| This research involved a three-study examination of the effect gratifications have on a variety of attitudes. Study One was a series of surveys that acted as a manipulation check, to verify that three websites, each constructed to offer different primary gratifications, was effective. Study Two was an in-class survey of high school students, examining their media attitudes as well as their attitudes toward Technical Colleges. Study Three was initially planned as a field experiment, but implemented as a lab experiment in which participants took a pretest and then were randomly placed into one of three websites, offering either information, social, or entertainment gratifications. The website, into which participants were placed, either matched or did not match the gratifications participants identified as gratifications they sought from the web. Following the website experience, individuals took a posttest, which measured Attitudes Toward the Website, Attitudes Toward the Message, Attitudes Toward the Medium, and Attitudes Toward the Topic.; Using a multiple regression approach, Topic Involvement, used as a covariate, Entertainment, Information and Social gratifications sought, and the interactions among the three gratifications were used as predictors of association on the dependent variables. The findings from the research suggest that gratifications affect Attitude Toward the Medium, Attitude Toward the Website and Attitude Toward the Message. In addition, there was an effect for gratification matching, on Attitude Toward the Topic, although it was problematic due to the existence of an effect in the pretest, as well as the posttest. |
