Adrienne Haesun Chung

Injury News Coverage, Relative Concern, and Support for Alcohol-Control Policies: An Impersonal Impact Explanation

Research on the impersonal impact hypothesis suggests that news (especially print) coverage of health and safety risks primarily influences perceptions of risk as a societal issue, and not perceptions of personal risk. The authors propose that the impersonal impact of news—impact primarily on concerns about social-level risks—will mediate effects of news stories on support for public health policies; such effects substantively matter as evidence suggests health policies, in turn, have important effects on protective behaviors and health outcomes. In an experiment using 60 randomly selected violent crime and accident news stories manipulated to contain or not contain reference to alcohol use as a causative factor, the authors find that the effect of stories that mention alcohol as a causative factor on support for alcohol-control policies is mediated by social-level concern and not by personal-level concern. In so doing, the authors provide a theoretical explanation as well as empirical evidence regarding the potential for news coverage—including breaking or episodic news—to influence health-related public policy.

Anger, Sadness and Fear in Response to Breaking Crime and Accident News Stories: How Emotions Influence Support for Alcohol-Control Public Policies via Concern about Risks.

Prior research has shown that discrete emotions, notably anger and fear, can explain effects of news articles on health and alcohol- control policy support. This study advances prior work by coding expressed emotional responses to messages (as opposed to directly manipulated emotions or forced responses), incorporating and controlling for central thoughts, including sadness (a particularly relevant response to tragic stories), and examining the mediating role of concern, between emotion and policy support. An experiment with a US national online adult panel had participants read one of 60 violent crime or accident news stories, each manipulated to mention or withhold alcohols causal contribution. Multigroup structural equation models suggested that stories not mentioning alcohol had a direct effect on policy support via fear and central thoughts, unmediated by concern. When alcohol was mentioned, sadness and anger affected alcohol-control support through concern. These findings help confirm that emotional responses are key in determining news story effects on public support of health policies.

Anger, Sadness, and Fear Responses to Crime and Accident News Stories How Emotions Influence Alcohol-Control Policies Support via Risk Concern

Prior research has shown that discrete emotions, notably anger and fear, can explain effects of news articles on health and alcohol- control policy support. This study advances prior work by coding expressed emotional responses to messages (as opposed to directly manipulated emotions or forced responses), incorporating and controlling for central thoughts, including sadness (a particularly relevant response to tragic stories), and examining the mediating role of concern, between emotion and policy support. An experiment with a US national online adult panel had participants read one of 60 violent crime or accident news stories, each manipulated to mention or withhold alcohols causal contribution. Multigroup structural equation models suggested that stories not mentioning alcohol had a direct effect on policy support via fear and central thoughts, unmediated by concern. When alcohol was mentioned, sadness and anger affected alcohol-control support through concern. These findings help confirm that emotional responses are key in determining news story effects on public support of health policies.

Anger, Sadness, and Fear Responses to Crime and Accident News Stories

Prior research has shown that discrete emotions, notably anger and fear, can explain effects of news articles on health and alcohol- control policy support. This study advances prior work by coding expressed emotional responses to messages (as opposed to directly manipulated emotions or forced responses), incorporating and controlling for central thoughts, including sadness (a particularly relevant response to tragic stories), and examining the mediating role of concern, between emotion and policy support. An experiment with a US national online adult panel had participants read one of 60 violent crime or accident news stories, each manipulated to mention or withhold alcohols causal contribution. Multigroup structural equation models suggested that stories not mentioning alcohol had a direct effect on policy support via fear and central thoughts, unmediated by concern. When alcohol was mentioned, sadness and anger affected alcohol-control support through concern. These findings help confirm that emotional responses are key in determining news story effects on public support of health policies.