16 pages., Via online journal., This study explores potential factors that lead to environmental opinion leadership behaviors such as informing the public about environmental issues and encouraging preventative behaviors among various social groups. Building on the theoretical framework of the diffusion of innovations model, these analyses explore the effects that mass media may have on perceptions of self-efficacy among opinion leaders and how self-efficacy may, in turn, encourage leaders to communicate about aquatic invasive species (AIS) to others in their social networks. Results indicate that mass media and governmental media can have both a positive and negative influence on levels of self-efficacy, and that opinion leaders with higher levels of self-efficacy are more likely to participate in behaviors that could potentially influence their social network(s). These findings not only highlight factors that influence opinion leadership regarding advocacy of environmental behaviors, but also offer insights as to how future campaigns can work with these groups to promote prevention strategies.
Dunwoody, Sharon (author), Dybro, Tom (author), Griffin, Robert J. (author), Zabala, Fernando (author), and Center for Mass Media Research, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI; Center for Environmental Communication and Education Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; Center for Mass Media Research, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI; Center for Mass Media Research, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1994
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 98 Document Number: C08036
Notes:
James F. Evans Collection, Mimeographed, 1994. 25 p. Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Atlanta, GA, August 10-13, 1994., More and more communities are becoming concerned about health risks posed by lead and other health hazards in their supplies of drinking water. Our study, applying the model of innovation diffusion to the adoption of preventive health behaviors, found that reliance on health professional for information about lead in tap water was associated with residents perceiving risk form this hazard and efficacy in dealing with it, and adopting preventive behaviors. Mass media nd pamphlets direct-nailed to residents were relatively ineffective. The relationship of access difficulty and perceived informational usefulness to reliance on media for tap water lead information are also examined. (original)
