This paper presents a study on the sociocognitive effects of news frames on immigration.One hundred and eighty-six individuals were exposed to a newspaper story on increased immigration to Spain. The newspaper highlighted (a) the positive (economic contribution frame) versus negative (crime growth frame) consequences and (b) the group cue-Latinos versus Moroccans. In contrast with economic contribution frame, crime growth frame stimulated more negative cognitive responses toward immigration, increased the salience of immigration as a problem, generated a negative attitude toward immigration, and induced greater disagreement with positive beliefs about the consequences of immigration for the country. We conceptualized the framing effect as a heuristic process in which peripheral cues in the news story guided information processing. Bryant and Miron (2004) clearly demonstrated the popularity of framing theory, which has emerged as one of the most developed and frequently cited perspectives in recent times. Research in this field seems to be in agreement that the way a social issue is approached in the news influences how that news is interpreted and shapes the attitudes of viewers (Reese, Gandy, & Grant, 2001). However, one of the controversial aspects of framing is related to identifying the underlying mechanisms that explain how framing works. This work attempts to contribute to our knowledge of the explanatory mechanisms of framing by focusing on how individuals use heuristic principles and the role played by peripheral processing. Context: Immigration in SpainBefore reviewing the state of research on framing and its explanatory mechanisms, it will be useful to provide background information on immigration in Spain within

This article presents three studies examining the importance of identification with characters in research on media entertainment. In Study 1 it was found that identification with characters was associated with spectators' degree of enjoyment of feature films of different genres. Study 2 showed that identification with characters predicts the affective impact of a dramatic film and, also, it was associated with greater cognitive elaboration and a more complex reflexive process during the viewing of the dramatic film. In Study 3 it was observed that identification with characters predicted the incidental impact of a full length fictional film on attitudes and beliefs. These results support the centrality of the construct of identification with characters in narrative persuasion research.

Empirical research has found that exposure to specific fictional narratives exerts significant effects on attitudes and beliefs. However, there is little research about the persuasive impact of controversial movies. We present an experimental research study designed to analyze the attitudinal impact of one controversial film (Camino), according to narrative persuasion theoretical models. Because of its critical message toward Opus Dei, this film triggered some controversy in Spain during its release. The results reveal that the experimental exposure to the movie induced negative opinions toward Opus Dei and religion, and weakened the relationship between political self-positioning and the aforementioned beliefs. Furthermore, the attitudinal impact was mediated by identification with the protagonist. These results are convergent with the Extended Elaboration Likelihood Model.

This study aimed to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms explaining the so-called framing effect. Experimental research (N = 355) was carried out with a 2 × 2 between-subjects factor design in which the news frame and group cues were manipulated in a news story on the consequences of the increase in immigration in Spain, and their impact on cognitive, attitudinal, and emotional variables was assessed. The results show that the type of news frame stressed in the report exerted significant cognitive, attitudinal, and emotional effects. It was also found that the emotional impact aroused by the news frame was conditioned by the incidental presence of information regarding the national or geographic origin of the immigrants in question. These results are consistent with the hypotheses posed and partially support the argument that the framing effect is a process governed by heuristic processing.

This work provides a conceptual introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis in psychological research. We discuss the concepts of direct effect, indirect effect, total effect, conditional effect, conditional direct effect, conditional indirect effect, and the index of moderated mediation index, while providing our perspective on certain analysis and interpretation confusions that sometimes arise in practice in this journal and elsewhere, such as reliance on the causal steps approach and the Sobel test in mediation analysis, misinterpreting the regression coefficients in a model that includes a product of variables, and subgroups mediation analysis rather than conditional process analysis when exploring whether an indirect effect depends on a moderator. We also illustrate how to conduct various analyses that are the focus of this paper with the freely-available PROCESS procedure available for SPSS, SAS, and R, using data from an experimental investigation on the effectiveness of personal or testimonial narrative messages in improving intergroup attitudes.

The aim of this article is to further knowledge of the explanatory processes of narrative persuasion in the field of health communication, using data obtained in a research study of entertainment-education based on audiovisual fiction. Participating in the study were 208 young persons between the ages of 14 and 20, randomly distributed to three different groups. Each of the groups was exposed to a different episode of the Colombian television series Revelados, desde todas las posiciones. The results showed that greater identification with the main character of the episode transmitting a prevention message was associated with greater cognitive elaboration, which in turn led to more favorable attitudes toward the topics addressed. However, counterarguing was not observed to play a significant mediating role. The findings of this study allow us to conclude that getting people to think and reflect can help persuade them, which suggests that narrative persuasion models and dual models of rhetorical persuasion can be compatible in certain contexts, such as when messages are designed in such a way that characters make explicit arguments that endorse a prosocial message through dialogues.

With the ubiquity of computer-mediated communication, it is becoming increasingly difficult to choose which medium or content to employ in gratifying whatever use or need people may seek at each point in time. Empirical results in 2012 from questionnaires administered among 289 college students ranging in age from 18 to 28 years show that college students use Social Media Network Sites (SMNSs) for so many reasons. These include keeping in touch with friends (98.9%), sharing photos (81.7%), keeping in touch with family (79.3%), and entertainment (70.9%), among others. Facebook emerged as the preferred SMN site followed by Twitter, while LinkedIn was the least popular site among this group. While some participants still maintain their MySpace account, they depicted this site as archaic and a rarely visited site. Overall, ease of use and potential for eclectic tasks are qualities that garnered Facebook most preferred status as a social networking site.

Health messages are designed to stimulate an active cognitive process in those audiences generally with little involvement. The Elaboration Likelihood Model by Petty and Cacioppo sustains that subjects with high involvement and those with low involvement react differently to the persuasive message to which they are exposed. One efficient way to capture the attention of the low involvement audiences is to insert the messages within an entertainment context. Our study attempted to analyze affective and cognitive processes to explain the impact of these new formats, fictional shorts for HIV/AIDS prevention. A 2 x 2 factorial design was used, with involvement in the AIDS issue (high/low) and the type of format (musical/dialogue) as independent variables. The finding showed the better the quality of the short (with dialogue style) the more negative affectivity was stimulated, also the more cognitive processing was induced, and a more favorable attitude towards preventive behavior was stimulated.