Topic Selection
The investigation featured three high-imagery events related to the war in
Iraq; repatriation of remains, Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and the battle for
Fallujah. A story was selected from either the Washington Post or Newsweek
and had to include an image.
Participants
Participants were recruited from introductory communication classes at a midwestern
university. A total of (N = 272) research participants completed both phases
of the study (a retention rate from Phase 1 of 91.8 %). Participant involvement
with the issue (e.g. low, medium, and high) was used to randomly place participants
in one of three event categories and into either an inoculation treatment
or control group.
Design and Independent Variables
The study featured a 3 x 3 Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) to
examine hypotheses 1-3, and a 2 x 2 MANCOVA to examine hypothesis 4. Independent
variables were news condition, which was operationalized as a picture with
a caption, a story without a picture, and a picture and story; and experimental
condition, which was operationalized as a preemptive inoculation treatment
and control (no inoculation treatment). The effectiveness of inoculation was
assessed by comparing attitudes, elicit involvement, and elicited attack of
inoculated and control participants. Reliability of all scales was gauged
using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha.
Receiver prior attitude and initial issue involvement were employed as covariants.
Attitude toward the U.S. military presence in Iraq was assessed using six
bipolar adjective pairs employed in recent inoculation research (Burgoon,
Cohen, Miller & Montgomery, 1978). Adjective pairs included negative/positive,
bad/good, unacceptable/acceptable, foolish/wise, wrong/right, and unfavorable/favorable.
The reliability coefficient for prior attitude was a = .97.
Issue involvement was operationalized as the importance or salience of one
of three issues about the U.S. military presence in Iraq and was assessed
using a version of the Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) (Zaichkowski,
1985). Six items of the PII were employed in this study including: unimportant/important,
of no concern/of much concern; means nothing/means a lot; doesn’t matter/matters
to me; insignificant/significant; and irrelevant/relevant. Reliability for
the issue involvement scale was a = .96.
Experimental Materials
The study sought to compare the effects of three versions of the same news
story about these issues. The versions were: picture with caption, story only,
and picture with story. The issues concerned the repatriation of remains from
the Iraq war, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and the battle for Fallujah.
Word counts were created to be of comparable length to reduce bias. Word counts
of the three news stories were: repatriation of remains – 591 words,
Abu Ghraib prison scandal – 595 words, and the battle of Fallujah –
597 words. The dummy message also focused on the effects of visual imagery,
rather it arbitrarily addresses a U.S. state’s intention to be named
a historic landmark and prohibit large, chain retail businesses from expanding
their business.
The inoculation message was a generic preemption against the influence of
visual images in forming personal opinion. The inoculation message had a word
count of 346 words. A dummy message was also created. The dummy message used
a 345 word count, close to that of the inoculation message, but it did not
focus on the effects of visual imagery, rather it arbitrarily addresses a
U.S. state’s intention to be named a historic landmark and prohibit
large, chain retail businesses from expanding their business.
Because inoculation theory posits that threat is a motivating catalyst in
resistance, the first paragraph of the inoculation message was designed to
elicit threat. Threat was operationalized as a warning of an impending news
story featuring potentially influential pictures. The remainder of the inoculation
message raised arguments that warned of the impact of visual imagery on their
position.
Procedure
The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 and 2 experimental booklets
were prepared for participants. During Phase 1, demographic information was
collected on research participants to include, name, gender, age, and year
in school. Additionally, an exposure and attention measure of newspaper and
TV news use was collected.
Phase 1 was conducted over a period of 5 days. Participants were randomly
assigned to one of three events including; repatriation of remains, the Abu
Ghraib prison scandal, and the battle for Fallujah. Participants were then
assigned to the non-visual (text only), visual, or both visual and textual
condition. Subjects were assigned randomly with the exception that care was
taken to ensure conditions were relatively balanced in regards to initial
involvement, additionally, treatment cells were assigned more subjects than
control cells. Random assignment was based on a 2 to 1 ratio with two participants
selected to the inoculation category for every one person subject to the control
category. Phase 1 booklets contained an inoculation message warning against
the impact of visual imagery on their opinions. It also contained a questionnaire
that assessed the number of days participants spent watching TV news, the
number of days spent reading world and current events in the newspaper, the
amount of attention participants give to national and world news stories,
and the amount of attention given to pictures that accompany a newspaper or
magazine news story.
One week later, over a period of five days, research participants were given
the Phase 2 questionnaire, which consisted of a story, a photograph, or both
a story with accompanying photograph depending on the condition. Stories and
photos were selected from the following events; the repatriation of remains,
Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and the battle for Fallujah. After reviewing the
story and/or photographs, research participants were again asked about their
attitude toward the U.S. military presence in Iraq using the six-point attitude
scale administered in Phase 1 (Burgoon et al., 1978). The next question used
Dillard’s emotion scale (1996) to understand the participants’
feelings about the story or photo they saw and were asked how much of each
feeling was evoked after reading the story or viewing the photograph. Six
featured categories of emotion were included in the scale, which ranged from
absence of feeling to a lot of the feeling. The final Phase 2 question used
a six-point bipolar adjective scale (McCroskey, 1966) to determine what best
represents their impression of the credibility authoritativeness of the news
photo or story source (a = .82). Adjective pairings were: reliable/unreliable,
informed/uninformed, qualified/unqualified, intelligent/unintelligent, valuable/worthless,
and expert/inexpert.
Dependent Measures
Research participant attitude concerning the inoculation message was assessed
using six bipolar adjective pairs developed for use in resistance research
by Burgoon and colleagues (1978). Adjective opposite pairs were: unacceptable/acceptable,
foolish/wise, unfavorable/favorable, negative/positive, bad/good, and wrong/right.
Alpha reliability of the attitude scale was a = .98.
Threat elicited by the inoculation treatment was measured using six bipolar
adjective pairs employed in all recent inoculation studies. It was assessed
in Phase 1, following administration of the inoculation treatment. A six-point
scale consisting of bipolar adjective pairs was used to evaluate perceived
threat against the person’s thoughts regarding the possibility of persuasive
counterarguments influencing their position on the presence of the U.S. military
in Iraq (perceived threat). Adjective pairings consisted of; not dangerous/dangerous,
non-threatening/threatening, calm/anxious, not scare/scary, not harmful/harmful,
and not risky/risky. Next, a thought-listing technique (Brock, 1967; Greenwald,
1968) was used to establish potential arguments against their position regarding
the U.S. military presence in Iraq and subsequent responses to these potential
arguments. After completing their list, subjects were asked to rate their
arguments on a 1 (weak) to 7 (strong)-point scale, and then rate their thoughts
and feelings on the responses to these arguments from 1 (weak) to 7 (strong).
Another six-point bipolar adjective scale was used to measure the research
participants’ general attitude toward the U.S military presence in Iraq
as cited earlier. Multiple item indicators were used to include; unacceptable/acceptable,
foolish/wise, unfavorable/favorable, negative/positive, bad/good, and wrong/right.
Lastly, the importance of viewing casualties from the battle for Fallujah
was studied again using a six-point bipolar adjective scale (Zaichkowski,
1985). The scale included; unimportant/important, or no concern/of much concern,
means nothing/means a lot, doesn’t matter/matters to me, insignificant/significant,
and irrelevant/relevant.
During Phase 2, participants were asked to complete an open-ended measure
on which they identified possible arguments contrary to their own position
and then listed potential responses to those arguments in the spaces provided.
The procedure is based on the thought-listing technique that was pioneered
by Brock (1967) and Greenwald (1968). However, past use of this technique
alone has proven to be inadequate in inoculation research (Pfau et al., 1997).
Eagly and Chaiken (1993) have argued that thought-listing does not reflect
the amount of cognitive effort expended. In addition, thought listing, by
itself, fails to acknowledge the prospect that respondents may view their
own thoughts as varying in power and intensity, both in cognitive and affective
terms. Therefore, after generating their list of arguments contrary to their
position and responses to those arguments, respondents rated perceived strength
of arguments contrary to their position and strength of responses using a
1 to 7-point scale.
Multiple item indicators were used to evaluate emotion. The emotion scale
was based on the previous work of Dillard and colleagues (Dillard, Plotnick,
Godbold, Freimuth & Edgar, 1996; Smith & Dillard, 1997). Featured
emotions included anger (angry, irritated, and annoyed) a = .88, surprise
(surprise, astonished, and amazed) a = .84, puzzled (puzzled, bewildered and
confused) a = .85, sad (sad, dreary and dismal) a = .75, fear (fearful, afraid,
and scared) a = .92, and pride (dignity, honor, and gratification) a = .80.
The category of pride is added to this scale for the purpose of this particular
study. Zaichkowski’s PII (1985) was used to assess participants’
attitudes toward the U.S. military presence in Iraq. See above for specific
inventory items.