Effect of media on Cognitive Dissonance among Rural and Urban Adolescents

The study was conducted to find the relationship, between media and cognitive dissonance, at high school level. Furthermore to test, whether, the urban teenagers had exhibited cognitive dissonance as compared to the rural pool. A pool of 405 adolescents (from rural and urban setup), is chosen, using stratified sampling technique. They were made to respond to the questionnaire consists of 75 items. Initially a scale was constructed, with items (n=150) measuring cognitive dissonance, its reliability was tested and retested, by doing a pilot study on a sample of (60) adolescents (r=.89). Statistical operations (correlation, ANOVA and t-test) were applied to calculate the significance in relationship among various variables. Results have revealed a strong positive relationship exists between exposure to media and cognitive dissonance (r=.89; p<.01). In addition, various TV programs (r=.799; p<.01) prompt cognitive dissonance among urban group as compared to their rural counterparts.