mass-communication-theory

284 Section 4 Contemporary Mass Communication Theory
SOCIAL MARKETING THEORY
social marketing
theory
Collection of
middle-range theories
concerning
the promotion of
socially valuable
information
During the early 1970s, a new macroscopic theory of media and society began to
take shape that shares important similarities with diffusion theory. It is known as
social marketing theory. Unlike diffusion theory that was largely focused on farming
innovations in Third World nations, social marketing theory focused on the
United States. It is not a unified body of thought but rather a more or less integrated
collection of middle-range theories dealing with the promotion of beliefs
and actions elite sources deem to be socially valuable. Public health practitioners
have been especially drawn to this theory and use it to promote or discourage
many different behaviors. Rather than describing each of the theories that make
up social marketing theory, we will look at the overarching theoretical framework
and then discuss some of its important features. Readers interested in a more
extended discussion of these theories and their application might consult other
sources (Goldberg, Fishbein, and Middlestadt, 1997; Rice and Atkin, 1989; Grier
and Bryant, 2004).
Like diffusion theory, social marketing is an administrative theory (Chapter 1)
and essentially source-dominated. It assumes the existence of a benign information
provider seeking to bring about useful, beneficial social change. It gives these providers
a framework for designing, carrying out, and evaluating information campaigns.
In its most recent forms, it pays increased attention to audience activity
and the need to reach active audiences with information they are seeking. Target
audiences are identified according to their information needs. Recommendations
are made for stimulating audiences to seek information and for packaging and distributing
information so that audiences will find it easy to get and use.
In addition to sharing many assumptions and concerns with diffusion theory,
social marketing theory is also a logical extension of the persuasion theories outlined
in Chapter 6. It represents an effort to increase the effectiveness of mass
media–based information campaigns through greater understanding and manipulation
of aspects of societal and psychological factors. Social marketing theory does
this by identifying a variety of social system–level and psychological barriers to the
flow of information and influence through the mass media. It anticipates these barriers
and includes strategies for overcoming them. Some strategies are ingenious;
others involve the brute force of saturation advertising. Social marketing theory
has several key features:
1. Methods for inducing audience awareness of campaign topics or candidates.
A key first step in promoting ideas or candidates is to make people aware of
their existence. The easiest but most costly way to do this is with a saturation
television advertising campaign. As social marketing theories have gained
sophistication, other methods have been developed that are almost as effective
but much less costly. These include using news coverage and new media
channels to induce awareness. During the last four presidential campaigns, the
candidates successfully experimented with many new channels for reaching
voters, including radio and television talk shows like Larry King Live, the
MTV cable channel, late-night variety shows like The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart, and the Internet. These efforts permitted candidates to reach voter
segments that are difficult to reach effectively through mainstream media.
Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.