The level of abstraction of the message and the educational effects of five media presentations (Print, verbal sound, print/pictures, print/verbal sound, and pictures/verbal sound) were experimentally investigated. The media components were presented singly or in combination to 6th grade students in a uniformly controlled consistent environment. Measures of media preference, learning from media, and attitude toward the scriptlearned were statistically analyzed in relation to the five media presentations, two reading achievement levels of the students, and two different scripts. Results were traced to the media-message components of the media presentation. Among the many findings were: students did not necessarily choose the medium best suited for their own educational needs. Also, the results of print/sound presentation did not concur with results of previous research. However, high individual scores were obtained from each of the five media presentations, a fact which supports the inclusion of a wide variety of media in a media center collection to meet individual differences. (WCM)