Communication
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Item Framing Climate Change: The Impact of Repeated Exposure to Self- and Social-framing Messages on Climate Change Outcomes and Public Segmentation in China(2024) Ma, Xin; Liu, Brooke; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Background and Purpose. Climate change is an urgent global issue, and China, as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, plays a crucial role in the global response to this challenge (Reuters, 2024; Wang et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2022). Despite increased media coverage and public discussion (Huan, 2024; Pan et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2022; Zeng, 2022), skepticism and negative attitudes toward climate change persist among certain Chinese individuals (Chan et al., 2023; Jia & Luo, 2023; Pan et al., 2022, 2023). This dissertation aims to contribute to developing effective climate change communication strategies in China by examining the effects of repeated self- and social-framing messages and using the Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) model for public segmentation (Florence et al., 2022; Kim & Grunig, 2011; Tao et al., 2020).Theoretical Frameworks. This dissertation draws from the construal level theory of psychological distance to understand self- and social-framing (Liberman & Trope, 2003; Loy & Spence, 2020; Ma et al., 2023), the inverted U-shaped model to examine the impact of repeated exposures (Berlyne, 1970; Cacioppo & Petty, 1979; Lu et al., 2015; Lu, 2022), and the STOPS model to investigate how the effects of self- and social-framing may vary across different public segments and the potential for proportional changes in public segments after longitudinal repeated exposure (Grunig, 1997; Kim, 2006; Kim & Grunig, 2011). Methods. This dissertation employs a two-part study design. The first part is a pilot study designed to validate the manipulation of climate change messages framed as either self- or social-focused, adapted from leading Chinese news outlets. The main study, formatted as a longitudinal between-subjects experiment, consists of six separate exposures spaced three days apart. In the first session, seven hundred and fifty Chinese residents over 18 years old were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, either containing self- or social-framing messages or a mix of both framing messages six times at three-day intervals. Three hundred and thirty-three participants completed all six sessions and are included in the final sample. Results. The results reveal that repeated exposure to climate change messages enhances their persuasive effects on climate change outcomes, including attitudes, beliefs, and private and public pro-environmental intentions. The overall trends are increasing and do not follow the inverted U-shaped model’s predicted pattern of initial growth followed by a decline. After six exposures, the mixed-framing condition slightly outperforms self- and social-framing conditions, indicating the potential benefits of diversified communication strategies for repeated messaging. The results also reveal that situational activity levels in climate change significantly predict positive and negative communicative behaviors and outcomes, with more engaged publics showing stronger climate change outcomes and positive communicative actions (Grunig, 1997; Kim & Grunig, 2011). Results further suggest that six exposures can shift public segmentation, making more individuals more active in climate change issues (Hine et al., 2014; Leiserowitz et al., 2021; Metag & Schäfer, 2018). Theoretical and Practical Implications. Theoretically, the findings do not support the inverted U-shaped model with theoretical explanations (Berlyne, 1970; Cacioppo & Petty, 1979; Lu et al., 2015; Lu, 2022). Also, this dissertation extends the message convergence theory (Anthon & Sellnow, 2016; Liu et al., 2020) by demonstrating the effectiveness of mixed-framing strategies in repeated exposures. It also addresses research gaps in framing combination (Chen et al., 2020; Florence et al., 2022) and provides new insights into the effectiveness of repeated communication strategies in public segmentation using the STOPS model (Grunig, 1997; Kim & Grunig, 2011). Practically, the findings of this dissertation offer guidance for developing repeated communication strategies, suggesting that journalists can leverage the power of repeated exposure and mixed-framing approaches to enhance the impact of climate change communication coverage. The study also highlights the potential for repeated message exposures to actively change public segment types, enabling journalists to design targeted strategies for shifting individuals from less engaged to more active publics in addressing climate change (Hine et al., 2014; Metag & Schäfer, 2018).Item IMPROVING CHRONIC ILLNESS MEDICATION ADHERENCE: A COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING-BASED MODEL OF PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION(2017) Iles, Irina; Nan, Xiaoli; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The World Health Organization estimates that, by 2020, the number of Americans affected by at least one chronic condition requiring medication therapy will grow to 157 million. Effective medications are a cornerstone of prevention and disease treatment, yet only about half of patients take their medications as prescribed, resulting in a common and costly public health challenge for the U.S. health care system. As with much of health care, drug adherence is primarily about human behavior. Therefore, patients who lack motivation to take their medication as prescribed cannot be forced or simply educated to take their medication; they must be persuaded and motivated to do so. However, existing literature on how persuasion-based behavioral change can be achieved for non-adherent patients is sparse. To help build more evidence on how effective communication can be used to promote drug adherence for patients who have been diagnosed with chronic illness, this research tested the effectiveness of counterfactual thinking as a message design strategy aimed at increasing drug adherence among individuals at risk for nonadherence. Findings from experiments 1 and 2 showed no effect of counterfactual thinking on medication adherence. Findings from experiment 3 showed that, in a sample of 303 patients with type 2 diabetes at risk for nonadherence, messages including upward counterfactual thinking (e.g., “if only I had taken my medication as prescribed, I would not be in the hospital right now!”), compared to messages including downward counterfactual thinking (e.g., “it could have been worse and I could have died!”) or no counterfactual thinking, increased perceptions of medication adherence self- and response efficacy, and behavioral intention to take one’s medications as prescribed. Counterfactual thinking-based messages are a promising and easy to use persuasion strategy for patients who are at risk for nonadherence. Counterfactual thinking can be incorporated in interventions aimed at increasing adherence, and in doctor-patient or pharmacist-patient communications. Future studies should replicate these findings patients who have other chronic illnesses. Furthermore, measuring actual medication adherence behavior as opposed to behavioral intention, would provide a better indicator of the effectiveness of counterfactual thinking in increasing adherence.Item A Meta-Analytical Test of Perceived Behavioral Control Interactions in the Theory of Planned Behavior(2013) Boudewyns, Vanessa; Fink, Edward L.; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study used meta-analytic procedures to test for interaction effects among the components of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The central hypothesis examined was that attitudes and subjective norms should perform less well in explaining intentions when perceptions of behavioral control are low. A traditional meta-analysis of nine studies that directly examined perceived behavioral control (PBC) interactions was conducted. A second meta-analysis--the main focus of this dissertation--was conducted that tested for two- and three-way interactions in which the presence of PBC interactions was investigated in 121 studies, which provided 154 data sets with 44,424 participants. In addition to testing for two-way PBC interactions, this meta-analysis also examined whether the presence of PBC interactions depended on other variables. Specifically, three-way interactions with type of behavior classification (i.e., public versus private, familiar versus unfamiliar) and type of PBC operationalization (e.g., self-efficacy, perceived difficulty, perceived control, or some combination of the three) were explored. Results indicated that attitude by PBC interactions exist but that the effects vary depending on the type of PBC operationalization and behavior context. In addition, meta-analytic structural equation modeling was used to examine whether the association between PBC and intention is mediated by attitude and subjective norms; however, no evidence for this relationship was found. Finally, results from an auxiliary analysis revealed that the attitude by PBC interaction on intention had statistically significant nonlinear effects in addition to a linear effect. In contrast, the norm by PBC interaction did not have statistically significant linear or nonlinear effects. The discussion highlights the effects of different meta-analytic techniques, the need for future investigation using experimental designs, the implications of these findings for further theory development, and practical implications for health communication researchers. In sum, through the use of a multi-faceted approach to quantitatively review attitude by perceived control and norm by perceived control interactions in the TPB, this study helped to address inconclusive results with regard to the existence and type of PBC interactions.