ABSTRACT
Message meaning interests most of us because we presume that message content reflects the motives of media producers and has effects on receivers (Shoemaker & Reese, 1990; Stroman & Jones, 1998). For example, beer commercials frequently attract criticism because they contain elements such as humor, extreme sports, and sexual themes, which appeal to adolescent boys (Atkin, Hocking, & Block, 1984; Aitken, Leathar, & Scott, 1988; Grube, 1993; Grube & Wallack, 1994; Jones & Donovan, 2001). Critics of the media often infer motives and effects from the presence of content elements, such as that (1) the alcohol industry intends to target adolescent boys, and (2) the advertisements make adolescent boys more likely to want to drink beer and engage in risky, promiscuous activities. But how can we verify whether the alcohol industry actually uses these elements to target underage males-when they say they don’t (Beer Institute, 1999; Beer Institute, 2003)? And how do we know that boys will agree with trained coders on what is funny, appealing, and sexy, as opposed to stupid, ridiculous, and degrading? How do we know the ads do not contain additional elements that appeal to boys but that carefully trained coders may miss?
