The committed are hard to persuade. Recipients' thoughts during exposure to newspaper and TV stories on genetic engineering and their effect on attitudes

Abstract

Two empirical studies were performed to analyse cognitive processes in the reception of media stories on genetic engineering and their influence on attitudes to it. Three hundred and thirty-eight people each read three articles about genetic engineering and 51 people each watched three TV films. By means of the thought-listing technique, the thoughts occurring during reception were recorded and their content later analysed. Before and after presentation of the media stories, the recipients' attitudes to genetic engineering were measured. The articles and films evoked a broad spectrum of thoughts in the test subjects and included thoughts indicating an attitude critical of the media and sources. Evaluations were not primarily taken over from the content of the media but were generated by the subjects themselves - frequently in contrast to the media slant but in agreement with the test subjects' pre-attitudes. Depending on the reception, the same stories had a different influence on the attitudes of various people.