Through all the years media effects research had consistently trouble identifying effects at all. Finding any evidence for opinion change through media consumpt

Through all the years media effects research had consistently trouble identifying effects at all. Finding any evidence for opinion change through media consumption has always been especially hard, so that a lot of media effect theories are squarely focused on effects other than opinion change like agenda setting or framing (etc.). Given the current state of media effects research it is not at all clear and obvious that any arguments can influence opinions. As such results to the contrary are surprising (and should be examined closely).