James K. Hertog

Motivation and the Knowledge Gap: Effects of a Campaign to Reduce Diet-Related Cancer Risk

The study described here examined whether knowledge gaps decrease when motivation to acquire information or the functionality of information is similar among more and less educated groups. Surveys at baseline and 12 months compared two groups with differing motivation to acquire cancer and diet information in a community that received a year-long health campaign. The more motivated group (higher on measures of salience, perceived cancer risk, and self-efficacy) was composed of those who self-selected to receive home-based learning, a campaign strategy. They were compared to general population samples. The study found that education-based differences in knowledge were evident even among members of the more motivated group. However, the effect of membership in this group raised knowledge levels higher than the general population irrespective of education level. The study suggested that group membership, information functionality, motivation, and education combined to affect knowledge, rather than motivation alone over-coming the effect of education.

The Impact of Press Coverage on Social Beliefs The Case of HIV Transmission

This study reviewed the impact of newspaper and newsmagazine coverage of AIDS from 1987 through 1991 on public beliefs concerning the likelihood of HIV transmission via toilets, sneezing, and insects. Fans ideodynamic model was applied to an analysis of coverage in The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Time magazine, Newsweek, US News and World Report, and the United Press International newswire. The trend line formed was then compared to public opinion polls concerning each of the HIV transmission routes. A significant relationship was found, and when Granger causality tests were applied, prediction was unidirectional—from news content to public opinion and not from opinion to content. Implications for theories of media effect were noted.

Media Coverage of AIDS, Cancer, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases: A Test of the Public Arenas Model

This study explores the development and maintenance of topics on the public agenda and tests whether, for a new issue to compete for attention, an old issue must be displaced. This study finds little support for that assumption, and argues that the maintenance of topics is complex and the displacement effect is not as powerful as once assumed.

Elite Press Coverage of the 1986 U.S.-Libya Conflict: A Case Study of Tactical and Strategic Critique

This research tests the effects of press professionalism, administration press management, and public patriotism on coverage of the 1986 U.S.-Libya crisis by the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times. Patterns of “tactical” (small-scale, efficiency-oriented) and “strategic” (overarching, ethical) critique during periods of low-, medium-, and high-intensity conflict are reviewed. Tactical opposition to both the Reagan administration and the Qaddafi regime slightly outweighs support, while strategic critique is 65 percent pro-Reagan administration but only 14 percent pro-Qaddafi regime. Support for the U.S. administration declines during intense conflict. The pattern of findings supports administration press management.

The Political Role and Influence of Business Organizations: A Communication Perspective

Relationships between economic power and political influence have long been of interest to scholars in several disciplines. Despite an extensive literature and rich theorizing on the topic, however, we still know little about how economic producers attempt public policy influence and the extent to which they may be successful. In this chapter, the authors argue that a communication perspective on the public policy process sheds new light on relationships between business organizations and political influence. Drawing from the political science, agenda-setting, framing, and issues management literatures, three interrelated communication processes that bear heavily on public policy formation are elaborated—issue selection, issue framing, and issue management. The literatures are critically reviewed and then integrated in a series of 36 propositions regarding what we think we know about the communication strategies and tactics business actors employ in the policy process and the conditions in which such approaches may yield favorable outcomes. A framework for future communication research studies is presented in the form of a business model of political influence. The model highlights complex communicative aspects of policy making and a multifaceted concept of influence in public policy formation.

Community type and the diffusion of campaign information

This study explored the role of community pluralism in the diffusion of information. More specifically, this paperused community pluralism as a contextual variable in studying the mediating impact of SES variables on program awareness and name recall of a cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention program in three communities of differing complexity. Data for this study came from 14 surveys over a period of five years. The study found that program awareness and name recall diffused more slowly in the more pluralistic communities compared to the less pluralistic communities. This effect was more pronounced for program name recall than program awareness. We also found that social structure mediates the impact of SES variables on the flow of information. Implications of the findings for future study of diffusion research as well as for purposive campaigns are discussed.

Press Support for the U.S. Administration during the Panama Invasion: Analyses of Strategic and Tactical Critique in the Domestic Press

In this study of Time, Newsweek, and The Nation, the authors found that the mainstream news magazines offer little strategic opposition to fundamental administration policies in foreign affairs, but that The Nation offers substantial oppositional critiques. They conclude that audiences must consult alternative as well as mainstream publications in order to experience rich debate in foreign policy relations.

Process Evaluation of a Home-Based Program to Reduce Diet-Related Cancer Risk: The "WIN At Home Series"

A random mailed survey (response N = 226; 75.3%) of participants in diet-related home-based learning evaluated exposure to recruitment channels and impact on salience, utility, level of participation, sharing the course with others, knowledge, and performing recommended behaviors. A post-only design, the study was conducted in a small Minnesota city (population = 20,000), part of the Cancer and Diet Intervention (CANDI) project. About 18.5% of residents (3,711) enrolled during an 8-week media campaign; women, college graduates, and those over 44 years old were overrepresented. Participants learned about the program through mass media (97%); small media (41.9%); and interpersonal sources (50%). Women were more likely to learn about the course through interpersonal sources. In analysis of variance (ANOVA) modeling, salience and utility predicted level of participation in course activities. Level of participation in turn predicted nutrition knowledge and with salience predicted performance of recommended behaviors. Although the course appealed to individuals who needed it less, there was evidence of diffusion to the unenrolled. About 57% of responding participants reported sharing it with spouses; about 67% reported sharing it with someone outside their households.