Influence of Media on Attitudes and Persuasion

This assignment discusses the concept of persuasion in society and how it influences people's attitudes and behaviors. It highlights that while media has a direct impact on children, its indirect effects can be significant for adults. The study also explores the audience factor, noting that older adults are more likely to remain unchanged in their attitudes, while younger generations are more open to change. Additionally, the assignment touches on the importance of thoughtfulness and decision-making in persuasion processes. Ultimately, it concludes that persuasion is a fundamental aspect of human culture and society.

Student Id:
Name:
Student Number:
Word count:
Name of the course:
Tutor name:
“PERSUASION”
1 | P a g e

Student Id:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Literature review on Persuasion...........................................................................................................3
Influence of Persuasion........................................................................................................................4
The communicator............................................................................................................................4
The message.....................................................................................................................................5
The channel of communication........................................................................................................6
The audience.....................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................7
Works Cited..........................................................................................................................................8
2 | P a g e

Student Id:
INTRODUCTION
This study focusses on the subject of persuasion and its factors of influences such as,
communicator, message, and channel of communication of those messages and finally the audience
have been discussed in brief as per the requirements. The literature review of persuasion it has been
found a thorough concept on persuasion as well.
LITERATURE REVIEW ON PERSUASION
The Persuasion is mainly trying to influence in which way the individual thinks or behave.
But it is also equally correct that being persuasive doesn’t mean to same thing like being right. On
the other hand Persuasion is the act or process that presents the arguments which will move,
motivate or change the audience (Myers & Twenge, 2016). As for example, while Aristotle taught
rhetoric, or any art related to public speaking .in both the cases it is involved the faculty who can
observe the available meanings of persuasion. Again, as a matter of fact of president Obama, who
may be appealed the sense of duty as national values. as per to lend the car keys, it is needed to
persuade the parents, but the individual may ask one of the parents instead of both keeping in mind
the one who will readily approachable as well as provide the same idea as the individual is thinking
for him/her. The Persuasion thus is implicit as well as explicit while the both positive and negative
effects will act together (Kassin, Fein, & Markus, 2014).
Moreover, Persuasion is also one of the most significant goals in case of language as well as
communication (Infante, Rancer, & Womack, 1997). Also, it is noted that, persuasion can be
applied in any places, such as it is playing the essential role in case of politics, psychotherapy,
religion, education and also in day-to-day social interaction. Among a given number of people there
is an attempt for influencing the others and also they have targeted the influence. They also try to
learn something new which is about the work processes of persuasion in the means of trail and
errors thoroughly (McCroskey, 1968). Again in contrast with the intuitive knowledge of persuasion
that advice the availability from the popular books for the subject, scholars which are in same
disciplines that is psychology, political science, communications, advertising or marketing has the
systematic study of persuasion in case of many years (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014). Thus, persuasion is
one of those ways, in which case the person will attempt to get something fixed or changed. Again
from the perspective of Wiener, who generally believe that any person is not able to persuade the
3 | P a g e

Student Id:
mass audience filled with people in that fashion where the person is getting inspired by the
surrounding those people (Wiener, 1994). On the other hand, Redding also feels as same like a
persuader who cannot get the others in accepting the new ide or proposal until they individually
perceives as a good idea (Redding, 1984). In addition with, O’Keefe has added the humour in the
persuasive message which could have the effect on the perceptions of some communicators
(O’Keefe, 1990). As per Cartwright, it is also easier to get the people in doing something which the
individual is willing to do something than the individual do not willing to do (Cartwright, 1949).
Also, according to Swindle, persuading the other to do something that the person individually wants
to do is not easy at every time (Swindle, 1983).
INFLUENCE OF PERSUASION
THE COMMUNICATOR
a) Credibility: The communications has gained the credibility when they are appearing as
expert as well as the trustworthy. If the source is credible there are favourable thoughts
can be generated with response to a message. There is the impact of non-credible person
also correspondingly increase within the time where the individual may remember the
message than the reason of discounting it. Again, the source credibility which consists of
two components, such as the influential information. Also the knowledgeability and also
the objectivity are two components in case of communicator’s credibility and that
frequently exert the influence in case of the persuasive situations (Smith, Kawakami, &
Cooper., 2016). Moreover, the credibility will be transmitted to the perceivers in several
ways. The communicator can perceive as the trustworthy as there is the argument against
the self-interest or in case of hones judgement where the communicating facts will
considered to be valid. Furthermore, there are some evidences that also expertise that
may not exert the strong influence in case of attitude change unless it has been perceived
with the trustworthiness for some change in degree (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953).
b) Attractiveness as well as liking: On the other hand, the physical attractive and
unattractive among male and female communicator can deliver the persuasive message
to the target undergraduates. In case of data gathered from the communicator in the
process of earlier laboratory session, which indicates the physical attractive and
unattractive communicators are differed with respect to the several communication skills
along with the relevant attributes for communicator persuasiveness. Also, it has been
found that the attractive individuals will be more persuasive than the unattractive person
4 | P a g e

Student Id:
as because they possess the characteristics which are disposed for more effective
communicators (Chaiken, 1079).
THE MESSAGE
The message is another influencer of persuasion and its importance lies what
the individual says about. Persuasive messages sometimes appeal with the logic or with the
emotions. Also, the negative persuasive arguments are illustrated the bad things and thus
they are not followed with the course of action. In case of the people wants to follow the
course of action when there is positive sense of messages.
Positive emotional messages: In case of the positive anti-smoking campaign is displayed in
the school where they are looking healthy as well as happy and having lots of positive
friends. Thus the positive recycling message that needs to be talked about has saved some
natural resources by recycling. To what extent the positive messages are applicable to the
business finances and also how the recycling positive message cycle has saved the habitats
to endanger the species. Also positive appeals have emphasized the good as well as the
listener’s desire for the good and also the happy emotions (Midden & Ham, 2016).
On the other hand, the positive rational messages have used some facts, details and also
statistics. But without emphasizing to the negative effects due to generations of negative
acting, they also emphasise on the positive effects related with positive action. As per the
example, the positive persuasive messages regarding the drinking of water during the
pregnancy and thus it emphasize on the health status of baby in the womb. So, with more
amount of drinking water it has been found that the baby will be healthier. In case of
positive business messages, the situation of business may vary with the action of positive
message. As in case of any employee evaluation, the message from the manager may follow
some positive appreciation where he/she can expect more active participation in team
meeting (Murdock, 2017).
In the similar fashion, the negative persuasive message is generally threating the negative
consequences as a counterpart. In the same example of evaluation of employee which is due
to the unsatisfactory job performance that threatens the disciplinary action. Other type of
negative persuasion, it has threatened to turn on the collection agency and also the sales
appeal (Price, Dillard, & Nabi., 2006).
5 | P a g e

Student Id:
THE CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION
As per common sense of psychology, there is the nevertheless option to have the
faith in case of power of the written words. With the intention that the people will get out of
the campus event, the notices are posted so the drivers while slow down the car, those would
be eye-catching communication with positive sense of persuasive. For the purpose that
people would get persuaded, two well-intentioned efforts are considered. The week long
campaign has urged the students in keeping Scripps their campus as much as beautiful. Thus
they follow up their message like “let’s clean up the trash” by the psychologist Raymond
Paloutzian (1979) (Infante, Rancer, & Womack, 1997). To examine the behaviour of the
passer by, he put the hoardings above a trash and started examine over 180 passer-by where
only 2 out of 180 have used the trash bin after viewing the hoardings.
Although, it is obvious that the face to face influence in general is greater than the
media influence, the media’s power cannot be underestimated. According to Elihu Katz
(1957), it has been observed that there is many media’s effects are operated within the two-
steps flow of communication with a purpose to rank the file regarding the media to the
opinion leaders. In this two-steps flow model, media has been influenced the penetration the
culture with a subtle ways (Myers & Twenge, 2016). Even there is very little direct effect of
media on the attitudes of people, but they have the indirect effect in people’s life. There are
small children who use to grow by watching the television and are influenced by the
television directly. Thus, there can be an oversimplification of all kinds of medium. The
studies carried out, has compared with different kind of media those have direct effect on the
people’s life and also on attitudes. The result finds that more the life likes the medium, more
the power persuasive the messages. Therefore the order of persuasiveness has seemed to be
lived, written, videotaped or audiotaped. In case of complexity to be added, the messages are
comprehended and also recalled when they are written. In this scenario, comprehension is
considered as the one of the first step in persuasion process (Murdock, 2017).
THE AUDIENCE
It has been noted that, people who are interested in case of different political as well
as social attitudes are not of same age. The social psychologist has given two explanations
regarding this difference. One is the life cycle explanation. In this case, it has been noted
that with growing in age, the attitude of the people is change and it becomes more
conservative. The other one is the generational explanation. The attitudes of those people
remain unchanged as the growing old and they have persisted with the same attitudes as they
6 | P a g e

Student Id:
had in their young age. Today’s generation is different from that older one and this is the
main reason of the generation gap (Hogg & Vaughan, 2014).
Evidently, there are most supports from the generational explanation. In several
surveys, it has been viewed that the attitudes are unchanged in case of older people than the
younger one.
Again, it is also a common culture that the older adults are found flexible as they are more
liberal sexual as well as racial attitudes than they are in thirties or forties. Very few of them
have changed the cultural norms. Furthermore, in a research by Jon Krosnick and Penny
Visser (1998) has suggested that the older adults may again more susceptible at their attitude
change at the end of their life cycle, and the reason behind it is their weakness in body and
also their attitudes (Myers & Twenge, 2016).
In addition with, the teens at their early twenties are very important as these are the
formative years for those teens. At this age, if the attitudes form within them, it will last up
to their middle age. So, it is a clear advice to the young groups to choose the social
influences where they need to be very careful to imbibe the media they choose or the roles
they adopt (Midden & Ham, 2016).
Again, another area of persuasion in this case is the thoughtfulness of the decision makers in
the country. Simulating thinking has made the strong messages for those who are persuasive
and also the weak messages follow the less persuasive (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been clear that persuasion is the culture of the society
where without it there may be some emptiness will be happened in every culture and society. There
is the brief study of each categories of influencer of persuasion, and it has been demonstrated the
only main idea of existence of persuasion in the society in this study. The whole idea of elaborating
the causes, like audience, messages, the way of communication of those messages, and also the
communicator have been discussed as per their strong and weakness in application within human
culture.
7 | P a g e

Student Id:
WORKS CITED
Cartwright, D. (1949). Some principles of mass persuasion: selected findings of research on the sale
of United States war bonds. Human Relations, 383.
Chaiken, S. (1079). Communicator physical attractiveness and persuasion. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology,, 1387-1397.
Hogg, M. A., & Vaughan, G. M. (2014). Social Psychology (7th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Learning
Ltd.
Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion; psychological
studies of opinion change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Infante, D. A., Rancer, A. S., & Womack, D. F. (1997). Building communication theory. Prospect
Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2014). Social Psychology. London: Wadsworth Cengage
Learning.
McCroskey, J. C. (1968). An introduction to rhetorical communication. . Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.
Midden, C., & Ham, J. (2016, 2017 03). The persuasive effects of positive and negative social
feedback from an embodied agent on energy conservation behavior. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.189.5061&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Murdock, R. (2017, 04 25). Positive and Negative Persuasive Messages. Retrieved from
https://sciencing.com/: https://sciencing.com/positive-negative-persuasive-messages-
8498613.html
Myers, D. G., & Twenge, J. M. (2016). Social Psychology (12th edition). . New York:: Tata Mc
Graw Hill.
O’Keefe, D. J. (1990). Persuasion theory and research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. .
Price, J., Dillard, J., & Nabi., R. L. (2006). The Persuasive Influence of Emotion in Cancer
Prevention and Detection Messages. Journal of Communication, S123–S139.
Redding, W. C. (1984). The corporate manager’s guide to better communication. Glenview, IL:
Scott: Foresman & Co.
8 | P a g e

Student Id:
Smith, E. R., Kawakami, K., & Cooper., L. (2016). In a field setting, each of 68 physically
attractive or unattractive. 6th: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Swindle, R. E. (1983). The concise business correspondence style guide. . Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.
Wiener, V. (1994). Power communications. New York: University Press. .
9 | P a g e