1. Communication Campaigns
Campaign. n. 1. a series of military operations undertaken to achieve a specific objective within a given area. 2. an organized activity or operation

2. Campaign Messages

3. Defining communication campaigns…
(1) a campaign intends to generate specific outcomes or effects (2) in a relatively large number of individuals (3) usually within a specific period of time and (4) through an organized set of communication activities

4. Breaking down our definition
(1) “Campaigns are purposive”
What outcomes are sought?
Knowledge gain
Attitude formation or change
Behavior shaping or change
(2) “Campaigns are aimed at large audiences”
Distinguish from small-scale, interpersonal influence
Can be targeted or entire population

5. Breaking down our definition still further…
(3) “a campaign has a more or less specifically defined time limit”
Initiation to end of evaluation efforts
Messages may change over time
Effects may ensue beyond evaluation period
(4) “involves an organized set of communication activities”
Message appeal & content
Channel reliance
Dosage
Repetition
Level of coordination required

6. Pre-campaign planning
Audience predisposition, knowledge, experiences, attitudes
Readiness for change
Palatability of advocated message
Channel reliance and appropriateness
Type of appeal and dosage requirement
Cost analysis

7. Know thy audience Exposure: reception, attention, processing, feeling
Audience segmentation: targeting a segment or sub-portion of the audience
Who is in most need of change? (or)
Who is most likely to be influenced? (i.e., low hanging fruit)
Should you target the influencers?

8. Dimensions of Campaigns
Dimension 1: Level of Objective
What is goal of campaign? Or, Level of objective (persuasion)
Level 1: Exposure or awareness
Level 2: Knowledge, beliefs, attitudes
Level 3: Overt behavior change
Higher level involve prior activation of lower levels

9. Dimension 2: Locus of Change
At what level of change are you seeking?
Intrapersonal, institutional? Direct link to different levels of change
Goal may be to link individual and larger, more societal levels
What is expectation of shared response or is it individually internalized?
Are responses independent?

10. Dimension 3: Locus of Benefit
Who benefits?
Target, Sender, Third Party, Society at large?
Multiple?
Example 1: Political Campaign
Example 2: Health Campaign to quit smoking
Example 3: Seat belt Campaign

11. Boomerang Effects: When campaigns go badly
Forbidden fruit might sell the fruit
Underwhelming threat
Portrayals of problem behavior may normalize it
Desensitization

12. Eras in communication campaign research
Era 1: Campaigns have limited effects (as compared to theories of direct media effects, magic bullet)
Era 2: Campaigns can succeed…under certain circumstances (formative research, reasonable goals, segmentation, consider role of IC)
Era 3: Moderate Effects. What intermediate factors lead to anticipated effects? Active change ingredient (theory)

13. Final Considerations
Strategy of social control? Quit smoking, cancer screening – three E’s…
Education – campaigns seek to educate in an effort to engender change
Engineering – create conditions to engender change (e.g., smoking areas)
Enforcement – legislation, force change

14. The changing USA agenda
What is important and salient changes over time and as a function of campaigns and media
Requirement of campaign: issue importance
Requirement of campaign: campaigners have an entitlement to be involved with the issue