ABSTRACT
Communication scholars have a longstanding interest in the consequences of communication. Going all the way back to the early part of the twentieth century, the focus of most research and theorizing has been on what effects occur because of interpersonal communication or media use. However, little research has focused on what people are doing while they are actually processing communicative exchanges or messages. While there is little research on media in this domain, there is even less research on attention in other communicative domains such as interpersonal communication, organizational communication, or social influence (Roskos-Ewoldsen & Roskos-Ewoldsen, 2010). This chapter will focus on the limited theorizing that has occurred about what people do when they are processing media messages, including issues of attention, comprehension, engagement, and retention.
