Fundamentals of Public Communication Campaigns (eBook)

Jonathan Matusitz (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
9781119878094 (ISBN)

Infos

The most comprehensive and up-to-date textbook on public communication campaigns currently available

Fundamentals of Public Communication Campaigns provides students and practitioners with the theoretical and practical knowledge needed to create and implement effective messaging campaigns for an array of real-world scenarios. Assuming no prior expertise in the subject, this easily accessible textbook clearly describes more than 700 essential concepts of public communication campaigns. Numerous case studies illustrate real-world media campaigns, such as those promoting COVID–19 vaccinations and social distancing, campaigns raising awareness of LGBTQ+ issues, entertainment and Hollywood celebrity campaigns, and social activist initiatives including the #MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter (BLM).

Opening with a thorough introduction to the fundamentals of public communication campaigns, the text examines a wide array of different health communication campaigns, social justice and social change campaigns, and counter-radicalization campaigns. Readers learn about the theoretical foundations of public communication campaigns, the roles of persuasion and provocation, how people’s attitudes can be changed through fear appeals, the use of ethnographic research in designing campaigns, the ethical principles of public communication campaigns, the potential negative effects of public messaging, and much more.

• Describes each of the 10 steps of public communication campaigns, from defining the topic and setting objectives to developing optimal message content and updating the campaign with timely and relevant information
• Covers public communication campaigns from the United States as well as 25 other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Israel, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom
• Offers a template for creating or adapting messages for advertising, public relations, health, safety, entertainment, social justice, animal rights, and many other scenarios
• Incorporates key theories such as the Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) theory, social judgment theory (SJT), the Health Belief Model (HBM), social cognitive theory (SCT), and self–determination theory (SDT)
• Includes in-depth case studies of communication campaigns of Islamophobia, antisemitism, white supremacism, and violent extremism.

Fundamentals of Public Communication Campaigns is the perfect textbook for undergraduate students across the social sciences and the humanities, and a valuable resource for general readers with interest in the subject.

JONATHAN MATUSITZ is Associate Professor in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media at the University of Central Florida. His research focuses on the role of communication in terrorism, symbolism in terrorism, the globalization of culture, and health communication. He is the author of more than 150 academic publications and six academic books on terrorism. Dr. Matusitz has delivered presentations on terrorism to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, and other law enforcement agencies.

Inhalt

Part I Introducing Public Communication Campaigns 9

Chapter 1 Definitions, Strategies, and Background Information 11

Chapter 2 The 10 Steps of Public Communication Campaigns 47

Chapter 3 Persuasion in Public Communication Campaigns 80

Chapter 4 Thought-Provoking Public Communication Campaigns 121

Part II Health Communication Campaigns 153

Chapter 5 Health Communication Campaigns: General Perspectives 155

Chapter 6 Differences in Literacy and Culture in Health Campaigns 189

Chapter 7 Public Communication Campaigns during the COVID-19 Pandemic 217

Chapter 8 Entertainment-Education, Digital Games, and Celebrity Campaigns 249

Part III Communication Campaigns For Social Justice and Social Change 285

Chapter 9 Social Justice and Social Change 287

Chapter 10 The #MeToo Campaign 310

Chapter 11 Public Communication Campaigns for LGBTQ+ Communities 336

Chapter 12 Black Lives Matter Campaigns 360

Part IV Terrorist, Extremist, And Anti-Terrorist Communication Campaigns 389

Chapter 13 Terrorist Communication Campaigns: Two Major Case Studies 391

Chapter 14 Public Communication Campaigns of White Supremacism 426

Chapter 15 Public Communication Campaigns of Islamophobia and Antisemitism 451

Chapter 16 Antiterrorist Public Communication Campaigns 476

Textauszug

Introduction

Divided into 16 chapters, this textbook describes the fundamentals of public communication campaigns for beginners; more specifically, for large audiences like undergraduate students and readers from both the United States and countries around the world. Unlike most works on that subject, this textbook has a considerably high international focus, a thorough description of over 700 basic concepts, and numerous real-life case studies―all of which being infused with communication theories. While this is not a perfect volume and there is still progress to be made, the author makes the point that successful public communication campaigns are ones that diversify their strategies and discard the notion that information alone is the solution to induce individual and/or social change. Effective campaigns are no longer based on the erroneous perception that society will improve if audiences acquire more information. Rather, campaigns are increasingly paying attention to context and combining their traditional media and behavior change strategies with social media and direct, face-to-face community action. In the end, this makes the social and human environment more supportive of the desired campaign outcomes.1

PUBLIC COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGNS

Public communication campaigns are typically large-scale initiatives designed, sponsored, and run by state actors or nonstate actors to alter people’s behaviors, attitudes, social norms, and/or beliefs.2 As Gültekin and Gültekin (2012) reason,3 a campaign aims at mobilizing the public’s conscience and sustaining this conscience with solid strategies on communication platforms. Campaigns can influence people at the individual, the social, and/or the institutional level. The majority of them seek to change behavior at the individual level, and must take specific individual factors into consideration―those factors that underlie behavioral intention and behavior within a given target audience.4 Campaigns tend to be presented in different forms and serve various purposes, with the most prevalent ones created for promoting sociopolitical causes. Others are for public health, social programs, charitable causes, well-being, and safety. Most communication campaigns are supported by entities such as governments, private corporations, nonprofit organizations, communities, and social change promoters.5

In order to modify behavior, we need to understand people’s behaviors when designing campaigns. Understanding the reasons that affect intention and behavior is important for laying the groundwork for the creation, implementation, and evaluation of effective public communication campaigns.6 Communication scholars have devoted a great deal of attention to the content and impacts of messages on audiences. Public health campaigns, in particular, are often addressed in books and scholarly studies, arguably due to their purported intent to champion social good instead of harm. Nevertheless, other types of public communication campaigns―like those of terrorist movements or campaigns for Islamophobia―have been understudied for their potential to produce undesirable effects. In addition to social change, public communication campaigns can be an instrument of self-insight and remedy. Whether it is meant for good or bad purposes is contingent upon us and our value system—the approaches that we take to change people’s minds at work and at home, and how we consider the practice of persuasion with strangers and loved ones.

CHANGES IN THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE

All communication is humankind’s fundamental symbolic resource for regulating the environment.7 Today, communication brings together media and persuasion to change social conditions. Mass media campaigns are often designed to expose high volumes of people to messages through regular uses of traditional media, such as TV, radio, and newspapers. However, exposure through existing media like these is generally passive.8 This is why a combination of traditional media, social media, interpersonal relationships, segmented communication, and culturally tailored messaging to audiences are more likely to make a public communication campaign efficient and thriving.9 Large-scale public communication programs today necessitate mass communication campaign strategies, as marked by the investments of time, money, and other resources in most of contemporary initiatives. Success or failure in campaigning depends mainly on campaign managers’ skills in crafting effective communication (including social media) campaigns. The strategies include opposition research, segmented targeting of audiences, continual adaptation of messages, and step-by-step tracking of issues. In this new era of digital communications and around-the-clock news cycles, undivided attention must be given to message delivery, audience feedback, and unintended consequences.10

The media landscape has metamorphosed since the dawn of the twenty-first century. Although long-established methods of communication are still important, new platforms of public communication are constantly emerging through digitalization, the internet, and social media.11 The media landscape in modern societies has gradually been saturated with a proliferation of media outlets and options, presenting audiences with alternatives to fulfill their media-related needs.12 Audiences frequently use a mélange of media and content types to absorb issues raised by public communication campaigns.13 Publics have split into subgroups across platforms to come into contact with various online communities around certain niche interests, politics, ideologies, or hobbies like music and sports.14 Online communities consist of cultures of participation in which members’ activities form a collective type of sense-making.15 Taken as a whole, owing to the changes in the media landscape, public communication campaigns need to be aware that they have to grow more sophisticated and strategic.

WHAT THIS TEXTBOOK OFFERS

It is important to understand that, for a college textbook to be successful in the social sciences, particularly if it is intended for international audiences, it must meet five main criteria: A comprehensive focus, an easy focus, an international focus, a practical focus, and a theoretical focus.

A Comprehensive Focus

This textbook is divided into four parts: (1) Introducing Public Communication Campaigns, (2) Health Communication Campaigns, (3) Communication Campaigns for Social Justice and Social Change, and (4) Terrorist, Extremist, and Anti-Terrorist Communication Campaigns. Each of the four parts contains four chapters. Most major works that have been available in the past and current literature only cover one or two parts. Under existing circumstances, it is important to teach students and practitioners alike how to create and implement public communication campaigns from a wide array of perspectives―including those produced by organizations like Black Lives Matter. Enter the last topic of the fourth part of the book: antiterrorist communication campaigns. Not only are counterradicalization communicators moving to the online space to counter (would-be) terrorists, but they can also assist volunteers or authorities in designing messages that help societies win the war of ideas against enemies (both external forces and enemies from within). Even communication campaigns against female genital mutilation (FGM) and honor killing are addressed. In a nutshell, this textbook is the most comprehensive one on public communication campaigns.

An Easy Focus

To date, no major textbook on public communication campaigns has been written for large audiences like undergraduate students and readers from both the United States and countries around the world. As will be explained in the next section (on the competition with other books), the few major volumes that have been published on that subject are certainly well written and thought-out, but the content is not written with the intention of explaining the fundamentals of public communication campaigns to beginners. Rather, the language is too elevated and theoretical for large publics or these volumes focus too much on one part of the world or other topics that fall outside the scope of this textbook. More importantly, this textbook includes over 700 fundamental concepts of campaigns that are in bold writing and clearly defined for readers. Each chapter is markedly different and includes case studies to which both young and older audiences can relate. For example, there are case studies on COVID-19 campaigns in several nations, LGBTQ+ initiatives in South America, and Hollywood celebrity health campaigns. At the end of this textbook, readers can look through a glossary that lists and defines all key terms and concepts used across the 16 chapters.

An International Focus

Most books on that subject tend to overly concentrate on projects in the United States. Although it is true that, for message designers and common citizens alike, the immense accessibility of both mainstream and social media in the United States facilitates the creation and impact of campaigns, most books tend to overlook the efforts made in other countries. As such, this volume includes public communication campaigns from both the United States and a whopping 25 other countries. These countries are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Hungary, India, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Uganda, and Vietnam. It is...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.9.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Communication & Media Studies • Communication Studies • health communication campaigns, social justice campaigns • Kampagne • Kommunikation • Kommunikationswissenschaft • Kommunikation u. Medienforschung • public communication campaign case studies • public communication campaigns • public communication campaigns introduction • public communication campaigns textbook • public communication theories
• ISBN-13: 9781119878094 / 9781119878094