Research Publication Roundup: April 2020

A vibrant and collaborative interdisciplinary research culture at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media creates new knowledge, advances scholarship and helps reinvent media.

UNC Hussman faculty and students have been particularly busy publishing research on health communication, ranging from opioid prescription and HIV/AIDS interventions to health messaging and mobile health. More details on this and other recently published scholarship by UNC Hussman faculty and students are listed below.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Adams, E. T., Cohen, E. L., Bernard, A., Darnell, W. H., & Oyler, D. R. (2020). Can opioid vigilance and patient-centered care coexist? A qualitative study of communicative tensions encountered by surgical trainees. Journal of Opioid Management, 16(2), 91-101.

The American healthcare system's adoption of the patient-centered care model has transformed how medical providers communicate with patients about prescription pain medication. Further, the nation's opioid epidemic has required medical providers who frequently prescribe opioids for acute pain to monitor and limit outpatient prescriptions. This qualitative study explores how surgical trainees balance patient-centered care with vigilance in prescribing opioids.

Alcaraz, K. I., Vereen, R. N., & Burnham, D. (2020). Use of telephone and digital channels to engage socioeconomically disadvantaged adults in health disparities research within a social service setting: Cross-sectional study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(4), e16680.

The article summarizes the researchers' methods used to recruit more than 3,000 socioeconomically disadvantaged adults for health research using five traditional and digital channels.

Freelon, D., Bossetta, M., Wells, C., Lukito, J., Xia, Y., & Adams, K. (2020). Black trolls matter: Racial and ideological asymmetries in social media disinformation. Social Science Computer Review.

Research on the recent rise of disinformation and propaganda on social media has observed conservatives are more likely to view, redistribute and believe disinformation content. However, preliminary evidence has suggested that racial asymmetries may exist alongside, or even instead of, ideological ones. This computational analysis of 5.2 million tweets by the Russian government-funded “troll farm” known as the Internet Research Agency sheds light on these possibilities. Results show presenting as a black activist to be the most effective predictor of disinformation engagement, underscoring the general relevance of race to disinformation studies.

Hall, M., Lazard, A., Grummon, A, Mendel, J., & Taillie, L. (2020). The impact of front-of-package claims, fruit images, and health warnings on consumers' perceptions of sugar-sweetened fruit drinks: Three randomized experiments. Preventive Medicine.

Researchers aimed to examine the impact of claims, fruit images and health warnings on consumers' perceptions of fruit-flavored drinks with added sugar (i.e., “fruit drinks”). In three randomized experiments with online convenience samples of U.S. adults, participants viewed a fruit drink that differed in the presence of a “100% vitamin C” claim, a fruit image or a health warning. These findings suggest that 100% vitamin C claims increase the appeal of fruit drinks, whereas health warnings decrease the appeal. Together, these studies support policies to restrict marketing and require health warnings on sugar-sweetened beverage packaging.

Lazard, A., Bock, M., & Mackert, M. (2020). Impact of photo manipulation and visual literacy on consumers’ response to persuasive communication. Journal of Visual Literacy.

As digital manipulation in image-based advertising becomes more ubiquitous, this project investigated whether knowledge of photo manipulation techniques might alter the way audiences perceive image-based appeals. Using an experimental design with images manipulated to communicate product effectiveness (e.g., fuller hair, longer lashes and smoother skin), the researchers found photo manipulation is a persuasive advertising technique to positively influence consumer choices and attitudes toward brands, regardless of higher knowledge that digital images are easily manipulated.

Lazard, A., Brennen, J. S., Adams, E., & Love, B. (2020). Cues for increasing social presence for mobile health app adoption. Journal of Health Communication. 25(2), 136-149.

As mobile health apps become increasingly influential in daily life, they present an important opportunity for health communication for disease prevention. However, user impressions of app designs are influential for adoption. Using cues to increase feelings of being with others (social presence) is one way to encourage favorable impressions and health app adoption. Through an online experiment with U.S. adults, the researchers examined the indirect effects of conversational and community cues through social presence on app trust, perceived ease of use and usefulness, and intentions to use the app.

Noar, S. M., Willoughby, J. F., Crosby, R., Webb, E. M., Van Stee, S. K., Feist-Price, S., & Davis, E. (2020). Acceptibility of a computer-tailored safer sex intervention for heterosexual African Americans attending an STI clinic. The Journal of Primary Prevention.

Since African Americans are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, interventions that increase correct and consistent condom use are urgently needed. The researchers report data from a randomized controlled trial testing the Tailored Information Program for Safer Sex, a computer-tailored intervention designed to increase correct and consistent condom use among low income, heterosexually active African Americans attending an urban sexually transmitted infection clinic. While women were more likely than men to find the intervention acceptable, overall the results indicated broad acceptability of this intervention among the target audience.

Rohde, J. A., Noar, S. M., Prentice-Dunn, H., Kresovich, A. K., & Hall, M. G. (2020). Comparison of message and effects perceptions for The Real Cost e-cigarette prevention ads. Health Communication.

Perceived message effectiveness is commonly used in health communication research and practice, yet there are few studies comparing different forms of this construct. In this study, researchers compared the two major types of perceived message effectiveness – message perceptions and effects perceptions – among 557 young adults. These findings demonstrate the differing nature of message and effects perceptions, and suggest that effects perceptions should be used when pretesting messages.