Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2010, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

An examination of three compliance-gaining strategies (Liking, Reciprocity, Reciprocal Concessions) viewed through the lense of a cultural fundraiser.

Committee: Durand Pope (Advisor) Subjects: Arts Management

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2023, Communication

This study aimed at determining if self-identification with a particular industry or group (in this case, the agriculture industry) affected the way messages about that industry or group were perceived, processed, and interacted upon. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion predicts how we process and understand content which aims to be persuasive, based on a number of individual differences and situational factors. The model explains when we first see content, we process it in one of two ways: through a central or peripheral route. The peripheral route of processing required little extra consideration and time are given to the message or content versus the central route of processing requiring additional time and reflection with the message or content. In this research, focus was placed on the agriculture industry and attention was particularly paid to identification, credibility, and content and if in any instances these affected participants' route of processing. Participants were shown messages published by either large corporate agriculture organizations like Future Farmers of America (FFA), Soil and Water Conversation Society, or National Soybean Association or those published by singular individuals such as farmers, FFA members, solar farms, and other agriculturalists or environmentalists both of which are easily for and against the agriculture industry. The first hypothesis of the study was aimed at determining if a relationship exists between individuals' self-identification with specific industries and groups and persuasive outcomes based on the sender of messages being an individual or an organization. The data collected revealed a significant relationship between participants' likelihood to like, quote, and retweet messages that were released from organizations in comparison to messages released by individuals. The second hypothesis of the study was to determine if a relationship is present between higher self-identification with the agricul (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kelly Dillon (Advisor); Sheryl Cunningham (Committee Member); Erin Hill (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Communication; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Rhetoric

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Ohio University, 2021, Business Administration

This study looks into the human element of information security (IS) by testing changes in attitude and behavioral intention following personalized IS awareness and training. Some modern IS research has left out attitude despite its theoretical foundation and ability to predict behavior, which is why the present study emphasizes its inclusion alongside behavioral intention. Traditional IS awareness and training programs fail to motivate employees to behave more securely due to a lack of empathy in the design of the IS program. This lack of motivation has caused employees to be the most commonly reported IS vulnerability for organizations. Many programs lack a degree of personal relevance that is needed to motivate employees to change their attitude and behavior towards IS. We propose a personalized awareness and training initiative that relies on personal relevance to address this issue. We argue that personalized awareness and training initiatives that rely on personal relevance are capable of significantly and positively changing IS attitude and behavioral intention amongst participants. The results of this study indicate that the type of awareness and training initiative participants received (general versus personalized) significantly and positively changed participant attitude, with no significant difference found in behavioral intention.

Committee: Gabriel Giordano Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Business Administration

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Communication

Online contexts, especially social networking sites, are becoming a widely available space to disseminate health information and target specific populations for health campaigns. Limited evidence for health message engagement in these contexts exists. This study draws on the elaboration likelihood model and construal level theory to predict processing time and recall when individuals are presented health messages from various sources and of differing viewpoints. Participants (n = 159) were shown messages about electronic cigarettes, designed to look like tweets, from socially close and socially distant others. Processing times were highest for pro-attitudinal messages while messages from socially close sources were more likely to be recalled, and increasing social distance increased the difference in processing times for pro- and counter-attitudinal messages. We demonstrate the applicability of behavioral measures in online studies, while finding that attitudes, social distance, and their interaction affect message processing.

Committee: Richard Huskey Dr. (Advisor); David DeAndrea Dr. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Media and Communication

Sharing, a term that is associated with “going viral,” is something all strategic communicators strive for in their communication campaigns. The current study explored sharing as message diffusion. The nature of information sharing is perceived as a form of word-of-mouth (WOM)—a voluntary act by the consumers to tell others their experience of a product or consumption of certain information. Sharing is an important social and economic phenomenon to study, because it maximizes the visibility of a company, a brand, a nonprofit, a policy, a product, and a service. This study aimed to create a comprehensive model explaining the process of individuals' decisions in the sharing of messages to their imagined audience on social media through considering the primary and secondary sources of the messages, their perceived credibility, emotion valence, and elaboration of the messages, while controlling audience variables such as issue involvement, personalities, past sharing experience, and demographics. The researcher conducted a two-wave experiment with a two by two factorial design. The study adopted Facebook as the subject of study. According to the results, when the original source is a for-profit organization, the post from the two-layered source is more likely to be shared than original source only. However, when the original source is a non-profit organization, the post from the direct source was more likely to be shared than a two-layered source. In addition, sharer credibility moderates the effects of the credibility of original sources on sharing Facebook posts. Message elaboration mediates the effects of both positive and negative emotion arousal on sharing non-controversial issues, but not in controversial issues. Furthermore, positive emotions were directly and indirectly associated with sharing non-controversial issues through a mediator of message elaboration that is conditioned by sharer credibility. This study advances and contributes ELM, the Two- (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Louisa Ha Ph.D. (Advisor); Frederick Busselle Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yanqin Lu Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sean Leatherbury Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Communication; Mass Media

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2013, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines persuasive differences between the same fictional narrative, presented as a comic book or as text-only short story. In an experiment, the two conditions delivered a series of persuasive messages embedded within the fictional narrative. Participants were tested on strength of belief for the persuasive messages and several indicators of narrative transportation including character identification, personal relevance, perceived vividness, and counter-arguing. Results indicated character identification was most pronounced in the text-only condition. Differences within gender and age groups were identified in character identification, experience taking, and counter-arguing. The relevance of digital design principles in the creation of persuasive communication for electronic devices is also discussed.

Committee: Jatin Srivastava (Committee Chair); Craig Davis (Committee Member); Keith Markman (Committee Member) Subjects: Experimental Psychology; Mass Communications; Multimedia Communications; Social Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Physical Activity and Educational Services

The present research was designed to broaden the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) by incorporating a newly added personality variable, empathic tendency, into the general framework, and by showing how empathic tendency can play a moderating role in the PSAs. The second purpose, based on the results, was to recommend different and effective PSAs for different target markets. In order test the ELM, a three way 2 (empathy: high versus low) x 2 (argument quality: strong versus weak) x 2 (peripheral cue: celebrity versus non-celebrity status) factorial design was selected for this study. The results indicated that both high empathy (HE) subjects and low empathy (LE) subjects had the motivation to process the persuasive messages presented, suggesting both groups followed the central route. More importantly, involvement was found to have a significant influence on the argument processing of LE subjects. In addition, the results revealed that celebrity status was not served as a peripheral cue for this study. HE subjects had significantly stronger intentions to volunteer for the Special Olympics than LE subjects, and that females are more empathic than males. This study contributed to the body of knowledge on advertisement in the context of sport marketing by providing insights into how to develop effective PSAs for non-profit charitable sport organizations, a segment which has largely been ignored in our field.

Committee: Donna Pastore (Advisor) Subjects: Business Administration, Marketing

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

Functional foods have received increasing attention from consumers and food producers and manufacturers over the past years, yet few studies have examined economic and marketing issues that are related to foods with additional health benefits beyond basic nutrients. This dissertation consists of three papers that employ different techniques to understand consumer behavior in this domain. The first essay applies a choice experiment to examine consumer valuation of various attributes of functional foods, using a statewide mail survey. Results indicate that consumers place positive value on health benefits and ingredient naturalness. Moreover, they are willing to pay higher prices for products having these attributes. The data also reveal that taste preferences tend to vary across consumers. Individual characteristics that tend to affect preferences include age, education, and income level. Past purchase behavior for functional foods, organic foods, and natural foods also has significant influence on preferences. The second essay uses the Elaboration Likelihood Model as a theoretical framework to understand the role of health claims in consumer assessment of products. Previous research and theory related to the role of health claims in persuasive messages has portrayed health claims as having little effect on consumers' attitudes. The present research, however, suggests this conclusion may be premature. A new conceptualization of the role of health claims in persuasion is proposed. Practical significance of the laboratory studies is discussed in light of recent changes in product design as well as changes in FDA rules regarding label claims. The third essay focuses on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s recently amended policy on food labeling. This policy allows different qualified levels of health claims on product labels, based on the strength of scientific evidence supporting the claims. This essay examines whether consumers understand and can differentiate be (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Neal Hooker (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Agricultural

Bachelor of Arts, Miami University, 2007, College of Arts and Sciences - Communication

This study examines print articles and public relations (PR) surrounding the publications of two Harry Potter novels through the framework of the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion. By dissecting the ELM techniques present in the PR, a successful strategy change emerged illustrating that the first Harry Potter book studied encouraged peripheral processing, while the second book studied encouraged central processing after the books' publics built a foundation of knowledge about the series.

Committee: Marjorie Nadler (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2011, Media and Communication

The effect of religious media is a controversial topic of debates among religious media practitioners, theologians, and ministers in religious communities because they differently understood the roles of religious media on audience members' religious practice. Based on the uses and gratification perspective, this dissertation investigated how audience members' motivation to deepen their faith via religious media affects their religious knowledge, religious attitude, and religious behavioral intention. This study examined (a) how religious media affect religious audience members, (b) how the effect differs in a various demographic and religious audience groups, such as education, income, the duration of audience members' religious experience, their activeness in practicing their faith, and their motivation to deepen their faith, and (c) how the employment of the central vs. peripheral information processing strategies influences the outcomes of religious media use. This study proposed that the relationship between the faith motivation and the outcomes of religious drama exposure will be mediated by the employment of the information processing strategy in the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). A three-phase pre-test and post-test field experiment was conducted to trace the changes in participants' religious knowledge, religious attitudes, and religious behavioral intention. Participants watched one hour-long manipulated rational or emotional religious drama in their parishes. In data analysis, participants were divided into novice Catholics and experienced Catholics, passive Catholics and active Catholics, and Catholics with low faith motivation and those with high faith motivation to test the premises of the uses and gratification and the ELM. The results show that religious drama is an effective format in religious programming in audience members' religious knowledge increase, their religious attitude reinforcement, and their religious behavioral intention change (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Louisa Ha PhD (Advisor); Lance Massey PhD (Other); Gi Woong Yun PhD (Committee Member); Sung-Yeon Park PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications; Mass Media