Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
 
Table 2 
Mean Rankings of Image Attributes by Visitation Status 
Group 
Never been to 
New Orleans 
(n=90) 
Visited New 
Orleans once 
before 
Katrina 
(n=277) 
Visited New 
Orleans once 
after Katrina 
(n=50) 
Visited New 
Orleans 
before and 
after 
(n=144) 

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2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
324
Variables 
p
= 
value 
Mean Ranks 
Mean Ranks 
Mean Ranks 
Mean Ranks 
Before Hurricane Katrina 
New Orleans is easily accessible by 
personal or public transportation 
0.025 
226.09 269.55 250.90 282.89 
New Orleans has first class 
accommodation facilities 
0.024 
228.83 259.28 266.71 286.45 
New Orleans offers a wide variety of 
restaurants 
0.000 
216.63 269.49 246.04 290.12 
Local residents are friendly and 
hospitable 
0.000 
210.53 258.72 276.13 297.20 
After Hurricane Katrina 
New Orleans has places with exiting 
nightlife and entertainment 
0.000 
232.25 220.73 309.86 264.56 
New Orleans has first class 
accommodation facilities 
0.000 
220.11 221.06 287.57 284.74 
New Orleans offers a wide variety of 
restaurants 
0.001 
223.75 227.17 272.42 277.10 
Local residents are friendly and 
hospitable 
0.000 
213.53 215.32 301.36 292.94 
New Orleans offers a good value for my 
leisure trip 
0.000 
237.91 216.68 283.40 281.16 
New Orleans is a safe place to visit 
0.001 245.97 
220.52 307.33 257.38 
Image Assessment by Media Exposure 
Because of the strength that mass media has on image formation, this study asked respondents to rate 
themselves using a scale where a one equals low exposure to mass media to ten indicating a high level of exposure. 
For this research, media exposure components included television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. 
Data analysis revealed that this data was not normally distributed with a mean of 8.29, a median of 9, a mode of 10, 
and a standard deviation of 2.11. To measure the relationship between media exposure and overall image 
assessments a Spearman's rho rank-order correlation coefficient was calculated. Findings were not as expected 
indicating a need for additional research pertaining to the influence mass media exposure has on image formation as 
well as a further refinement of the measurement of mass media (e.g. possibly isolating individual media channels). 
The data analysis indicated that in only the “before” Hurricane Katrina Image attributes was there a significant (p
≤
.001) but very small positive relationship (correlation coefficient of .178). Additionally, the media data was recoded 
into three groupings (high, medium and low exposure), and then Kruskal-Wallis H was generated for the three 
created categories. Table 3 presents the mean ranks and significance levels for attributes with (p 
≤
.05). 

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