| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation provides an insight into the Road Safety Authorities (RSA) use of fear appeals
to communicate a public health message. The RSA use fear appeals such as shock, threats, scare
tactics and emotion to communicate a public health message. A fear appeal is a means of
persuasion that threatens the audience with a negative physical, psychological or social
consequence that is likely to occur if they engage in a particular behaviour. This dissertation
provides an insight into:
The factors that contribute to road safety
The effectiveness of fear appeals as a method of communicating a public health message
The impact gender and age has on the effectiveness of a fear appeal advertisement
The ethical concerns relating to fear appeal advertising
The wear-out effect of fear appeal advertising, and
The fear appeal models used to evaluate the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of a particular
fear appeal advertisement
This study comprises a two stage data collection process. Two focus groups were conducted.
One focus group consisted of females and the other of males; the participants were college
students between the ages of 18-27. The objective of the focus groups was to gain an insight into
the attitudes and opinions regarding the effectiveness of the RSA’s fear appeal advertising from
the viewpoint of the target audience. Four in-depth interviews were conducted with road safety
experts to identify the effectiveness of RSA fear appeal advertisements from their viewpoint. | en |
