Abstract

There has been limited attention to cancer narrative public service announcements (CNPSAs) despite their potential to educate and engage consumers. Attributes of “well-told” stories are assumed to lead to narrative success, yet seldom do studies describe the nature of characteristics used in real-world advertisements. A major goal of the research was to quantitatively examine the more qualitative aspects of narratives by describing persuasion characteristics present in CNPSAs for two of the most common cancers in women (breast) and men (prostate). This was accomplished with a content analysis of 402 breast and prostate CNPSAs. Descriptive results were linked to behavioral engagement to draw conclusions that hold important implications to explain the role of narrative advertising as a social force. Analyses provide support for the central hypothesis of the study, indicating that effective cancer narratives are at least in part a product of the content, form, and context features of CNPSAs. This research is intended to inform researchers and practitioners in narrative approaches used to influence cancer prevention and control behaviors, as well as indicating which narrative approaches might be better suited for engaging individuals affected by cancer.

摘要

尽管对癌症叙事性公共服务公告（CNPSA）具有教育和吸引消费者的潜力，但人们对其关注有限。假定“通俗易懂”的故事的属性会导致叙事成功，但很少有研究描述真实广告中所使用特征的性质。该研究的主要目的是通过描述CNPSA中针对女性（乳腺癌）和男性（前列腺）中最常见的两种癌症的说服特征，定量地叙述叙事的更多定性方面。这是通过对402个乳房和前列腺CNPSA进行内容分析来完成的。描述性结果与行为参与相关联，以得出结论，这些结论对解释叙事广告作为一种社会力量的作用具有重要意义。分析为研究的主要假设提供了支持，表明有效的癌症叙述至少部分是CNPSA的内容，形式和背景特征的产物。这项研究旨在为研究人员和从业者提供有关影响癌症预防和控制行为的叙事方法的信息，并指出哪种叙事方法可能更适合与受癌症影响的人接触。