East Tennessee State University Effects of Media Violence on Youth Paper This is your final assignment. Lots of directions. Read them carefully. Your fin

East Tennessee State University Effects of Media Violence on Youth Paper This is your final assignment.

Lots of directions. Read them carefully.

Your final paper due the Monday of finals week will include the following:

Look at the attached studies. Notice their formats. You are going to produce such a study though obviously without findings or discussion of findings.

Your assignment is to propose a study that will analyze the effects of media violence on a group or groups. Media can include any media, online, movies, television, books, graphic novels, etc.

Use the attached studies as examples.

Your assignment will include:

1. a definition of media violence from the powerpoint presented in class OR prepare your own definition of media violence.. You must explain why your definition is the most logical to use explaining this point through RESEARCH.

I included the powerpoint “media criticism” which offered some definitions of violence.

2. an abstract–a 100-200 word summary of your proposed research including an explanation of its relevence.

Read the attached powerpoint about research types to define the type of study you will do.

3. a means of testing your variables. What will you measure and how will you measure it. In class, I gave examples of the tools I used to measure loneliness, depression, parasocial interaction, social desirability, uses and gratifications. I found those tools the same way you will: researching articles that examined the variables you are examining.

4. a literature review. A thorough review of academic studies that defined and analyzed the variables you are studying. My dissertation had entire sections defining EACH of these: loneliness, depression, parasocial interaction, social desirability, uses and gratifications including recent research on those variables. Recency is important in such research and narrowing your research to academic studies is important. You will find that once you find one or two relevant articles, you can use the works cited as a beginning point of finding your research.

Remember JSTOR, Academic search elite, etc. are search engines and not sources. I want the journal, author, title, year, etc all put forward in APA, MLA or other means of formatting (your choice).

I presented my research variables as examples of my dissertation. I expect to see other variables used in your research.

Make sure you include hypotheses. Examples of hypotheses from the attached studies are below. The hypotheses will predict, based on previous research, the results you expect to get from your study.

Hypothesis 3:

Spokesperson type will interact with viewer weight, whereby overweight viewers who watch a PSA featuring a real person will have the highest (a) diet intention and (b) exercise intention.

H3. Parasocial identification with a celebrity endorser will mod- erate the effect of celebrity-product congruence on (a) attitude toward the e-cigarette ad in social media, (b) eWOM intention, and (c) intention to use e-cigarettes.

H4. Parasocial identification with a celebrity endorser will mod- erate the effect of congruence between a consumer’s risk-oriented possible self and a celebrity endorser’s image on (a) attitude toward the e-cigarette ad in social media, (b) eWOM intention, and (c) intention to use e-cigarettes.

Make sure you explain your methodology for your study.

If you have a study in mind that does not involve media violence, you must get that project approved by me before you proceed.

This paper will be approximately 15 pages. Most of it will be the literature review.

This assignment is for BOTH media theory and the junior writing assignment.

Any questions, let me know. Do good work. Stay healthy. Journal of Health Communication
International Perspectives
ISSN: 1081-0730 (Print) 1087-0415 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uhcm20
Authenticity in Obesity Public Service
Announcements: Influence of Spokesperson Type,
Viewer Weight, and Source Credibility on Diet,
Exercise, Information Seeking, and Electronic
Word-of-Mouth Intentions
Joe Phua & Spencer Tinkham
To cite this article: Joe Phua & Spencer Tinkham (2016): Authenticity in Obesity Public Service
Announcements: Influence of Spokesperson Type, Viewer Weight, and Source Credibility on
Diet, Exercise, Information Seeking, and Electronic Word-of-Mouth Intentions, Journal of Health
Communication, DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2015.1080326
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2015.1080326
Published online: 06 Jan 2016.
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Download by: [University of Georgia]
Date: 12 January 2016, At: 07:12
Journal of Health Communication, 0:1–9, 2015
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1081-0730 print/1087-0415 online
DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2015.1080326
Authenticity in Obesity Public Service Announcements:
In?uence of Spokesperson Type, Viewer Weight, and Source
Credibility on Diet, Exercise, Information Seeking, and
Electronic Word-of-Mouth Intentions
JOE PHUA and SPENCER TINKHAM
Downloaded by [University of Georgia] at 07:12 12 January 2016
Department of Advertising and Public Relations, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
This study examined the joint in?uence of spokesperson type in obesity public service announcements (PSAs) and viewer weight on
diet intention, exercise intention, information seeking, and electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) intention. Results of a 2 (spokesperson type: real person vs. actor) 2 (viewer weight: overweight vs. non-overweight) between-subjects experiment indicated that overweight viewers who saw the PSA featuring the real person had the highest diet intention, exercise intention, information seeking,
and eWoM intention. Parasocial interaction was also found to mediate the relationships between spokesperson type=viewer weight
and two of the dependent variables: diet intention and exercise intention. In addition, viewers who saw the PSA featuring the real
person rated the spokesperson as signi?cantly higher on source credibility (trustworthiness, competence, and goodwill) than those
who saw the PSA featuring the actor.
Health media campaigns have traditionally focused on
delivering persuasive messages through public service
announcements (PSAs) to in?uence behavioral change
(Dillard & Peck, 2000; Gunther & Thorson, 1992). With
obesity becoming an increasingly serious health problem in
the United States, public health organizations have also
started using social media, mobile, and other online
platforms to in?uence healthy eating and exercise among
at-risk populations. Approximately 34.9% (78.6 million) of
American adults are obese (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 2015b). Recent obesity campaigns, such as
First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move, have focused on
childhood obesity, bringing the issue to the forefront of
the national health conversation. Applying the concept of
authenticity in advertising, this study examined how source
(real person vs. actor) and receiver (overweight vs.
non-overweight) characteristics jointly in?uence viewers’
diet, exercise, information seeking, and electronic word-ofmouth (eWoM) intentions.
Address correspondence to Joe Phua, Department of
Advertising and Public Relations, Grady College of
Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia,
120 Hooper Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA. E-mail: joephua@
uga.edu
Color versions of one or more of the ?gures in the article
can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/uhcm.
Literature Review
Authenticity in Advertising
Authenticity in advertising is de?ned as a ‘‘textual stimulus
that conveys the illusion of the reality of ordinary life in reference to a consumption situation’’ (Stern, 1994, p. 388).
Early researchers posited authenticity as a postmodernist
construct, whereby consumers subjectively and continually
interpret authenticity by drawing from personal experiences
(Bruner, 1994; MacCannell, 1973; Wang, 1999). Advertisements create an illusion mimetic of reality and serve to persuade audiences to agree with advertisers’ points of view.
This is most often conveyed using spokespersons, or characters created to appear in ads whose purpose is to persuade
the audience to consume (Atkin & Block, 1983; Till &
Shimp, 1998; Walker, Langmeyer, & Langmeyer, 1993).
An advertisement, according to Stern (1994), imitates real
life, presenting imagined persons responding to imagined circumstances through invented acts. Ads achieve authenticity
when a spokesperson’s performance, whether through physical appearance, vocal utterances, or actions, is so effective
that the audience believes him or her or is at least willing
to suspend disbelief and, in doing so, accepts the advertiser’s
persuasive message (Bruner, 1994; E. Cohen, 2002; Stern,
1994).
Grayson and Martinec (2004) differentiated between two
types of authenticity: indexical, whereby a brand=persona is
seen as the original; and iconic, whereby a second brand=
persona mimics or recreates the essence of the original
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2
J. Phua and S. Tinkham
brand=persona. Much advertising research has found that
authentic spokespersons are more effective because
consumers transfer their feelings toward spokespersons to
advertised brands (e.g., Berger & Mitchell, 1989; Beverland,
Lindgreen, & Vink, 2008; Jin & Phua, 2014). Brand preferences are highest when spokesperson gender, ethnicity, and
other physical characteristics are congruent with target audiences and advertised brands (Biswas, Biswas, & Das, 2006;
Moulard, Garrity, & Rice, 2015). Other research has also
applied authenticity to the study of behavior in consumer
subcultures—including environmentally friendly (Ewing,
Allen, & Ewing, 2012); hip-hop (McLeod, 1999); lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (Kates, 2004); automobile
enthusiast (Leigh, Peters, & Shelton, 2006); fashion (Choi,
Ko, Kim, & Mattila, 2015); reality television–viewing (Rose
& Wood, 2005); and running (Chalmers, 2007) communities—?nding that consumption of authentic brands is linked
to social status goals. Thus, authenticity can be seen as a
quality highly valued by individuals motivated to reduce
uncertainty, in line with Festinger’s (1954) social comparison
theory.
Even though authenticity has been widely used to study
advertising, there is limited research applying it to health
communication, which the current study addresses. Based
on established de?nitions of authenticity (Beverland et al.,
2008; Grayson & Martinec, 2004) we propose that in obesity
PSAs, when a spokesperson is a real person suffering from
an actual health condition (Type II diabetes), he or she
embodies indexical authenticity. Conversely, when the
spokesperson is an actor portraying a character who suffers
from the health condition, he or she embodies iconic authenticity. We predict that a real person PSA spokesperson is
more likely to trigger viewers’ normative beliefs and motivation to comply with the PSA’s message, in accordance with
the mechanisms set forth in the theory of reasoned action
(Ajzen & Fishbein, 1973), and thus exert a more signi?cant
effect on diet and exercise intention than an actor portraying
a character with Type II diabetes. Thus:
Hypothesis 1: Spokesperson type will have a signi?cant in?uence on viewers’ postexposure
(a) diet intention and (b) exercise intention.
Also, based on previous literature on authenticity, in which
audiences subjectively interpreted spokesperson authenticity
based on personal experiences (Bruner, 1994; MacCannell,
1973; Wang, 1999), as well as ?ndings linking congruency
between spokesperson and viewer to brand preferences
(e.g., Jin & Phua, 2014; Moulard et al., 2015), we propose
that overweight viewers will have signi?cantly higher postexposure diet and exercise intention than non-overweight viewers. Therefore:
Hypothesis 2: Viewer weight will have a signi?cant
in?uence on viewers’ postexposure (a)
diet intention and (b) exercise intention.
In addition, we predict that viewer weight will have an additive effect on viewers’ interpretation of the spokesperson’s
authenticity in the PSA, signi?cantly impacting their postexposure diet and exercise intention. Speci?cally, overweight
viewers who watch a PSA featuring a real person will judge
the spokesperson as more indexically authentic compared to
those who watch a PSA featuring an actor or to
non-overweight viewers who watch either the PSA featuring
the real person or the actor and thus will have signi?cantly
higher diet and exercise intention. Thus:
Hypothesis 3: Spokesperson type will interact with
viewer weight, whereby overweight
viewers who watch a PSA featuring a
real person will have the highest (a) diet
intention and (b) exercise intention.
Parasocial Interaction (PSI)
Viewers can engage in one-sided relationships with media
characters through a process known as PSI, during which
the viewer comes to believe that the media character is
directly communicating to him or her (Horton & Wohl,
1956). In the parasocial encounter, the viewer develops
empathy for the character, adopting the character’s
perspective and feelings (Giles, 2002). Early PSI research
focused on media ?gures like newscasters and soap opera
characters (Perse & Rubin, 1989), but this concept has since
been applied to online communities (Ballantine &
Stephenson, 2011), reality shows (Papacharissi &
Mendelson,
2007),
advertising
(Knoll,
Schramm,
Schallhorn, & Wynistorf, 2015), and online video-sharing
sites like YouTube (Chen, 2014). In their two-level model
of PSI, Klimmt, Hartmann, and Schramm (2006) de?ned
PSI as a viewer’s cognitive, affective, or behavioral response
to a persona, which is expected to set in immediately and
automatically once the persona is encountered. Accordingly,
the viewer cannot avoid some level of PSI with the persona
once the encounter takes place but always responds in some
way (Schramm & Hartmann, 2008). Because the spokesperson in the obesity PSA in this study can be considered a
media character, as she is onscreen for the duration of the
PSA, sharing her story (Type II diabetes diagnosis), with
the viewer as a captive audience who cannot avoid
interacting parasocially with her, we suggest that PSI with
the spokesperson will in?uence the viewer’s diet and exercise
intention because of the viewer empathizing with the spokesperson’s perspective:
Hypothesis 4: PSI with a spokesperson will mediate
between spokesperson type and viewer
weight to impact (a) diet intention and
(b) exercise intention.
Source Credibility
Source credibility refers to positive spokesperson
characteristics, including trustworthiness, competence, and
goodwill, that in?uence acceptance of persuasive messages
(Hovland & Weiss, 1951; McCroskey & Teven, 1999).
Source credibility has been found to be effective in changing
3
Authenticity in Obesity PSAs
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health behaviors, including HIV=AIDS prevention (Major &
Coleman, 2013), smoking cessation (Byrne, Guillory,
Mathios, Avery, & Hart, 2012; Phua, 2013), health information seeking (Hu & Sundar, 2010), and social support
(Wright & Rains, 2014). Studies have also found evidence
that when spokespersons are perceived as being paid to
endorse products, viewers report signi?cantly less positive
attitudes toward the spokesperson (Moore, Mowen, & Reardon,
1994; Silvera & Austad, 2004), which in turn in?uence perceptions of products advertised. Because in this study, the
spokesperson who is an actor can be assumed to have been
paid for appearing in the PSA without actually having
Type II diabetes, whereas the real person is less likely to
have been paid while actually having Type II diabetes, we
ask whether spokesperson type will signi?cantly in?uence
perceived source credibility:
Research Question 1: Does spokesperson type signi?cantly impact perceived spokesperson credibility (trustworthiness, competence, and
goodwill)?
Social Network Sites (SNSs) and eWoM
SNSs, de?ned as interactive Internet-based applications that
allow members to set up personal pro?les; connect with other
members; and create, share, and comment on user-generated
content (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), are increasingly utilized in
health campaigns. As of September 2014, 74% of online
adults used SNSs, with 52% being members of two or more
SNSs (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden,
2015). SNSs enable users to spread eWoM, or pass along
information online, making it accessible to a large audience,
so as to persuade the audience to carry out an activity
(Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004). eWoM
can be propagated through SNSs in a viral fashion (Chu &
Kim, 2011; Phelps, Lewis, Mobilio, Perry, & Raman,
2004). Recent health campaigns like the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention’s Tips From Former Smokers and
the National Highway Traf?c Safety Administration’s Stop
Texts Stop Wrecks have utilized PSAs, passed along virally
through SNSs, to deliver health messages. We hypothesize
an interaction effect between spokesperson type and viewer
weight on information seeking and eWoM intention:
Hypothesis 5: Spokesperson type will interact with
viewer weight, whereby overweight
viewers who watch a PSA featuring a
real person will have the highest postexposure (a) information seeking and (b)
eWoM intention.
Method
A 2 (source: real person vs. actor) 2 (receiver: overweight
vs. non-overweight) between-subjects, full-factorial experiment was conducted, assessing the effects of source (whether
the spokesperson was a real person with Type II diabetes or
an actor) and receiver (whether the viewer was overweight or
non-overweight) characteristics on key dependent measures.
The study was conducted as part of a larger funded obesity
research initiative at a major university in the southeastern
United States.
Sample
Of 200 participants, 74 (37%) were 18–21 years old, 81
(40.5%) 22–34 years old, 15 (7.5%) 35–44 years old, 18
(9%) 45–54 years old, nine (4.5%) 55–64 years old, and three
(1.5%) 65 and older. For gender, 84 (42%) were male and 116
(58%) female. For marital status, 128 (64%) were single, 36
(18%) married, 20 (10%) divorced=separated, two (1%)
widowed, and 14 (7%) other. For race=ethnicity, 102 (51%)
were Caucasian, 70 (35%) African American, six (4%) Asian,
eight (4%) Latino=Hispanic, and 14 (7%) mixed=other. For
annual household income, 111 (55.5%) earned $100,000. Finally, 100 were non-overweight
(body mass index [BMI] < 25), and 100 (50%) were overweight (BMI > 25). All non-overweight participants
(n ¼ 100) in the sample were determined to be in the healthy
weight range as de?ned by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (2015a), with a calculated BMI ranging from
18.5 to 25, and hence were retained in the study analysis.
Experimental Stimuli
Two versions of a 30-second Strong4Life obesity campaign
PSA were created, one with a scroll at the bottom of the
screen with the sentence ‘‘This advertisement is portrayed
by an actor’’ and the other with the sentence ‘‘This advertisement is portrayed by a real person.’’ Both versions of the
PSA featured an overweight teenager along with a voiceover
by her mother describing how her daughter’s weight led to
her developing Type II diabetes. The PSA was chosen for
its scenario depicting a parent–child discussion of a negative
health risk of obesity (Type II diabetes). The experimental
stimuli were posted on the popular video-sharing website
YouTube for viewing.
Procedure
Data were collected through a central intercept method at a
shopping mall in the southeastern United States. Trained
interviewers recruited participants (N ¼ 200) by intercepting
shoppers at a prominent mall location. Participants received
$5 gift cards as an incentive. Each potential participant ?rst
?lled out a screening questionnaire, including questions asking for their height and weight, from which their BMI was
manually calculated. To reduce the risk of attuning participants to issues of weight and weight management, questions were included asking potential participants about
their favorite pet, movie, music artist, brands, food, stores
at the mall, and shopping habits. Based on calculated
BMI, 100 overweight and 100 non-overweight participants
4
were recruited. A total of 50 overweight and 50
non-overweight participants were randomly assigned to
watch the PSA featuring the real person, whereas the other
50 overweight and 50 non-overweight participants were randomly assigned to watch the PSA featuring the actor. Participants were led to a private room equipped with a
computer and viewed the PSA on YouTube, after which they
completed an online questionnaire.
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Measures
Diet Intention
Diet intention was measured using seven items from the
Dieting Intentions Scale (Cruwys, Platow, Rieger, & Byrne,
2013), which assessed intention to lose weight in the next 3
months on 7-point Likert-type scales ranging from strongly
disagree to strongly agree. Items included ‘‘In the next 3
months, I intend to go on a diet’’ and ‘‘In the next 3 months,
I intend to reduce my calorie intake’’ (Cronbach’s a ¼ .93).
Exercise Intention
Exercise intention was measured using 11 items modi?ed
from the Intention to Exercise scale (Kerner & Grossman,
2001), which assessed intention to engage in physical exercise
activity in the next 3 months on 7-point Likert-type scales
ranging from very unlikely to very likely. Items included ‘‘I
intend to adhere to a program of exercise in the next 3
months to get in shape’’ and ‘‘I intend to adhere to a program of exercise in the next 3 months to reduce my risk
for coronary heart disease’’ (Cronbach’s a ¼ .83).
PSI
PSI was measured using one item from the Inclusion of
Other in the Self scale (Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992) plus
10 items modi?ed from J. Cohen (2001) on 7-point
Likert-type scales ranging from strongly disagree to strongly
agree. Items included ‘‘I was able to understand the problem
faced by the spokesperson in the way she understood it’’ and
‘‘After viewing the PSA, I could feel the emotions the
spokesperson portrayed’’ (Cronbach’s a ¼ .92).
Source Credibility
Three dimensions of credibility—trustworthiness, competence, and goodwill—were measured using items from
McCroskey and Teven (1999) on 7-point semantic differential scales. Trustworthiness (six items) included ‘‘Dishonest=
Honest’’ and ‘‘Untrustworthy=Trustworthy’’ (Cronbach’s
a ¼ .92), competence (six items) included ‘‘Inexpert=Expert’’
and ‘‘Unintelligent=Intelligent’’ (Cronbach’s a ¼ .88), and
goodwill (six items) included ‘‘Insensitive=Sensitive’’ and
‘‘Self-centered=Not self-centered’’ (Cronbach’s a ¼ .89).
Information Seeking
Information seeking was measured using four items modi?ed from the Health Information National Trends Survey
(2013): ‘‘After viewing the PSA, I am more likely to seek
information about negative health effects of obesity through
newspapers, magazines, television, and ra…
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