Zillmann 16 Rice and Atkin: Communication Campaigns

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Zillmann 16Rice and Atkin Communication
Campaigns
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Overview

• Many communication campaigns dont work.

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Public Communication Campaigns

• Purposive attempts
• to inform, persuade or motivate behavior changes
• in a well-defined, large audience
• for noncommercial benefits
• within a given time period
• by means of mass media
• and complemented by interpersonal support.

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Valente evaluation driven campaigns

• Assess needs.
• Conduct formative research.
• Design methods, treatments, etc.
• Research on the campaign process.
• Summative research.
• Sharing results with stakeholders.

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Campaign audiences

• Types of audiences
• Focal segments demographics, behavior
• Interpersonal influence opinion leaders .
• Social policymakers
• How does one build an overall audience from
  components? E.g. a national voting base?
• Lets apply this to a career in media.

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Apply Appropriate Theory Media Career

• Elaboration likelihood model
• Self-persuasion activate existing knowledge
• Alternate causal changes support information
  seeking
• Social learning Bandura-style
• Social comparisons conformism
• Expectancy-value likelihood x consequences
• And others .

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Message Design Media Career

• Source Credibility expert, unbiased
• Message valued goal, high probability, goal
  behaviors
• Channel reach, specialization, informativeness,
  interactivity, decodability, etc.
• Desired outcomes beliefs, attitudes, behaviors.

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McGuires Campaign Fallacies

• Overestimating likely effects.
• Unclear temporal goal (e.g. short-term,
  long-term)
• Interaction among communication inputs (e.g.
  multiple message components)
• Contrasting effects (positive and negative)
• Optimal inputs (dont overdo it)

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Formative Research

• Identify audience
• Specify target behavior
• Elaborate intermediate responses (e.g.
  information gain)
• Ascertain channel use (does the audience use the
  channel?)
• Develop and test prototype materials (e.g. focus
  group materials)

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Education-Entertainment Approaches

• Education and entertainment can be combined e.g.
  Save the Music or media careers?
• Claims that celebrities are helpful (e.g. Steve
  Perry, Keith Richards, Lindsay Lohan, Britney
  Spears, Amy Winehouse )
• Apply ELM? Central path, incidental path?

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Interactive Media

• Media Careers campaign on
• YouTube
• MySpace
• Electronic retail media outlets
• .
• How would you have to structure this?

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Involve the Target Community

• Community analysis assets, history, geography,
  etc.
• Design the campaign
• Implement the campaign
• Consolidate program maintenance
• Sustain the community
• Media Careers or Hillary campaign (e.g. every
  voter counts if this woman isnt elected all
  women are dissed)

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Assessing the Effects Media Careers

• Definitional the audience buys your description
  of the issue
• Ideological e.g. where responsibility resides
• Political visibility or symbolic value for
  stakeholders (e.g. Steve Perry is the MLK for the
  music scene)
• Contextual the appropriate goal (e.g. getting
  any job) is met.
• Cost-effectiveness
• Programmatic specified goals were met.

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Campaign Design

• Design a campaign to support the
  vice-presidential candidacy of a running mate for
  Obama who can appeal to younger voters.
• Possible candidates someone with military or
  business experience (e.g. Bloomberg), someone
  with diplomacy experience (e.g. Bill Richardson),
  someone of your own choosing.
• How would you get information about the desires
  of the target audience? What would be the
  components of your campaign?