Designing Media Messages About Health and Nutrition: What Strategies Are Most Effective?

Abstract 

This report focuses on how to design media messages about nutrition that will persuade people to adopt healthful behaviors. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is used as a theoretical framework to explore different information-processing modes that individuals employ in a variety of communication situations. Studies from the fields of communication and psychology are briefly reviewed, with a focus on the source and message strategies that are most likely to persuade different types of audiences to change their nutritional attitudes and behaviors.

Key Words: Media effects, persuasion, message factors, source factors, processing style