#ItCanWait Campaign for Preventing Distracted Driving

You will write a persuasive and evidence-based introduction for your final campaign paper. The introduction should make a clear case for why your specific campaign and its issue is important as well as how it attempted to change individual or group behaviors. All claims must be backed with evidence. The text should lead to a clear argument about the issue the campaign attempted to address, why the campaign was necessary and briefly discuss what artifacts you are considering analyzing for the final paper. These artifacts should be items such as press releases, media (YouTube videos, tweets, Instagram posts, etc.) or anything else the campaign released in hopes of changing behavior. Later in the semester you will be asked to use one of the theories we discuss in this class to analyze how well these artifacts addressed common behavior change principles, but this is not necessary at this point.
You will also attach the citations and abstracts of 3 primary research studies that you plan on using for the literature review portion of your research brief. This will ensure that your topic is viable based on the current literature. This will also reveal if your campaign is too new to study at this point. Unfortunately, as you may remember from Research and Writing Methods, it takes time to get a paper published. This means current campaigns may not be a viable option for this assignment as there may not be enough peer reviewed information published. I highly recommend you look for a past campaign (one that is fully completed or has used a phased release and certain phases are now done) to study for this paper.
It is very important that you review the Sample Introduction prior to starting this assignment. As a reminder, evidence for the introduction can come from multiple types of sources; you do not need to rely on only primary research studies for this section.
Hello, here are some explanations of the assignment from the professor in the announcement. Hope that helps your understanding. I'll keep you posted if there's an update to this assignment.
Welcome to Lesson Week 3. This week we'll begin studying theory--more specifically the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)/Reasoned Action (TRA) and the Integrated Behavioral Model. Please ensure that you review the presentation I've made on Voicethread to orient you with the theories and how they are employed. While often thought of as one theory, TRA and TPB are two different theories and should not be considered as one. If you anticipate using one them for the final assignment, consider whether the behavior being studied is truly under a person’s volition—as that’s the defining factor between the two. I know that this week may be difficult for you as I recognize that some of these concepts may be foreign to you but push through with this week’s readings and feel free to ask questions.
I hope lesson week 2’s readings gave you an indication of what to expect from your final assignment. Given that your Final Paper Introduction will be due in Lesson Week 4, please begin thinking about the topic and communications campaign that will be the foundation for your paper. Remember, I am looking for you to conduct a content analysis on a mass communication campaign that promotes a specific behavior (not topic). An example of a topic is protecting the environment, but an actual behavior related to that topic is recycling —see the difference? Also as you consider your if you have an appropriate campaign, ask yourself the following questions and see if you can answer them:
Is the campaign a structured communications campaign (as opposed to an organic social media effort—these would not work for this assignment)
What is the behavior being promoted?---This should be a discrete behavior
Is there a clearly defined audience?—the campaign should ideally focus on a clearly audience
Is there research literature to support and explain the determinants of the behavior?—this is critical, without this information you cannot complete the literature review.
Is there communications campaign content that can be reviewed? --There should be campaign content (e.g. PSAs, posters, fact sheets, imagery) it cannot be a just an organization’s website
If you have questions, do not hesitate to as me. I’ve also included an example of the sample introduction for your review. Please use this as a guide, but not a definitive template for your work.