?)
Audience (to whom?)
Destination (regarding what?)
Greatest level of control by campaign planners

3. Source
Three characteristic of source:
 Credibility – source’s perceived expertise and trustworthiness
 Issue-advocacy ads (who speaks for who’s benefits?)
 Attractiveness – source’s pleasantness, beauty, familiarity,
similarity
 Power – compliance
Cognitive process and persuasive impact
Theory of Source Monitoring (Negiyan & Grabe, 2007)
 Memory & schematic (prior) knowledge
 Content and source identification perceptions
 Format and time affects

4. The structure of argument
 Audience belief system
 Media genres – format characteristics, message structure
(folk-story structure?)  music, sound
Types of argument
 Use of logic or rhetoric
 Arrangement of argument
Types of appeals (Reeves, et al., 1991)
 Logical (use language of evidence and facts)
 Emotional (language, imagery)
Message variables

5. Message variables, cont.
Message-style variables
 Using factual examples vs. abstract principles
 Literal vs. figurative language
 Toulmin’s Structural Model of Argument
 Claims (positive or negative)  using fact, value, or policy
 Warrants (implicit or explicit)
 Data (first, second, and third order)
Effects based on length and frequency
 Time of spot; size and detail of print ad; amount of information
 Frequency (repetitive ads)

6. Image vs. Issue
Content and effect (Johnston & Kaid, 2002)
 Political Ads  How can voters make rational decisions?
 Image construction as manipulation
 Campaigns ethics  will this influence audience’s decision?
 Issue content
 Image content
More issues in political ads than TV news
Issue of dramatization
Hard vs. soft sell
Can you dichotomize these two?

7. Channel variables
Media use
 Which audiences? Which media? Which content? Which time?
Evidence
 Evidence for intended television effects on purchasing behavior
 Evidence for unintended television effects within programs
Arguments and excuses for lack of evidence effects
 We can control the input, but not the outcome

8. Audience variables
A Mediational Theory of Susceptibility to
social influence
 Personality
 Abilities
 Motivations
Special target groups (Pfau et al., 2002)
 Political party affiliation

9. Destination: campaign intention
Beliefs, attitudes, and behavior
 Favorability to the topic increase positive attitudes/feelings
and behavior
 Change in one of the three tends to affect others
Persistence of persuasive impact
 Decay in attitudes  varies greatly depending on source
credibility, subtlety of argument, order of presentation, channel
Inducing resistance to persuasion
 Many approaches, e.g., prior commitment, pre-anger/increased
self-esteem, anchoring initial stand, educate about critical
thinking, resistant models, and inoculation

10. Output: How persuasion works?
Mediators of persuasive impact
 Multiple paths, e.g., peripheral with source credibility or central with situation
 Sequences of the mediating processes
 Communicating recall and liking
Decision process evoked by persuasive communication
 Cognitive calculation of costs and benefits
 Cognitive shortcuts to “bringing to mind”
 Remote ramifications and generalization carry-over
 Subjective norms and valued “others” beliefs/feelings

11. Symbolism and Language
Cicero’s five canons of rhetoric
 Invention
 Arrangement
 Style (expression)
 Memory
 Delivery
Know the audience  how they decode message

12. Symbolism and Language, cont.
Cultural competency
 Certain symbols or language is specific to certain culture
 Violation of normative expectations
Verbal intensity (metaphors)
Verbal immediacy (direct/immediate speech)