Signing cards,saving lives: an evaluation of the worksite organ donation promotion project

The desperate need for organ donors in the United States could be filled if every person eligible became an organ donor. Unfortunately, few organ donation campaigns exist, and fewer still have been evaluated empirically. This study has two objectives: to describe a worksite organ donation campaign and test campaign effects, and to test the Model of Behavioral Willingness to Donate Organs. Results of the campaign evaluation demonstrate that the worksite campaign was successful in increasing knowledge, favorable attitudes toward organ donation, behavioral intent to sign an organ donor card, actual rates of signed organ donor cards, and the willingness to talk to family members about the decision to donate organs. Results of path analyses produced mixed results with regard to model testing. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

An Experimental Investigation of Social Identification on College Student Organ Donor Decisions

This investigation examined whether persuasive organ donation messages that target individuals’ identification with a salient social group will be more effective in encouraging these individuals to become organ donors than will information-only persuasive messages. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of two pro-organ donation messages, both of which included basic information about organ donation (need, number of registered donors, etc.) while one also targeted social identity. Findings indicate that individuals exposed to a social identification message were more likely to click a link that allowed them to officially register as organ donors. These results offer support for the utility of social identification as a health communication campaign strategy for increasing organ donation.     

Enhancing Communication Interventions and Evaluations through Communication Design

Communication design is first and foremost about creating, engineering, or critiquing approaches to communication that achieve specific goals or values. A design approach acts as an integrative perspective for finding the relevance of theory to a specific site of intervention. Communication design processes are illustrated through work on ombuds processes and organ donation campaigns. This research highlights four propositions related to communication design. First, design should be about both creation and critique. Second, design is complementary to, and strengthens, theory (and vice versa). Third, design can be both unique to an intervention or context and iterative from previous designs. Finally, design helps us uncover unexpected and unintended consequences, uncovering hidden properties of communication and leading to opportunities for modifying and correcting communication practices. These unintended consequences and other design successes and failures provide opportunities for learning and creating better systems. In these ways, a commitment to design processes strengthens both our research and our practice of communication across a variety of communication contexts and across different levels of communication.     

Special Section Introduction: Best Practices in Risk and Crisis Communication

There is a substantial gap between those people in the United States who identify as being favorable toward organ donation (~90%) and those registered as donors (~30%). A growing body of evidence suggests Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices are effective sites for facilitating higher organ donor registration rates on a national scale. The goal of the current study was to determine the utility and sustainability of a message immediacy approach, which draws from theoretical concepts such as priming and cues to action. Message immediacy requires individuals be: (a) exposed to a message that prompts an action, (b) in an environment where a prescribed action or behavior can be enacted, and (c) favorable toward the promoted behavior or action. Thirty-four Michigan counties, divided into three implementation groups, received campaigns in October (Group 1), November (Group 2), and December (Group 3) of 2009. Registration rates for three to six months after campaign implementation indicate that the on-site message prompts almost doubled registration rates in DMV offices. Additionally, preliminary cost-effectiveness evidence suggests message immediacy offers a relatively inexpensive campaign strategy.     

“Even a Penny Will Help!”: Legitimization of Paltry Donation and Social Proof in Soliciting Donation to a Charitable Organization

“Even a penny will help!” is a donation solicitor's effort in legitimating paltry donations in hopes of gaining higher compliance. This study reexamined the effect of Legitimization of Paltry Donation (LPD) in combination with Social Proof (SP) strategy. Participants were given one of four donation soliciting messages: simple request (control), LPD, SP, and LPD/SP. Compliance rate and size were examined through both the survey experiment and the field experiment. The LPD/SP condition yielded the highest rate of compliance both in the survey and field studies, followed by the LPD condition, the SP condition, and the control condition. As for the donation amount, results were not consistent across the two studies. Implications and limitations of the study were discussed.     

African-Americans’ perceptions of organ donation: ‘simply boils down to mistrust!’

Five focus groups were conducted to better understand African-American adults’ (N?=?62) perceptions of organ donation. Applying the health belief model, results revealed that participants generally were aware of the need for organ donors and felt susceptible to needing a transplant in the future. Additionally, the number of perceived barriers greatly outweighed the number of perceived benefits to organ donation. Several novel barriers to organ donation, not currently identified in the literature, arose during focus group discussions, alluding to a larger source of mistrust among African-Americans. In respect to self-efficacy, participants’ responses further delineated the distinction between task and decisional efficacy. The results are discussed with an emphasis on how the current findings compare and contrast with previous work, as well as a focus on the practical implications for targeted organ donation campaigns aimed at African-American communities.     

Communicating about gifts of life: the effect of knowledge,attitudes, and altruism on behavior and behavioral intentions regarding organ donation

Much of the limited literature on organ donation has focused on the demographic and psychographic profiles of people who are willing to become organ donors. More information about the relationship of attitudes, values, knowledge, and actual behavior among adults is needed if targeted communication campaigns promoting organ donation are to succeed. The results of a mail survey of 798 adults sampled (via stratified random sampling procedures) from two local sites of a national corporation suggest that attitudes toward donation, knowledge about organ donation, altruism, and perceived social norms are significantly associated with both actual behavior (having signed an organ donor card) and behavioral intent (among non-donors) to sign a card in the future. These findings support the major models of organ donation willingness, especially those advanced by Horton and Horton (1991) and Kopfman (1994). This study also advances current knowledge of organ donation willingness by 1) using a large, relatively diverse population of adults rather than relying on a student sample; and 2) focusing on specific knowledge barriers that distinguish donors from non-donors.     

Communicating about gifts of life: the effect of knowledge, attitudes, and altruism on behavior and behavioral intentions regarding organ donation

Much of the limited literature on organ donation has focused on the demographic and psychographic profiles of people who are willing to become organ donors. More information about the relationship of attitudes, values, knowledge, and actual behavior among adults is needed if targeted communication campaigns promoting organ donation are to succeed. The results of a mail survey of 798 adults sampled (via stratified random sampling procedures) from two local sites of a national corporation suggest that attitudes toward donation, knowledge about organ donation, altruism, and perceived social norms are significantly associated with both actual behavior (having signed an organ donor card) and behavioral intent (among non-donors) to sign a card in the future. These findings support the major models of organ donation willingness, especially those advanced by Horton and Horton (1991) and Kopfman (1994). This study also advances current knowledge of organ donation willingness by 1) using a large, relatively diverse population of adults rather than relying on a student sample; and 2) focusing on specific knowledge barriers that distinguish donors from non-donors.     

Examining the Decision to Talk with Family About Organ Donation: Applying the Theory of Motivated Information Management

Research on organ donation suggests a strong association between family discussions about the issue and final organ donor status. However, very few studies have examined the factors that influence individuals’ willingness to talk directly to their family about this topic or the impact of these discussions. This investigation provides a partial test of a newly developed theory of information management to better understand the processes of family discussions about organ donation. Results from two studies generally support the utility of the theory in this context, suggest ways in which organ donation campaigns may improve their effectiveness, and recommend future directions for researchers in this area. Moreover, the data show differences across ethnic groups that support and extend past work in this area.     

Theory Guiding Communication Campaign Praxis: A Qualitative Elicitation Study Comparing Exercise Beliefs of Overweight and Healthy Weight College Students

College students are at great risk of obesity and overweight, and campaigns encouraging exercise may mitigate associated health risks. Although some factors influential in college student exercise behavior have been reported, important in communication targeting, few have studied differences between overweight and normal weight students. Body mass index influences exercise behavior; thus, cognitive factors may be different in these subpopulations, necessitating different messaging approaches. This study aims to address this gap through theory-based qualitative elicitation work. Results indicate that overweight and normal weight college students differ in their perceived facilitators to regular exercise. Implications for exercise messages are discussed.     

An Exploration of Transportation and Psychological Reactance in Organ Donation PSAs

The present study expands on prior work on the use of narratives in persuasive communication by examining students’ (N = 201) reactions to six organ donation public service announcements (PSAs). Reactions to the type of appeal, donor-focused or recipient-focused, were also explored. Results indicated that being immersed in the PSA was positively associated with message reactions and negatively associated with threats to overall freedom of choice when deciding whether or not to become an organ donor. Those perceived threats partially mediated the relationship between immersion into the story of the PSA and message reactions, such that increased threats were associated with reduced message reactions. Individuals exposed to the recipient-focused appeals were more interested in the narrative of the PSAs than those exposed to donor-focused appeals. Results are discussed in the context of future message and campaign development.     

A Normative Approach to Shaping College Students' Attitudes Toward Organ Donation

This study tested the effects of normative influence on increasing college students' attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate about organ and tissue donation (OTD). It was hypothesized that students would look to their peers (referent group) in forming their own attitudes about organ donation. Three hundred thirty-nine (N = 339) participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions: (1) control group; (2) general referent/normative message group; (3) specific referent/normative message group; (4) general referent/counternormative message group; and (5) specific referent/counternormative message group. An interaction effect was predicted between message type (normative > counternormative) and attributed message source (specific referent > general referent). Students reported highly favorable attitudes toward OTD, moderate-to-high levels of intentions to become organ donors and willingness to communicate about OTD. The hypothesis that participants within the normative message condition would report more favorable attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate about OTD compared to participants within the counternormative message condition was supported for participants' willingness to communicate about OTD. The second hypothesis that participants within the specific referent condition would express more favorable attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate was rejected.     

The Effect on Public Library Circulation of Advertising Via Cable Television

The hypothesis that public library circulation of individual titles would be significantly greater when publicized via CATV than when not so publicized was tested by an experiment in which older public library titles were publicized using low-intensity cablecast advertisements. Circulation of the advertised titles was not significantly altered when compared with either previous rates of circulation or control titles. Low-intensity cablecast advertisement for older public library titles was judged not to be an effective means for increasing circulation.     

Digitizing more for less: Digital preservation at The College of New Jersey

ABSTRACT

This article explores the challenges faced and overcome by The College of New Jersey Library while digitizing a large amount of delicate material without any staff specially dedicated to the project and without any funds allocated specifically to support it. To achieve the project's goals without incurring additional cost, project management surveyed the utilization rates of existing library resources. This led to the discovery that underutilized resources and previously purchased equipment in the library could be assigned to the project, without negatively impacting other areas of the library. Allocating these resources to the project resulted in increased digitization progress without incurring additional staffing or equipment costs. Support from and collaboration with other departments on campus also assisted in staffing and promoting the project.     

The Role of the Internet in Presidential Campaigns

This essay examines the various roles and functions of the Internet predominantly in the Democratic primaries from January 1, 2008 through June 3, 2008. After tracing the emergence of the Internet in presidential campaigns since 1996, three functions of the Internet during the 2008 primary campaigns are examined. First, Democratic candidates employed their Web sites to create ideological unity, involvement, and commitment among their supporters and as a foundation for a new source of campaign funding, especially among small donors. Second, the Internet provides a foundation for tracking, if not predicting, the success of specific candidates at different stages in the campaign process. Third, while only an emergent force, the Internet increasingly appears to be functioning as an independent, if not discrete, sociopolitical system with unique modes of interaction, its own rules and procedures, and ultimately its own standards and guidelines for presidential campaigns. It is concluded that while the Internet can be usefully viewed strategically as an instrument to be manipulated by political candidates, it may be appropriate to also examine the Internet as a unique and discrete social system with its own ethos, pathos, and logos.     

Feeling Bad About Feel-Good Ads: The Emotional and Body-Image Ramifications of Body-Positive Media

In recent years beauty companies have produced advertising campaigns purporting to make women feel better about their bodies and reverse the damage of thin-ideal media (e.g., The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty). Despite being celebrated in the popular press for the effort, little is known about how effective these advertisements are at healing issues of poor body image. In addition, little work has been done to explore the relationship between discrete emotions and body image. The present study was an experiment aimed at capturing the different discrete emotions experienced in a body-positive advertisement compared to traditional beauty ad. Findings assert that participants reported experiencing positive (e.g., elevation and hope) and negative (e.g., guilt and pride) discrete emotions significantly more than their counterparts in the traditional beauty ad condition. Results also show no significant difference in postexposure thin-ideal internalization between the two conditions.     

Future Business Innovation in Minority Language Media

This article investigates innovation in the media business models that some European minority-language news organizations are implementing in these times of economic crisis. It entails a shift in the underlying business and service philosophy which interpellates the community and pleads for a change in their mutual relationship. The research is based on the case studies of two private media companies from the Catalan and Basque language media systems that were experiencing economic and financial difficulties. Conducting inspirational advertising campaigns, the news organizations issued a call for readers and non-readers to make a funding commitment to the project, a pledge to provide new revenues and liaisons, while retaining and enhancing the standard income streams. In brief, it is about going back to the basics of active community projects and involvement.     

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.