MASS MEDIA RESEARCH

S.Y.BMM
KES College
2010-11
 PART-7

ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT
SCALES
 WHY USE ATTITUDE
MEASUREMENT SCALES?
• A scale represents a composite measure of a variable;
• It is based on more than one item
• Scales are generally used with complex variables that
do not easily lend themselves to single-term item. For
example:- newspaper circulation, number of radios in
the house can be measured without scaling techniques
• But measurement of other variables such as attitudes
toward TV news or gratification generally requires the
use of scales.
 WHAT ARE RATING SCALES?
• Rating scales are common in mass media research.
Selecting a scale is depending upon the following things.
• A scale with more points rather than fewer points allows
for greater differentiation on the item or items being
rated.
• Experience shows that generally all prefer use 1 – 10
scale.
• When using simple rating scales, it is best to tell
respondents that, “The higher the number, the more you
agree”.
 ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT
SCALES
• Types of Scales:-
• Incase of measurement of attitude, the data belongs to
the abstract or qualitative type.
• There are four widely accepted levels of measurement
called “Measurement Scales”. These are:-
1. Nominal Scale
2. Ordinal Scale
3. Interval Scale
4. Ratio Scale
 ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT
SCALES
• Nominal Scale:-
• It is the least powerful level of measurement.
• This is applied to qualitative data where the objects or
items are classified into various discrete and
distinctive groups or categories without any ranking or
order associated with them.
• The nominal scale like all levels, possess certain
formal properties. Its basic property is equivalence.
• Another property of nominal measurements is that all
categories are exhaustive and mutually exclusive.
• Nominal measurement is frequently used in mass
media research.
 ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT
SCALES
• Ordinal Scale:-
• This possesses the attribute of magnitude only.
• It possess the property of equivalence.
• This means that various categories of items can be
compared with each other only in order of rank
assigned to these categories
• This is also used in mass communication research.
• Schweitzer (1989) ranked 16 factors that were
important to the success of mass communication
researchers.
 ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT
SCALES
• Interval Scale:-
• The interval scale is stronger than the ordinal scale
because it possesses not only the magnitude attribute but
also the equal intervals attribute as it measures the values
of the quantitative random variables and identifies not
only as to which category is greater or better but also by
“row much”
• Ratio Scale:-
• The ratio scale is also used for measurement of
quantitative random variables but it differs from intervals
scale in that it has a true (absolute) zero point, meaning
that the values of such variables can be zero also.
 SPECIALIZED RATING
SCALES-LIKERT
 Likert’s Summated Rating Scale:-
• A summated rating scale is a set of attitude statements of
which all are considered or approximated as having equal
attitude value and to each of which subjects respond with
a degree of agreement or disagreement (intensity) carrying
different scores
• These scores are summed and averaged to yield an
individual’s attitude score.
• Under this method each respondent’s ranking is found out
by totalling his scores on all the statements (usually 5).
 SPECIALIZED RATING
SCALES-LIKERT
 Likert‘s Item Analysis:-
• In this procedure, respondents are asked to
respond to a certain number of statements
(which is usually restricted to 15)
• Reply to each statement is given in terms of
five degrees of agreement or disagreement,
viz., strongly agree, agree, undecided,
disagree, strongly disagree etc.,
 SPECIALIZED RATING
SCALES-THURSTONE
 Thurstone’s Equal Appearing Intervals Scale:-
• This scale attempts to represent the attitude of
a group on a specified issue in the form of
frequency distribution
• The various opinions or items on a scale are
allocated to different positions in accordance
with the attitudes they express.
 SPECIALIZED RATING
SCALES-THURSTONE
 Following steps are necessary to construct a Thurstone Attitude Scale:-
• Brief statements expressing attitudes about a particular issue are gathered
from current literature or are especially prepared for this purpose.
• The statements should cover different ranges of attitude from extremely
favourable to extremely unfavourable and also include neutral statements.
• Statements are given arbitrary numbers for identification and a group of
judges are asked to sort them into several piles
• After sorting, a complete tabulation is made to determine the number of
times each statement is included in the several piles
• The scale values for each statement are determined graphically in the
form of an cumulative frequency curve.
 SPECIALIZED RATING
SCALES-THURSTONE
• The final scale is then made, selecting 15 to 20
statements (preferably those on which judges
have had least disagreement.)
• Respondents are then asked to check only
those statements with which they agree.
 SPECIALIZED RATING
SCALES-GUTTAMAN
 Guttaman’s Cumulative Scale
• This scale is made up of a relatively small number of
statements which have been tested for their uni-dimensionality.
• This scale is also know as Sealogram Analysis or Louis and
Guttman Analysis.
• A Uni-dimensional scale measures one variable only. The scale
is known as cumulative as respondents agreeing with the most
favourable statements are theoretically presented to agree with
all other statements expressing “lesser” degree of favourability.
• Use of this scale is also avoided for its complexity.