Purpose In the field of public relations and communication management, message evaluation has been one of the starting points for evaluation and measurement research at least since the 1970s. Reliable and valid message evaluation has a central role in message effects research and campaign design in other disciplines as well as communication science. The purpose of this paper is to offer a message testing protocol to efficiently acquire valid and reliable message evaluation data. Design/methodology/approach A message testing protocol is described in terms of how to conceptualize and evaluate the content and format of messages, in terms of procedures for acquiring and testing messages and in terms of using efficient, reliable and valid measures of perceived message effectiveness (PME) and perceived argument strength (PAS). The evidence supporting the reliability and validity of PME and PAS measures is reviewed. Findings The message testing protocol developed and reported is an efficient, reliable and valid approach for testing large numbers of messages. Research limitations/implications Researchers’ ability to select candidate messages for subsequent deeper testing, for various types of communication campaigns, and for research in theory testing contexts is facilitated. Avoiding the limitations of using a single instance of a message to represent a category (also known as the case-category confound) is reduced. Practical implications Communication campaign designers are armed with tools to assess messages and campaign concepts quickly and efficiently, reducing pre-testing time and resources while identifying “best-in-show” examples and prototypes. Originality/value Message structures are conceptualized in terms of content and format features using theoretically driven constructs. Measures of PAS and PME are reviewed for their reliability, construct and predictive validity, finding that the measures are acceptable surrogates for actual effectiveness for a wide variety of messages and applications. Coupled with procedures that reduce confounding by randomly nesting messages within respondents and respondents to messages, the measures used and protocol deployed offer an efficient and utilitarian approach to message testing and modeling.

中文翻译：

---

可靠，有效和有效的媒体消息评估

目的在公共关系和传播管理领域，至少从1970年代开始，消息评估一直是评估和度量研究的起点之一。可靠和有效的消息评估在其他学科以及通信科学中的消息效果研究和活动设计中起着核心作用。本文的目的是提供一种消息测试协议，以有效地获取有效和可靠的消息评估数据。设计/方法/方法根据如何概念化和评估消息的内容和格式，获取和测试消息的过程以及使用有效，可靠和有效的感知消息有效性的度量来描述消息测试协议。 （PME）和感知论点强度（PAS）。审查支持PME和PAS措施的可靠性和有效性的证据。研究结果开发和报告的消息测试协议是一种用于测试大量消息的有效，可靠和有效的方法。研究的局限性/意义促进了研究人员选择候选消息以进行后续的更深入测试，进行各种类型的交流活动以及进行理论测试环境下的研究的能力。避免了使用消息的单个实例表示类别（也称为案例类别混杂）的限制。实际意义传播活动的设计人员拥有工具，可以快速，有效地评估消息和活动概念，从而减少预测试时间和资源，同时确定“最佳展示”示例和原型。创意/价值消息结构使用理论上驱动的结构根据内容和格式特征进行概念化。对PAS和PME的度量进行了可靠性，结构性和预测有效性的审查，发现这些度量对于各种消息和应用的实际有效性是可以接受的替代。加上通过在消息的受访者和受访者中随机嵌套消息来减少混淆的过程，所使用的措施和部署的协议为消息测试和建模提供了一种高效且实用的方法。发现这些措施对于各种消息和应用程序的实际有效性是可以接受的替代。加上通过在消息的受访者和受访者中随机嵌套消息来减少混淆的过程，所使用的措施和部署的协议为消息测试和建模提供了一种高效且实用的方法。发现这些措施对于各种消息和应用程序的实际有效性是可以接受的替代。加上通过在消息的受访者和受访者中随机嵌套消息来减少混淆的过程，所使用的措施和部署的协议为消息测试和建模提供了一种高效且实用的方法。