Shah 164006843 Communication Strategy Persuasive Communication Dr. Yanovitzky Nishal Shah Shah 164006843 Nishal Shah Persuasive Communication – COMM 359 Communication Strategy 10 December 2017 Background and Strategic Communication Objectives: While the previous paper examined a particular audience to target (young, suburban Latino and Korean parents) when providing information about immunizations, there were a few misleading claims that must be addressed before properly creating a strategy that allows for the persuasion of the target audience. For instance, it is important to address what is being changed in the target audience. Rather than simply providing them with positive information about immunizations through social media platforms along with meetings with their primary care physicians, the main mindset that must be altered is the negative myth and strongly held beliefs about the harmful effects of immunizations on children. As research has led to in the two previous papers, it is necessary to have the target audience comprehend the benefits of vaccinations in order to not only prevent their children from deadly diseases, but to support others by increasing herd immunity. Furthermore, the paper regarding audience analysis had mentioned that the theory of compliance-gaining would be the most effective when creating persuasive messages in the context of immunizations. The rationale for selecting this particular theory is that while persuasion relates to the changes in attitudes and beliefs, compliance-gaining is more geared towards changes in one’s behavior. That being said, while it is important to examine the target audience’s beliefs about immunizations, it is more effective to understand their behavior when it comes to immunizing their children. By recognizing the target audience’s Shah 164006843 behavior towards immunizations, the persuasive content can include how the immunization schedule can be altered to adhere to the audience’s schedules (which may be restraining them from immunizing). Therefore, the communication objectives that the strategy intends to achieve is the demystification of the strongly held beliefs among the target audience that immunizations are harmful to children. In order to effectively engage the target audience and bring upon this change in their beliefs, it would be useful to create messages by implementing various and popular social media platforms. Message Strategy: The target audience must understand that immunizations are beneficial to not only their own child, but for the wellbeing of others. While providing research data about the topic could be favorable, another, more personal tactic would be of greater effect. (Lee & Cho 2017 pg 646). Thus, the core message that must be conveyed to the target audience is that immunizations have more positive effects for not only your child, but for the community as a whole, as opposed to negative effects. Through this message, we are able to include the three main parts that is imperative to have in a message. The issue is addressed by mentioning what belief in particular needs to be changed. By acknowledging that when receiving immunizations, you are not only benefiting your child, but also others around you, refers to why the audience should care about the message. Finally, noting that immunizations have more positive effects than negative effects, the audience should alter their strongly held beliefs about the harm immunizations cause to their children. Since depriving children of essential immunizations can be detrimental to their health, creating a message that engages emotional appeals would be of better interest. While there are numerous types of emotional appeals, the most applicable type would be altruism, which refers Shah 164006843 to someone wanting good for others. By constructing a message that alludes to the possibility of causing harm to their children’s health, the audience would be more willing to process the message centrally rather than peripherally which may happen if they are only provided with research facts (Nan, Futerfas, & Ma 2017 pg 5). As facts might not be effective, there should be multiple narrative-type messages which display children who are undergoing severe diseases that are easily preventable by immunizations. The children who are employed for these advertisements would be of the same ethnic groups as the target audience. The message would also include a quote from the child pleading parents to have their children immunized. Furthermore, a few of the messages can also include parents of children who have been infected by diseases and asking parents to be proactive and have their children immunized as soon as possible. With research cited in the previous paper on how the target audience is using online platforms to seek out information about immunizations, these messages should be posted on SNSs that are popular among the group for maximum exposure (Raneri & Matusitz 2015 pg 120). Source/Messenger: While the CDC has continuously tried to have parents immunize their children by creating campaigns and vaccination schedules, many parents are still denying its importance. The target audience has expressed that they are unaware of how necessary immunizations are to the health of their children and are willing to receive more information. To supplement this, they have voiced that if provided with substantial information from their child’s primary care physician rather than being told that must immunize their child, they are more likely to oblige (Marsh et al. 2014). Physicians can begin to inform parents about immunizations and then lead them to a page on Facebook or Twitter that is specifically for the target audience’s demographic. Shah 164006843 Studies have proven that the target audience will trust their doctors when it comes to learning about protective measures for their children, hence allowing the physicians to be the secondary audience when it comes to persuading the target audience. With their authority and knowledge of the information, they are a key group to implement in the communication strategy. Due to their status, physicians would likely be persuasive in most situations, however, with the increasing amount of the Generation X and the Millennial generation becoming parents, the message would need to be heavily implemented on social media to persuade. Dissemination Channels: From previous research, which studied the channels through which many parents received crucial health information for their children, it is evident that online social media platforms are the most frequented. Therefore, it is essential to integrate these social networking sites (SNSs) in order to properly engage and inform parents about the benefits of immunizations. With this, there is the possibility of eradicating the abundant negative and false information about immunizations that is currently present online and causing many parents to reject vaccinating their children. While SNSs are the most useful ways to promote positive enforcement for immunizations to parents, it is imperative to understand which specific SNSs are used by the target audience. A study conducted observed that parents of Korean and Latino decent have mainly used platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to receive health information for their children (Shoup et al. 2015 pg 2). While the strategy can first integrate face-to-face communication when the child’s physician initially educates the parent(s) about immunizations, they should then be directed to mediated communication through SNSs. Since social media holds various ways in which a message can be conveyed (i.e. through videos, photos, posts, etc.), by designing messages through dissemination vehicles such as public service announcements and Shah 164006843 videos, we can tap into altruistic appeals and begin changing the target audiences’ beliefs about immunizations. Conclusion: Even though by materializing messages through social media networks that are popular among the target audience and having those messages contain emotional appeals, that does not result in every parent changing their beliefs. While there are definitely strengths in the communication strategy, such as messages specifically adhering to the target audience’s demographic and steadily acclimating them to the concept of having their children immunized, the main weakness present is having the parents log on to their social media accounts and follow the page that has been created to educate them. According to the strategy, the physicians are to initially inform the parents about the benefits of vaccinating their child and then advise them to view the Facebook and/or Twitter page for further information. While the strategy could have the parents report back if they had or had not visited the page, it would be difficult to guarantee a certain amount of page visits. In regards to the cost-effectiveness of the communication strategy, it is fairly cheap when compared to campaigns of other types since using social media is typically low in cost. A significant number of the target audience are already present on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter daily and having them sign-up for an account entails no fee. That being said, many parents in the target audience are of a low socio-economic status, therefore not having complete and proper access to the Internet. Since the campaign will be on social media platforms, the publicness of it will result in users other than the target audience to look at the page. Therefore, a more wider communication strategy can also be implemented to remove the possibility of unintended users and outcomes. Shah 164006843 Works Cited: Lee, M., & Cho, J. (2017). Promoting HPV Vaccination Online: Message Design and Media Choice. Health Promotion Practice, 18(5), 645-653. Nan, X., Futerfas, M., & Ma, Z. (2017). Role of Narrative Perspective and Modality in the Persuasiveness of Public Service Advertisements Promoting HPV Vaccination. Health Communication, 32(3), 320-328. Raneri, A., & Matusitz, J. (2015). Source Representation in the Communication of Childhood Immunisation. Child Care In Practice, 21(2), 114-127. Marsh, H., Malik, F., Shapiro, E., Omer, S., & Frew, P. (2014). Message Framing Strategies to Increase Influenza Immunization Uptake Among Pregnant African American Women. Maternal & Child Health Journal, 18(7), 1639-1647. Shoup, J. A., Wagner, N. M., Kraus, C. R., Narwaney, K. J., Goddard, K. S., & Glanz, J. M. (2015). Development of an Interactive Social Media Tool for Parents with Concerns about Vaccines. Health Education & Behavior, 42(3), 302-312.
