The use of mass communications in drinking-driving programs illustrates a belief in its power to ... "Magic bullets" to solve drinking-driving problems do not exist.
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Volume6 Number 2 April-June, 1990
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ALCOHOL,DRUGSAND DRIVING
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Mass Communications and DrinkingDriving: Theories, Practices and Results \, .~
Evelyn Vingilis and Barbara Coultes
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~, ABSTRACT The use of mass communications in drinking-driving programs illustrates a belief in its power to influence individual behaviour. Communication by "magic bullets", delivered by the direct stimulusresponse model, is evolving toward a more "global" approach. but the actual impact of mass communication remains unproven because of a lag in the development of adequate evaluation techniques. This review suggests a "global" approach which recognizes the interrelationship of mass communications with other systems (such as social. cultural, economic and political) that potentially impact on individuals.
"Magic bullets" to solve drinking-driving problems do not exist. Agreement with this statement is almost unanimous among program strategists. Yet, a critical review of mass communications drinking-driving programs reveals a different reality. Frequently, one magic bullet has mushroomed into an arsenal of magi~ bullets fIred from different sources at individuals within different segments of the general population. Some strategists assume that this "somehow reflects a global approach" when, in fact. it remains a collection of linear, stimulus-response approaches (Vingilis, 1987). Use of mass communications to deliver magic bullets is of particular interest since it is so widely used and, as stated by Wallack (1987), "the great potential of mass communication for promoting social good has long been a source of both hope and frustration...for over 150 years. .. yet this promise has never been realized to the extent anticipated"(p. 1). The "just say no" campaign in the U.S. uses the magic bullet approach. It demonstrates how multi-faceted problems that involve a need for action by many systems in society (e.g., social, cultural, political, economic) appear to be solved by one simple action. Wallack (1987) has pointed out that the complex drug problem has been "reduced to an inability of the individual to 'just say no' thereby resisting the temptations to take drugs and reinforcing the notion of a 'magic bullet' -this time in the form of a clear cut, forceful slogan." (p. 12). The assumption is that if information is delivered to people about the dangers of drugs, and if they respond by just saying no to drugs, the drug problem will be solved. This is not to suggest that anyone perceives that a slogan will solve the total drug problem, but major socio-economic issues related to drug use do not seem to be attacked with the same fervor. Albeit a step in the righf direction, this magic bullet approach avoids the reality that an "individual can seldom be accurately interpreted on the basis of individual psychological variables alone. Individuals almost always act within a social context that they take into account when making decisions about their behaviour." (De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982, p. 224).
l[Mailing address: Dr. Evelyn Vingilis, Addiction Research Foundation, 33 Russell Street. Toronto, Ontario, M5S 251, Canada.]
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The continuing fascination with the magic bullet approach, and the use of mass communications to deliver these bullets, raises a number of perplexing issues. These issues will be the focus of this review with particular emphasis on the drinking and driving literature. The fIrst part will present a brief, historical perspective in an effort to identify the research, and in some cases the beliefs and assumptions, that have dominated the use of mass communications. In the second part, a comprehensive review of mass communication programs for drinking and driving will look at the expectations and the results of actual programs. The intent is to identify clues to future directions that will assist program strategists to step beyond the current level of effectiveness. The "magic bullet" has become the popular term usually associated with a perception that the simple provision of information, targeting various segments of the general population, will lead to certain behaviour changes. Originally, "magic bullet" referred to the "strong effects" view of the 1940s that said "skilled media strategies can profoundly sway impressionable mass audiences at will." (Atkin, 1981, p. 266-7). A pessimistic outlook emerged during the early 1950s when program evaluations questioned the actual effectiveness of information campaigns. But, within the past ten years a more controlled and sophisticated variant of the strongeffect perspective resurfaced. The current version holds that mass media information campaigns can be moderately successful under certain conditions (Atkin, 1981). Historically, belief in the power of magic bullets became fmoly established by successful World War I propaganda campaigns that used the mass media to bombard citizens with pictures and messages promoting support of the government's war efforts. The war was supported and won. De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach (1982) concluded that this success, plus post-war evidence that mass media advertising could increase product sales, substantiated the belief in the power of mass media to shape public opinion and to influence the masses toward almost any point of view desired by the communicator. Further, they noted that the beliefs were completely consistent with existing behaviourist theory that predicted given responses to given stimuli since human beings were uniformly governed by inherited biological mechanisms. In fact, these beliefs of the power of mass communications seem to be the genesis of certain assumptions that are explicit or implied in the programs reviewed later. Wright (1975), for example, recalled the World War II success of the CBS 18-hr radio network marathon featuring Kate Smith, which obtained pledges for approximately $39 million worth of United-States government bonds, and a repeat performance the next year, during which she sold $110 million worth of bonds. This demonstrated the potential power of mass persuasion available to one individual using only one major avenue for mass communication (Wright, 1975). The media delivered a message that caused the audience to respond with pledges just as the government wanted. The magic bullet worked. More recent fundraising efforts continue to demonstrate that mass communications can yield positive results. Early belief in the power of mass communications was further substantiated by new technological developments. Radio, and later television, introduced unprecedented opportunities for instant channelling of messages to the general public. In 1928, radio broadcast what was probably the fIrst national program concerning a social or medical problem (Wallack, 1980a). Budd and Ruben (1988) contend that, to a large extent, the origins and heritage of research on mass communications are embedded in, and certainly legitimized by, popular and governmental hysteria and misconception about what it is media can do to people. They remind us of media events that left little doubt about the power of mass communications such as the public panic and subsequent concern triggered by the NBC Mercury Theatre's presentation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds in 1938. Delivery of a magic bullet to an audience has usually involved the process defIned by the linear, stimulusresponse communication model. This includes the fIve components of communication outlined originally by Lasswell in 1948-source, message, channel, receiver and effect (Bettinghaus, 1986; Blake and Haroldsen, 1975). Over the past 40 years, communications research has concentrated on explaining what happens between the stimulus, or source of the message, and the response, or receiver of the message, in the basic stimulus-response model. In some cases belief in this model has been so strong that researchers have tended to interpret poor results to mean a need for improving use of the model. For example, they have called for better understanding of the target audience and messages creation (Solomon, 1981; Wallack, 1981, 1984a. 1987)rather than a need to discard this linear view of communicationsin favour of a more global model or expansionist approach. Wallack (1987) has referred to this as the "mass media fantasy" which is the "belief that almost any given social or health
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problem can be adequately addressed if the right message could be communicated to the right people in just the right way at the right time." (p. 10).
During the 1940s, when mass communications failed to live up to the expectations of inducing certain behaviours, belief in the direct magic bullet or hypodermic-like effects gave way to a series of models that analyzed the message and the receiver. It was reasoned that perhaps not all message components were effective or that not all individuals heard and responded to messages as intended by the source or sender. Consequently, researchers began to isolate those characteristics of messages which would impact audiences and the psychosocial factors, such as individual differences, social categories and social relations, of the receiver (De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982; Dervin, 1981). The research on individual differences focussed on the distinct ways each member of an audience handled media messages (Blake and Haroldsen, 1975). The social categories perspective predicted that people with similar social and demographic characteristics demonstrated similar mass communications behaviour (Blake and Haroldsen, 1975). The social relations perspective recognized that informal social relationships played a significant part in modifying the manner in which given individuals acted upon a message that came to their attention via the mass media (De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982). De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach (1982) referred to these three perspectives as the "three most important, prevailing, interpretive frameworks on how people encounter the media." (p. 188). ~". c;;;
..These psychosocial and other factors became incorporated in subsequent communication models which lead to a proliferation of increasingly sophisticated versions of the linear, stimulus-response model or causeeffect interaction. The intricacy of some of the later models almost camouflaged their real identity. The fIrst three of these models were introduced in 1948 and 1949 and became a tri-model framework that has dominated much of communications research. These included models by Shannon and Weaver (a pioneer formalization of the linear, stimulus-response model), Lasswell (the who-says-whaHo-whom model), and Lazarsfe1d, Bere1sonand Gaudet (the two-step flow of information model).
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The 1949 Shannon and Weaver model (as cited in Fiske, 1982) concentrated on technology and how it affects the transmission of messages. While working in the U.S. Bell Telephone Laboratories during World War II, they developed a simple, linear, stimulus-response model from research on the capacity of telephone cable and radio sound waves to carry information. A box labelled "noise" was placed between the stimulus and the response (i.e., distorted sound, static) to show that this was a major factor in the mathematical calculation of the capacity of technology to carry information (Blake and Haroldsen, 1975; Fiske, 1982). Later other researchers expanded "noise" to include factors such as cultural differences, confusing messages and word meanings (Blake and Haroldsen, 1975). Most work in this area was done by investigators from engineering and physical sciences who were primarily interested in the correct transmission of signals rahter than the purposes of the message (Blake and Haroldsen, 1975). However, Fiske (1982) reported that Shannon and Weaver had claimed that their theory was widely applicable over the whole question of human communication. More recently the technological determinist's perspective lead to McLuhan's conclusions that "the medium is the message" and predictions of the decentralization of society into a "global village" (McLuhan, 1964; De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982). McLuhan (1964) built on Innis' earlier thesis that the nature of the media technology prevailing in a society at a given point in time greatly influences how the members of that society think and behave. However, as De Fleur and Rokeach (1982) have suggested, "few would accept the proposition that technology alone determines how people encounter and respond to the mass media." (p. 185). Today, the sense of a "global village" takes on real meaning when watching such televised events as the release of Nelson Mandela, South African black nationalist leader, from prison after 27 1/2 years. CBS (February 11, 1990) showed Mandela walking through the prison gates and, during the same coverage, they interviewed his daughter in her home in the United States where she was experiencing this major event in her family through the same television pictures as the network's viewing public. Viewers could also "be there" all night watching the events following the San Francisco earthquake (October 17, 1989). The second basic model, which questions who says what, on which channel, to whom, with what effect, was inn-oduced by Lasswell in 1948 (as cited in Blake and Haroldsen, 1975; De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982; Fiske, 1982; Wright, 1975). The model recognized new directions in psychological and sociological theories by
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acknowledging the individual differences perspective and the social categories perspective mentioned earlier (Blake and Haroldsen, 1975; De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982). "Effect" was an important addition since it implied an observable and measurable change in the receiver that is caused by identifiable elements in the process (Fiske, 1982). As De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach (1982) have explained "the logical structure of the individual differences view of media effects is a 'cause (intervening processes)-effect' structure, just as was the magic bullet theory before it." (p. 188). In fact, most mass communications research has implicitly followed
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Lazarsfeld et al. (1948) (as cited in Secord and Backman, 1964)constructed the third basic communications model after the power of mass communications failed to live up to expectations during an election campaign. A closer look at the results revealed the influence of opinion leaders. They found that the mass media messages had reached voters in a two-step process in the linear movement of information between the stimulus and the response. The theory posits that mass media messages pass from the media to "opinion leaders" to followers (less active, low-user of the media). While subsequent studies have not supponed the concept, the "fact" of the process continues in much of the communications literature albeit frequently now disguised as a "multi-step flow" (Budd and Ruben, 1988). This "personal influence" quickly became viewed as an important intervening process that operated between the mass communication message and the responses made to that message (De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982). The strength of this model, according to Blake and Haroldsen (1975), was the acknowledgement that people do not live in isolation but are active participants in many primary and secondary interpersonal relationships. These "individual-differences" themes, along with parallel social psychology models on mechanisms of behaviour changes (Secord and Backman, 1964) and the limited impact of results on message characteristics, led to the belief that there must be some cognitive processing mechanisms which, when understood, would allow for more effective message design (Dervin, 1981). Thus, the classic research of Allpon (1935) (cited in Bettinghaus, 1986) linking information and attitudes with behaviour became the mass persuasion model that is still with us today. This model hypothesizes that (a) people acquire information which leads to (b) the development of an attitude consistent with the newly acquired information which in turn leads to (c) behaviour in agreement with the attitude. And, despite the early work of La Piere (1934) (cited in Bettinghaus, 1986; Zaks-Walker and Larkin, 1976) and many others showing the tenuous relationship among the triad, the studies in the public information/education domain are most typically "KAP" studies which measure Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (Tones, 1985). Mass communications strategies based on the "KAP" model attempts to induce cognitive-dissonance by which the receivers entrap themselves into change in the source's direction by setting up conflicting cognitions (Dervin, 1981;Secord and Backman, 1964). The inconsistent results of the studies using this model lead to the view that systematic differences existed among receivers indicating that some receivers could be reached and others couldn't. The 1970s brought attempts to isolate systematic receiver differences which could be the focal point of message design (Dervin, 1981). In the drinking-driving area this became quite prevalent with the focus on "high risk" groups such as alcoholics or youth (Vingilis, 1983). Thus, the magic-bullet stimulus-response model evolved to a stimulus-response model with many variables impacting on the message and receiver in affecting intended behaviour. Again the pessimistic results in various arenas, from fashion to public health, of the media to affect behaviour lead to the increasing realization of the interrelationships among individuals and systems. Mass communications models such as the communicationpersuasion model of McGuire (1980, 1984) and informationlbehaviourchange models such as Bandura's (1977, 1986) self-efficacy model attempt to present a more interactive, integrated understanding of person-situation factors impacting on the classic "source, message, channel, receiver and effect." For example, the communication-persuasion model developed by McGuire (1980) lists a chain of responses necessary for effective communication, which involves engineering the receivers' behaviours by making structural changes in the institutional arrangement of society through legislation which restrict or control certain behaviours. The second part of McGuire's model involves convincing individuals to exercise personal responsibility for altering their behaviours. This view of the interrelatedness of individuals and systems led researchers in the 1980s to consider the mass communications process in a different light Historically, this actually began in 1953 when Newcomb (cited in Fiske, 1982) replaced the linear model with a triangle to provide a simplistic indication of how people and systems in a society attempt to maintain equilibrium within the social system. This model is important
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because it is the fIrst to introduce the part society or social relationships play in the mass communications process. As Fiske (1982) has stated, "This model assumes, though does not explicitly state, that people need information... . We must have adequate informationabout our social environment in order both to know how to react to it and to identify in our reaction factors that we can share with the fellow members of our peer group, subculture or culture" (p. 34). The late 1970s and 1980s have seen a proliferation of articles and books (e.g., De Fleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982; Thayer, 1988; Vingilis, 1987; Wallack, 1984b, 1987) expounding the "global" approach in which mass communications "involves complex relationships between large sets of interacting variables that are only crudely designated by the terms 'media', 'audiences', and 'society'. It is through taking these sets of variables into account individually, interactively and systematically that a more adequate understanding of mass communication effects can be gained" (Ball-Rokeach, 1985,p. 485). This global approach in which "the media do not exist in a vacuum" is becoming prevalent in theory, but is still not so common in practice and research (Budd and Rubin, 1988; De Fleur and Rokeach, 1982).
Findings of 50 Years of Mass Communication Research What have these 50 years of theories and research on mass communications generated by way of known effects of mass communications? Generally, the research suggests that mass media can generate effects under limited conditions (Atkin, 1981; Blane, 1988). Research indicates that it cannot be assumed that changes in knowledge, attitudes, or even self-reported behaviour will be reflected in actual behaviour (Mann et al., 1983; McGuire, 1984). Tolsma (1984) points out a paradox in the research literature which shows virtually no changes in seat belt use that can be attributed to education, but which also shows that seat belt use legislation is most effective when accompanied by education. Where awareness and knowledge gains have been reported, the messages have tended to be of particular ..1terestto the receiver or they have been associated with an event that the receiver perceived as a risk (Wallack, 1987). Dervin (1981) found increased message use when the information helped people make sense of the world around them, by constructing a cognitive order for a world where no external absolute sense is provided, rather than by providing traditional factual information. ~ ~
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Public agenda setting, a possible new positive direction, has built on the ability of mass communications to create awareness. It is generally accepted that mass media campaigns have been effective in gaining the attention of a target audience and in arousing the interest of target audiences (Bettinghaus, 1986; Blane, 1988). As Bettinghaus (1980) has stated, "those ideas, events and proposals that receive high play in the media tend to \1ethe ones that the public reacts to, and the ones that become discussed and eventually acted upon." (p. 170-1). . allack(1987)also stressedthat the use of massmediais importantin alteringthe socialagenda,stimulating publicdiscussionand,in general,providinga backgroundof legitimacyforissues. .
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Wallack (1987) has determined that "much of our use of mass media is based on the assumption that the media are able to act as a positive force for planned change in the health arena. There is little evidence to support this, whether we consider change in individual terms as the effect of directed media (e.g., public service campaigns or other special programming) or whether we look at change as indicated by the way we as a society think about or respond to health issues on a broader level." (p. 44). Several other researchers agree that behaviour change is unlikely to result from mass communicationsprograms alone (Chaffee and Roser, 1986;De Reur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982; Mann et al., 1988; Moskowitz, 1989). Indeed, Tones (1985) stated that mass -, '~ia are less likely to achieve effective results the more they become involved in promoting complex learning .- ..:n changing motivation and attitudes. Bettinghaus (1986) added an exception in light of the success of the 1973 National Driver's Test and the few other mass media campaigns that have had similar features.
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The literature suggests that there are other areas in which mass communications can have some impact; namely, the reinforcement of social norms, the greater influence of messages transmitted through opinion leaders, the greater likelihood of the use of information under highly ambiguous circumstances, and the effective creation of opinions on topics where limited or no opinion is held (Budd and Rubin, 1988). In summary, mass communications research suggests limited effects partly because of the underlying a.~sumptions of the stimulus-response model used in most theories. The newer global approach to mass
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communications would suggest integration with other larger social systems including cultural, political and economic systems.
Research Literature It is interesting to note that drinking-driving mass communications campaigns followed the same historical patterns as the general mass communications literature. From the 1950s through the 1970s, both very much followed the magic bullet approach. The strong belief that the right message, presented in the right way, would affect behaviour is evident in numerous governmental planning guides and books that were developed for programmers (e.g. Swinehart and Grimm, 1974;U.S. DOT, 1981).Evaluations during this period generally used some form of the "KAP" model. The late 1970s and 1980s introduced a more global approach to the view of mass communications. By the 1980s the perception was that mass communications in and of itself had some cognitive and affective impact but no behavioural impact (Jones and Joscelyn, 1978; NHTSA, 1980). The "systems" approach posited that legal countermeasures would be more effective with mass media. This vision of the interrelatedness of "person" factors, vis-a-vis personal perceptions of risk, and situation factors, such as new laws or greater enforcement and the mass communications system, was presented initially by Ross (1973) and further expounded by many others. Unfortunately, the existing examples of research did not follow the more global approach used in the programming of systems countermeasuresin the 1980s. Knowledge about the effects of drinking-driving mass communications programs over the years is sadly lacking despite the huge sums spent on these programs. Careful review of existing research finds it disappointingly underdeveloped and most often methodologically inadequate. Many flaws exist with current research on mass communications campaigns in drinking and driving. The primary flaw relates to the assumptions that determined the objectives of many drinking-driving campaigns. As presented earlier, the belief in the "hypodermic" effect, or magic bullet approach, has led to very unrealistic assumptions about the potential, direct power of campaigns. Programs and evaluations generally have assumed that the ultimate success of a campaign was a reduction in some measure of drinking-driving. Consequently, many studies have employed only the criterion measure of crashes. Other evaluations have recognized the varying effects of the message on the individual by using the classic "KAP" model. Unfortunately, many of these evaluations have included only cognitive and affective measures. When behavioural changes were assessed, it was often through self-reports. Any measurements that are verbal in nature suffer from the biases characteristic of an interview or questionnaire situation. The operation of response sets and the desire to make a socially acceptable impression can render responses that are not necessarily expressive of the subject's behaviour tendencies under different conditions (Wilde, 1975). Very few studies encourage some confidence in the relationship between actual and self-reportedbehaviours and consequently observational data are required as the dependent variable to assess behavioural change (Wilde, 1975). Furthermore, rarely are all the necessary measures employed. Evaluations must assess message impact in terms of penetration, awareness, correct interpretation and understanding, acquisition of new information and understanding as well as changes in beliefs, attitudes and behaviour (Tones, 1985). Ideally, the varied components of all the relevant systems should be assessed, although no research has ever done this. Another common flaw within the stimulus-response model is the lack of experimental design, that is, the use of pre-post test designs without a randomized control group. Thus, although pre-post measurements can assess change, they cannot separate out the effects of the communications campaign from all the other factors that could be confounding the results. One such factor could be the problem of historical events (pierce et al., 1975). For example, a roadside survey could find a reduction in the number of drinking drivers subsequent to a Christmas campaign. Unfortunately, it would be inappropriate to assume that the decrease was the result of the campaign as it could be due to the fact that the Christmas party season was over. Thus, only through the use of a randomized no-campaign control group can one assess campaign effects. Another related problem is the use of "non-randomized control" groups. Often studies use "convenient" control groups or "matched" groups. Matched groups are no substitute for randomization. Indeed, often groups that are intuitively matched on a variety of dimensions are the most inappropriate controls (Hauer, 1990). In addition, the use of single cities for experimental and control conditions is problematic because idiosyncracies can occur in a single city which can obliterate or exaggerate the apparent communication effects (Haskins,
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1985). Additional related problems concern the choice of questions used, the lack of piloting questions and surveys and so on. A final problem relates to the interpretation of results. A frequent characteristic of many studies was the incomplete or inappropriate interpretation of data. As Haskins (1985) has stated, sometimes there "also appeared to be some deliberate 'massaging' of the data to provide results more favourable to the contractor" (p.185). On other occasions, the verbal conclusions understated, overstated or glossed over statistical results. At other times the results were overgeneralized. Thus despite the myriad of mass communications campaigns in the drinking-driving field there have been very few substantive evaluations. The next section will review available evaluations on drinking driving mass communications campaigns. The review will begin by focussing on media-only campaigns, that is, campaigns that were not introduced in conjunction with any other countermeasures. Then the review will examine campaigns that were part of other countermeasures. Finally, the review will summarize the findings on the role of mass communications in the drinking-driving field and offer future directions for campaigns and research. The following papers are examples of studies that attempted to both document and evaluate the impact of media campaigns in relation to the other countermeasures. The presentation is not exhaustive but rather represents articles published in English language books, journals, and proceedings from the 1970s onward. Governmental reports where available were also included.
Public Information Mass Communications Campaigns This section presents the results of media-only mass communications campaigns. That is not to say that with many of the reviewed papers there were not other countermeasures, notably drinking-driving enforcement programs, being carried out simultaneously with the media program. However, the media was not organized and evaluated with the other countermeasures. Only ten evaluations were found under this category. The ultimate objectives of the studies were some form of behaviour change. No studies used randomized control groups, although five did use comparison groups, and only one study used a direct behavioural measure of change. Nine studies used telephone or questionnaire surveys and generally measured knowledge, attitude and self-reported behaviour changes. Most had "pre-post" or "pre-during" measures. Measures of media coverage and penetration were generally not available. Nine studies had indirect measures of behaviour. Of those, four employed comparison groups. The only study that objectively measured behaviour change was conducted by Farmer (1975). A public information/education campaign was implemented in Edmonton, Alberta, in December 1971 with the intent to (1) effect change in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour by alerting the public to the problem of alcohol involvement in traffic crashes, (2) inform the public of the effects of alcohol on driving performance, (3) review the penalties for drinking-driving offences, and (4) suggest alternative behaviours to impaired driving. The campaign, conducted over a one-month period spanning the Christmas and New Year holidays, consisted of the distribution of informational material, taped radio broadcasts, press kits and organized public discussion. Enforcement levels remained unchanged. Measures were roadside surveys involving breath testing and a five-item questionnaire conducted on week-end nights immediately before and after the onset of the campaign in Edmonton and the comparison city, Calgary. A total of 2230 drivers were surveyed in the pretest and 2780 in the posttest in Edmonton and 2162 and 3122 in the pretest and posttest, respectively, in the control city. The results of the Chi-square analysis indicated that significant increases on two.of the three knowledge items and one of the two attitude measures were observed among both the campaign and control samples, but the gains were more apparent for the Edmonton sample. Impaired driving, determined by roadside breathtesting during the surveys, decreased significantly in the campaign area only. The proportion of drivers with a BAC (blood alcohol concentration) level above .08 percent in Edmonton was 3.0% in the pretest and 1.4% in the posttest, representing a statistically significant reduction; correspondingly, the proportion was 2.5% in the pretest and 1.7% in the posttest in Calgary, a
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nonsignificant reduction. The author points out that some reduction in impaired driving is usually expected during the holiday season, and may also have resulted from test reactivity due to the same sites surveyed in posttest as pretest, but that the greater decrease observed in Edmonton suggests evidence for a campaign effect. Boughton and South (1985) conducted an evaluation of a pilot campaign emphasizing responsibility towards friends and possible intervention behaviour. A publicity campaign, using four television commercials plus radio commercials, press advertisements, bus posters and promotional work by a popular television actor, was tested in Tasmania and Australia using a two-city cross-over experimental design. The seven-week campaign was run alternatively in the fall of 1980 and the spring of 1981, with two bursts of two weeks each of extensive advertising with a one-week break in between in both cases. Pre-post telephone surveys (approximately 400 per cell) assessed the incidence of self-reported driving after drinking. Self-reported drinking and driving increased in the control city in the December survey, but did not rise significantly in the experimental city. However, no similar trend was found when the experimental-control cities reversed in the spring. Unfortunately, the data were confounded by the higher alcohol sales and road accident fatalities that occurred in December, one of the posttest survey times. Pierce et al. (1975) evaluated a three-week drinking-driving media campaign conducted in nine Ontario cities during December, 1973. The purpose of the campaign was, as a pilot project, to gather information and develop organizational strategies for a future comprehensive countermeasure program. The campaign objectives were to raise public awareness and.to stimulate local community response to the problem. The campaign involved informational material, and radio and newspaper releases conveying the laws, penalties and consequences of impaired driving, and alternative behaviours such as use of other transportation services, and consumption limitations for those who continue to drive after drinking. In addition, the communities supplemented the campaign utilizing local resources.
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Samples of randomly selected drivers in the nine campaign cities and nine comparison cities were surveyed by telephone one month before (N=1122 and N=1053, respectively) and one month after (N=1120 and N=1054, respectively) the campaign. A high compliance rate (95%) was achieved. The samples were comparable on many background characteristics, but significant differences in education, occupation and driving exposure were reported and taken into account in the analyses.
At one month postintervention, recall of campaign elements among campaign respondents was modest (42.8%), but higher than that of the control sample (18%). A significant campaign effect was observed for two of four knowledge items. The campaign had no measurable impact on opinions regarding court enforcement of penalties, nor allocation of police resources to apprehend impaired drivers. The results supported a campaign effect on one traffic measure. A significant reduction in self-reported impaired driving was found for the campaign sample only; more campaign respondents said that they had not driven home because of overdrinking at posttest (8.5%) than pretest (4.2%). Both campaign and control groups reported leaving their car at home before drinking and intervening with an impaired person more often during the campaign period than before. Wesemann (1987) evaluated the effects of a new drinking-driving campaign introduced in 1984 in one city in the Netherlands with the slogan "alcohol.. .all too easily a crime" in relation to a comparison city. In both the experimental and comparison areas (approximately 400 persons per cell), chosen at random from the 18-50year-old age groups were interviewed (one pretest and two posttest interviews). Both the experimental and control areas received the radio and television spots and posters. The experimental area also received folders, beer mats, flyers, etc. Both the knowledge question and the attitude question showed improvements but no between-group differences. Deppe (1985) conducted an experiment to compare public awareness resulting from publicity and law enforcement campaigns in different towns in South Africa. The procedure consisted of selecting three similar towns and applying a different control procedure to each. An intensified law enforcement program was carried out in one town while a publicity campaign was launched in another. A third town served as a control. Thereafter, telephone surveys were carried out to measure drivers' awareness levels of the campaigns and of alcohol-abuse-related issues. Town A, which was subjected to an intensified law enforcement campaign, showed a far higher (and significant) awareness level than did the town (B) subjected to publicity, or the control
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