The persuasive effects of a message and personal uses for its content were examined with a user-based approach which considered individual cognitive involvement. The researchers sought to identify those communication and selection conditions in media treatments of specified subects most likely to have the desired effect on student attitudes. Using a mediagraphy, instructional media on the topics of mainstreaming and disabilities were chosen according to either student-expressed interests or teacher/media specialist perceptions of student interests, or were unrelated to student interests. The 120 sixth-grade subjects were pre- and posttested to determine attitudes toward the topics. The communication conditions (cognitive processes) involved user or non-user input through media selection pre-questioning. Follow-up interviews with 16 students determined their uses for presentation information. Groups receiving media based on student-expressed interests had a more positive attitude toward disability, though not mainstreaming. Participation in the pre-selection inquiry did not affect attitudes, indicating cognitive involvement through expression of interest in a topic cannot predict a more positive attitude, but may be related to more personal information use. Overall group interests may be effectively expressed by a peer group, making direct expression of users' interests unnecessary. Teachers and media specialists were unable to determine what most interested students. (LMM)