A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell Essay -- A Jury of Her Peers Ess

A Jury of her Peers was written by Susan Glaspell in 1917. This short story is entertaining but also tells the story of wo hands in the beforehand(predicate) twentieth century. Ms Glaspell give you an idea about the hardships that women had to deal with, such as retirement, lack of beauty, physical labor, and living in a male dominated society. The characters consist of two couples and a lawyer. The men be trying to convict Minnie Foster of murdering her husband piece of music he was sleeping. The story takes place in Minnies house. end-to-end most of the play the men ridicule the women. This is ironic because the women are the ones that end up finding the missing link to the killing. Throughout the play the men are looking for evidence that would give Minnie a motive for the killing her husband. The men look everywhere for evidence as they do this they poke fun of the women. The men just do not understand the hardships of being a woman at the turn of the century. Lon eliness was a major factor for farmwomen in the early on part of the century. Elaine Hedges quotes Faraghers statement saying the single most important distinction between the social and cultural worlds of men and women was the isolation and immobility of wives compared to husbands (Elaine Hedges 99). The isolation of the houses contributed to the loneliness women felt. The farmhouses were miles apart and could take up to half a day just to visit a friend. Women did not have time in their busy enrolment to take such trips. Women were preoccupied with household chores and running the family. The men could combat loneliness because they had the advantage of going into town with the crops. At these visits they could catch up on the news as they sat in the saloons with the gu... ...ause none of them were small. To can fruit there is a lot of effort involved. The fruit must be grown, picked, and let off canned. Ms Hedges informs her readers of the physical labor involved by quoting old diaries, Friday May 27 This is the dreaded washing day (Hedges 96). One must not obturate that there was no running water back then. One load of wash took tremendous amounts of labor One wash, one boiling and one wash out used about fifty gallons of water -- or four hundred pounds -- which had to be moved from pump or well to faucet to stove and tub, in buckets and wash boilers that might weigh as much as forty or fifty pounds (Hedges 96). This reason alone explains why Minnie is worried about her jars while she is in jail. As one can see A Jury of Her Peers was not only written for entertainment, but also to demonstrate how rough tone for farmwomen was.

Leprosy :: essays research papers

LeprosyLeprosy or Hansens disease, is a chronic, infectious disease thatmainly affects the skin, mucous membranes, and nerves. A rod shaped bacillusnamed Mycobacterium leprea, causes the virus. Mycobacterium leprea is very(prenominal)similar to the bacillus that causes tuberculosis. The reason Leprosy is alsoknown as Hansens disease, is because it was first identified in 1874 by aNorwegian physician named Gerhard Henrik Armeur Hansen.Leprosy appears in both the Old and New Testaments. In the bible Leprosywas not the disease that is recognized now, but as various physical conditionsthat were nothing like the disease. A punishment from God was what theseconditions were considered to be. The victim was said to be in a state ofdefilement. This Hebrew term was translated as lepros, which the word leprosycame from.The diseases potential origin was the Indus Valley that is located inIndia. Leprosy spread from there to the Mediterranean region and North Africa,then all of Europe was affect ed. This disease is much slight common now, as theworld case count has dropped below 1 million. During 1995 about 530 000 newcases of leprosy were discovered. It is obvious that third world countries haveway much cases as India, Indonesia, and Myanmar account for almost 70% of thecases describe in the world. 5500 know cases of Leprosy still exist in the US,and about 200 cases a reported annually.Tests to levy leprosy in experimental animals, have not beensuccessful as of yet. Though the organism can be grown in Armadillos, severallaboratories have been reported cultivating leprosy in the test tube.Loss of angiotensin-converting enzyme in a patch of skin is often the first symptom thatLeprosy displays. In the lepromatous form, large areas of the skin may becomeinfiltrated. The mucous membranes of the nose, mouth, and throat may be invadedby large numbers of the organism. Because of damage to the nerves, muscles maybecome paralyzed. The loss of sensation that accompanies the clo se ofnerves may result in unnoticed injuries. These may result in secondaryinfections, the replacement of healthy tissue with scar tissue, and thedestruction of bone. The classic disfigurements of Leprosy, such as loss ofextremities from bone damage or the so-called leoline facies, a lionlikeappearance with thick nodulous skin, are signs of advanced disease, now

Essay --

1. What is meant by the term drug ab employ Drug abuse is the use of a habit forming drug that can lead to addiction and dependence this can also cook serious medical issues such as change to the kidneys or liver. This can also cause mental harm such as hallucination or memory loss. The ultimate damage it can cause is death.2. Other than drug users themselves, who ar the victims of drug abuse in our society Everyone in the family of a drug abuser is a victim, children are the biggest victims, and according to a article in the Journal of American Medical Association that woman who are pregnant and use opioids has increased five times and that these newborns are experiencing neonatal abstinence syndrome which has tripled from 2000 to 2009 They estimate that in 2009 there was approximately one infant born per hour in the U.S. with signs of drug withdrawal. (The innocent victims)3. List the ship canal that cocaine in addicted pregnant mothers affects their unborn Cocaine use during pregnancy rises the venture of stroke and heart damage during development and increased risk of brain d...

The Awakening: The Fall of Kate Chopin’s Career Essay -- Biography

Did you ever wonder what it was like for a woman to live in the 1800s? Like in any other decade, there were many memorable events that influenced the writers of this era, but for women writers, this era was characterized by feminism and the fight for womens rights. Writers like Kate Chopin brought to the highest degree of the feminist issues to the light through books such as hers, The Awakening. Kate Chopin had a difficult childhood, in which she lost most of her family members. When she began writing, she revealed beliefs of movement of leaders about rights of women. Critics say Chopin base most of the characters in her books on leaders of the movement, on herself, and on regular women of her time. Chopins life was in a downward spiral until she started publishing her works of literature. After publishing The Awakening, her life progressively began looking up. Kate Chopins birth was in St. Louis on February 8, 1851. Five years later, she started school at the Academy of th e unutterable Heart. Later on in her schooling, she found a classmate that had the same love for reading and writing as she, but not long after, she had to break-dance attending school for two years (Adams ix). This was because of the death of her father. Chopin was the further of her three siblings to live a long life. She lived with her widowed mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother (Long). Nine years later, her grandmother passed away. This was only shortly after that passing of her brother (Adams ix). When she finally went back to school, she had picked up her Cajun Uriegas 2influence (Long). Chopin was now in addition a nonconformist. Her family owned slaves that she loved expending time with. She took down the union flag and hid it earning the name St. Louiss littl... ...t 123). The Awakening shows the Creoles living in the French Quarters and how the other Creole Americans live (Hatchet 123). It also shows that the initial influence stayed strong (Hatchet 12 3). Kate Chopin had her share of rough times in life, but writing was her escape. She used her writing to let people know what was waiver on the world as far as womens rights were concerned. The critics say that Chopin showed her rebellious attitude through her characters and the Creole influences that were apparent in her books. Kate Chopin was not a part of the womens rights movement, but they inspired her writing in many ways. Women of this time had very few rights and what rights they had were not given up. Feminism was on the bear writers like Kate Chopin helped everyone see what women needed and deserved even though their opinions were very controversial.

Assimilationism vs. Multiculturalism Essay example -- Assimilationism

Assimilationism vs. MulticulturalismIn the words of Thomas Bray, Should we assimilate to one standard, or should we keep diversity? This is a popular question in Americas schoolrooms today. America, write outn as the melting pot, is made up of many different colors, races, religions, and beliefs. American professors, journalists, and authors would like to know if multiculturalism has a positive effect on children in todays classrooms. Whether or not the students way of life and personal experiences should be discussed in class is a study issue. Maxine Hairston, a Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, writes of her experience with teaching in a multicultural classroom. Hairston is a strong supporter of children compose on their background, culture, and way of life. She feels that this enhances the classrooms atmosphere. Maxine Hairston writes, Gradually their truths will change, but so will ours because in such a classroom one continually le arns from ones students. Living in a particular way all ones life can cause views and opinions on certain subjects, but when put into a classroom with other students, it decenters ones ideas. Hairston wants the classroom to be designed around the students. She states, These students bring with them a kaleidoscope of experiences, values, dialects, and cultural backgrounds that we want to respond to positively and productively, using every resource we can to help them oblige to the academic world and become active participants in it. Hairston wants students of every race, color, religion, and belief to learn about writing while learning about others. Thomas Bray, a Detroit News Columnist, writes an editorial on the California sch... ...guistics, and is a successful author. Looking at three different perspectives of multiculturalism I see how important it is to welcome sassy ideas and people into my world. Although, like most things in life there must be a line drawn somewhere. If sharing your personal experiences, ideas, and beliefs makes you uncomfortable wherefore by no means should you be punished for it within a classroom. Every person has a right to learn no matter what their race, religion, gender, or belief. And for that our national meting pot should keep on melting together to form an educated nation. Works CitedBray, Thomas. Memorial Day and Multiculturalism. Detroit News 24 May 1998. Hairston, Maxine. Diversity, Idealogy, and teaching Writing. College Composition and Communication 43.2 (May 1992) 179-195. Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue. Three Penny Review. 1990.

Assimilationism vs. Multiculturalism Essay example -- Assimilationism

Assimilationism vs. MulticulturalismIn the words of Thomas Bray, Should we assimilate to one standard, or should we celebrate diversity? This is a popular question in Americas classrooms today. America, known as the break up pot, is made up of many different colors, races, religions, and beliefs. American professors, journalists, and authors would like to know if multiculturalism has a positive effect on children in todays classrooms. Whether or not the students way of spirit and personal experiences should be discussed in class is a major issue. Maxine Hairston, a Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, writes of her experience with teaching in a multicultural classroom. Hairston is a strong supporter of children writing on their background, culture, and way of heart. She feels that this enhances the classrooms atmosphere. Maxine Hairston writes, Gradually their truths will change, nevertheless so will ours because in such a classroom one con tinually learns from ones students. Living in a particular way all ones life can cause views and opinions on certain subjects, but when put into a classroom with other students, it decenters ones ideas. Hairston wants the classroom to be designed around the students. She states, These students bring with them a kaleidoscope of experiences, values, dialects, and cultural backgrounds that we want to respond to positively and productively, using every resource we can to help them adapt to the academic world and become active participants in it. Hairston wants students of every race, color, religion, and belief to learn about writing while learning about others. Thomas Bray, a Detroit News Columnist, writes an editorial on the California sch... ...guistics, and is a successful author. Looking at three different perspectives of multiculturalism I see how important it is to welcome new ideas and people into my world. Although, like most things in life there must be a line drawn somewhe re. If sharing your personal experiences, ideas, and beliefs makes you uncomfortable then by no means should you be penalize for it within a classroom. Every person has a right to learn no matter what their race, religion, gender, or belief. And for that our national meting pot should keep on melting together to form an educated nation. Works CitedBray, Thomas. Memorial Day and Multiculturalism. Detroit News 24 May 1998. Hairston, Maxine. Diversity, Idealogy, and Teaching Writing. College Composition and Communication 43.2 (May 1992) 179-195. Tan, Amy. Mother Tongue. Three centime Review. 1990.

Adventures as an Exchange Student in Germany Essay

Deliberately placing yourself outside of your solacement zone will do one of two things realise you into a stronger break-dance person, or cause you to shutdown and non accomplish the task at hand. While most high school juniors spend their division studying, excelling in sports, hanging out with friends, and thinking about colleges, I pushed my boundaries and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. No, I did not go skydiving or colligation the US National Volleyball Team. I accepted the challenge of the Congress Bundestag Scholarship program to spend a year in Germany living, accomplishment, and experiencing life in another land. The life skills and memories that I acquired in the past twelve months have put me a step ahead of my peers and shown me that if I put my mind to it, anything is possible.In October 2002 as I was sitting in my basic year German class, my teacher recommended that I apply for what she called the prestigious Congress Bundestag Scholarship to spend a y ear in Germany. Taking into consideration that I would have to leave everything I had going for me behind, made me a little leery of the idea. However, when I established what an honor and opportunity it was to take part in an exchange, the mounds of paperwork seemed to shrink into a miserable homework assignment with a twist. After the final interview, reality nock me. I might actually spend a year in Germany Along with the excitement came the panic I cant actually verbalise German. What should I pack? How do I say goodbye to everyone? What if I get homesick? Do the Germans really only shower once a week? These questions all came at once, and no matter how much I searched, the only answers I could find told me to wait and see.Before I knew it, I was embarkation a 737 an route to Frankfurt with 60 of my new best friends who, like me had the cour maturate to enter into the unknown and spend a year in Germany. It was this crowd of teenagers that I spent a month in language camp with nerve-wracking to learn the basics about German life and culture. We were like infants who had to do 18 years of growing up in 30 days. We worked together trying to learn the basics such as learning to eat and trying to work a toilet to understanding the most complicated issues such as diplomacy, political debate, and how to be an ambassador for America. During this time, I grew as a person, learning empathy for thosewho were homesick and becoming open minded to people and activities that to me were not the norm or routine. Little did I know, these kids would be my lifelines in times of need. They could always restore to what I was experiencing, and they were also flying on the roller coaster of emotions.When the time came to leave my new friends and move on, I was extremely excited to immerse myself into the German culture. The language, a new school, new friends, and a new family seemed like a dream come true, but in reality it turned into a nightmare.When my host family pi cked me up, we had a three-hour ride home. Make that a SILENT three hours without air conditioning and five people plus four suitcases crammed into a small Passat. At home, we put down the car and I went to see my new room. As I looked out of my window something white and black caught my eye, whoa cows less than ten feet from my window. I could not believe it, my organization said I would live in the country, but I did not realize that the next closest town was an hour away.As my stress level hit a high, my new host mom put me over the edge. She began to unpack my suitcases that were filled with unwrapped gifts for her and the family. It was at that point that I counted to ten and reminded myself that it was a different culture, and possibly that was one of their customs. The only problem was, my German skills were not good enough to politely ask her to stop. So she continue and I smiled and hoped my rocky start would smooth into a healthy open relationship.Three weeks later, I was getting into the swing of things. Going to school, riding my bike and the bus, do friends, and yes getting used to the smell of cows. I was adapting well, being responsible and beginning to understand the German spoken in school. I had gone beyond everyone elses expectations and mine. Life was good, even though the Germans only showered twice a week.After the honeymoon phase was over, my host mother turned on me. She thought I was being disrespectful and not telling the truth, where as the problem was that I couldnt fully understand what she was saying, causing a lack in chat between us. When I realized this, I worked extra hard to regain her trust and persevere through what I perceived as a small bump in the road. When things worsened and I could no longer adapt to the situation, my community representative intervened and placed me with a new family. Even though my first host family was a challenge, the experience showed my true character. In the face of adversity, I was able to handle myself maturely and attempt to find a solution to the problem. It was not a failure by any means, but an opportunity to grow.Not only did I develop in times of trial and hardship, but I learned just as much in a nurturing situation. During the last six months of my stay in Germany I stayed with a truly wonderful family. I was treated as an adult, and I assumed full responsibility for myself. My host parents generosity of welcoming me into their heart and home made me appreciative of all I had accomplished in the last year, and encouraged me to give back. Through this pattern of giving and receiving I gained a sense of benevolence and consideration for others. I environ my self with positive people which in turn brightened my spirits and reminded me that when the going gets tough an optimistic attitude can make a world of difference.When I boarded the plane at the end of my year there were only 52 of the original 60 students who completed the program. My commitment and perse verance helped me overcome adversity and play along in a situation where the odds were against me. Not only did I accomplish the task at hand, but I had the time of my life piece of music doing it. The rewards of spending a year abroad are endless, but I was most affected in a few ways. I learned compassion and acceptance first hand by being treated by others with kindness when I was down.I have become accountable beyond my age by being entrusted with responsibilities that are typically given to a person 22 and over. Now as I move on, I am better prepared for what awaits me. I have a whole new set of life skills and memories to keep in my quiver and use when called on. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone was the best thing I could have done, I was up to the challenge and I passed with flying colors.

Alternative Media, Youth and Civil Society

BIOGRAPHY OF Dr. Govind Ji Pandey Filmmaker, college professor, kind activist Dr. Govind Ji Pandey was born in Varanasi in 1972. Studied at BHU, Varansi and received his doctoral Degree in Journalism from MG Kashi Vidya Peeth, Varanasi. Acted in more films and worked for promotion of Bhojpuri Films in Purvanchal. Dr Pandey taught students of Masters Course at MGKVP before he moved to Delhi as Lecturer (Electronic Media), in MBICEM, a college affiliated to GGSIP University. Here he taught BJ(MC) students for six years. During his stay in Delhi he superintend variant small research projects of students.He taught Video and Radio Journalism,Production, and supervised around five hundred audio and audio-visual production of students. Some of the films supervised by him got prize in prestigious film festivals corresponding Jeevika, Vatavaran, Misce-en-scene etc. Dr. Pandey is source of a book Television Journalism and Programme Formats. At present he is working as a Reader (Mass Com munication) at BB Ambedkar University, Lucknow. He is didactics PG students and guiding research scholars for their Ph. D thesis at BBA University. Alternative Media, Y come forwardh and Civil Society Dr. Govind Ji Pandey Associate Professor, Dept. f Mass Comm & Journalism Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Univrsity, Lucknow Email- emailprotected com Mob. 0919198915357The compile is mightier than the sword, and the resource media may become mightier than the main bourgeon media. This is not a mere conjecture the carry out has already begun. The resource media has emerged as a key player in promoting the cause of marginalized dent of the society, an choice persona of people and reflecting reality. The neglect of underprivileged and browbeaten by mainstream media, suppression and manipulation of randomness by government and media industry has constitute a evere threat to the right to freedom of speech and expression of the members of globular civil society. In the backdrop of the g reat endangerment posed by the media and policy-making-economical nexus, a bare-assed development has given hope to millions around the terra firma, of reuniting and creating an alternative source of in kindation which is free by all means. The past few decades defend shown us the path of creating a multi polar demesne and the advent of new media will create a world with multiple sources of voices.The information will come from those who argon not only consumers of it, but producing it as advantageously. The recent technological developments take up reduced the cost of production dramatically. The speed of cyberspace has increased with the development in the data transmission technology. This development has provided in the form of new media, a rattling strong motherfucker of confabulation to challenge the monopoly of traditional mainstream media. The alternative media in particular meshing and Community Radio have varyd the way we were consuming the media products. d irect the consumer is no more a passive receiver of the media capability but involved in the process of collection, selection and dissemi democracy of information. There is a large number of people who believe that media can be used as a tool for hearty change. The large number of people involved in developing and disseminating information can be a great source of information for hundred and thousands of people all across the world. The information flow can not be stopped by the governments and now it has taken a global shape. Things occurrent at far of places now started affecting local governments.The recent case of Iran where the Iranian Government stopped the flow of information by seatting more journalists behind bars and blocking television and slowing down internet speed could not restrict the flow of information. People used their mobile names and cameras and put up videos and audio of the various acts of Government for viewing and it became instant hit. A global opin ion was formed and it affected the Iranian Government as well. It shows the strength of the alternative sources of information in shaping the modern world. The present interpret is an attempt to analyze the clock time people devote in creating media content.The continuous up level of information which has changed the social and economical condition of the consumers, in particular the youth pick uping in various universities in India.. The objectives of research are 1)To understand the time youth devote for creating and consuming the media content 2)to analyze the various tools used for content creation and reception by students 3)to compare preference given to the fair for the content creation and consumption 4)to analyze nature and type of content created by the students 5)to observe social change in student community.The research study aims at highlighting the characteristics of alternative media, civil society, with the help of theoretical discussions and finally the relev ance of concepts related with alternative media, civil society and youth have been canvass through the side by side(p) research hypotheses RH 1) net profit is the to the highest degree preferred medium among youth. RH2)University students are actively move in the social campaigns promoted through various social network sites. RH3)The most preferred tool for content generation is mobile phone. RH4)New media has changed information creation and consumption style of students.Methodology For the analysis of above mentioned objectives and hypotheses a sample of 300 PG students of various departments of three universities from Lucknow, UP, India, were selected and their opinion on the various issues were taken. For this purpose an interview schedule was constructed. The students were selected through non-probability sampling method and equal design was given to male and female students. Civil Society Jurgen Habermas founded the notion of customary sphere, in which he discussed abo ut a model of judicious communication and rational critical debate.While explaining this kind of public sphere he said that, private people come together as a public and they engage the severalize on various matters of public interest with reasoned argument. As Habermas stressed, the public sphere has been in a permanent state of transformation as vestigial social and economical conditions have changed. Though we have many views about civil society but we were not able to provide a superstar definition of civil society which is unanimously supported by all the scholars. The most recent one given by Mary Kaldor in his raise written in the book Global Civil Society 2007/08 talks about civil society, as the edium through which social contracts or bargain are negotiated between the individual and the centers of political and economic authority. Civil society is a process of management of society that is bottom- up rather than top down, and involves the struggle for emancipatory go als. coin bank 1989, the definition of civil society was territorially bounded. The concept of civil society was prevalent in close to parts of Europe and America. The developments that have started around the world in early part of seventy and continued through eighties and nineties strengthen the democratic movement in Asia, Africa and other parts of the world.It is very clearly stated that to have a vibrant civil society you need established dem ocratic rights of electing public representatives, an independent judiciary and separation of legislative from executive. Medias Role in a Civil Society The control of media by large business houses who are governed by the state bureaucracies and commercial motives has created an environment where the indicator has come under one head which is a dangerous sign for a democratic country like India.The UNESCO report on various aspects of communication and society provided eight following functions of mass media i)dissemination of informat ion ii)socialization iii)motivation iv)promoting debate and discussion on public issues v)education vi)cultural promotion vii)entertainment and viii)integration. The objective of these functions were to provide complete information to the public so that they can form opinion and participate in the democratic process i. e. debate and discussion which ultimately guarantees their freedom of speech and expression.There is an immense danger to the freedom of speech and expression in the form of control and manipulation of information by state and private media industry. The control of mainstream media has come from various quarter and in variable forms. The fourth pillar of democracy has been hijacked by the various governmental and non-governmental organizations. Main stream media is no more the voice of people and is in a total disconnect of the real India. The mainstream media is serving the interests of minuscule minority and totally neglecting the real issues.If we analyze the issu es that have been the centre of debate and discussion on various television take and in print media we will scarce see an issue that is affecting the masses or talking about the marginalized section of the society. The mainstream media is obsessed with the glamour and politics, real developmental issues are vanished from the scene. What is Alternative Media? Michael Albert (2004) attempts to define alternative media in his manifesto, what makes alternative media alternative? As he writes An alternative media invention does not maximize profits, does not primarily sell audience to advertisers for revenues, is structured to subvert societys defining hierarchical social relationships, and is structurally deeply different from and as independent of other major social institution, particularly corporations, as it can be many segments of civil society are politically motivated communities promoting numerous causes and holding various versions of democracy.John Ehrenberg (1999) A demo cratic sphere of public action that limits the thrust of state power. Alternative media enable and encourage authorization and leanring outcomes may take place in either formal or informal education settings. UNESCO report on alternative media says These are the kinds of consciously political and social demands by groups for whom alternative communication is but another facet of their need to contest hegemonic structures and forms to create an new social and cultural reality for themselves. (UNESCO, 1993,p. 16) orgasm and Type of Alternative Media The monopoly of information control and ownership by the government, political and economic elites given them a lot of power to manipulate information.The newspapers and television channels have been driven by the commercial motives and the news about the poor and the marginalized were shifted to the inner pages. The global civil society felt a need of having alternative media which can connect with the rural, is committed to the poor a nd the oppressed and report the truth. The alternative media was present during the media boom but did not take proper shape. Just later the internet revolution now, it came in to prominence. Some of the alternative media that have created and posted great challenge to mainstream media are following 1)Interne Newspaper 2)Blogs 3)Social Networking websites ) wide awake phones and Pager services 5)Independent documentary film/Video filmmakers 6)Community Radio 7)Visual Radio 8)Ham operators 9)Small Newspapers and Magazines 10)Newsletters, brochures, handbills, pamphlets, posters, etc The development of alternative media gave ordinary citizens power to publish articles, upload videos and display photographs. It gave birth to a new kind of journalism which is public journalism. In this type of journalism public is producer, editor, reporter and consumers of the content. It has reduced the gate keeping authority of the traditional media. Role of Alternative Media 1)An alternative voice of peopleIt has a great government agency to play in shaping up a global civil society and free world. With the advent of internet and use of advance technology in mobile telephone industry the local issues have all the potential to become global that to within a very little time. The recent experience of the governments of China and Iran attempting to control the internet has led to a strong underground movement. The authorities blocked the flow of information by set journalists in jail and tried to stifle the flow of information but the internet gave people the much needed voice and assemblage which is hard to contain by the governments. )A forum for marginalized section of the society The main stream media is catering to the need of affluent in the society. The marginalized section of society is hardly finding place in the main stream media. The voice and problems of the socially weaker class is unreport and unrepresented. Here alternative media can play an important use of goods and services in highlighting the problems of poor and marginalized communities. The small community newspapers, community radio, television broadcast blogs, posters etc. can help the people overcome neglect by mainstream media to highlight the atrocities, faults in bureaucratic and other institutional setup.Marie Trigona, in his book Argentinas Community Media Fights for Access and Legal Reform, she explores Argentine groups that have emerged to produce alternative and independent media for television, radio and video in an effort to counter lack of access to marginalized communities in mass media. 3)Global public sphere The world is shrinking and the nation state boundaries have disappeared in the contemporary societies. Any issue that is related with a particular country might become global within no time, curtsy new media. This is not merely a hypothesis but global reality.One of the biggest examples is Batti Band Campaign, such was the impact of this campaign that through out the world people came out in support of it and now it is a global phenomenon. And this is not the only example of this type there are many examples where global opinion was generated in support of many campaigns and world governments were forced to accept global opinion. This is how new technologies have reinvigorated a sense of transnational public sphere and strengthened global civil organizations movements and provided platform for sub cultural groups and common man. )Free expression and social activism Alternative media is playing an important role in social learning process by providing considerably accessible content to common man. In many developing and developed countries it is working as agents of social change. Denis Mc Quails in his democratic media participant theory suggests that media content should not be controlled by the Government Institutions and political organizations. Members of Civil Society should have their own media and it must promote the interest of common man.This can be achieved only when we have multiple sources of information and communication where one can easily access and disseminate information. Recently in India, a controversy involving a union government minister and a commissioner of a government body, started off from a social network site twitter, and within no time public opinion was formed. The public opinion was so strong that government accepted resignation of minister and the commissioner was forced to step-down. This shows the strength of the new media and the public opinion generated through it.Now no government can neglect opinion of civil society. Alternative Media and Youth No country can deny the importance of youth in nation building process. The involvement and participation of youth in decision making process not only strengthen the democratic process but to a fault contributes to their personal development. In India, almost 55% population comes under this category who is also frequent users of new m edia technologies. The worlds youth population, Ages 15to 24, will become more and more concentrated in Africa and Asia.By 2050, the number of youth will have risen from just under a half billion in 1950 to 1. 2 billion. According to a recent study done by the Internet Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), there are 471 million mobile phone subscribers, out of which 127 million have their own Internet ready mobile device. merely of these 127 million users who have mobile phones with Internet capability, only 12 million have used the Internet on their devices and the number of active mobile Internet users is just 2 million.But industry experts quoted on Business Standard claim that there are over 500 million mobile phone subscribers and collectible to the decline in prices of Internet-enabled handsets, there are about 10 million mobile phone Internet surfers, much more than the 2 million reported by the IAMAI. This shows the potential of this media and those who are using it are ma inly youth in all parts of the world. non only this, the change brought in by the technology has given youth many different tools for content generation.One of the most important tolls is mobile phone which is used for video, audio, still photo recording and putting them on internet using various social network sites like twitter, U tube, face book etc. The information range of mountainses to millions of users across the globe and global opinion is generated on various issues of public interest. In Indian universities, youth devote a lot of time for content generation and dissemination. In the study conducted in three universities of India following conclusions were emaciated Table 1 Time devoted for internet surfing 0-1 hour1-2 hour2-3 hour3-4 hourMore than 4 hourMale1832602515 Female2654401515 Total44861004030 Surveys conducted in several countries in the world show that the internet addiction in on rise. In China the number of teen Internet addicts had soared to 24 million by 2009, almost reprize the figure for 2005, It is very much evident from the data that youth particularly in the Indian university have been devoting a lot of time in content generation and dissemination on internet. Overall, 71 million users accessed Internet in year 2009, with 52 Million active users who accessed it atleast once in a month.If we purport at global users on internet India is on 4th position but it may change very soon the moment it will reach to the rural population of the India. PositionCountryInternet Users Million 1USA220 2CHINA210 3JAPAN88. 1 4INDIA81 5BRAZIL53 ( Source Internet Mobile Association of India(IAMAI) and IMRB. ) In India the growth of internet is mainly in urban centers and develop college students itself contribute to more than 44% of all Internet usage that happens in India Overall 72% of young people access Internet on incessant basis. Table 2 Most popular tool for content generation Video cameraRecorderStill ameraMobile phone Male1068126 F emale446136 Total141014262 Mobile is the most popular medium for content generation. Not only is that mobile a very popular mode of internet surfing among youth in India but the trend is more or little same across the globe. The Opera Mini, most widely downloaded mobile application has released the number of Mobile Internet usage.The report is quite significant in call of mobile internet usage in the world. Following are the top 05 countries in Opera Mini Usage 1. Russia 2. Indonesia 3. India 4. China 5. Ukraine ( Source Internet Mobile Association of India(IAMAI) and IMRB. Table 3 Most preferred medium for news and entertainment TVRadioNewspaperInternetFilm Male2515207515 Female2636245410 Total51514412925 The information and communication behavior of the students have shown significant change in regard to the medium they use for news and entertainment. In a research study conducted by domain of a function Association of Newspapers (WNA) on Decoding Youth as News Information Co nsumers found that young people are spending less time with traditional media and more with new media. Same is the conclusion drawn in the data mentioned in the table three. Young participants said that usage of new media (i. e. , computers, mobile phones, the internet, and MP3 players) is increasingly taking up time participants would have played out with traditional media, though this time is obviously restricted in countries where the digital divide remains a strong barrier. Despite this, many participants say they would like to spend more time with newspapers and other traditional sources of information. Contrary to stereotype, many young participants remained respectful of traditional information sources and few dismiss them as obsolete. (Source World Association of Newspapers)Table 4 University students are actively participating in campaigns promoted through social network websites YesNo Male9555 Female46104 Total141159 The data shown above clearly indicating that youth is e ngaged in social reformation with the help of alternative media. Social Networking Sites (SNS) are young people? s spaces and engaging with young people here is meeting young people where they are at. The recent example of Batti Band Campaign that got momentum through the SNS is one of the many examples where young ones created awareness and it is now a well established campaign.There are many other cases in India which generated and garnered a lot of public response and support through social networking sites. Ruchika Girihotra, Jessica Lal, Nitish katara, etc. are some of the cases that are highlighted through these websites and ultimately proved to be a very strong campaign which generated a huge support for victims family and put pressure on the state authorities to act for justice. Table 5 Do you think alternative media has changed your information and entertainment behavior YesNo Male12624 Female13020 Total25644Youth information behavior is a complex process of interplays amo ng various factors, such as young peoples cognitive status, identity formation and value negotiation, and social fundamental interaction within a context. Here the data indicates that youth in India has significantly changed their information and entertainment behavior. More than 85 % of the samples were of the opinion that they have witnessed significant change in their media content consumption. The new media has taken over from the traditional media which includes radio and television.On the basis of the analysis of data collected with the help of interview schedule the following conclusions can be drawn 1)Youth in India is spending a lot of time using internet and other alternative means of communication. The main stream media will have a tough competition in the form of alternative media. 2)Internet is the most popular medium among youth and mobile phones are the most preferred medium for content generation and uploading of data. 3)Social networking sites have become a very imp ortant platform for common man.The social issues raised with the help of the social networking sites are getting good response from the netizens and global public opinion is very easily formed. 4)The global civil society has found a new and alternative platform for raising their voices. Alternative means of communication have become a very strong tool to form global opinion. Now the local governments are finding it difficult to stop the flow of information. 5)The world is now fast becoming multi polar and multiple sources of communication in the form of small and alternative media have given a strong platform to the marginalized communities and socially deprived class. )It is very much evident from this study that mobile phone is the most popular medium for content generation and dissemination of information among youth in India. They upload data to various social networking sites and actively participating in the social campaigns promoted through it.Reference 1)Kaldor Mary, Global Civil Society, 2007/08 2)Tufte Thomas, Youth engaging with the World Media, Communication and Social Change, The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Medias yearbook 2009. 3)The Hindu, Role of Alternative Media Stressed, 2010. )TOI, Friday, June19, 2009, Editorial. 5)Trigona Marie Alternative media is alive and well all over Latin America. (Argentina), 2009. 6)Casey Bernadette and others, Key Concepts in Television Studies, Routledge, Newyork. 7)Rayner philip, Media Studies, Routledge, Newyork. 8)Branston Gill, The Media Students Book, Routledge, Newyork. 9)Waisanen Don J, A citizens scout to democracy inaction, Southern Communication Journal, Volume 74/Number 2/April-June 2009 10) world population data sheet 2009. 134 Million 11% Asia/ Pacific

The Effect of Visual and Verbal Information on Attitudes

The Effects of optical and Verbal Information on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in meshing shop Minjeong Kim, Ph. D. Oregon State University Sharron Lennon, Ph. D. University of Delaw ar ABSTRACT The present eng historic period investigated how different crop launching formats ( ocular vs. communicative) ferment consumer attitudes toward resultion and leveraging inventions in meshing obtain.The over any results from devil Web experiments simulating Internet robes shopping showed that two ocular and communicative education had important set up on emotive and cognitive attitudes toward vestments products, unless(prenominal) only oral break down had a momentous request on secure tendency. Though the prime(prenominal)ity of optic discipline was predicted establish on introductory literature, the results of the discover standed literal favourable position. This finding provides an important implication for Internet retailers who tend to pay m uch(prenominal) than attention to optic product presentation.Although opthalmic product presentation is also found to be important, detailed product descriptions are critical to haughtyly influence consumer shopping buzz off in Internet shopping. 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The Internet is changing al close every aspect of our daily lives, from how we communicate, learn, and play, to how we shop, buy, and consume products and services (Dertrouzos, 1997). Evolving from a new communication Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 25(2) 146178 (February 2008) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www. interscience. wiley. com) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.inside 10. atomic number 62/mar. 20204 medium into an mod retailing medium, the Internet is changing the world of retailing (Klein, 1998). As the fastest growing retail channel, the harvest-time of Internet retail sales nearly tripled that of complete retail sales in 2004 (U. S. Census Bureau, 2004). Although Internet retail sales r emained only 5% of correspond retail sales in 2005 (DMNews, 2006), its future process is optimistic. concord to Forrester Research (2004), Internet retail sales leave behind reach over $331 billion by 2010, accounting for 13% of total retail sales in 2010.With the rapid adoption of the Internet and the growing popularity of broadband among the general population, the future of Internet retailing is bright (Digital Economy, 2000). De kindle the impressive growth rate and optimistic outlook, there is compelling evidence to propose that numerous consumers are still reluctant to bargain for via the Internet. Many Internet retailers continue to get by with blue conversion from browsers to procurers and high shopping cart abandonment (Internet Retailer, 2005a).The proportion of actual grease ones palmsrs to total browsers has remained downhearted, ranging between 2. 8% and 3. 2% of Web site visitors (Shop. org. & capital of Massachusetts Consulting Group, 2000), compared to ne arly 50% of m each(prenominal) visitors who purchase during their visit as reported by Stillerman J singles and Co. (Sansoni, 1999). In addition, shopping cart abandonment during the Internet shopping process, peculiarly just foregoing to impedimentaout, has been prevalent among would-be Internet customers (Shop. org, 2001). Such phenomena imply that there are some factors that keep Internet shoppers from buying via the Internet.A primary check-out procedure of Internet buying is the unfitness to forciblely examine full stops introductory to purchase (Internet Retailer, 2005b Retail Forward, 2001). According to Forrester Research, to a greater extent than half the consumers who visit an Internet store do not purchase because they cannot physic aloney inspect an specific before purchasing (Internet Retailer, 2005b). Consumers deficiency to acquire becoming product education to make a purchase decision, often by physical examination of a product, just now Internet shopping does not accommodate physical product evaluations like brick-and-mortar stores do (Nitse et al. 2004). This is more choreatic for certain types of products that require sensory evaluation. Holbrook and Moore (1981) suggested that products with aesthetic, sensory, or symbolic benefits (e. g. , clothing) must be experienced for adequate judgments to be made. Likewise, in Internet shopping the problem of lack of product examination is magnified for products like coiffure that require sensory inspection to assure adequate fit or color coordinate items.Although uniform is one of the major merchandise categories sold via the Internet (Internet Retailer, 2003), many another(prenominal) sales opportunities are lost because of the inability to touch and feel an item prior to a purchase (Beck, 2003 Pastore, 2000). The biggest reason for not purchasing via the Internet was the uncertainty of fit and size of it. Such problems ca utilise by the lack of adequate product examination shape up result in high product return rates (e. g. , 30%) and lost customer loyalty. The estimated loss collectible THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL discipline ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing inside 10. 002/mar 147 to these problems was more than $2 billion dollars in the Internet dress out industry (Beck, 2003). Responding to the insufficiency of customer experience related to product examination, Internet retailers bring in begun to implement innovative technologies that improve the Internet shopping experience. To simulate the store shopping experience in which physical inspection of an item is possible, several technologies that leaven optical product presentation (i. e. , 3-D images, pragmatic models, digital images, and zooming applied science) take over been introduced (Retail Forward, 2001).For example, Lands End launched My Virtual Model (MVM) optic percept technology in 1998 to al lowly online shoppers to experience products in the virtual dressing room. However, even though big Internet retailers are making substantial monetary commitments to adopt these new technologies to improve consumer experience of online product evaluation, their rears are by and large unknown. It is a common belief that new technologies will improve the Internet shopping experience, besides available evidence does not support this common belief.In their panel study with Internet shoppers, Retail Forward found that the Internet shoppers did not perceive 3-D images to be important to their shopping satisfaction, although they considered them a nice feature to have on the Web site. In addition, one recent study found that survey respondents comprehend 3-D images and virtual models to be unimportant features in Internet apparel shopping, whereas large catchs and close-ups were comprehend to be important features (Kim, Kim, & Lennon, 2006).Regarding virtual models, although Lands End reported the positive advert of MVM on conversation rates and average order valu e (Direct Marketing, 2001), Lane Bryant, the nations largest plus-size retailer, removed MVM technology after using it only for a few years because their customers no longer used it (Lane Bryant, 2005). Likewise, the takes of various product presentation technologies are largely unproven, despite the magnitude of financial commitment required in adopting new technologies. Product nformation plays an important role in consumer purchase decisions (Kim & Lennon, 2000 Mitchell & Boustani, 1994). Particularly due to the inability to physically evaluate products in Internet shopping, product presentation offered by Internet retailers plays a critical role in carry by dint ofing consumer needs for adequate product selective info for purchase decisions (Fiore, Jin, & Kim, 2005 Nitse et al. , 2004 Then & Delong, 1999). Despite its importance in Internet shopping, very little has been learned somewhat how different online product presentation formats influence consumer decision making in Internet shopping.Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how different online product presentation formats influence consumer attitudes toward the product and purchase intention in Internet shopping. This study focused on the cardinal most basic forms of product presentation optic ( photograph) and oral (text) as the first standard in the line of interrogation that would investigate various presentation techniques including 3-D images, virtual models, and zooming technology in the future. Research objectives for this study were 148 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 002/mar Stimuli Information affect Consumer Responses Imagery Information Processing Affective Attitude Purchase Intention CONTEMPORARY TORN STRETCH DENIM crest INFUSED WITH STRETCH FOR A TOUGH LOOK, AND DECORATED IN RHINESTONE ZIG-ZAGS FOR A GIRLY EDGE. ZIP FRONT. HITTING AT THE HIP. 96% COTTON/14% ELASTIC. Discursive Information Processing Cognitive Attitude Figure 1. The conceptual mode l for the answer of visual and vocal info on attitudes and purchase intentions in Internet shopping. hreefold (1) to examine the effects of visual and vocal teaching on consumers attitudes toward the product, (2) to examine the effects of visual and oral training on consumers purchase intentions, and (3) to evaluate the relative importance of visual and oral education in product presentation in Internet shopping. Although Internet retail sales remain a small fraction of total retail sales and are considerably less than once predicted, Internet retailing is becoming more important in the retail industry, and consumer demands for Internet shopping are increasing.The findings of this question will provide useful info that Internet retailers can use to develop more effective product presentations and thus satisfy consumer needs for adequate product evaluation in Internet shopping. LITERATURE REVIEW In this section, a conceptual model is veritable to explain how visual and communicative education influence consumer attitudes toward a product and further influence Internet purchase intentions (see Figure 1).Visual versus Verbal Information1 Information presented in visual and/or verbal form is a fundamental element of the consumer information environment, oddly in a nonpersonal marketing context such as advertizing or non-store retailing. 1 Visual information is limited to pictorial representation of a product and verbal information is limited to textual information about a product in this study. THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL discipline ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 149 Information is available in visual form, verbal form, or more frequently as a combination of both forms.In Internet shopping, product information is most often presented as a combination of both visual and verbal forms. There have been two distinct approaches to studying the effects of visual versus verbal information in consumer and advert query. unrival ed approach focused on the effects of visual and verbal information on retentivity (Guenther, Klatzby, & Putnam, 1980 Lutz & Lutz, 1977 Shepard, 1967 Starch, 1966), and the other approach focused on the effects of visual and verbal information on consumer judgments or attitudes (Childers & Houston, 1984 Edell & Staelin, 1983 Hirschman, 1986 Holbrook & Moore, 1981 Kisielius & Roedder, 1983).The first research stream has generally supported the idea that visual information is superior to verbal information in recall and recognition. Using print advertisements as stimuli, Starch (1966) found that people remembered a print advertisement with a design better than one without a learn. Shepard (1967) also found that a photo from advertisements was more easily recognized and remembered over time. Subsequent research (Hirschman & Solomon, 1984 Guenther et al. , 1980) provided additional support for the superiority of visual information.Researchers further found that memory was enhanced wh en there was a certain make out of redundancy or correspondence between visual and verbal information (Childers & Houston, 1984 Son, Reese, & Davie, 1987). The second research stream focused on the influence of visual and verbal stimuli on attitudinal responses (Holbrook, 1985 Mitchell & Olson, 1981). Using print advertisements, Mitchell and Olson found that the visually oriented advertisement was more effective in generating a positive attitude toward the brand and more effective in communicating attributes of the product advertize than the verbally oriented advertisement.They concluded that visual information led to more changes in beliefs about the product and thus created more positive attitudes and purchase intentions than verbal information. Imagery versus Discursive Information Processing Different forms of information lead to different information treat (e. g. , dual coding hypothesis by Paivio, 1971 left-right hemisphere specialization by Geschwind, 1979 sequential vs. simultaneous treat modes by Das, Kirby, & Jarman, 1975) (see Figure 1). Visual stimuli2 evoke resource information bear upon, whereas verbal stimuli evoke discursive information processing.Previous research focused more on discursive processing through an examination of how words or numbers are pooled together in work memory to signify or resolve problems 2 Visual (verbal) information is also referred to as visual (verbal) stimuli. The terms information and stimuli are used interchangeably in this study. 150 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar (e. g. , Bettman, 1979), whereas increasing research attention has shifted to the role of tomography information processing (Childers & Houston, 1982, 1984 Childers, Houston, & Heckler, 1985 Rossiter & Percy, 1983 Smith, Houston, & Childers, 1984).Imagery information processing evoked by visual stimuli represents sensory or perceptual information in working memory. Imagery processing sometimes includes multi-sensory dim ensionsincluding sight, taste, smell, and other sensationsor involves a single dimension such as sight, whereas discursive processing by verbal stimuli tends to be detached from inner sensory experience (MacInnis & Price, 1987). Therefore, discursive information processing becomes less concrete than imagery processing due to its lack of sensory experience of information in working memory (MacInnis & Price, 1987). overall, prior research findings support the superiority of imagery information processing. In a consumer research context, researchers found superior effects for imagery information processing as contend to discursive processing (Cautela & McCullough, 1978 MacInnis & Price, 1987). MacInnis and Price posited that both discursive and imagery processing can be activated to frame problems, and the way in which a problem is presented with visual or verbal information can have a remarkable impact on problem solving.In brand evaluation, discursive processing whitethorn lead to a n implicit or explicit summary of brand attributes and features based on some combination rules, whereas imagery processing whitethorn lead to a holistic evaluation of the brand. They further speculated that imagery information processing leads consumers to expect a higher likelihood for decision outcomes than discursive processing because imagery makes it easier to take to decision outcomes and visualization makes an event look more real (MacInnis & Price, 1987). Prior research findings further supported the effects of imagery processing on purchase intentions and purchase timing.In clinical contexts, Cautela and McCullough (1978) found that imagery processing was more influential in affecting behavioral intentions than discursive processing. Staats and Lohr (1979) posited that imagery could affect behavior by eliciting an emotional response. Images that create positive emotions elicit approach responses, whereas images that create interdict emotions elicit quashance responses. MacInnis and Price (1987) posited that imagery processing may generate a stronger emotional or more concrete sensory experience than discursive processing, which in turn increases desire for the product.They further postulated that the emotions evoked by elaborated imagery processing may reduce the delay between purchase consideration and actual purchase, thus affecting purchase timing. Moreover, imagery processing can enhance the consumption experience compared to discursive processing because the sensory experience evoked by imagery processing allows consumers to attain some of the enjoyment, satisfaction, or stimulation that would condescend from actual consumption (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982 Lindauer, 1983).THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 151 Dual cryptology Theory One consideration in the study of human cognition is the process of verbal coding. Verbal coding proponents assert that verbal coding is vital to per ceptual processing and believe that visual information is identified by naming it (Bruner, 1957 Glazner & Clark, 1963). A second approach is imagery coding, and this approach argues that both visual and verbal information are stored most efficiently as nonverbal images.A trey approach to cognition is dual coding theory, first proposed by Paivio (1971, 1986). This approach explains that visual information and imagery information processing evoked by visual stimuli are superior to verbal counterparts. The dual coding theory views cognition activities as a result of two mental subsystems, a verbal system (processing verbal events) and an imaginal system (processing nonverbal events). These two subsystems are thought to be separate but interconnected components of human cognition. Each subsystem is linked to particular sensory systems through epresentational connections, and an associative network exists within each subsystem. Each subsystem is also associated with referential connecti ons among them. The verbal system facilitates sequential processing whereas the imaginal system facilitates parallel processing of information. According to Paivio (1971, 1986), encoding of information in memory is done as a verbal form or nonverbal/pictorial form. When a person encounters a visual stimulus like a designate, an imaginal code is activated, whereas the verbal code will be activated when the person encounters a verbal stimulus like text.These two independent and distinct codes form three discrete levels of processing for succeeding(prenominal) stimuli. The most basic level of processing is called representational processing, and this processing involves the direct activation of either the verbal or imaginal systems, depending on whether incoming stimuli are visual or verbal. The next level of processing is called referential processing which involves building connections between the verbal and imaginal system. These connections between the two subsystems allow for ev ocation of imaginal responses from verbal stimuli or vice versa.The most complex processing is called associative processing, which occurs when verbal and visual stimuli are associated with other verbal and visual stimuli, respectively within each subsystem. When a stimulus is stock, it first goes through the representational processing, where either a verbal code or imaginal code is activated. Next, the stimulus passes through referential processing, where the visual prompt is named or images are created for verbal cues. In the final step, the stimulus is processed at the associative level, where connections may be established between the verbal and imaginal codes and antecedently stored information.The dual coding model further assumes that the verbal information is sequentially processed, whereas visual information is simultaneously processed and encoded as both images and verbal traces. Coding redundancy (i. e. , two 152 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar co des are better than one) accounts for the fork up superiority effect. This dual process results in superior memory responses to visual stimuli (Paivio & Csapo, 1973). Prior research findings in both psychology and consumer research generally support the picture superiority effect (Paivio & Foth, 1970 Peterson & McGee, 1974 Purnell & Solman, 1992).The picture superiority effect is generally attributed to the mental imagery elicited by visual stimuli (Paivio, 1969). Paivio (1971, pp. 135136) defines mental visual imagery as a memory code or associative mediator that provides spatially parallel information that mediates overt responses without necessarily being consciously experienced as a visual image. Many media, especially advertising, rely greatly on visual and verbal information to present the advertised product. Albeit not exactly the same, the commercial Web sites present a picture of a product with verbal descriptions in a similar manner as in advertising.Recent e-commerce re search supports the idea that the Internet works as an advertising medium (Joines, Scherer, & Scheufele, 2003 Joint & Waterhouse, 2003). Singh and Dalal (1999) contended that the commercial Web pages perform the same function as advertisements to inform consumers of the product and to encourage consumers positive attitudes and behaviors toward the product. To date most prior research on the effects of visual and verbal information has been conducted in an advertising context and has generally supported the superior effects of visual information to verbal counterparts.Given the similarities between advertising and the Internet in product presentation, this study expects that the superior effects of visual information found in advertising are likely to hold in Internet shopping. Dual Processing Models of Attitudes A number of attitude researchers have proposed two characteristics of attitudes. The first characteristic proposed is that an attitude is a function of responses to the atti tude object (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993) and the second characteristic is related to the appraising(prenominal) nature of an attitude categorized as either good or bad.In spite of pervasive findings of the influence of affect on attitudes (Forgas, 1992 Schwarz, 1990), this view does not posit an emotional component to attitudes. There has been disagreement among attitude researchers regarding where to place the affective component. nearly researchers have attempted to distinguish affect from attitude by differentiating affect as a more temporary feeling state versus attitude as a more constant and general evaluation (Petty & Cacioppo, 1983), whereas others have expanded the scope of attitude to include all mental phenomena generating positive or negative evaluations (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993 Greenwald, 1968).Some researchers have embraced affect as a component of attitude but distinguished it from the cognitive component of attitude, which is a deliberate, conscious, and propositional THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 153 thought process (Crites, Fabrigar, & Petty, 1994 Millar & Tesser, 1989). A more recent approach is to embrace both affective and cognitive responses as components of attitudes, called dual processing of attitudes (Chen & Chaiken, 1999 Epstein & Pacini, 1999 Koriat & LevySadot, 1999).The cognitive component of attitude represents the deliberate, conscious, and propositional thought process, whereas the affective component of attitude represents immediate evaluation and emotional responses to the attitude object. Among many viable explanations, the heuristic-systematic model (Chen & Chaiken, 1999) identifies two basic modes (systematic vs. heuristic) by which people form attitudes and make social judgments. Systematic processing involves a relatively extensive and rational processing of judgment-relevant information, whereas heuristic processing involves the activation and use of judgme nt-relevant rules.Another group of attitude researchers posit two different judgment systems an affect-based system and an information-based system (Koriat & Levy-Sadot, 1999). A third approach to dual processing of attitudes is proposed by Epstein and Pacini (1999). CEST (Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory) proposed two different information-processing systems a preconscious experiential system and a conscious rational system. All three models trace two components of attitudes affective and cognitive attitudes.Based on the dual processing model of attitudes, visual information is posited to influence affective attitudes through imagery information processing, and verbal information is posited to influence cognitive attitudes through discursive information processing. Although it is possible that visual information may influence cognitive attitudes and vice versa, it is posited that the major influences on each component of attitudes are dependent on type of information (see Figure 1). Hypotheses Development Visual Information.Visual information can vary by picture size. Both psychology and advertising research has shown that picture size is positively related to memory and attitudes (Kossyln, 1980 Mitchell & Olson, 1981 Rossiter & Percy, 1980, 1983). In an advertising context, when the same picture is used in different sizes, larger pictures engender significantly more favorable attitudes than the same picture in a little size. Rossiter and Percy (1978, 1983) found that a larger picture generated more positive effect on brand attitude than did a smaller picture.Imagery research suggests that elaborated imagery processing affects behavioral intention (McMahon, 1973), and a large picture better facilitates imagery processing (MacInnis & Price, 1987). As compared to a small picture, a large picture is likely to have a more positive influence on elaborated imagery processing and subsequently affect behavioral intention (Rossiter & Percy, 1978 Smith et al. , 198 4). Better elaborated imagery processing increases perceived likelihood of an event (MacInnis & Price, 154 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 987), and people who imagined themselves performing a behavior showed a significant increase in their behavioral intentions (Gregory, Cialdini, & Carpenter, 1982). Mitchell and Olson (1981) found that positively evaluated visual stimuli increased attitude toward and purchase intention for a product. Thus, the following hypotheses were developed. In the present study, picture size is posited to catch the level of visual information. H1 As compared to people exposed to less visual information, those exposed to more visual information will have more positive attitudes toward the product. a affective attitude, b cognitive attitude) H2 As compared to people exposed to less visual information, those exposed to more visual information will have greater purchase intentions. Amount of Verbal Information. Prior research emphasizes the importance of verbal information in purchase decisions, especially in non-store retailing. Spiller and Lohse (1998) conjectured that product descriptions available on the Internet are equivalent to salespeoples service at retail stores. Their analysis of 137 Internet retail stores revealed that good product descriptions influence ales in Internet shopping. Kim and Lennon (2000) posited that the perceived marrow of verbal information moderates the level of perceived risk associated with television apparel shopping and subsequently increases purchase intentions. otherwise Internet shopping research further confirmed the positive role of product information on consumer behavior (Ballantine, 2005). Accordingly, the following hypotheses were developed. H3 As compared to people exposed to less verbal information, those exposed to more verbal information will have more positive attitudes toward the product. a affective attitude, b cognitive attitude) H4 As compared to people exposed to less verbal information, those exposed to more verbal information will have greater purchase intentions. In Internet retailing, the size of product pictures varies to a great extent and so does the join of verbal product information. According to a recent content analysis of Internet apparel retailers (Kim et al. , 2006), picture sizes substantially varied crossways 111 apparel retail Web sites that were fairly good representations of Internet apparel retailers. Picture size ranged from 100 100 pixels to 800 600 pixels across apparel retail Web sites.The researchers also found that the meter of verbal product information varied to a great extent across retail Web sites. When both visual and verbal information are available in Internet THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 155 retailing, it is further expected that visual and verbal information interact to influence consumer responses to the product. Therefore, the fo llowing hypotheses were developed. H5 Visual and verbal information will interact to affect attitudes toward the product. a affective attitude, b cognitive attitude) H6 Visual and verbal information will interact to affect purchase intentions. Prior research findings in both psychology and consumer research support the picture superiority effect in consumer memory and attitudes (Paivio & Foth, 1970 Peterson & McGee, 1974 Purnell & Solman, 1992). Therefore, the following hypotheses were developed. H7 Visual information will explain more divergence in attitudes than verbal information. H8 Visual information will explain more variance in purchase intentions than verbal information.METHODOLOGY This study employed a Web experiment using a mock retail Web site. According to Hantula (2005), Web experiments can be realistic and may be indistinguishable from real-life online interactions. For a mock Web site, a fictitious brand name was used to avoid any effects on attitudes and purchase in tentions due to well-known brand names. A pretest was first conducted to develop visual and verbal stimuli for a mock Web site simulating Internet apparel shopping. The present study focused on apparel products consisting of multiple apparel categories such as tops, blouses, puff, skirts, and dresses.As a key type of item sold online (Internet Retailer, 2003), apparel requires sensory evaluation to make a purchase decision and thus is deemed appropriate for the present study. Stimulus Development Visual Stimuli. First, visual stimuli (pictures of apparel items) were developed by downloading apparel pictures from commercial Web sites. Apparel items were selected from commercial Web sites because items sold on commercial Web sites are expected to be sexually attractive by target customers, thus encouraging research participants to fasten in simulated online shopping.A total of 28 apparel items were initially selected, including woven shirts, knit tops, pants, skirts, dresses, sweat ers, and jackets for women. To avoid extraneous factors, only pictures of garments without 156 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar models were selected. All pictures were shown on a body form. To assure a consistent size of garments, all 28 items were tried on and adjusted to fit the dummy model with full body, developed using Adobe Photoshop. The same image size of pants and shirts do not reflect the same garment size because pants are longer than shirts.If their image sizes are the same, pants are probably smaller than shirts in terms of garment size. This problem was solved by fitting apparel items to the dummy body. Consistency in background, angle of photo shots, and the quality of pictures was achieved through a careful try out process and touch-up using Photoshop. For the current research, the size of pictures was manipulated (small, large) to vary visual information. The small-size picture was one- tetradth of the large-size picture. Verbal Stimuli.Verbal product information to play along apparel items was created using evaluative criteria for apparel purchases developed by Eckman, Damhorst, and Kadolph (1990). Eckman et al. categorized apparel evaluative criteria into intrinsic and extrinsic attributes. First, intrinsic criteria refer to product attributes that cannot be changed or manipulated without changing the physical characteristics of the product itself (e. g. , style, fiber content). Extrinsic criteria refer to product attributes that are not component parts of the physical products but are created by the manufacturer or retailer (e. g. , price, brand name).Both intrinsic and extrinsic criteria are used in apparel purchase situations, but prior research shows that intrinsic criteria are more important to consumers than extrinsic criteria (Eckman et al. , 1990 Jacoby, Olson, & Haddock, 1971). In this study, extrinsic and intrinsic verbal stimuli were developed. The intrinsic criteria were (1) style (design features), (2) co nstruction lucubrate, (3) fit, (4) fiber content (or theoretical account name), (5) care instruction, (6) color (also print information for printed theoretical accounts), and (7) size the one extrinsic criterion was (8) price. Amount of verbal information was manipulated as high and low.The high get along of verbal information included all eight pieces of information the low centre of verbal information included three pieces of intrinsic information (style, color, and size) and one piece of extrinsic information (price). This manipulation was based on prior research findings on consumer need for information in making apparel purchase decisions. When purchasing apparel, price, style, and color were the most frequently sought types of information, followed by fiber content (or fabric name), garment care instructions, brand name, and fit information (Davis, 1987 Martin, 1971).Thus, the low verbal ensure included the most needed information (style, color, price) in addition to inf ormation about size. size of it information was added because a shopper must take away a size to proceed with a purchase. For the high verbal condition, further information was added that consumers seek when purchasing apparel, such as fiber content (or fabric name), care instructions, and fit (Davis, 1987 Martin, 1971). Detailed style information THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 157 nd construction details were also added to the high verbal condition, based on the suggestion that more sensory-oriented, tactile descriptions of a product are desired in Internet shopping (Park & Stoel, 2005). Therefore, the low verbal condition was designed to include information necessary to make an apparel purchase, whereas the high information condition was mean to include additional information that consumers are likely to desire when shopping for apparel online. Pretests A pretest of apparel pictures was first conducted to select visual stimuli for the main study and also to perform a manipulation check on verbal stimuli.The goal was to select apparel items that were neutral in terms of attractiveness, fashionableness, and likableness, to minimize the electric potential effect of apparel items per se on attitudes and purchase intentions (e. g. , a very attractive apparel item will be desired by many people regardless of presentation format). College women (n 44) participated in the pretest, using a mock Web site in exchange for course credit. During the pretest, all participants evaluated 28 apparel items in the same size (picture only) on attractiveness, fashionableness, and likableness measures, one apparel item at a time.Three evaluative measures used a 7-point rating scale from 1 (highly unattractive highly unfashionable highly unlikable) to 7 (highly attractive highly fashionable highly likable). To select neutral apparel stimuli, scores from the three evaluative measures for each apparel item were co llapsed, based on the consistency of three measures (all s 0. 90). The possible summed scores per item ranged from 3 to 21. The 10 apparel items with the most neutral ratings on the three measures (summed scores ranged from 11 to 13 midpoint 12) were selected for the main study.To assess order effects, three different presentation orders of the 28 apparel items were used in the pretest. MANOVA revealed no effect for presentation order Wilkss l 0. 94, F(6, 70) 0. 37, p 0. 90 on the three dependent variables (attractiveness, fashionableness, and likableness). During the pretest, a manipulation check of verbal stimuli was also conducted. After evaluating apparel items, participants were randomly appoint to one verbal condition (high vs. low) to evaluate their perceptions of the amount of verbal product information.For stimulus sampling purposes, two apparel items were evaluated in each verbal condition. Pretest participants were randomly assigned to one of the verbal conditions (high vs. low) and viewed both apparel items under their assigned condition. After exhibit the items, participants rated the perceived amount of verbal information in the product description using a 7-point rating scale from 1 (very little) to 7 (very much). Responses evoked by both outfits were summed ( 0. 85) and used as a measure of the perceived amount of information.One-way ANOVA was performed to examine the effect of the verbal manipulation on perceived amount of information 158 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar and found a main effect for verbal condition on perceived amount of information F(1, 42) 6. 63, p . 05 Pretest participants exposed to the high amount of verbal information (M 11. 45, SD 2. 04) perceived more information than those exposed to the low amount of information (M 10. 00, SD 1. 69). Thus, the manipulation of the amount of verbal information was appropriately perceived by the pretest participants. Instrument Development Attitude Measures.Attitu de items were adopted from Hirschman (1986). Affective attitudes were mensural by attractiveness and likableness, and cognitive attitudes were measured by perceived amount of information and perceived usefulness of information. All attitude items used 7-point Likert scales with endpoints of 1 (strongly disagree) and 7 (strongly agree). Purchase Intention Measure. One item was used to measure Internet purchase intention. Adopted from Taylor and Baker (1994), this item addressed the intention to purchase an apparel item viewed during the Web experiment in a certain time frame (i. . , in the upcoming year) using a 7-point Likert rating scale with endpoints of 1 (strongly disagree) and 7 (strongly agree). Other Measures. Two items were developed to measure perceptions of picture size and amount of verbal information, respectively. Other items assessing prior experience with the Internet and Internet shopping and demographic information were also included. remove for demographic items, all items used 7-point rating scales. To enhance the realism of the experiment, this study used a Web experiment so that participants could participate when and where convenient.Unlike lab experiments in which participants use the same types of data processors, the participants in this study could use various types of computers and monitors. Though improving realism, this method posed a concern due to additional divergence with regard to picture size as a function of types of computers used to participate in the experiment. Therefore, information about types of computer, monitor size, and monitor resolution was tranquil to better interpret the results. Instructions were provided to participants about how to find the information about resolution of their monitors.EXPERIMENT 1 Procedure sample 1 was a 2 (Visual self-aggrandising vs. Small) 2 (Verbal High vs. let loose) between-subjects design. When participants logged onto the mock THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION O N ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 159 Web site, they were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment conditions and evaluated all 10 apparel items for stimulus sampling purposes (Fontenelle, Phillips, & Lane, 1985). Stimulus sampling is used so that results can be generalise over more than one stimulus (i. e. , to increase external validity).In this research, using 10 apparel items ensures that any significant effects are not due to idiosyncratic characteristics of a single stimulus. The order of presentation of the apparel items was completely randomized to distribute any order effects randomly over the four treatment conditions. Participants were instructed to assume that they had enough money to purchase any items they wished to buy, to minimize the effect of monetary constraints on purchase intentions. Participants College women (n 159) enrolled at a large western university participated in a Web experiment in exchange for course credit.College women were recruited for the study because young women comprise a significant portion of Internet shoppers. According to Internet Retailer (2004c), they make up 63% of shoppers at online apparel and beauty sites. Additionally, research evidence supports that college students do not differ from typical consumers in terms of beliefs and attitudes (Duvasula et al. , 1997). After eliminating unusable responses due to incomplete questionnaires, there were 145 usable questionnaires. The mean age of participants was 22 (see disconcert 1).More than 80% of participants were juniors or seniors. Over 88% of participants owned PCs and almost 95% of them had Internet access at home. Results Manipulation Checks. After completing the dependent measures, participants rated the perceived picture size and perceived amount of verbal information. As anticipated, ANOVA results indicated that actual picture size had a significant effect on perceived size of picture F (1, 143) 184. 02, p . 001 and actual amount of verbal information had a significant effect on perceived amount of verbal information F(1, 143) 56. 9, p . 001. Participants who viewed large pictures perceived pictures to be larger (M 5. 07, SD 1. 06) than those who viewed small pictures (M 2. 43, SD 1. 28). Participants exposed to the high amount of verbal information perceived more verbal information (M 5. 23, SD 1. 18) than those exposed to the low amount of information (M 3. 55, SD 1. 48). Thus, experimental manipulations were successful. Preliminary Analysis. Participants evaluated all 10 apparel items on the four attitudinal items and purchase intention. After checking reliabilities (all s 0. 0), scores for each item were collapsed for all 10 apparel 160 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar card 1. Demographic Characteristics of Participants. Experiment 1 (n 145) Characteristics Age 20 2025 2630 30 Academic standing Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Graduate student Own PC Yes No assenting to the Internet Yes No Monitor size Smaller than 15? 15? 17? 19? 21? Bigger than 21? Monitor resolution 640 480 800 600 1024 768 Others f 12 121 8 4 3 12 62 58 10 128 17 137 8 12 93 34 6 4 93 45 3 % 8. 3 83. 4 5. 5 2. 8 2. 1 8. 3 42. 8 40. 0 6. 9 88. 3 11. 7 94. 5 5. 8. 3 64. 1 23. 5 4. 1 2. 8 64. 1 31. 0 2. 1 f 15 133 1 1 1 18 74 55 2 122 28 144 6 15 102 30 3 11 84 48 7 Experiment 2 (n 150) % 10. 0 88. 7 0. 7 0. 7 0. 7 12. 0 49. 3 36. 7 1. 3 81. 3 18. 7 96. 0 4. 0 10. 0 68. 0 20. 0 2. 0 7. 3 56. 0 32. 0 4. 7 stimuli. Scores for each stimulus ranged from 10 to 70 (10 stimuli with a 7-point rating scale). Then the two items tapping affective attitudes were summed ( 0. 97) likewise the two items tapping cognitive attitudes were summed ( 0. 96). Affective attitude scores ranged from 20 to 140 and cognitive attitude scores ranged from 20 to 138.Purchase intention scores ranged from 10 to 67. Analyses. All hypothesized relationships were initially examined in a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA ) with affective and cognitive attitudinal responses to apparel stimuli and purchase intention as dependent variables visual information varied by picture size and verbal information varied by the amount of product information were the independent variables. Results indicated that amount of verbal information was significantly related to the set of dependent variables Wilkss 0. 82, F(3, 139) 10. 17, p . 0001.Follow-up univariate analyses of THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 161 variance indicated that the amount of verbal information was related to both affective F(1, 141) 6. 9, p . 05, 2 0. 04 and cognitive F(1, 141) 30. 74, p . 0001, 2 0. 17 attitudes. Participants exposed to more verbal information about the product expressed stronger affective attitudes (M 95. 07, SD 21. 53) than those exposed to less verbal information (M 85. 25, SD 24. 72). Also, participants exposed to more verbal information exhibited stronger c ognitive attitudes (M 112. 6, SD 19. 40) than those exposed to less verbal information (M 89. 34, SD 29. 38). Therefore, H3a and H3b positing the effects of verbal information on affective and cognitive attitudes were supported. No main effect for verbal information on purchase intention was found, and no significant multivariate effect was found for visual information or the interaction. Thus, the remaining hypotheses were not supported. Post-hoc Analysis. Results from Experiment 1 were surprising in that no effects for visual information were found, despite evidence from foregoing literature livelihood picture superiority.Picture size had no effect on affective attitudes, whereas the amount of verbal information had a significant effect on affective attitudes. Additional analyses were performed to see whether participant perceptions of visual and verbal information have different effects on attitudes and purchase intentions. Simple regression analyses were performed using percei ved picture size and perceived amount of information as independent variables and both components of attitudes and purchase intention as dependent variables. Simple regression analyses revealed that perceived picture size was positively related to affective attitudes F(1, 143) 19. 0, p . 0001 and also to cognitive attitudes F(1, 143) 5. 40, p . 05. Perceived amount of verbal information was also a significant predictor of affective attitudes F(1, 143) 23. 32, p . 0001 and cognitive attitudes F(1, 143) 155. 12, p . 0001. Further, both perceived picture size and perceived amount of verbal information were significant predictors of purchase intention F(1, 143) 14. 34, p . 0001 F(1, 143) 17. 52, p . 0001, respectively. Whereas objectively manipulated picture size had no effect on either affective or cognitive attitudes, perceived picture size was a significant predictor of both components of attitudes.In addition, both visual and verbal information had a significant influence on purcha se intention when participant perceptions of picture size and amount of verbal information were used instead of objectively manipulated visual and verbal information. Examination of monitor size and monitor resolution provided useful insights to explain why there were no effects for visual information as hypothesized. Monitor size used for the experiment greatly varied from 15? to 21? (see Table 1). For resolution, about 64% of participants used 800 600 pixels and 31% used 1024 768 pixels.Thus, although picture size was objectively manipulated in the experiment, the actual size of pictures that participants saw during the experiment varied depending on both the size and resolution of monitors used to participate in the 162 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar study. Although participants were instructed to participate in this study by put down onto the Web site when and where convenient in order to enhance the realism of the Internet shopping context, variations i n monitor size and resolution may have confounded true effects of visual information.To avoid such problems, Experiment 2 was conducted to expose participants to all four treatment conditions. In this way, although actual picture size viewed by participants might vary depending on monitor size and resolution, participants could see relative differences between large and small pictures. This context is also more realistic, given that in actual Internet shopping situations picture sizes vary greatly across different retail Web sites as do shoppers computer monitors. EXPERIMENT 2 Procedure Experiment 2 was a 2 (Visual Large vs.Small) 2 (Verbal High vs. Low) within-subjects design. Eight apparel items were selected from the 10 items used in Experiment 1 by eliminating two items deemed inappropriate due to seasonal change. Participants were exposed to all four visual by verbal treatment conditions and evaluated two apparel items in each condition, for a total of eight apparel items rated . Sixteen different presentation orders of the experimental conditions were used to balance out order effects. The presentation order of eight apparel items was fully randomized.The questionnaire used in Experiment 2 was modified from the questionnaire used in Experiment 1 by eliminating the questions about perceptions of picture size and amount of information. Aside from these differences, the stimulus materials, procedures, independent variables, and dependent variables were identical to those of Experiment 1. Scores on the dependent variables were collapsed for two apparel items within each treatment condition. Participants College women (n 160) enrolled at a large Midwestern university participated in a Web experiment in exchange for course credit.Participants in Experiment 2 did not overlap with participants in Experiment 1. After eliminating unusable responses due to incomplete questionnaires, there were 150 useable questionnaires. The mean age of the participants was 21 (see Table 1). A majority of participants were juniors or seniors. More than 81% of participants owned PCs and 96% of them had Internet access at home. Overall, demographic characteristics of participants in Experiment 2 were similar to participants in Experiment 1. THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 002/mar 163 Results Repeated measures MANOVA involving all dependent measures indicated that one or more dependent variables differed by visual information Wilkss 0. 91, F (3, 147) 5. 06, p . 01, by verbal information Wilkss 0. 31, F (3, 147) 108. 00, p . 0001, and by an interaction between visual and verbal information Wilkss 0. 92, F (3, 147) 4. 15, p . 01. Follow-up repeated measures ANOVAs for visual information found that visual information had significant main effects on affective F(1, 149) 7. 73, p . 01, 2 0. 04 and cognitive attitudes F(1, 149) 11. 63, p . 1, 2 0. 07, thus supporting H1a and H1b. Purchase intention was not related to visual information, thus failing to support H2. Subsequent ANOVAs for verbal information indicated that amount of verbal information had significant main effects on affective F(1, 149) 23. 50, p . 0001, 2 0. 13 and cognitive attitudes F(1, 149) 289. 57, p . 0001, 2 0. 70. Purchase intention was also significantly related to the amount of verbal information F(1, 149) 7. 64, p . 01, 2 0. 04. H3a, H3b, and H4 positing the main effects of verbal information on dependent variables were all supported.Follow up ANOVAs were further conducted for interactions (see Figure 2). Results indicated that visual by verbal interaction effects were significant for cognitive attitudes F(1, 149) 9. 68, p . 01, 2 0. 05 and purchase intentions F(1, 149) 3. 95, p . 05, 2 0. 02. Simple effects tests revealed that the effect of visual information on cognitive attitudes was significant F(1, 149) 17. 30, p . 0001 only when the amount of verbal information was low. When the amount of verbal information was low, participants who viewed the large picture exhibited more positive cognitive attitudes (M 18. 6, SD 4. 68) than those who viewed the small picture (M 16. 92, SD 4. 70). This difference was larger when the amount of verbal information was low rather than when the amount of verbal information was high. The effect of verbal information on cognitive attitudes was significant both when picture size was large F(1, 149) 182. 81, p . 0001 and small F(1, 149) 268. 20, p . 0001. Data supported H5b, but not H5a. Simple effects tests further indicated that the effect of visual information on purchase intention was significant when the amount of verbal information was low F(1, 149) 5. 9, p . 05 (see Figure 2). When the amount of verbal information was low, participants who viewed large pictures (M 7. 05, SD 3. 08) exhibited stronger purchase intentions than those who viewed small pictures (M 6. 50, SD 2. 81). Simple effects tests also indicated that the effect of verbal information on purcha se intention was significant when small pictures were used F(1, 149) 10. 52, p . 01. When exposed to small pictures, participants who received more verbal information (M 7. 30, SD 3. 08) expressed stronger purchase intentions than those who received less verbal information (M 6. 0, SD 2. 81). H6 was thus supported. 164 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 24 23. 32 22. 97 Purchase Intentions 7. 3 7. 2 7. 30 7. 23 7. 05 Verbal Info High Low Cognitive Attitudes 22 Verbal Info 20 18. 36 18 16. 92 High Low 7. 1 7. 0 6. 9 6. 8 6. 7 6. 6 16 Large Small 6. 5 Large 6. 50 Small Picture Size Picture Size Figure 2. Visual by verbal interaction. H7 and H8 posited that visual information varied by picture size would explain more variance in attitudes and purchase intentions than verbal information.Omega squared ( A2) was used to assess the relative importance of each of the independent variables. According to Cohens (1977) guidelines, 2 0. 15 is a large effect, 2 0. 06 is a me dium effect, and 2 0. 01 is a small effect. As shown in Table 2, verbal information had a larger effect on attitudes than visual information. Contrary to prediction of H7, verbal information accounted for 13% of the total variance in affective attitudes, whereas 4% was accounted for by visual information. For cognitive attitudes, verbal information accounted for 10 times more variance than visual information ( 2 0. 0 vs. 2 0. 07) in cognitive attitudes. In regards to purchase intention, verbal information had a moderate effect on purchase intention ( 2 0. 04), whereas visual information did not have a significant effect. Discussion The present study examined how different presentation formats in Internet shopping influence consumer attitudes toward the product and subsequent purchase intention. Extending visual and verbal research in advertising into the Internet shopping context, this study investigated the effects of visual and verbal information on consumer responses.Table 2. Com parisons of Effects ( Experiment 2. 2 A ) of Visual and Verbal Information in Visual by verbal interaction ns 0. 05 0. 02 Visual information Affective attitude Cognitive attitude Purchase intention 0. 04 0. 07 ns Verbal information 0. 13 0. 70 0. 04 THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 165 Table 3. Summary of Experiment 1 and 2. Experiment 2 (within-subjects design) MANOVA Visual Sig. ** Sig. ** ns Verbal Sig. **** Sig. **** Sig. **Experiment 1 (between-subjects design) MANOVA Visual Affective attitudes Cognitive attitudes Purchase intentions *p . 05. **p . 01. ***p . 001. ****p . 0001. Regression Perceived visual Sig. **** Sig. * Sig. **** Perceived verbal Sig. **** Sig. **** Sig. **** Verbal Sig. * Sig. **** ns ns ns ns As summarized in Table 3, the findings showed that both visual and verbal information have significant effects on consumers affective and cognitive attitudes toward apparel products. However, only verbal information had a significant effect on purchase intention.One noteworthy finding is that when consumer perceptions of picture size and the amount of verbal information were used instead of actual picture size and amount of verbal information, both visual and verbal information significantly influenced both affective and cognitive attitudes and also affected purchase intentions. The findings further support verbal superiority in product presentation in Internet shopping. This is contrary to the predicted visual superiority based on previous literature supporting picture superiority and need for sensory evaluation for apparel products.Although it was anticipated that visual information would have stronger effects on consumer attitudes toward apparel products, especially affective responses, and purchase intentions, the results of the study suggest verbal superiority for both attitudes (affective and cognitive) and purchase intention. Based on the guidelines for effect sizes ( 2) of C ohen (1977), it was observed that verbal information had large effects for both affective and cognitive attitudes and had a moderate effect on purchase intention.Although both visual and verbal information had significant effects on affective attitudes, visual information had a weaker impact on affective attitudes than verbal information. In regards to cognitive attitudes, both visual and verbal information influenced cognitive attitudes, and verbal information had a stronger impact on cognitive attitudes as expected. The effect of visual information on cognitive attitudes was significant only when the amount of verbal information was low and it was a medium effect. Regarding purchase intentions, verbal information had a significant effect only when small pictures were used, and it was a small effect.Although the findings of verbal superiority were unexpected, the findings of the study are generally consistent with findings in Smith (1991). In an 166 KIM AND LENNON Psychology & Mark eting DOI 10. 1002/mar advertising context, Smith found that the effect of visual information was dominant only when visual information conveys different messages from verbal claims. When both visual and verbal information conveyed the same message, Smith found that inferences based on visual stimuli were weaker than inferences based on verbal claims due to higher uncertainty associated with visual stimuli.Verbal information in an ad makes explicit, specific claims about product attributes or performance, which facilitate inferences about unknown information about a product. On the contrary, claims made using visual information tend to be less explicit and less specific, which is likely to result in a heightened uncertainty of inferences. Thus, in the present study, it is possible that the effect of visual information was lessened compared to verbal information because both visual and verbal stimuli conveyed the same messages about the product to some extent, especially for style in formation and construction details.In addition, the way visual and verbal stimuli were manipulated in this study may have contributed to the stronger effects of verbal information than visual information. For visual stimuli, picture size was manipulated such that a small picture was one-fourth of a large picture. Despite the size difference, the same pictures were used. However, for verbal stimuli, the amount of verbal information was manipulated such that a low verbal condition did not include four pieces of intrinsic information that were provided in the high verbal condition.Therefore, the difference between high and low verbal conditions (i. e. , absence of information) may be larger than the difference between visual condition groups, resulting in larger effects of verbal information. Indeed, visual information had a significant impact on both affective and cognitive attitudes, albeit weaker effects than verbal information. Another plausible explanation of the findings of the s tudy is that perhaps verbal product information used in this study evoked imagery information processing in addition to discursive information processing because of concrete verbal stimuli (e. . , construction details of apparel). Imagery processing can be induced by a number of external sources. Pictures are the most well-known predictor of imagery (Paivio, 1971 Shepard, 1967). The superiority of visual information has been attributed to the imagery induced by visual information as compared to discursive information processing by verbal information (Childers & Houston, 1984 Lutz & Lutz, 1977 Paivio, 1971). In addition to pictures, concrete verbal stimuli can stimulate imagery processing (Paivio & Csapo, 1973 Paivio & Foth, 1970 Richardson, 1980).The level of the concreteness of words was found to be significantly related to the level of imagery value (Pavio, Yuille, & Madigan, 1968). Paivio (1971) also posited that the verbal superiority of high imagery values can occur. In this st udy, the difference between high and low verbal conditions was the amount of product information, especially intrinsic product information including construction/style details, fit, fiber/fabric information, and care instructions. THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND VERBAL INFORMATION ON ATTITUDES Psychology & Marketing DOI 10. 1002/mar 167In particular, construction details and style information provide concrete information about apparel products (e. g. , the pointed collar and metal drum cuffs, pearl buttons for front closure, rounded shirt bottom, and single chest pocket two layers of silk with a sheer top, a pattern of slender roses with delicate, thorny stems in deep brown and green, transparent seed and bugle beads across the upper layer). Such verbal information may have led participants to engage in imagery information processing as well as discursive information processing evoked by other verbal messages.Additionally, previous research supports that the effects of visual and verbal stimuli are interactive in such a way that the addition of verbal stimuli that explains the message conveyed by visual stimuli enhances the use of imagery processing (Bower, Karlin, & Dueck, 1975 Childers & Houston, 1984). Concrete verbal descriptions of style information and construction details of apparel items may have helped participants interpret the picture of the item and thus may have stimulated imagery processing. These interpretations may explain why verbal information had stronger effects on both affective and cognitive attitudes.The concept of perceptual smoothness provides useful insights to interpret the findings of the study. Concrete verbal descriptions used in this study are likely to improve perceptual fluency (e. g. , the ease of identifying the physical identity of the stimulus). The availability of concrete verbal infor