Influence Through Personal and Nonpersonal Channels of Communication

Summary

A city-wide campaign involving various channels of communication was conducted to obtain high school seniors for a survey. Of the 102 seniors who telephoned to make appointments, 56 later attended their assigned questionnaire session. The rate of attendance differed for the communication channels. Newspaper advertisements attracted the most telephone calls but had the lowest attendance rate; notices on bulletin boards in city recreation centers produced the fewest telephone calls but had the highest attendance rate. Other channels, including personal contact, were intermediate in effectiveness. Additional findings were that nonpersonal channels differed in influence, and that exposure through multiple channels resulted in more influence than exposure through only one. The implications of the findings, especially for conceptualizations of channel influence, were noted.