Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This research paper examines the differences in the perception of Public Service Advertising (PSAs) among traditional-aged college students between those delivered digitally via Internet; mobile; and broadband devices; and those delivered via traditional media like television and radio programming. The results from this study may be used by public health practitioners and educators to leverage digital media’s perceived high entertainment and portability attributes to drive social change on issues like opioid addiction, suicide, gambling, drug abuse, vaping, smoking, binge drinking, and sexual promiscuity among college students thus reducing preventable diseases and improving public health. The study is an exploratory inquiry routed in the confluence of McLuhan’s ‘medium as message’ construct and Kingdon’s public policy formulation model. It is intended to broaden understanding of college student perceptions of PSAs and the media used to deliver them. The original study found that despite their heavy use of the Internet, college students perceived television to exhibit the highest overall degree of synchronicity between its attributes, PSA delivery prowess, and college student lifestyles which were all conducive for elevated levels of PSA engagement.