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.
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.
Dr. Qingjiang (Q.J.) Yao, Professor of Communication and Media at Lamar University (Texas, U.S.), obtained his masters 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.
