Week 5 DB: Fear Messaging Health Communication

Health Communication
Name
Institution of affiliation
Date
Health Communication
Introduction
Fear messaging is a strategy that aims to influence the behavior of an individual or a group of people. It bases its appeal on its ability to scare people into behaving in a certain manner CITATION Pet14 \l 1033 (Peters, 2014). Fear messages are prevalent across all sectors. In the health sector, fear messages are utilized in challenging the population to behave in a certain manner. A critical example is showing teenagers the chart of a smoker’s diseased internal organs CITATION CDC16 \l 1033 (CDC, 2016). The subliminal message is clear. Where the teenager chooses in participate in a high risk behavior there are clear consequences that can be expected. This paper will utilize the smoker’s chart as the fear message and will evaluate is impact on the targeted demographic.
The target demographic of the smoker’s internal organs chart is the teenager. The teen demographic is at the greatest risk of picking up smoking. Noting that they are easily convinced, peer pressure and the desire to fit in. the message is framed in a manner that ensures it has shock value. Where the teen age demographic will be shocked when they see it for the first time. In this manner, it can shock some teenagers into not smoking. However, the fear message becomes ineffectual after continued use CITATION Sha07 \l 1033 (Sharma, 2007). Thus, teenagers will know about it even before seeing it from their peers in school. In this manner, the fear message becomes ineffective. The desired behavior change is clear, a non-smoking teen age demographic. The method is however unreliable CITATION Ten12 \l 1033 (Tengland, 2012). Where the fear message is removed, the possibility of the teenagers going back to the wrong behavior is high. It is thus better to persuade them using other means CITATION Ave11 \l 1033 (Averbeck, Jones, & Robertson, 2011).
References BIBLIOGRAPHY Averbeck, J. M., Jones, A., & Robertson, K. (2011). Prior Knowledge and health messages:An Examination Of Affect As Heuristics And Information As Systematic Processing F...