Mood and Ad Processing: Examining the Impact of Program-Induced Moods on Subsequent Processing of an Antismoking Public Service Advertisement

This study examined the effect of program-induced moods on subsequent processing of an antismoking ad. Participants were induced to experience a happy/sad mood by watching a 5-minute segment of a sitcom/crime drama. They were then shown an antismoking ad and asked about their processing of the ad and attitude toward the ad. Results found those who watched the sitcom report greater heuristic and less cognitive processing of the ad than those who watched the crime drama. All participants reported a positive attitude toward the ad. Findings were consistent with previous research and highlight the importance of appropriate ad placement.     

Supervisor Impression Management: Message Content and Channel Effects on Impressions

The current study focuses on the delivery of negative feedback and how supervisors can accomplish that delivery while maintaining their own image and their employees' face. We look at delivery of feedback with and without face-saving messages through two different channels: face-to-face (FtF) and email. Results indicate that the inclusion of face-saving messages had relatively consistent positive effects on a variety of employees' impressions of supervisors. Channel was found to interact with message content to impact perceived face threat of a message and the perception of the supervisor's appropriateness. These findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical applications, as are limitations and directions for future research.     

Assessing the Relationship Between Perceived Message Sensation Value and Perceived Message Effectiveness: Analysis of PSAs From an Effective Campaign

The current study is an analysis of public service announcements (PSAs) from an effective safer sex campaign that utilized a sensation-seeking targeting (SENTAR) approach. Two random samples of heterosexually active young adults (sample one N = 1,463, sample two N = 895) viewed different sets of safer sex PSAs on a laptop computer and answered questions about their perceived sensation value and perceived effectiveness. Multiple regression analyses examined the impact of (a) demographic, (b) individual difference, (c) sexual context, and (d) message variables including perceived message sensation value (PMSV) on the perceived message effectiveness (PME) of the PSAs. Results indicated that females, African Americans, condom users, and those with less education viewed the PSAs as slightly more effective than males, Caucasians, non-condom users, and those with more education. PMSV and personal utility emerged as the strongest predictors of PME, even after controlling for all of the aforementioned variables. Implications for further research on PMSV and perceived and actual effectiveness of PSAs are offered.     

Affect in the archive: trauma,grief, delight and texts. Some personal reflections

Historians, as users of archives, often discuss the thrill and emotion of their ‘discoveries’. We can form romantic attachments or be repulsed across the decades. Archives containing the physical remains of the past can transport us, we can move beyond the here and now. Before the Museum of Melbourne digitised Alfred Howitt’s correspondence, I once opened a letter written to him on classic nineteenth-century blued paper. As I pulled the missive from its envelope, I could smell tobacco smoke. I was immediately in the room with him. Recently, after completing an article on the topic of frontier violence, my co-author and I both described a feeling of stress and trauma that came from reading colonial records of ‘skirmishes’ and ‘dispersals’. In this paper, I want to reflect on the experience of Affect in the archive.     

Improving the Effectiveness of Fundraising Messages: The Impact of Charity Goal Attainment,Message Framing,and Evidence on Persuasion

This experimental study assessed the effectiveness of fundraising messages. Based on recent findings regarding the effects of message framing and evidence, effective fundraising messages should combine abstract, statistical information with a negative message frame and anecdotal evidence with a positive message frame. In addition, building on research into social dilemmas, it was hypothesized that information about charity goal attainment (e.g., the contributions of others) should increase donation intentions. The hypotheses were tested in a 2 (goal attainment: yes/no)×2 (framing: positive/negative)×2 (evidence: statistical/anecdotal) factorial design. Abstract information was more effective when combined with a negatively framed message, whereas anecdotal information was more effective when combined with a positive frame. In addition, donation intentions were higher for messages that addressed charity goal attainment issues.     

Family Communication Patterns and Cognitive Processing: Conversation and Conformity Orientations as Predictors of Informational Reception Apprehension

This study examined the unique and combined associations among family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and young adult children's informational reception apprehension (IRA; i.e., listening anxiety and intellectual inflexibility). Participants included 592 young adult children from first-marriage and postdivorce families. Results indicated that family conversation orientations are inversely associated with listening anxiety and intellectual inflexibility, whereas conformity orientations are positively associated with both traits. Furthermore, an interaction effect between conversation and conformity orientations emerged, such that high-conformity orientations moderate (or reduce) the inverse association between family conversation orientations and young adults' listening anxiety. Among the more important implications in this study is the finding that family communication patterns have a small but meaningful association with individuals' information-processing skills.     

Spokespersons and Message Control: How the CDC Lost Credibility during the Anthrax Crisis This paper was presented to the Red River Communication Conference April 22, 2004.

This study evaluates the role of spokespersons and message control in complex organizations facing ambiguous crises. Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) response to the anthrax crisis in 2001 is offered as a case study. A textual analysis of CDC telebriefings and corresponding print media coverage of the anthrax crisis reveals the use of multiple spokespersons and poor message control resulted in a seemingly fragmented CDC message and apparent loss of CDC credibility. The study concludes that limiting the number of spokespersons and appropriate use of strategic ambiguity may afford organizations an opportunity to make sense of the situation, avoid confusing and contradictory messages and protect organizational credibility. Recommendations include (1) limiting the number of spokespersons, which allows for greater message control while reducing contradictory and inconsistent messages, (2) maintaining an organizational willingness to revise publicly stated positions as more accurate information becomes available, and (3) actively using strategic ambiguity as a mechanism to protect organizational credibility.