Effective Messaging in Child Abuse Prevention Public Awareness Campaigns

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine what communication strategies increase the likelihood that a child abuse prevention public awareness campaign will meet the campaign’s stated objectives. The study analyzes the communication and messaging techniques that enhance a campaign’s effectiveness. Artifacts from four different child abuse prevention campaigns are analyzed against elements identified in the literature as being either effective or ineffective. Effective elements include messaging that suggests that the problem is systemic versus related only to individual shortcomings, that it is socially desirable to help, and that involves a clear call to action. Messaging that conveys a lack of similarity to the audience, focuses on crime and immorality, and that doesn’t communicate the possibility of prevention are described in the literature as being less effective. Analysis explores why specific elements are rhetorically effective and conclusions are drawn to inform the work of communicators developing public awareness campaigns. Artifact analysis indicated that those campaigns that employed more effective messaging techniques and fewer ineffective messaging techniques were the Florida Winds of Change and Stop It Now!. Darkness to Light and Zero Tolerance included fewer effective elements and a greater number of ineffective ones. These findings are connected to the outcomes of each campaign in available literature.