An Influential Minority: Reaching the New Values-Based Consumers

This study investigates the media habits of a group estimated as one-quarter of American consumers based on a scale of non-mainstream values, such as environmental protection, spirituality, global interconnectedness, and limited corporate power (Ray & Anderson, 2000). Interviews indicate that these individuals consume media very selectively and that they are skeptical of mainstream media for values-based reasons. Preliminary findings suggest a developmental process of personal evaluation of media use driven by the application of personal values to new information received about the media and its impacts. Parallel processes may operate in other contexts where consumers apply values to new information.