The opposition to messages and sources in the new persuasive content on the Internet

Abstract

Although new models of persuasion have been proposed, the classic sourcemessage-mean-receiving-feedback remains completely effective by its microanalytical character and its pragmatism. Within that model, a widely studied variable has been the cognitive responses one; in the present article its adaptation to new digital means is studied, and the diversity of those responses is verified, that are now possible to verify in real contexts, outside the laboratory, which has been the classic frame of study. An empirical application of content analysis shows that the commentaryanswer to a message prefers the derogation of the source mainly as form of fast and global opposition, while the valorative and informed answers are much less frequent, and that the message provokes a much greater number of answers between its opponents than between those who are favorable. In this frame of study is defended the convenience of studying verbal mistreat, as a way of inducing the spiral of silence, of so proven effects in interpersonal persuasion, and whose influence has been ignored until now in the mediatic persuasion.