PUBLIC COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGNS: Theoretical Principles and Practical Applications

Abstract

Public communication campaigns can be broadly defined as (1) purposive attempts (2) to inform, persuade, or motivate behavior changes (3) in a relatively well-defined and large audience, (4) generally for noncommercial benefits to the individuals and/or society at large, (5) typically within a given time period, ( 6) by means of organized communication activities involving mass media, and (7) often complemented by interpersonal support (adapted and expanded from Rogers & Storey, 1987). The use of digital media in campaigns extends the traditional definition a bit. The International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (www.isrii.org) defined "Internet interventions [as] treatments, typically behaviorally based, that are operationalized and transformed for delivery via the Internet. Usually, they are highly structured; self-guided or partly self-guided; based on effective face-to-face interventions; personalized to the user; interactive; enhanced by graphics, animations, audio, and video; and tailored to provide follow-up and feedback," but do not include sites that just provide information (Ritterband, et al., 2006).Paisley ( 2001) distinguished public service campaigns (in which goals are generally supported by a broad array of stakeholders) from advocacy campaigns (in which goals are controversial and challenged by significant stakeholders). Over time, some topics may shift from one type to another, such as gender equality or smoking. Paisley (1998Paisley ( , 2001 mentioned several other conceptual distinctions: (1) Objectives or methods (emphasizing campaigns as strategies of social control to achieve objectives, or campaigns as a genre of communication with associated methods, communication channels, and kinds of results), (2) Strategies of change (whether the campaign emphasizes education or providing information about how to change behaviors or attitudes, enforcement or negative consequences for not complying with accepted or desired behavior, or engineering or designing social systems to prevent unwanted behaviors or consequences), (3) Individual or collective benefits (whether campaigns emphasize individual or social changes and outcomes, (4) First-party and second-party entitlement (whether campaign sources pay the direct consequences and have a primary stake in the issue or whether they are not directly affected and represent other stakeholders who may not be able to present their case) and ( 5) Types of stakeholders (whether the primary campaign sponsors and actors are associations, government agencies, foundations, trade unions, corporations, mass media, and social scientists, as they all differentially affect the public agenda, funding sources, campaign design, access to media, objectives and audiences).Extensive advances in research and practice related to campaign theorizing, design, implementation, evaluation, and critique have been introduced since our initial summary chapter (Rice & Atkin, 1994), and an increasing number campaigns have attained success in the past 15 years. Neverthele...