Message Development

This chapter covers the message development process. The first phase of message development involves doing initial groundwork on goal identification, audience targeting, channel selection, theory selection, and consideration of ethical issues. The second phase involves doing focus group research to collect information from members of the target audience that can shape message development (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, cultural norms) and developing message drafts by drawing carefully and systematically on message elements across the eight element groups. The third phase involves message pretesting and revision. Qualitative and quantitative approaches to collecting pretest data are discussed. The chapter then briefly addresses producing final versions of messages for use in experiments or campaigns.