Observations: Intended vs. Unintended Messages: Viewer Perceptions of United States Army Television Commercials

An evaluation, using qualitative and quantitative research, of some U.S. Army recruitment commercials.

OBSERVATIONS: Intended vs unintended messages: viewer perceptions of United States Army television commercials

Major Gary Lee Keck , United States Military Academy at West Point

and Barbara Mueller, Department of Journalism, San Diego State University

Communications accidents can range from the misunderstanding of subtle nuances to the distortion of complete messages. This study combines both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in order to (1) identify intended and unintended messages perceived by a sample of the target audience for two television spots; (2) identify whether unintended messages are perceived as positive, negative or neutral in nature; and (3) determine...

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