Impacts of Content Preferences and Elaboration on the Effects of “Incompetent Authority” Frame in Chinese Product Recall Coverage

Abstract

This study examines how readers' stable media content preferences influence cognitive elaboration as part of the frame-setting process and how elaboration moderates the magnitude of framings effects. An experiment examines whether a made-in-China product recall story carrying the “Incompetent Authority” frame activates more frame-related thoughts than an unframed version. Subsequent regressions predict attitude or causal attribution with activation and elaboration and relate elaboration to issue knowledge or involvement. We find that although people who closely followed consumer news elaborated more in-depth on the product issue, though deeper elaboration did not moderate frame's effects on attitude or causal attribution. Implications for framing theory and U.S. media's presentation of Chinese product recalls are discussed.

Notes

*p < .05.

**p < .01.

*p < .05.

**p < .01.