BHVS316 Unit 2: Mass Media Discussion Board
BHVS316 – PSYCHOLOGY AND MASS MEDIA
UNIT 2: MASS MEDIA
Assignment Description
Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 600–700 words + MINIMUM OF 2 REFERENCES AND CITATIONSthat respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas:
- How effective is mass media in campaigns that are aimed at the public good (such as those against drunk driving, encouraging no texting while driving, advocating getting regular health checkups, or preventing forest fires)?
- Have you changed your own behaviors because of these campaigns? If so, explain how.
Assignment Objectives:
- Examine the ways that individuals perceive, interpret, use, and respond to information and images in mass media.
- Explore the interactions between psychology and the many forms of media available.
Answer preview
Mass media campaigns through platforms, including television and billboards, to influence healthy behaviors are aimed at passing a passive message through the incidental effects and routine. Since media campaigns can be extended for longer and short durations, they depend on disseminating behaviorally-focused messages to large audiences that affect their decisions. Mass media is effective in these campaigns through their direct and indirect pathways. Direct pathways invoke the emotional and cognitive responses to influences an individual’s decision making, while indirect routes seek to alter a person’s behavior by observing and adopting healthy behaviors (Wakefield, Loken, and Hornik, 2010). Mass media campaigns aimed at improving public good achieve this role through direct and indirect pathways that influence the cognitive and emotional responses, helping to adopt healthy behaviors.
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