Abstract

As public communication campaigns grow more sophisticated and strategic, a central problem in the planning of public communication campaigns to change individual's behaviors and mobilize public action is how to identify and apply appropriate communication, persuasion, and behavior change theories to overcome obstacles to behavior change. The stages of change model provides a useful framework for integrating theories of media effects, such as agenda setting, multi-step flow of communication, framing; theories of persuasion, such as the elaboration likelihood model and protection motivation theory; and theories of behavior change, such as the theory of reasoned action, social cognitive theory, and attitude accessibility, for communication campaign purposes. Implications for audience segmentation, selection of campaign objectives, campaign strategy, and message design are discussed.