Week 8:3 Chapter 13 Selective Processing

I found the section in Chapter 13 regarding what receivers do with media messages to be very interesting. It is true that everyone reacts differently to messages. The individual's beliefs, values, and knowledge will affect how they interpret messages. Also individuals choose what to listen to or what message we want to retain mentally. If a message is irrelevant, or contains information and details which don't matter to us, then we will pass it by without applying any attention to it. As a graphic designer it is important to me to try and understand how people perceive messages. It is unproductive to create something that will be ignored. We want to be able to get the full attention of the audience or viewer. This is a challenge for advertisers and designers, since people are known to use selective processing. Selective processing includes selective exposure, selective attention, selective perception, and selective retention. With selective exposure we choose what to listen to or expose ourselves to visually. This happens when we pick a radio station because of the music it plays or a news station because of the topics they report on. Selective attention is when we only listen to part of the message. This seems to be a big problem for me since I tend to listen to the beginning of instructions, then fade out the rest. Selective perception has to do with how an individual interprets or assigns meaning to a message; and can be unique to that individual varying greatly from someone else listening to the same message. Selective retention is when we only remember a small portion of a message. In my opinion this has a lot to do with selective attention as well, since it is hard to retain a message only half way listened to. I end up frequently getting lost since I either don't pay enough attention to directions or I only retain the part that I emphasize in my mind. I have to remind myself sometimes to not let my mind wander when someone important is speaking to me, especially my boss. Selective processing can hinder a person if they select the wrong things to listen to, view or remember. While from a designers perspective, catching someone's attention and keeping it is what makes designing challenging, interesting, and fun.