Catherine E. Goodall

Threat, efficacy, and uncertainty in the first 5 months of national print and electronic news coverage of the H1N1 virus.

The authors conducted a content analysis, investigating the first 5 months of national print and electronic news coverage of the H1N1 virus. They collected all stories about H1N1 appearing in 6 national news outlets between April and September 2009. Of these stories meeting the analysis criteria, the authors randomly selected 200 for inclusion. Using models of fear appeal message processing, this study investigated the nature and prevalence of threat and efficacy messages in news coverage of the virus. Such models have traditionally been applied to strategic health message contexts (e.g., campaigns) rather than to health news coverage. Results suggest that most stories made reference to the threat of the H1N1 virus, sometimes overemphasizing and sensationalizing virus-related death. With regard to efficacy, approximately half mentioned actions individuals or organizations/communities could take to protect themselves from the virus, but almost none provided evidence that such methods are effective, and some explicitly questioned their effectiveness. In addition, a number of stories referenced uncertainty about the threat of the virus (38%) and/or solutions to the potential threat (18%). The authors discuss the implications from the perspective of fear appeal message processing models.

Automatically Activated Attitudes as Mechanisms for Message Effects: The Case of Alcohol Advertisements:

Alcohol advertisements may influence impulsive, risky behaviors indirectly, via automatically activated attitudes toward alcohol. Results from an experiment in which participants were exposed to either four alcohol advertisements, four control advertisements, or four drunk driving public service advertisements (PSAs) suggested that alcohol advertisements had more measurable effects on implicit than on explicit attitude measures. Moreover, there were significant indirect paths from alcohol advertisement exposure through automatically activated alcohol attitudes on willingness to engage in risky alcohol-related behaviors, notably drinking and driving. A mechanism that may explain how these advertisements activate automatic, nondeliberative alcohol attitudes was investigated. Associative evidence was found supportive of an evaluative conditioning mechanism, in which positive responses to an alcohol advertisement may lead to more positive automatically activated attitudes toward alcohol.

The Relationship Between Parents' Verbal Aggressiveness and Responsiveness and Young Adult Children's Attachment Style and Relational Satisfaction with Parents

Guided largely by an attachment theory perspective, a two-part study was conducted to determine the effects of perceived and self-report parent verbal aggression and responsiveness on young adult childrens attachment style and relational satisfaction with parents. In part one, 205 undergraduate students completed an in-person self-administered survey. In part two, mail surveys were sent to 389 parents; 79% of parents returned the surveys. As hypothesized, mothers and fathers of children with a secure attachment style were perceived as significantly lower in verbal aggression and higher in responsiveness than parents of children with nonsecure attachment styles. Further, perceived and self-report parent verbal aggression was negatively related to, and perceived and self-report parent responsiveness was positively related to, young adult childrens relational satisfaction with both mothers and fathers. Implications for these and other findings are discussed.

An Inconvenient Truth: An Application of the Extended Parallel Process Model.

Courses: Persuasion, Health Communication, Political Communication, Public Speaking, Communication Theory.

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.