Chapter 24
Developing and Implementing Communication Messages
Nadine Henley, Rob J. Donovan, and Mark J. Francas
24.1. INTRODUCTION
Creating effective communication messages involves a two-step process: “getting the right message” and “getting the message right” (Egger, Donovan, & Spark, 1993, p. 79). The first step requires understanding how people can be motivated to try to change behavior (e.g., install back seat passenger restraints) or to initiate an intermediate behavior (e.g., ask about the efficacy of such restraints and their cost of installation) through changing attitudes and beliefs. We identify a number of principles to apply when designing communication messages for social change and demonstrate the importance of formative research methods in this process, such as in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and focus groups with members of the target audience. The second step in creating effective communication messages,
“getting the message right,” involves generating alternative ways of communicating the identified motivators and pretesting these executions with appropriate target audiences.
A case study will be used throughout this chapter to illustrate theory and process. The case study is the innovative Western Australian Freedom From Fear campaign to prevent domestic violence by targeting male perpetrators of inti- mate partner violence to voluntarily call the Men’s Domestic Violence Helpline to seek help to stop their violence (Donovan, Francas, Paterson, & Zappelli, 2000;
Donovan, Paterson & Francas, 1999). The principles illustrated here can apply to any unintentional injury campaign; hence occasional reference is made to other injury prevention campaigns.
It should also be emphasized that communication campaigns by themselves are not expected to bring about long-established, habitual, or addicted behavior change. However, they can by themselves initiate intermediate behaviors such as
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calling a helpline or asking for advice, which requires that these elements also be present and efficacious. For example, the decision to make a call to the Men’s Domestic Violence Helpline requires some courage on the part of the caller, and the act of calling often follows a period of indecision. For some men, there is only a small window of opportunity when the perpetrator actually makes the call, usually in the remorse phase of what is known as the cycle of abuse (Roberts, 1984). Hence it is important that sufficient staff are always on hand to receive and act on calls.
In most cases then, the role of media components is to sensitize people to other program elements by maintaining salience and motivating people to respond to program components when opportunities are presented (Egger et al., 1993;
Donovan & Henley, 2003). This case study is about motivating an intermediate behavior: calling the Men’s Domestic Violence Helpline or seeking professional assistance to reduce violent behavior.
As far as we are aware, this campaign is a unique initiative, being the first government-funded, mass-media, nonpunitive campaign targeted primarily toward male perpetrators of domestic violence (men who have committed violent acts against their partner) and potential perpetrators (men who have subjected their partner to nonphysical forms of abuse because this behavior is often a precur- sor to physical violence). Rather than threatening imprisonment and other legal sanctions, the campaign asked them to voluntarily seek help to change by amplify- ing feelings of guilt and remorse in perpetrators and by emphasizing the effects of violence on children. This message was universally relevant. Primary target audi- ence members who did not have children still responded to this message, many of them recalling their own experience of violence as children.
The secondary target audience included all men, given that attitudes of men in general toward violence against women provides a social context for such vio- lence. Further target audiences included professionals who may come into contact with members of the primary target audience, victims and their families, and the community in general.
Mass-media advertising was used to create and maintain awareness of the Men’s Domestic Violence Helpline and to encourage violent and potentially violent men to call the helpline, which was staffed by qualified, experienced male violence counselors. The primary aim of the helpline counselors was to refer as many qualified callers as possible into no-fee government-funded counseling programs provided primarily by private-sector organizations. Traditionally, programs aimed at a reduction of abuse have been based around the criminal justice system, target- ing both police and the judiciary. In Australia, women no longer have to lodge a complaint before police can charge the perpetrator with assault (thus removing one of the major barriers to women reporting incidents). A major target with the judiciary has been to obtain mandatory treatment programs for offenders (Healey & Smith, 1998). Where public education components have accompanied such campaigns, these have aimed at increasing the public’s (and perpetrators’) perception that domestic violence is a crime (Buchanan, 1996). Such campaigns generally encourage women to report incidents and, where necessary, to leave the family home and to take out civil protection (or restraining) orders against violent partners.
Although the incarceration of violent men and the issuing of protection orders
are necessary components of domestic violence prevention interventions, and do
alleviate some violence (Keilitz, Davis, Efkeman, Flango, & Hannaford, 1998), they
do not—and cannot—remove the fear women experience in terms of the man reap- pearing some time, some place, often with tragic consequences (De Becker, 1998).
Furthermore, many women do not want to leave the relationship, nor do they want the man incarcerated; they simply want the violence to stop. The Freedom From Fear campaign acknowledges these factors and aims to reduce women’s (and chil- dren’s) fear by encouraging perpetrators and potential perpetrators to voluntarily attend counseling (perpetrator or batterer programs). These programs vary in their approach (Jukes 1999; Lee, Sebold, & Uken, 2003); and although the results of the programs are mixed and many are not evaluated in the longer term, the overall finding is that they can be effective in reducing short-term and long-term violence, especially where a co-existing problem such as alcohol or drug abuse is dealt with concurrently (Gondolf, 2002).
Getting the right message involves identifying what message(s) will motivate the target audience to adopt the recommended action (what advertising agency people call the hot buttons to push). Developing the right messages takes into account the target audience’s initial knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes and has the capacity to shift beliefs, attitudes, and behavior in the desired direction.
In this context a belief can be defined as a perception that a certain state of affairs exists or is true (regardless of whether it is or not), and an attitude can be defined as the extent to which positive or negative feelings are held toward a state of affairs. A state of affairs can include references to objects, persons, behaviors, or ideas. The salience of a belief refers to the readiness with which a belief comes to mind when the person’s attention is drawn to the issue. In many cases, an expressed attitude will depend on what beliefs come to mind when a person is asked about a particular issue (Donovan & Henley, 2003).
When implementing a communication campaign to create awareness of and positive attitudes toward a concept, issue, or behavior, whether face to face or mass mediated, the first step should focus on issues for which there is most agreement between the desired end point and the target audience’s existing attitudes and beliefs. In many cases, existing areas of agreement may have low salience (i.e., rarely thought about), or are weakly held. Beginning the communication process from a point of common agreement also builds source credibility and trust. This provides a favorable context within which to neutralize negative attitudes and beliefs and to create positive attitudes and beliefs. Once a platform of credibility is established, strategies such as attaching a negative belief to a positive belief to increase the likelihood of acceptance of the negative belief can be used.
In the Freedom From Fear campaign, the primary communication objec- tives for all audiences—perpetrators, victims, counselors, and the wider commu- nity—were that the perpetrator, not the victim, is responsible for the violence and that there are no circumstances in which violence is justified. For members of the primary target audience (male perpetrators and potential perpetrators), the main communication objectives were to increase awareness that nonpunitive, anonymous help was available and to stimulate motivations and intentions to seek help. The intermediate behavioral objective was that they should call the helpline for assistance or seek assistance from some credible source. The final behavioral objectives—particularly after counseling—were a reduction in violent incidents, both physical and nonphysical, among perpetrators and the prevention of violence among potential perpetrators.
Formative research was conducted to establish what would motivate violent and
potentially violent men to seek help.
24.2. OBJECTIVES The broad objectives of the first phase of research were to:
• Gain some understanding of perpetrators’ beliefs and attitudes, and hence assess whether reaching and affecting the primary target group was viable via mass-media advertising.
• Examine the awareness, knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors of men in general, with respect to domestic violence.
• Assess the effectiveness of five potential message themes for a community education campaign: criminal sanctions, community intervention, social disapproval, consequences, and help is available; these themes were derived from the literature and talking with stakeholders.
24.3. SAMPLES FOR FORMATIVE RESEARCH 24.3.1. Perpetrators
Three group discussions, arranged through organizations providing counseling programs, were held with violent men. All participants were in treatment programs, some voluntarily and others court mandated. Their participation in the group discussions was voluntary. Counselors were on hand to debrief the men if issues were raised that needed attention, and a criminologist assisted in the planning and moderating of the initial groups.
Because these men were in counseling programs for various lengths of time, the groups contained a mix of men in the various stages of change (Prochaska
& DiClemente, 1984). The stages of change concept has been recommended for social marketing programs (Andreasen, 1995; Donovan & Owen, 1994) and was used in an evaluation of the Milwaukee Women’s Center’s perpetrator interventions (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control [NCIPC], 1999). The men’s statements allowed identification of their stage status (e.g., statements with respect to responsibility and blame; whether the violence was deserved; empathy for the victim; attitude to the treatment program). One aim of the qualitative research was to identify and assess the appropriate motivators for men in the contempla- tion stage because contemplators are considered the most likely to respond to any mass-media-driven public health/injury prevention campaign. Participants in the perpetrator groups were obviously not blind to the topic of discussion, hence a warm-up discussion, common to most focus groups, was superfluous. Instead, the moderators got straight to the point of what sort of communication campaign could prevent men’s violence against their partners.
24.3.2. General-Population Males
A total of 15 focus groups were conducted with general-population males aged 18–40 years, stratified by age and social economic status. Of these 9 groups were conducted in the metropolitan area of the state’s capital and 6 groups were held in four regional towns. The groups were recruited by a professional recruiting agency.
It was assumed that these groups would include a number of potentially (or actu-
ally) violent men, although group participants were not asked this directly.
In order not to sensitize participants to the issue of domestic violence (which might have resulted in violent or potentially violent men or those with positive atti- tudes to partner violence excluding themselves), all group participants at recruit- ment were told only that the groups would be discussing some important social issues. The issue of violence in society was introduced at the start of the discussion.
This allowed the issue of domestic violence to arise spontaneously in discussion (which it invariably did), and hence allowed the moderator to focus on this area without being seen to impose the topic on the group.
The moderator probed men’s general beliefs and attitudes about intimate partner violence (perceived causes, definitions, awareness of and reaction to previ- ous campaigns), and attempted to elicit examples of physical or verbal/emotional abuse in participants’ current or previous relationship(s) or in their friends’ and relatives’ relationships.
Domestic violence was perceived by men in general as an important issue, and they generally had an understanding that domestic violence incorporated not just physical violence but included emotional and verbal abuse, social isolation, and financial deprivation. Hence there was seen to be little need for a campaign to deal just with identifying these behaviors as domestic violence.
Three important points emerged from the research with perpetrators:
• The first time (i.e., the first act of physical violence) is a critical event that facilitates subsequent violence. Hence the campaign needed to attract poten- tially violent men to seek help before this first act of violence occurred.
• Many perpetrators expressed shame and guilt about their behavior, yet were unaware of where or how to seek help without legal implications. Hence the primary target audience and the underlying rationale of the campaign were confirmed.
• Many perpetrators exhibited a siege mentality and felt persecuted. They considered the allocation of 100% blame for domestic violence to men as being grossly unfair. This highlighted that messages would need to avoid an accusatory or blaming tone to avoid being rejected by perpetrators.
24.4. POTENTIAL MESSAGE THEMES 24.4.1. Criminal Sanctions
Criminal sanctions were not seen as a significant deterrent or as entirely credible by perpetrators or males in general. Perpetrators with considerable experience with the criminal justice system commented that legal sanctions were often not particularly severe and therefore had little deterrent effect: “The first couple of times you’d probably just get probation . . . it wouldn’t make you stop doing it.”
Furthermore, many perpetrators had seen men getting away with domestic violence over the course of many years.
24.4.2. Community Intervention
The theme of encouraging people to report or intervene in suspected cases of
domestic violence was largely rejected by perpetrators (and males in general)
because it was deemed inconsistent with social norms (i.e., there is a culture in
Australia that it is not acceptable to dob in [inform on] people to legal authori-
ties). Furthermore, no doubt reinforced by their own experiences, the theme lacked credibility in that perpetrators felt other people would be reluctant to get involved—and in general did express such reluctance.
24.4.3. Social Disapproval
Men in general reacted favorably to the theme that violent behavior toward a female is unacceptable for a man and that men who engage in such behavior should be rejected by their peers. Perpetrators, however, doubted the credibility of such an approach, and several of them reacted angrily to the peer rejection message; it seemed to exacerbate the siege mentality alluded to earlier. As perpetrators were the primary target audience, this message was not deemed potentially efficacious.
24.4.4. Consequences
Two separate themes were tested with perpetrators and men in general: damage to partner and damage to children. Men in general doubted that perpetrators cared sufficiently about the damage to their partners for this approach to be effective.
They considered that perpetrators’ violent behavior was self-evident proof that this would not be a motivating factor. Furthermore, most perpetrators in our groups provided little indication that such an appeal would motivate them to seek help, even when they admitted that their behavior caused harm. It appears that for many, their partner’s resilience may have lessened an appreciation of the physical harm caused, with little appreciation of psychological harm. Evidence suggests that many violent men have an inability to empathize with the harm caused to their victims (Jukes 1993, 1999). Hence, rather than being a motivator to take action, the devel- opment of such an empathy is the task of perpetrator counseling programs.
In contrast, damage to children was a powerful motivator among perpetrators, whether they had children or not. Those with children expressed strong feelings for their children, with some recalling that their children’s reactions to specific instances of domestic violence had a very vivid impact on them. Both men with and without children also responded that this approach stimulated recall of their own feelings in violent family situations when they were children. Furthermore, the damage to children theme was also accepted by precontemplator perpetrators and hence had potential to move this group toward contemplation. This theme was also considered to be an effective theme by men in general and was selected as the key motivating strategy for the initial phase of the campaign.
24.4.5. Help Is Available
The theme that help is available was universally endorsed by perpetrators because it was seen as a positive message that addressed the siege mentality syndrome and because many were aware that they needed help but did not know how to go about getting it. The view of most perpetrators was that the focus should be on access to formal help (e.g., counseling programs, treatment programs) rather than informal help. This theme was also strongly endorsed by men in general. There was broad support for a media campaign to publicize this assistance.
Overall then, the formative research confirmed the viability of reaching violent
and potentially violent men via a mass-media campaign that was nonjudgemental,
offered formal assistance, and emphasized the damage to children that men’s
violence caused. The specific communication objectives were (1) children are adversely affected by domestic violence and (2) help is available. The specific behavioral objective was Call the Helpline.
24.5. MESSAGE ACCEPTANCE
Donovan and Henley (2003) identified the following tactics that increase message acceptance in high involvement controversial areas such as domestic violence prevention:
• Link the desired belief to an already accepted belief or one that cannot easily be refuted. In Freedom From Fear, violent men may not readily accept that their violence harms their partner, but they will readily accept that exposure to violence adversely affects their or their partner’s children.
• Stay within the target audience’s latitude of acceptance—that is, the claimed threat and/or promised benefit must not be exaggerated. In Freedom From Fear, the depiction of an adverse effect on children should be credible;
help can be realistically depicted as available right now (but it would not be realistic to guarantee that change will inevitably follow).
• Leave the target audience members to draw their own conclusions rather than telling them to adopt the promoted stance (often labeled cool rather than hot messages). In Freedom From Fear, it is left to the perpetrator to see the effect on children, and help is offered rather than urged.
The selected motivating strategy and the research on which the strategy was based were then explored in individual interviews with key stakeholders, including victims, women’s refuge operators, women’s advocacy groups, and counselors and other health professionals. All accepted that the strategy could be effective and gave approval to proceed.
Getting the message right entails presenting the message in a way that attracts attention, is believable, is relevant, is able to be understood, arouses appropriate emotions, and does not lead to counterargument (Donovan, 1991). In Freedom From Fear, it means executing the message in a language and style that violent men will pay attention to, understand, and find believable. At the same time, the execution must not be seen to either condemn or condone their violence because either of these perceptions would lead to them rejecting the ad’s request for them to seek help. Furthermore, it was important that the message execution would not be seen by victims and other stakeholders to be condoning or excusing the men’s violence and that it did not make victims of domestic violence feel responsible, guilty, or more helpless.
24.5.1. Pretesting
The effects of domestic violence on children can be depicted in a variety of sce- narios. Pretesting the ad was essential to ensure message understanding and cred- ibility as well as ensuring that the perceived tone of the ad did not antagonize men.
Even with the right message, a poorly executed ad not only could be ineffective but
could have negative unintended effects on the target audience and other audiences
exposed to the campaign messages.
The pretesting was conducted in two stages: a qualitative concept screening stage and a quantitative animatic testing phase.
Six concepts based on the findings of the qualitative research were tested in storyboard form with perpetrators, general-population males and females, victims, various stakeholder representatives, and children exposed to domestic violence. A total of 17 focus groups and eight individual interviews were conducted in Perth, Western Australia, and country areas. Individual written reaction to the concepts was obtained before any group discussion using a modified ADTEST
®questionnaire (see below), based on standard advertising pretest measures (Rossiter & Percy, 1997). In the perpetrator groups, counselors were on hand to assist nonliterate men complete the questionnaires and to deal with issues that required attention. The major focus of this stage was on the credibility of the concept message, the realism of the depicted situation, and the capacity of the message to stimulate violent men to think about seeking help to stop their violence.
As the key element of the message strategy was a focus on consequences for children, most of the concepts portrayed small children being exposed to domestic violence. However, it was crucial that the ads, although scheduled to be run only at adult times, did not trigger clinical stress symptoms in children, especially chil- dren of victims, and that children did not misunderstand the ads and think they were being asked to call the helpline or that they should ask their father or moth- er’s partner to call the helpline. Groups of children at selected women’s refuges were exposed to the advertising materials while a child psychologist observed and assessed the children’s reactions.
It is important that none of the perpetrators—or any others exposed to the concepts—indicated that the ads made them think that they should simply be sure that the violence was not in front of the children. As indicated above, even those without children saw the message as the violence per se needing to stop.
Following the above, three concepts considered potentially most effective were developed as animatics for testing among men in general:
• “Nightmare”: depicted a child tossing and turning in his bed against a shadowy background and the sound effects of a man abusing a woman;
the ad ended with the caption “This child is not having a nightmare, he is living one.”
• “Horror Movie”: two children are watching television against a similar back- ground as above; the caption stated that the children are “Not watching a horror movie, they are living one.”
• “Back Seat”: a child’s view, from the back seat of a car, of a male verbally abusing a woman in the front seat.
The ADTEST procedure, based on published advertising pretest measures
(Rossiter & Percy, 1997) was used to test the animatics among men in general. This
procedure has been used extensively in pretesting health and social issues advertis-
ing (Donovan, Jalleh, & Henley, 1999). Potential respondents were intercepted in
the city center, screened for age and socioeconomic status, invited to the research
agency’s test center, and randomly allocated to view one of the three animatics. The
ad was exposed twice so that respondents had ample opportunity to understand
what was going on in the ad and to make a judgment about its intended message
(Donovan et al., 1999; Rossiter & Percy, 1997) Respondents were exposed to
the animatic in groups of two to four, then took a self-completion questionnaire
(to facilitate frankness in responding), followed by a face-to-face, interviewer-
administered questionnaire on the less sensitive aspects of their reactions (e.g., likes/dislikes about the ad’s execution). A total of 302 interviews was conducted with 18- to 40-year-old males, of whom 24% indicated they had come close to hitting their partner on at least one occasion.
All three animatics performed acceptably on all the crucial ADTEST mea- sures; the diagnostic data suggested several ways to increase their effectiveness.
Selected results (combined across all three ads) were as follows (Donovan Research, 1998):
• All respondents correctly understood the ads’ messages (effect on children, help is available, call the helpline).
• Cognitive response measures indicated high acceptance of the ads’ mes- sages and minimal counterarguing.
• Approximately 90% stated that the ads made them feel concerned for the children in the animatics.
• Approximately half thought “a lot” or “somewhat” that the ads suggested that men must take responsibility for their violent behavior.
• Approximately 7% thought the ads communicated that “women who get beaten deserve it.”
• Almost 99% found the ads believable (45% “very,” 44% “fairly”).
• Approximately half thought “a lot” or “somewhat” that the ads would make violent men think they should do something about their behavior.
• There was overwhelming approval for an advertising campaign to encour- age violent and potentially violent men to call a helpline.
Appropriate modifications were then made to the ads before final production. All finished ads were shown to stakeholders for final approval before going to air.
We identify a number of overall principles relevant to conducting successful communication campaigns—that is, campaigns that meet their communication and behavioral objectives (Egger et al., 1993; Office of National Drug Control Policy [ONDCP], 1997). Members of the audience are active participants in the commu- nication process. Preexisting beliefs, attitudes, experiences, and knowledge affect attending to, interpretation of, and acceptance of messages. This is particularly important in sensitive, controversial, and core values areas, for which existing atti- tudes often screen out incoming messages that contradict the individual’s existing beliefs and attitudes. Hence particular care is needed when constructing messages aimed at those antagonistic to or sceptical of the proposed idea or behavior. In Freedom From Fear, formative research indicated that male perpetrators’ preexist- ing beliefs would lead to them rejecting messages overtly accusing violent men of inexcusable behavior and threatening criminal sanctions but would support mes- sages appealing to concern for their children. It was possible to draw on the moti- vating factor (children) without conveying any overt condemnation of their violent behavior. At the same time, it was important not to reinforce any beliefs they had that their behavior was justified—that is, condone their behavior. Similarly, in the unintentional injury context of falls prevention, elderly people will not respond to falls-prevention campaigns when they do not believe that they are at risk of falling (Henley, 2004). Hence a first stage must confront this belief by highlighting hazards and visually modeling how these contribute to falls.
Target audiences must be segmented by beliefs and attitudes before the devel-
opment of targeted messages. In Freedom From Fear, the primary target audi-
ence was defined (and confirmed in formative research) as male perpetrators and
potential perpetrators in Prochaska & DiClemente’s (1984) contemplation, ready for action, and action stages with respect to doing something about their violence or potential violence. Although these men may still minimize and deny (at some level or on some occasions) full responsibility for their behavior, they are reach- able through mass media because they do accept some responsibility. Hard-core perpetrators still in a strong state of denial (Eisikovits & Buchbinder, 1997) were not part of the primary target audience for this campaign. Likewise, road-safety campaigns usually target drivers, but there may also be benefits in targeting passen- gers to influence the driver’s behavior. Furthermore, some drivers are motivated to drive safely by a desire to avoid harm to others, whereas others might be motivated to avoid damage to their valued and valuable vehicle.
Given the importance of existing beliefs and attitudes affecting message pro- cessing, formative research is essential to gain an understanding of each target audience’s beliefs and attitudes on the issue to be addressed. Also following from the above, it is crucial that messages be pretested against target audiences to ensure correct message understanding and that minimal counterarguing occurs. Pretest- ing is also necessary to ensure that messages aimed at primary target audiences do not have unintended negative effects on secondary audiences.
In Freedom From Fear, extensive formative research ensured that the ad mes- sages would not adversely affect victims and children, especially victims’ children.
Child psychologists were used in testing the ad concepts with victims and their children. Although the ads were to be scheduled in adult time, it was still regarded as crucial that any child who saw the ad would not experience clinical stress. The concepts were also tested to ensure that children did not take away the message that they should encourage the perpetrator to call the helpline, as this might put children in greater danger. Other checks included assessing the extent to which the ads appeared to be an unwarranted attack on men in general and whether the ads appeared to condone violence toward women under any circumstances.
In a smoke alarms campaign in New South Wales, the message “Smoke alarms wake you up if there’s a fire” was far more understandable and motivating among those of a non-English-speaking background than the generally used slogan “Smoke alarms save lives” (Camit, 2005).
24.5.2. Theoretical Framework
Campaigns that have been guided by theoretical frameworks are more successful than those that have not. A full analysis of all the models relevant to communica- tion theory is beyond the scope of this chapter; but in this section we present a number of factors derived from some of the important models of attitude and behavior change, such as the Health Belief Model (HBM), Protection Motivation Theory, Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), and the Theory of Trying (Donovan
& Henley, 2003).
Most of these models are based on the assumption that an individual’s beliefs about some person, group, issue, object, or behavior will determine the individual’s attitude and intentions with respect to that person, group, issue, object, or behavior.
These intentions, in turn, subject to environmental facilitators and inhibitors, will
predict how the individual actually acts with respect to that person, group, issue,
object, or behavior. An understanding of knowledge-attitude-behavior models pro-
vides us with directions for setting communication objectives and for generating
message strategies and executions to achieve these objectives. These processes
depend on a thorough understanding of the sorts of beliefs that influence atti- tudes toward the recommended behavior, how these beliefs and other facilitators and inhibitors influence intentions to behave, and when and how intentions are fulfilled or not fulfilled.
24.5.2.1. Likelihood, Imminence, and Severity
Three attitude factors are the individual’s perception of the likelihood of the threat occurring if nothing changes, the perceived imminence of the threat occur- ring if nothing changes, and the perceived severity of the threat if it does occur.
In Freedom From Fear, formative research indicated that male perpetrators of intimate partner violence were aware that (1) there was a high likelihood that chil- dren would be affected by their violent actions (many of them remembered being affected as children); (2) the threat was imminent—it would occur at the same time as the violence; and (3) the threat was severe—that is, it could have serious long- term consequences. For most unintentional injury prevention campaigns, these are crucial factors. For example, for road-safety interventions to decrease speeding to be effective, they must increase the perception that getting caught if speeding is likely, that it could occur on any road, and that penalties for transgression are severe.
The efficacy factor has two parts: solution efficacy, the perceived likelihood of the threat being averted if the recommended behavior is adopted, and self-efficacy, the perceived ability to adopt the recommended behavior.
In Freedom From Fear, the recommended behavior was simply to call the helpline for help. There was an explicit promise that help was available and an implicit promise that the help could be effective in helping the perpetrator control his behavior. Smoke alarm promoters must ensure that the target audience sees them as effective; drivers are more likely to wear a seat belt if they consider them effective in reducing injury.
24.5.2.2. Attitude Toward Adopting Recommended Behavior
An important factor relates to the perceived barriers and constraints that may in- hibit adoption of the recommended behavior. These barriers may be psychological (the perceived benefits of the undesired behavior may outweigh the perceived losses—for example, perceptions that smoking is necessary to alleviate stress), social (the individual may value the social connection provided by the undesired behav- ior—for example, binge drinking behavior may provide adolescents with social cohesion), or environmental (it may be physically difficult to perform the desired behavior—for example, to find somewhere to exercise safely). In Freedom From Fear, it was recognized that a 1-minute or 30-second advertisement would be unable to address the complexity of preventing domestic violence. The recommended behavior was not, therefore, to stop being violent but rather call the helpline.
Helplines have a number of advantages: they allow dissemination of information to large numbers of self-selected people, yet they can also provide a highly per- sonalized service; they are convenient and private (almost everyone has easy and affordable access to a telephone, and helplines are often free of charge); they can be staffed 24 hours; and they are personal, yet they also offer a degree of anonymity (Anderson, Duffy, & Hallett, 1992). Confidentiality was a major issue in this case;
many of the callers to the helpline were admitting a criminal act. Anonymity was
ensured and callers were not pressed to give their name. When a referral to counsel- ing was not possible, the helpline counselors asked the caller to provide an address to which they could send educational self-help booklets and audiocassettes.
24.5.3. Sources of Information and Influence
The individual may be motivated to act by receiving information from influential sources, social interactions, and perceived social norms. In Freedom From Fear, the helpline advertising was not branded to the police department as many campaigns are, and the content of the advertising was clearly nonpunitive and communicated the simple clear message that help was available to violent (and potentially violent) men. Social norms and the perceived behavior of others are powerful influences.
Swimmers are unlikely to heed warnings to swim between the flags if they arrive at the beach and see many people swimming outside the flags.
24.5.4. Supportive Environment
It was also important to create and reinforce positive community attitudes to the counseling of violent men as a legitimate domestic violence-prevention strategy (complementary to police arrest and sentencing, and mandatory referral into counseling by courts) and hence worthy of government funding.
There was a need to address the potential criticism that the campaign helped the perpetrator at the expense of the victim and that these resources would be better used in providing help for victims and their children. This was done by keeping the focus on the ultimate aim of the women’s need to be free from the fear of violence by providing counseling to the perpetrator as distinct from legal sanctions such as restraining orders, which do not necessarily reduce the fear.
New counseling programs for women and children were also funded by the state government.
24.5.5. Successful Campaigns
Successful campaigns are comprehensive in their reach. The Freedom From Fear program is provided in 12 locations throughout Western Australia, 6 of them in regional areas. Given the state’s geography, it was recognized that access to counsel- ing programs would necessarily be limited in remote areas but it is hoped to extend access in later phases of the campaign. Meanwhile, self-help materials can be sent to any location. Access to programs is provided in nonworking hours, and the helpline is staffed both day and night. It was decided that all materials and programs would be provided free to ensure that no financial barrier existed or could be rationalized as existing at any income level. The focus was on the victim; it was important that victims of low-income perpetrators would not be disadvantaged.
Communication campaigns must be coordinated with other environmental and on-the-ground strategies to ensure attitudinal and behavioral success. This factor relates to the aspects of the environment that might facilitate or inhibit adoption. For example, will government policy makers be willing to act in ways that facilitate the adoption?
In Freedom From Fear, directing resources toward male perpetrator programs
is generally viewed negatively by female victim support organizations. Hence it was
crucial to gain such organizations’—and female victims’—support for the program
in principle and then ensure their continued support for the various program mate- rials as they were produced. This required an initial acceptance that prevention of violence via perpetrators’ and potential perpetrators’ voluntary entry to counseling was a legitimate and potentially effective violence-prevention strategy. Updating of developments and clearing of materials with these groups was continued through to final production. It was required that this sector be reassured that targeting perpetrators and funding perpetrator programs was consistent with feminist phi- losophy with respect to domestic violence prevention—that is, that victim safety is paramount and that directing services toward men must ultimately be about victim safety and freedom from fear.
The referral process involves cooperation between two government departments and all (competing) service providers for the system to work. This cooperation was gained only after extensive consultation and interpersonal networking. When the caller accepts a referral, the counselor takes details from the caller and completes a referral form, which is faxed to the appropriate service provider the same day.
Service providers are required to contact callers within 2 days (most attempt to do so within 24 hours) to make an appointment for an assessment interview.
Similarly in an area such as road safety, the police, driving instructors, road engineers, car manufacturers, local governments, hospital emergency departments and ambulance operators, insurance companies, and licensed entertainment venue operators must all cooperate and coordinate activities for maximal effect on pre- venting crashes and minimizing injury when they do occur. There is no point in road-safety advertising if there is no visible police enforcement of regulations, and vice versa, police enforcement has more effect when accompanied by related advertising.
Communication campaigns involving a number of message delivery channels and more than one source appear more successful than those that do not (Lefe- bvre, Olander, & Levine, 2000). In Freedom From Fear, police were encouraged to promote perpetrators’ use of the telephone counseling service when called to
“domestics” and particularly when no charges could or would be laid. Radio was used to supplement the television ads, along with posters and merchandise, such as drink coasters, that provided the helpline number. Publicity is a major additional channel for communication campaigns, especially when individuals representative of the target group recount their experiences and reinforce the “it could happen to you” message. Although these sorts of opportunities are more limited for domestic violence prevention campaigns, they can be widely used in other injury prevention areas in which victims or their loved ones talk about the incidents and the after- math. At the same time, publicity that feeds back information about the success of campaigns (e.g., reductions in road toll; reductions in alcohol-related injuries) not only reinforces public support for such campaigns but reinforces those target group members who have responded to the campaign.
Communication campaigns must be sustained to achieve and maintain success.
In sensitive areas such as domestic violence, it would be unethical to raise hopes
and motivation to change unless sufficient resources were available and accessible
over a sufficient time period. Freedom From Fear is nominally a 10-year campaign,
receiving substantial funding from the state government. With successive govern-
ments, further interpersonal networking is necessary to promote continued support
for this campaign. The success of road-safety campaigns in Australia since the 1980s
is undoubtedly due to the sustained effort over a variety of areas, including the
communication components.
24.6. CONCLUSIONS
This chapter identified key principles for developing and implementing commu- nication messages and illustrated their application through the Western Australian Freedom From Fear campaign. Formative research has been shown to be essential to the process of getting the right message—that is, identifying attitudes, beliefs, and possible motivations for change. Pretesting of possible ad executions has been shown to be essential for getting the message right—that is, identifying an execu- tion that the target audiences will believe, understand, and respond to and that will not have an adverse effect on any unintended audiences.
A full evaluation of the Freedom From Fear campaign is beyond the scope of this chapter. However, from August 1998 to January 2005, the campaign received over 21,000 calls, almost 13,000 of which were from the target group. Of these, 8,200 men identified themselves as perpetrators and 3,800 voluntarily entered counseling. Self-report evaluation instruments indicate that men who complete the program say they are less likely to use physical violence and more likely to accept that they, and not their partners or their children, are responsible for the violence (Cant, Downie, Fisher, Henry, & Froyland, 2002). One man with a long history of abusive behavior told this story in his 23rd counseling session (Cant et al., 2002, p. 38):
We were working in the garden, and my 7-year old son was playing about with the outside tap that was obviously not properly fastened to the wall, he must have been swinging on it. Suddenly there was a scream and water spraying everywhere. I jumped up and swung around and in that split second saw the look of absolute terror on the faces of my wife and four children. I went to my son, told him it was OK and said I would show him how to turn the water off at the mains.
When asked how he would have reacted a year ago he said: “I would have picked up the broken pipe and beaten him with it, my wife would have tried to stop me and I would have beaten her with it too.” The following week, he told the group that the family had again spent time together at the house, “My four children all climbed on my knee and cuddled me. They wanted to be there. It was the first time I had ever felt like a father.”
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