Methods

The goal of this research project was to reveal the relationship between Air Force members and the use of various Air Force mass media products. This study produced five hypotheses and one research question. The first two hypotheses explored whether or not USAF members were more motivated toward either professional activities or base activities in regard to utilizing the base newspaper, Air Force print publications, Air Force Web sites, commanders’ access channels or electronic media. We also posited that Air Force Field Grade Officers (O-4 and above) and Senior Noncommissioned Officers (E-7 and above) are more inclined to actively process information and lean toward print communication and Internet venues while USAF Company Grade Officers (O-1 thru O-3) and Junior Enlisted Airmen (E-1 thru E-6) are more inclined to passively process information and lean toward electronic venues such as radio and television. In addition to the receiver use and information processing level, we also examined how much of an influence source credibility had on an Air Force member’s decision about which medium to use. The research question sought to find a correlation between the education level of the participant and his or her preference for communication venues.

A Product/Media Use Survey was created for the research. Executed by Dr. Stephen Everett of Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, the survey was distributed to a random sample of Air Force members worldwide via e-mail that contained a link to an Air Force Web site. The response rate was XXX. The survey asked 66 questions in a variety of sub-areas.
The independent variable used in testing H1 was Air Force members’ motivation level toward professional activities. This variable reflected in our research focused on whether USAF members who are more involved in professional activities are more likely to use base newspaper, Air Force print publications, Air Force Web sites, commanders’ access channels or electronic media. The professional-related topics analyzed in the survey are: news about Air Force operations and support; comments/appearances by senior leaders; personnel issues such as pay, promotions, assignments, benefits and entitlements; weapons systems and technology; AF-wide news, events and policy; local base news; goals of the commander; major command news; and operational missions.

The independent variable used in testing H2 was motivation toward community activities. We isolated this variable to learn whether USAF members who are more involved in community activities are more likely to use base newspaper, Air Force print publications, Air Force Web sites, commanders’ access channels or electronic media. The community-related topics analyzed in the survey are: historical features; public service messages; personal news about people I know on my base; health and fitness; news for and about families; human interest stories about AF people and sports-related features.

The independent variable for testing H3 was Air Force Field Grade Officers (O-4 and above) and Senior Noncommissioned Officers (E-7 and above). We believed that senior officers and noncommissioned officers would be more inclined to actively process information and seek out print communication and Internet venues. If they have more involvement with an issue, then their scores for print and Internet use will be higher. The lower the score, the less involvement with they have with a topic.

The independent variable for testing H4 was USAF Company Grade Officers (O-1 thru O-3) and Junior Enlisted Airmen (E-1 thru E-6). We believe that junior officers and enlisted are more inclined to passively process information and lean toward electronic venues such as radio and television. When they are more involved with a topic, thus their score for radio and television will be higher; they will score lower when they are less involved.
We isolated rank and correlated it with education level for RQ1. We predict that the more rank, education an Air Force member has, the more likely he or she is to process information actively. For this, survey participants were asked to enter their age and it was cataloged using the ordinal measurement.

We used credibility as the causal variable for H5. We deduced that more credibility was assigned to communication venues that featured more immediate contact or more visuals. The immediate contact sources would be: unit commander, first sergeant, direct supervisor. Air Force members are likely to have less immediate contact with the wing commander and the command chief master sergeants. Greater credibility it also assigned to media that is more visual. The more visual media analyzed in this survey are Airmen magazine, Air Force T.V. news, Air Force Link as well as civilian Web sites. Less visual media sources evaluated are Air Force Policy Letter Digest, base newspapers, Air Force Times and USAF Aim Points.
Source credibility is an integral part of the communication process (McCroskey & Young, 1981). In 1976, Miller and Nicholson stated, “This variable (source credibility) has been shown to have significant effects upon message receivers’ behavior; it has been found to interact with message content in bringing about behavior change, and it has been analyzed into its component dimensions” (p.121). Ibelema and Powell (2001) found that the more pleasant a person found a media source to be, the more it enhanced the perception of competence.

The type of media used by receivers in this research was based on such factors as education, time in the Air Force, and the receiver’s informational needs. There are a number of ways to categorize media usage. Exposure refers to how often (frequency) a specific media is consumed. Preference can be defined as the selection of one or more media as a favorite option for information or entertainment. Reliance could be defined as a measurement of the extent to which a receiver uses one or more media versus other available media for information or entertainment. Attention refers to the concentration of perception during message processing. Attention can also be used to refer to as the active selection process of message content (Chaffee & Schleuder, 1986).