AUDIENCE ANALYSIS MEASURING DEMOGRAPHICS AND ATTITUDES Crafting Items

AUDIENCE ANALYSIS: MEASURING DEMOGRAPHICS AND ATTITUDES Crafting Items

What to Measure? ■ Individual differences on characteristics – Overall persuadability & on specific topics ■ Sociodemographics – Characteristics used to categorize people economically, socially, culturally ■ Psychographics – Characteristics used to categorize people based on psychological traits ■ Situational factors – Characteristics of person interacting with characteristics of message topic ■ Attitudes, behaviors for proposed exigency, solution – Look to theories

Sociodemographics ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Gender vs Sexual orientation Ethnicity vs Cultural Heritage Socioeconomic Status – Occupation – Income – Education Level Age Geographic Location Relationship Status Religious Affiliation Political Ideology/Affiliation ■ Importance for topics? – – – – Gay Marriage Organic Farming Guns Rights College Tuition Obesity Global Warming Video Game Violence

Psychographics ■ Personality Traits – – – Need for cognition Self-monitoring Dogmatism Sensation-seeking Introverted vs. Extraverted ■ Interests & Lifestyle – Activities – Views on life ■ Attitudes: – Beliefs, Values, Opinions – Orientation – Intention Can find psychology scales to measure these

Measuring Attitudes (General) What does the person believe about the topic? “Eating factory farm meat is wrong. ” Strongly Agree / Not Sure / Disagree / Strongly Disagree What does the person feel about the topic? “Factory farmed meat is disgusting. ” Strongly Agree / Not Sure / Disagree / Strongly Disagree What does the person intend to do toward the topic? “I always check labels to see if the meat is organic. ” Strongly Agree / Not Sure / Disagree / Strongly Disagree

ICA #10: Crafting Items pt. 1 ■ Draft with team – What sociodemographics would you want to measure? ■ Draft items for measuring – What psychographics would you want to measure? ■ Draft items for measuring – What general attitudes (beliefs, evaluations, intentions) would you want to measure? ■ Draft items for measuring ■ Keep to add to for Friday

Measuring People… ■ Helpful to get to know people by asking them to talk about themselves ■ Problem is getting to know people only by asking them to talk about themselves – Respondent carelessness – Social desirability – Tendency to agree – Survey order leads to bias – Item wording unclear, or leads to bias – Lack attitudes, make up on spot

Measuring Exigency ■ Need to measure attitudes for 3 components of exigency ■ Example: Topic is protecting children from online pornography Measures: Existence of Topic “There a lot of pornographic materials on the Internet. ” Strongly Agree / Not Sure / Disagree / Strongly Disagree Measures: Magnitude of Topic “Children have too much access to pornography on the Internet. ” Very Certain / Slightly Certain / Not at all Certain Measures: Urgency of Topic “Online pornography is something should be dealt with immediately. ” Very Certain / Slightly Certain / Not at all Certain Measures: Relevance of Topic “If a child sees pornography online, then it does not affect me. ” Strongly Agree / Not Sure / Disagree / Strongly

ICA#10: Crafting Items pt. 2 ■ Draft the items to measure – Existence claim – Magnitude claim – Urgency claim

Measuring Solution(s) ■ Need to measure attitudes for efficacy of solution – Could also measure: ■ ■ Are they doing the solution? Do they think/know there alternative solutions? ■ Example: Topic is protecting children from online pornography Measures: Response efficacy “Porn-blocking computer programs will prevent children from seeing online pornography. ” Strongly Agree / Not Sure / Disagree / Strongly Disagree Measures: Self-efficacy “I would use porn-blocking programs if they come pre-installed in my computer. ” Very Certain / Slightly Certain / Not at all Certain

ICA#10: Crafting Items pt. 2 ■ Draft the items to measure ■ ■ Behaviors Alternative solutions Response efficacy Self-efficacy

Measuring Barriers ■ To ascertain what would prevent enacting solution – Could be open-ended or close-ended ■ Example: Topic is protecting children from online pornography “I currently do what I can to prevent children from seeing online pornography. ” “If yes, what do you do and what leads you do this? ” “If no, what leads you not to do this? ” "I would do more to prevent children from seeing online pornography if using the computer program was easy. " Strongly Agree / Not Sure / Disagree / Strongly Disagree "I would do more to prevent children from seeing online pornography if using the computer program was already installed. " Strongly Agree / Not Sure / Disagree / Strongly Disagree

ICA #10: Crafting Items pt. 2 ■ Draft the items to measure – Close-ended to assess barriers – Open-ended to assess barriers ■ Hand In for Assessment, Feedback