| This study examined differences in the perception of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) among traditional-aged college students between those delivered via Internet; mobile broadband devices; and traditional television and radio programming. Many researchers have established the growing use of Internet-based, social, and mobile media use among college students and this has generated a concern among public health practitioners that PSAs delivered through traditional media may not be effectively engaging college students. The study employed correlation analyses of data from a convenience sample of 300 undergraduate students that included 189 female students and 111 male students attending a liberal arts university located in the Midwest to examine relationships between the various types of media employed to deliver PSAs and their perceived engagement stratified by age, gender, class level, ethnicity, perceptions of media attributes, and media preferences. This exploratory inquiry, routed in the confluence of McLuhan's medium as message construct and Kingdon's public policy formulation model, is intended to broaden understanding of college student perceptions of PSAs and the media used to deliver them. The study found that despite their heavy use of the Internet, college students perceived television to exhibit the highest overall degree of synchronicity between its attributes, PSA delivery prowess, and college student lifestyles which is conducive for elevated levels of PSA engagement. The results from this study can be used by public health practitioners to leverage television's perceived high entertainment and portability attributes to drive social change on issues like HIV/AIDS, gambling, drug abuse, smoking, binge drinking, and sexual promiscuity among college students thus reducing preventable diseases and improving public health. |
