Marketing the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus - Testing Message Effects with American College Students

This book helps readers understand the persuasiveness of popular message levels (agenda, knowledge, attitude, and behavioral intention) and factors (sidedness, conclusiveness, and gain- or loss-framing) in communicating critical environmental issues, particularly the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus. The WEF Nexus is a relatively new environmental concept that has been deemed by leading scientists and international organizations as an effective solution to water, energy, and food shortages and crises. It is vital to garner sufficient public support for the concept to function. This book addresses questions such as: How can we strategically and effectively communicate the WEF Nexus to the public to raise necessary public awareness and supportive attitudes, avoid unnecessary politicization, and secure public resources to cope with the water, energy, and food issues before they drastically deteriorate? How can some commonly used message factors affect the persuasiveness of the WEF-nexus strategic communications, and how may those communications be processed by the audience? These questions are answered with data from the National College Student Science Literacy Survey (NCSSLS), a relatively representative survey of American college students in 2016-2018, with a survey experiment included in its second round.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. The Need for Environmental and WEF-Nexus Promotion.- Chapter 2. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus.- 2.1 Our Earth and Its Natural Resources.- 2.2 Reasons for the WEF Nexus: Issues with Separate Resource Governing.- 2.3 Emergence of the Concept of the WEF Nexus.- 2.4 The WEF Nexus and Other Sustainability Issues.- Chapter 3. Promoting the WEF Nexus as Persuasion and Social Marketing.- 3.1 Environmental Promotion as Strategic Science Communication and Its Challenges.- 3.2 Strategic Science and Environmental Communication as Persuasion and Social Marketing.- 3.2.1 Social Marketing, Strategic Communication, and Persuasion.- 3.2.2 Social Marketing on Science and Environment.- 3.3 Persuasion Factors: The Persuader, The Message, The Channel, and The Audience.- Chapter 4 The Audience Data on the WEF Nexus: The National College Student Science Literacy Survey.- 4.1 The Pilot Round.- 4.2 The First Round.- 4.2.1 Sampling and Administration.- 4.2.2 Variables.- 4.2.3 Gauging College Students Science Literacy, WEF-Nexus Opinions, and Predispositions.- 4.3 The Second Round: Data to Test the WEF-Nexus Message.- 4.3.1 The Message Variable on the WEF Nexus.- 4.3.2 The Manipulation-Check Variable: Answer Quality.- 4.3.3 Response Variables (Asked after the Message Stimulus).- 4.3.4 Control Variables (Asked before the Message Stimulus).- Chapter 5 The Five-Level Model of Message Effects: Promoting the WEF Nexus at Different Levels.- 5.1 Communication Effects and a Definition.- 5.1.1 Issues with the Limited-Effect Theory.- 5.1.2 A Definition of Communication Effects.- 5.2 The Hierarchy of Effects Models and the Deficit Model.- 5.2.1 The Hierarchy of Response Models.- 5.2.2 The Cognitive-Affective-Conative Models.- 5.3 Multi-Levels of Message Stimuli and Audience Responses.- 5.3.1 The Agenda-Setting Research.- 5.3.2 The Priming Research.- 5.3.3 The Framing Effect Research.- 5.3.4 The Debate between Agenda-Setting and Framing Effects Researchers.- 5.4 The Five-Level Model of Message Effects.- 5.4.1 The Five-Level Model.- 5.4.2 Testing the Five-Level Model of Message Effects on the WEF Nexus.- Chapter 6 Message Factors: The Secrets to Promote the WEF Nexus.- 6.1 An Overview of the Persuasiveness of Message Factors.- 6.2 The Persuasiveness of Message Sidedness: One-Sided vs. Two-Sided Versions.- 6.2.1 The Message Sidedness Research.- 6.2.2 Testing Message Sidedness on the WEF Nexus.- 6.3 The Persuasiveness of Message Conclusiveness: Conclusive vs. Inconclusive Versions.- 6.3.1 The Message Conclusiveness Research.- 6.3.2 Testing Message Conclusiveness on the WEF Nexus.- 6.4 The Persuasiveness of Gain- or Loss-Framing.- 6.4.1 The Gain- or Loss-Framing Research.- 6.4.2 Testing Gain- or Loss-Framing on the WEF Nexus.- 6.5 The Interactions of the Message Factors.- 6.5.1 The Possible Interactions of the Message Factors: Sidedness, Conclusiveness, and Gain- or Loss-Framing.- 6.5.2 Exploring the Interactions of Message Factors on the WEF Nexus.- Chapter 7 Conclusions and the Next Step to Promote the WEF Nexus.- 7.1 Conclusions on the Levels of Message Effects and the WEF Nexus.- 7.2 Conclusions on Effects of Message Factors and the WEF Nexus.- 7.2.1 Message Sidedness and the WEF Nexus.- 7.2.2 Message Conclusiveness and the WEF Nexus.- 7.2.3 Gain- or Loss-Framing and the WEF Nexus.- 7.2.4 The Interactions of Message Factors and the WEF Nexus.- 7.3 The Next Step: Interactions, Levels of Responses, and Causality.- Bibliography.- Appendix Additional Information on the National College Student Science Literacy Survey.- A.1 First Notice for the Survey.- A.2 Versions of the Message Embedded in the Second Round.

Über den Autor / die Autorin

Dr. Qingjiang (Q.J.) Yao, Professor of Communication and Media at Lamar University (Texas, U.S.), obtained his master’s degree in logic from Beijing Normal University (Beijing, China) and Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of South Carolina. He has taught strategic communication and other courses at the University of Iowa, Fort Hays State University (Kansas, U.S.), and LU. His research interests lie in examining the persuasive effects of mass, digital, and social media, publishing in  such journals as the Asian Journal of Communication, China Advertising, Environment Systems and Decisions, Environment, Development and Sustainability, European Journal of East Asian Studies, European Politics and Society, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research, Journal of Internet Law, Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Journal of Media and Religion, Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Public Relations Review, Science Communication, and Telematics and Informatics, and other venues.

Zusammenfassung

This book helps readers understand the persuasiveness of popular message levels (agenda, knowledge, attitude, and behavioral intention) and factors (sidedness, conclusiveness, and gain- or loss-framing) in communicating critical environmental issues, particularly the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus. The WEF Nexus is a relatively new environmental concept that has been deemed by leading scientists and international organizations as an effective solution to water, energy, and food shortages and crises. It is vital to garner sufficient public support for the concept to function. This book addresses questions such as: How can we strategically and effectively communicate the WEF Nexus to the public to raise necessary public awareness and supportive attitudes, avoid unnecessary politicization, and secure public resources to cope with the water, energy, and food issues before they drastically deteriorate? How can some commonly used message factors affect the persuasiveness of the WEF-nexus strategic communications, and how may those communications be processed by the audience? These questions are answered with data from the National College Student Science Literacy Survey (NCSSLS), a relatively representative survey of American college students in 2016-2018, with a survey experiment included in its second round.

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Q J Yao, Q.J. Yao
• Verlag: Springer, Berlin
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Fester Einband
• Erscheint: 20.08.2025
• EAN: 9783031931475
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3193147-5
• Seiten: 208
• Illustration: Approx. 210 p.
• Themen: Sozialwissenschaften, Recht,Wirtschaft > Medien, Kommunikation > Kommunikationswissenschaft; Kommunikationswissenschaft, food, Soziale Auswirkungen von Umweltfaktoren, Businesskommunikation und -präsentation, Public Relations, Water, ENERGY, Social Marketing, Environmental Communication, Organizational and Strategic Communication, WEF nexus