The Reality of Media Preferences: Do Professional Groups Vary in Awareness?

This study is based on earlier research by the author that employed social judgment analysis (SJA; J. Stefl- Mabry, 2001, 2003) to identify the information judgment preferences held by professional groups. This study explores the extent to which individuals, professional groups, and subgroups are self-aware of their judgment profiles. Three specialized groups of professionals—law enforcement, medicine, and education—were chosen to determine if preference profiles cluster around professions or around demographic and other background variables. As the proliferation of data continues to increase, the need to understand users’ media preference and selection decisions is of tremendous value to every industry, governmental agency, and institution of learning. In 1966, H. Menzel first raised concern about the reliability of users’ to self-assess, and scientists continue to explore the issue of competency in human judgment. To understand the reliability of users’ self-assessment regarding media preferences, this study examines the extent to which individuals and groups are self-aware of the empirical judgment profiles they employ in evaluating information source scenarios. This investigation explores the congruence of three groups of professionals’ self-reported media preferences as compared to their empirical judgment values, as defined by social judgment analysis.