Mass Media Advertisements Research Articles

Evolution of Couples' Voluntary Counseling and Testing for HIV in Lusaka, Zambia

: We describe promotional strategies for couples' voluntary HIV counseling and testing (CVCT) and demographic risk factors for couples in Lusaka, Zambia, where an estimated two thirds of new infections occur in cohabiting couples. : CVCT attendance as a function of promotional strategies is described over a 6-year period. Cross-sectional analyses of risk factors associated with HIV in men, women, and couples are presented. Community workers (CWs) recruited from couples seeking CVCT promoted testing in their communities. Attendance dropped when CW outreach ended, despite continued mass media advertisements. In Lusaka, 51% of 8500 cohabiting couples who sought HIV testing were concordant negative for HIV (MF) and 26% concordant positive (MF); 23% had 1 HIV-positive partner and one HIV-negative partner, with 11% HIV-positive man/HIV-negative woman (MF) and 12% HIV-negative man/HIV-positive woman (FM). HIV infection was associated with men's age 30 to 39, women's age 25 to 34, duration of union <3 years, and number of children <2. Even among couples with either 1 or 2 or no risk factors, HIV prevalence was 45% and 29%, respectively. : Many married African adults do not have high-risk profiles, nor realize that only 1 may be HIV positive. Active and sustained promotion is needed to encourage all couples to be jointly tested and counseled.

Sensation Seeking and Alcohol Use by College Students: Examining Multiple Pathways of Effects

This study tests the proposition that peer influence mediates the effect of sensation seeking, a personality trait, on alcohol use among college students. Cross-sectional data to test this proposition were collected from a representative sample of college students at a large public northeastern university (N = 427). Results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that, as hypothesized, sensation seeking influenced personal alcohol use both directly and indirectly, through its impact on students' frequency of association with alcohol-using peers and the size of their drinking norm misperception. The findings suggest that interventions that seek to limit the frequency in which high sensation seekers associate with peers whose alcohol use is extreme or, alternatively, seek to facilitate social interactions of high sensation seekers with normative peers, may supplement efforts to influence sensation seekers' alcohol and other drug use through tailored mass media advertisements.

Mass media advertisements: Responses to selected advertisements in semi-urban Limpopo

This article developed from pilot research in a coursework Master's module in African Languages into combined outcomes of persuasive messages and visual literacy based on semiotics. It tested assertions by various writers about mass media, as applicable to a semi-urban or rural group of (black) South Africans with educational levels ranging from Grade 10 to Honours level. Owing to the fact that interviewees are financially constrained (and therefore cannot always afford television access or the acquisition of magazines), the focus of ‘persuasive messages’ was on billboard advertising in their living and work contexts. It was found that the consumers (respondents to the questionnaire) reacted positively to billboards that supported products on which they have been relying; that once they have been introduced to a product and found it efficient, competitive campaigns do not impinge on their stance; but also that – in this particular semi-urban area – traditional values folklore and usages have to be taken into consideration by advertisers for effective communication.

Critical Analysis of Cultural Values Found in Nigerian Mass Media Advertisements

This study uses critical cultural analysis to ascertain the cultural values and ideas manifested in advertisements in Nigerian mass media advertising. Nigerian advertisements use Western and traditional cultural values, but neither traditional nor Western values and appeals are dominant. Family and savings serve as the most consistent forms of appeal used in Nigerian advertisements. Family is related to other values such as love, care, protection, and investment. Western values such as individualism, image, youth, and exploitation of nature are also used.

Evaluation of publicity measures relating to the EU beef labelling system in Belgium

In response to growing consumer concerns about beef safety, the European Commission enacted several regulations concerning the identification and registration of bovine animals and compulsory labelling of beef and beef products. Additionally, the Commission provided funds for informing consumers about the guarantees offered by the traceability systems and the indicators on labels. This paper focuses on the evaluation of such publicity measures in Belgium during September 2000. The publicity campaign included a mass media advertisement with direct response components, and the distribution of a detailed information leaflet. The evaluation methodology includes cross-sectional data collection through consumer surveys pre and post the publicity event. The compulsory beef label indicators emerge as the least important and least attended cues by beef consumers. While the mass media advertisement scored well in terms of recall rate, informative content evaluation, and restoration of consumer confidence in beef, the direct response component and leaflet distribution were less successful. Implications pertain to the future planning and implementation of similar consumer information policies and publicity campaigns.

WWW homepages for the tourism industry: the Scottish experience

WWW Homepages are becoming powerful advertising and marketing tools. Business organisations from diverse economic sectors are pursuing an advertising strategy which combines mass media advertisements in traditional paper‐based media such as national newspapers, alongside WWW sites. However little research has been done on the minimum levels of description necessary for a homepage to become a suitable information/ marketing medium nor on the range of sites now available to users. The present research examines the availability of homepages for the Scottish tourism industry. Regional areas within Scotland were identified according to their 14 area tourist boards. Sites were identified through three mechanisms: search engines, a questionnaire to the tourist boards and manual searches. Over 900 sites providing information about specific regions within Scotland were identified. The Highlands and Islands of Scotland is the tourist region with the highest number of sites (145). Sites were classified according to a content‐analysis derived classification of tourism‐related topics. Results show a direct emphasis on sites providing general information about Scotland, supported by emphasis on socio‐economic aspects, sports, accommodation and cultural potential.

Gender focus of target groups for alcohol health promotion strategies in New Zealand

SUMMARY This paper examines issues of gender equity in relation to choice of target groups for alcohol health promotion strategies. Previous research had established a segment of male drinkers, labelled ‘Young Heavy-drinking Men’, who were an appropriate target group for alcohol health promotion activities, such as mass-media advertising. The current study used multivariate cluster analysis to identify a segment of female drinkers who might also have been considered an appropriate target group. The analysis was based on the responses of 754 New Zealand women aged 14‐65 years. The identified segment, labelled ‘Young Heavy-drinking Women’, accounted for 12% of the female drinkers, 30% of female consumption and 54% of the problems resulting from women’s own drinking. In determining whether limited resources should focus on the male or female target group, a number of issues were considered. The men’s segment contained more drinkers, and accounted for considerably more of the total alcohol consumption and the alcohol-related problems. They also accounted for a greater proportion of those who were interested in drinking less, and who might therefore be supported by media campaigns encouraging moderate drinking. There were some data from the survey to suggest that considerably more women were experiencing harmful effects from men’s drinking, than men were from women’s drinking; thus there would be some benefit to women from a focus on male drinking. It was concluded that this benefit to women, on top of the other evidence supporting a male target group, would make it difficult, on the basis of the available data, to argue for a change away from the male target group.

Alcoholic Beverage Warnings in Magazine and Television Advertisements

Two experiments investigated the impact of warnings in mass-media advertising in print (magazine) or broadcast (television) alcoholic beverage ads. Experiment 1 showed that participants exposed to highly conspicuous warnings in print ads performed better on subsequent memory and knowledge tests than those exposed to less conspicuous warnings. Less conspicuous warnings were generally no better than no warnings. In experiment 2, participants viewing broadcast commercials with both-modality warnings generally performed better than those exposed to voice-only or no warnings. Print-only warnings produced performance equivalent to, or in one case lower than, both-modality warnings. Both experiments show that warnings in ads can communicate information if presented in a salient form.

Multi-center study of seasonal affective disorders in Japan. A preliminary report

A multi-center study on seasonal affective disorder (SAD) was conducted from the autumn of 1988 to the spring of 1989 with the cooperation of 16 facilities in Japan. Forty-six SAD patients were identified among 1104 respondents to our advertisements in mass media, or patients seen at the outpatients clinics. Essentially similar findings to other previous reports were obtained in terms of onset age of the first episode, duration of episode, high proportion of depression in first-degree relatives and atypical vegetative symptoms. However, a nearly equal sex ratio, together with a high proportion of unipolar depression, is characteristic of the present study. Increased appetite and carbohydrate craving were predominant only in female patients, whereas hypersomnia was prominent in both sexes. Effective response to light therapy was found in 17 SAD patients. However, a controlled study on a large number of patients is required to allow final conclusions on the efficacy of light therapy in Japanese SAD patients.

Image Worlds: Corporate Identities at General Electric, 1890-1930

By viewing the corporation as a communicator, Image Worlds links the histories of labor, business, consumption, engineering, and photography, providing a new perspective on one of the largest and most representative corporations. General Electric was one of the first modern industrial corporations to use photographs and other media resources to create images of itself; and the GE archives, comprising well over a million images, form one of the largest privately held collections in the world. To produce this venturesome book, David Nye has used these vast archives to develop a new approach to corporate ideology through corporate iconography.Image Worlds embraces symbols, intentional signs, and photographs on the one hand and the history of institutional and technological development on the other. It views photography as a developing technology with a history of its own, and presents the corporation as a communicator as well as a producer and employer.Illustrated with nearly 60 photographs from the archives, the book identifies five markets that GE sought to organize and address. Company engineers, workers, and managers received publications designed to appeal to their presumed interests. Some of these grew into public journals with a scientific-educational mission; others were restricted in circulation even within the company. At the same time, illustrated mass-media advertising was created to reach potential consumers of GE products. Advertising that presented an image of GE as a place where progress was the most important product. While GE was promoting this enlightened image, the company was also using its resources to reach the voting public, hoping to gain their support for private electrification in the national debate over municipal power.David E. Nye is Associate Professor of American History at Odense University in Denmark.

Child-feeding habits in a situation of social change: the case of Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Based on interview of 250 mainly non-literate low income group mothers who use a childcare and antenatal clinic in Maiduguri, the study sought to know the pattern of child-feeding that is emerging in Maiduguri, a rapidly urbanizing centre, and sought to identify factors responsible for the emergence of the pattern. The study found that the pattern emerging is characterized by a tendency to combine traditional and methods learnt as a result of contact with bearers of western industrial culture. The most important factors seen to be implicated in the development of this pattern is mass media advertisement and the example of elite mothers whose visibly displayed adoption of bottle-feeding elevates it to the status of a fashion in the eyes of the lower income, illiterate or less western educated mothers who then follow uncritically. It is suggested that more be done by the medical profession to counter this trend in the state, than its present apparent resigned acceptance.