European Journal of Scientific Research - EuroJournals

Reflection of US Policy Towards Pakistan in Pakistani Press 329
Many studies have focused on the concept of attitude or people's general predispositions to
evaluate other people objects, and issue favorably or unfavorably. The attitude construct achieved its
pre-eminent position in social influence because of the assumption that a person's attitude is
information, on the hand, and behavioral change on the other (Peterson and Thurston, 1933). Over the
past 50 years numerous theories of attitude change and models of knowledge-attitude-behavior
relationships have been developed (Eagly, & Chaiken, 1993; McGuire, 1985; Petty, Unnava, &
Starthman, 1991). Contemporary analysts of mass media persuasion have focused on the variables that
determine when the media persuasion will be effective versus ineffective, and what the underlying
processes are by which the media induce change. Perhaps the most well known psychological
framework for categorizing and understanding mass media persuasion effects was popularized by
Hovland and his colleagues (Hovland, 1954, 1959; Hovland, Janis, and Kelley, 1953). Although the
person ability to learn and recall new information was often thought to be an important casual
determinant of and prerequisite to attitude and behavior change. Little empirical evidence has
accumulated to support the view that message learning is a necessary step (Greenwald, 1968; McGuire,
1985; Petty, & Cacioppo, 1981). The message comprehension and learning can occur in the absence of
attitude change, and that a person's attitudes can change without learning the specific information in the
communication that is a person might be able to comprehend all of the intended information perfectly,
but not be persuaded either because the information is counter argued or seen as personally irrelevant.
On the other hand a person might get the information all wrong (scoring zero on a knowledge test) but
think about it a manner that produces the intended change. This analysis helps to why previous
research on mass media effects has sometimes found that message learning and changes in knowledge
occur in the absence of attitude change and vice-versa (Petty, Baker & Gleicher 1991).
The attitude change process involves considerable cognitive work does not mean that the
attitude formed will be a rational or "accurate one." However, the important point is that a rather
thoughtful process in which people attend carefully the issue-relevant information presented changes
sometimes attitudes. Examine this information in the light of their relevant experiences and knowledge
and evaluate the information along with the dimensions they perceive central to the merits of the issue.
People engaged in this effortful cognitive actively have been characterized as engaging in "systematic"
(Chaiken, Ciberman, & Eagly, 1989), "mindful" (Palmerio, 1984), and "piecemeal"(Fiske &
Pavelchak, 1986) processing. Of course, much of the correlation between print media coverage and
ratings of issue importance is due to the fact that the media covers issues, people already think are
important. Nevertheless, some researches show that the media coverage can precede public perception
(Mackuen, 1981). "Greater thinking about a message can also be included by having the individuals
arguments presented by multiple sources rather than just one" (Harkin & Petty, 1981; Moor &
Reardon' 1987). The multi-source effect is attenuated if people suspect that the multiple sources are not
providing independent analyses of the issue (Harkin and Petty, 1987; Wilder, 1990). When strong
arguments are presented, disrupting thinking diminish persuasion, but when weak arguments are
presented disrupting thinking should enhance persuasion by reading counter-arguing (Petty and Brock,
1981). Different media sources have an impact on peoples ability to think about message specially
people are generally better able to process messages that appear in the print media than those that are
controlled externally (e.g., radio and television; Chaiken and Eagly, 1976; Wright, 1981).
Mass communication has the potential to formulate public opinion and polish their behaviors
regarding any social phenomena (Petty, 1994). Lass well (1927) concluded, propaganda is one of the
most powerful instrumentalities in the modern world. During this period there were several salient
examples of seemingly effective mass communication effects. The assumption of Lass well and others
was that transmission of information via mass communication produced direct effects on attitude and
behaviors (Doob, 1935; and Lipman, 1922). Bernard Cohan (1963) stated that the press may not be
successful much of the time in telling people what to think but it is stunningly successful in telling its
readers what to think about. Walter Lip-man in his book Public Opinion raised the idea that the mass
media create images of events in our minds, the picture in our head. He emphasized that picture of
reality created by the news media were merely reflection of reality and therefore sometimes pseudo