Research On The Persuasive Effect Of E-cigarette Tobacco Control Messages

"Health is the eternal pursuit of mankind".In recent years,with the rapid development of society,people’s material living standards have been greatly improved,and people are more concerned about health issues;coupled with the rampant pandemics,people’s demand for health information has become stronger and stronger,and health communication has gradually become a hot spot of concern for journalism and communication scholars in China.At present,the dangers of tobacco are well known,but little is known about the dangers of e-cigarettes.In view of the rapid popularity of e-cigarettes in China and the sharp increase in the number of smokers,especially among young people,it is relevant to discuss how to use appropriate communication strategies to persuade e-cigarettes to control smoking.Therefore,this thesis focuses on the classical models and theories to design communication messages,in an attempt to explore the best combination of messages in e-cigarette tobacco control persuasion,in order to provide empirical examples for tobacco control media campaigns.The design of e-cigarette control messages was based on the Extended Parallel Process Model(EPPM),a common model of fear appeals,and combined with types of evidential messages.Four different e-cigarette tobacco control messages were designed in this thesis: a high threat narrative message,a high threat data message,a low threat narrative message and a low threat data message.The messages were collected through an online experiment using an online platform.Subjects’ narrative perceptions,threat and efficacy perceptions,emotions,and attitudes and intentions to use were measured.The results of the study showed that materials with high threat messages were more persuasive.The higher the threat level of the message,the more negative the attitude towards e-cigarettes and the lower the willingness to use.Individuals with higher levels of perceived efficacy were less likely to use them when exposed to high threat messages.However,there was no significant difference in the persuasive effect of either data-based or narrative messages.Emotion as a mediating variable influenced attitudes and willingness to use,with different emotions playing a different role;fear increased aversion to e-cigarettes,but anxiety did not contribute to the persuasive effect.In addition,the subjects’ media exposure also influenced the persuasion results.The more exposure to e-cigarettes through newspapers,the more moderate people’s attitudes and willingness to use them.The more exposure to e-cigarettes through various websites and social media,the more negative the attitude towards e-cigarettes.The more information about e-cigarettes that is available through offline channels,the stronger people’s willingness to use them.Also,the attributes of the audience itself can indirectly influence the persuasive effect.In this study,men were more likely to be informed about e-cigarettes through offline channels than women,and exposure to e-cigarette marketing messages through offline channels significantly influenced people’s willingness to use,positively enhancing willingness to use,so men may have a stronger willingness to use as a result;individuals with different education levels did not show significant differences in attitudes and willingness to use,but those with higher education levels in reported higher levels of perceived severity when confronted with health information.Finally,based on the results of the study,this thesis makes recommendations for media coverage and popularisation of e-cigarette issues.The media should actively assume social responsibility,reflect humanistic concerns,increase coverage and enhance audience attention through agenda setting;innovate formats to enhance appeal;content is king and retain audiences with high-quality content;and should actively explore communication strategies and combine knowledge from multiple disciplines to find the best way to popularise health science.