Susan Grantham

Merck's One Less Campaign: Using Risk Message Frames to Promote the Use of Gardasil® in HPV Prevention

In 2006, Merck introduced Gardasil® through its One Less campaign, highlighting how the vaccine protects against the transmission of human papillomavirus (HPV) and, potentially, cervical cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine how young women learned about Gardasil and if the One Less campaign influenced the patients decision to receive/decline the vaccines. Participants primarily learned about Gardasil from television advertising, and felt the campaign addressed the psychometric paradigm hazard factors of control and dread associated with HPV. However, participants reported that physicians/physicians assistants and mothers remained the primary sources of influence when choosing to receive/decline the vaccine series.

Perceptions of Control Facilitate Reading Engagement

This study examined how global locus of control influences childrens reading engagement or reading involvement and interest in stories. It is based on locus of control, interest, and dual information processing theories. One hundred and seventy students from schools in the northeastern United States, ages 9 to 12, participated. They completed a preread survey measuring autonomy and general reading interest and then read one of three randomly selected stories, followed by answering postexposure reading engagement questions. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling revealed that general perceptions of internal locus of control influenced reading involvement, which in turn predicted liking the story and interest in reading more such stories.

The Effects of Attribution of VNRs and Risk on News Viewers' Assessments of Credibility

The executive branch practice of issuing video news releases (VNRs) without attributing them to government agencies has been sharply criticized by the Government Accounting Office. However, the effects of attribution on VNR viewers are not understood. This article reports the results of an experiment testing the relative credibility of two different government agencies by viewers of a VNR attributed to an agency, compared with viewers who saw the VNR without attribution. This article also examines how ones predisposition toward a domain-specific risk identified in the VNR influenced the perceived credibility of the message. Results indicate that partisanship impacted perceptions of credibility of the VNRs.

Risk assessment as a function of a successful merger: Merrill Lynch‐Advest merger

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the communication challenges Merrill Lynch encountered during the transition phase and post‐merger with Advest and the subsequent problems that resulted in drastically fewer numbers of Advest advisors joining, or staying with, Merrill Lynch than was first anticipated.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on interviews with Advest employees at the time of the merger; this case study includes an overview of the anticipated outcomes, the communication strategies employed by Merrill Lynch during its transition phase, and the barriers that contributed to the less than desired results that occurred.Findings – The paper finds that Merrill Lynch determined that at least 65 percent of Advests financial advisors would need to join Merrill Lynch by the closing date of the merger in December 2005 for the merger to be determined a financial success. Fifty percent of Advest financial advisors did not join Merrill Lynch by the closing date and, by July of 200...

University students setting goals in the context of autonomy, self‐efficacy and important goal‐related task engagement

In this study, the authors attempted to examine the roles of trait autonomy, trait self‐efficacy, important goal‐related task engagement and gender in predicting whether undergraduate university students are willing to set difficult goals. One hundred and thirty‐six undergraduate communications students from the North‐Eastern USA completed an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to create the multiple item variables. The relationships were examined using structural equation modelling. As predicted, results revealed that trait autonomy indirectly and positively predicted setting difficult goals through trait self‐efficacy and a person’s willingness to engage in important tasks. A willingness to take on important goal‐related tasks and self‐efficacy beliefs was associated with those who reported a readiness to set difficult goals. Results suggest that before males engage in challenging goal attainment they must perceive themselves as self‐efficacious, whereas females are inspired by tasks that are important to them. If the tasks are important, by implication, so are the goals, notwithstanding their difficult nature. In the ‘Discussion’ section, we suggest implications for team‐based learning.

Risk Dimensions and Political Decisions Frame Environmental Communication: A Content Analysis of Seven U.S. Newspapers From 1970–2010

This project examined the focus of environmental news frames used in seven American newspapers between 1970 and 2010. During this time newspapers were a primary source of news. Based on gatekeeping and agenda-setting theory, as well as source credibility, the content analysis of 2,123 articles examined the environmental topics within the articles, seven possible risk perception dimensions used in the story, and the primary source of information. The national newspapers typically reported an environmental issue paired with policy; local papers reported a single environmental issue. A Chi-square test found significant differences between national and local newspapers’ use of risk dimensions.

Exxonmobil's social responsibility messaging – 2002–2013 CEO letters

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to evaluate ExxonMobils social responsibility/social responsiveness (SR) communication to determine the companys social responsibility messaging in terms of the Social Responsibility themes of the Triple bottom Line Model (profit, people, planet) and to evaluate if the messaging changed in response to external events such as the 2007 financial crisis and 2010 BP oil spill. ExxonMobils CEO letters included varying levels of emphasis on SR content related to profit and planet. The analysis showed a reduced focus on profit following the 2007 financial crisis and an increased focus on the planet following the 2010 BP oil spill.