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Every individual has his own preferences in communications media - a collection which he enjoys, trusts, regards as authoritative, and uses regularly. The operator is interested in the media preferences of the target elite, for if he could know (1) which of the media each influential uses, and (2) which of the media has high credibility for him, he would know how best to get a message to him. The media the influential does not use are useless as channels - he is invulnerable to them. The media he uses, but in which he places little credibility, are of little value - he is only slightly vulnerable to them. But the media he uses AND in which he has high credibility are of most value - he is truly vulnerable to these.
The complete answer to this problem is, in the long run, essentially an individualistic one, i.e. a dossier of the media use habits and credibility evaluations of each influential who is in the target group. Nevertheless, some general approaches can be suggested so that data may be gathered more systematically and results may be comparable.
ANALYSIS OF VULNERABILITY
XXVI - 1. Variations in media use: non-users. The variability of traits in leaders, which study has indicated, suggests that there probably will be considerable variability in other matter such as use of the media. One may expect, therefore, that influentials will range all the way from virtual non-media user to those who use all of them available.
In some areas, for example, there are still influentia who are illiterate and who are effectively invulnerable to the printed media. On the other hand, there are influentials who are invulnerable to printed media because of their entire personality pattern or method of operation. They may be highly suspicious, or they may be "men of action." They might also be termed non-intellectuals. In this connection it will be recalled that in Section XXV-4 it was noted that persuasibility was related to personality, and that specifically, individuals with high anxiety or of the aggressive type were likely to have low persuasibility. It is interesting to note that at least one study has indicated that amount of readership is related to anxiety, with persons of low anxiety reading more items, or showing an interest in more items, and persons of high anxiety reading less items in newspapers.
XXVI-2. "Class" media versus mass media. Another class of influentials might be made up of those who were vulnerable only to "elite" media, who read, listen to or look at only those materials especially prepared for them or for their reference groups. They would be invulnerable to the messages moved through the mass media channels, but would be vulnerable to messages placed in the elite publication, such as the confidential business letter, the specialized trade or professional publication, the political journal, or the religious magazine.
XXVI-3. Variations: Users of all media. Another class might be termed total media users, in that they consumed media at all levels and in all forms. Studies of American media consumers have indicated that many persons fall into this "use-one, use-all" classification. There is also some indication that these consumers of all the media tend to be among those who make maximum use of the media. The point of special importance to the operator is that there are indications that his group contains the elite. Individuals who use newspapers the most, for example, are of socio-economic characteristics (occupation, age, education, income) which coincide with the characteristics of the elite. This is true of general readership, and of readership of public affairs news and editorials. Coming upon editorial readership the author of this study said:
"The significant fact is where it (editorial readership) plays its most important part in reading patterns – with older age groups, more highly educated groups, and higher economic groups. These are opinion-making groups.
While these studies were made in an effort to determine the characteristics of the mass of readers, they can, with caution, be applied to the elite.
XXVI-4. Classification of users by different media. An alternate classification could be made on the basis of use and vulnerability of influentials to class of media, i.e. to collect information on those influentials particularly susceptible to the press, or to magazines, or to movies, books, etc. It also might be useful to discover which specific organs have the largest groups of elite users ( more will be said on this in Section XXVII). Thus, in the latter case, one might locate a particular magazine which was read by almost all of the general elite or by all of a particular special elite. While this approach may at times be the correct one (and would certainly be so when a few critical publications could be found) generally it would seem that the low, elite media and total (or high) media user classification suggested above would be more workable. Such variation is more likely to occur in matter what the cultural situation, while the classification by media may be altered by local conditions to a considerable extent.
XXVI-5. Solving the media habits of "non-users". Discovery of the influentials in the low or non-user classification might indicate to the operator that his battle is lost, as far as use of the media is concerned. But this is not necessarily so. If the target influential is in fact a non-media user, he nevertheless must obtain information. His very position of influence dictates that he must have information or the means of getting it whenever necessary. In such a case, he will ordinarily use some of his associates, either on his own power level or, more probably at lower level in the power structure. If this is so, the operator must shift his analysis to them to discover their vulnerabilities to the media, for he can be sure that if he gets a message to them, he will get it to the power person who is his final target. These individuals may actually stand relatively low in the power structure, but for the operator they have now increased importance. As symbol-conveyors, they are important links. Their vulnerabilities, in effect, are the vulnerabilities of their chief; what they believe is what he will eventually believe; what they read or listen to is what he indirectly "reads" and listens to.
XXVI-6. Relation of vulnerability to credibility. An important common factor in determining influential’s vulnerability to the media, no matter where they might stand in the above suggested classification, is that of credibility. Specifically this refers to the influential’s own evaluation of how trustworthy or expert is the source of the message or how expert, authoritative or trustworthy is the conveyor of the message. While the source of the message will be most often dictated by the mission of the operator and as such is beyond the scope of this work, it should be noted that source is very important. Often, the operator himself will be the source and the cumulative effect of his work in the community or national state will determine whether his messages are received with low or high credibility. While an analysis of the problems of source and credibility are beyond the scope of this manual, to a considerable degree what concerns credibility of channel or media will apply equally well to that problem.
In any event, the message is affected by the channel. Recipients have generalized evaluations in terms of the authoritativeness and the trustworthiness of the various channels which are available to them. At least a backwash of these evaluations will have come to the operator in making the inventory of media suggested in Section XXV. It will be in the form of generalized information on the commentators, the press as a whole, etc. Certainly, the newspaper of low general repute can be eliminated at this point; possibly also the publication catering exclusively to a non-elite group or the medium serving a group not relevant to the power structure. Along with the generalized information on the media, the operator also should have, through the dossiers on the individual influentials, information as to political affiliations, special interest and other matters.
These two sets of information provide the opportunity to use a basic principle of credibility. The influential will regard as more expert, more authoritative, those publications which advance views similar to his own. Thus he will regard his own party paper as a more credible channel and will tend to be more vulnerable to an article carried in it than in the opposition press. Indeed, he may not even expose himself to the opposition newspaper, having long ago given it a very low credibility rating. Thus, whatever information has been obtained on the beliefs and affiliations of the influential and be checked against the known positions of the media with an expectation that agreement will generally mean high credibility, disagreement low – and to the same degree, the vulnerability of the influential.
The factor of trustworthiness may be ascribed to a medium even though it has low credibility for a person. It will be determined by the beliefs and attitudes of the influential about the intention of the channel, i.e. its purpose in disseminating its publications or messages. To the degree that he thinks the medium intends to seek a particular goal or to advance a particular interest or to propagandize, he will consider it trustworthy or untrustworthy. This is to say that if the influential clearly perceives the medium as a propaganda channel, messages carried in it immediately lose some of their effectiveness. He is alerted to question them. For example, it was learned during the war that soldiers who identified the movie, "Battle of Britain," as a propaganda message were less receptive (and had their opinions changed less) than those who identified it as an informative message.
XXVI-7. Adding media information to biographies. Within this general framework, it is possible to line up influentials on the one hand, and media on the other. Even if it were impossible to gain a single hard fact on exactly what was being read, listened to or looked at by the members of the elite, it would be possible to make useful inferences about what they were reading or listening to on the basis of knowing something about them and their association and something about the media available to them.
Actually, the operator may find several sources available which will aid him in pinpointing the media vulnerability of the members of the elite. It should be noted that most of the following tell him primarily about use; they do not tell him very much about credibility ratings. Nevertheless, they are useful to note:
a. Observation of media in the office or home of the influential.
b. Observation of conversational references to media sources of information.
c. Subscription lists of media. (A special case here is that of subscriptions to American publications. An increasing number are being distributed abroad, with considerable indication that many members of the elite are among subscribers. Presence on such a subscription list which should be available at least in larger centers, certainly would indicate that the influential was a potential or actual USA-symbol receptor).
d. Check of advertisements and announcements of the media seeking to enhance their own prestige by reference to influentials who are users.
e. Check on members of the elite chosen to receive advance copies of the new books.
f. Check on members of the elite chosen to attend advance (often private) previews of new movies.
g. Presence of the name of influential on lists of persons who have asked for or have indicated receiving U.S.A. messages in the past. (Certainly the operator, if he sends out any materials, should maintain a list of this type himself. Checks with Voice of America listener lists if available and checks on users of USA library services and on other lists of American message receivers should be made, especially if it appears that any significant number of the target elite will be named.)
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