Chapter V: Information Channels & Dissemination Strategies

The effectiveness of a given dissemination strategy depends on factors
such as the characteristics of the innovation, the target audience, and the
information channel. The strategy that works well for transmitting general
information to the masses may be inappropriate for communicating specific
research findings to policy makers. The strategy that works well for diffusing
technological innovations among organizations may not be compatible with
dissemination strategies linked to the development of third world countries.
Strategies designed for reaching one minority group may not fit well with
another minority group. Getting the proper fit among the innovation,
information channel, purpose, and target audience is important. While the
prosumer approach will help facilitate the dissemination process in ways not
possible under the old paradigm, understanding channels for communication and
how these are changing is essential to effective utilization efforts under
either paradigm.
The information channels around which to strategize range from mass
media to mass mailings, from print media to electronic media, from telephone
contacts to face-to-face contacts. Purposes include informing, educating, and
selling. The ultimate purpose may be to change attitudes and behaviors.
Target audiences may be policymakers, service providers, consumers,
organizations, or communities. Target audiences may include varied ethnic or
minority groups. On the other hand, targeted audiences may include a given
socio-economic level, educational level, or special interest category. No one
channel assures success of the innovation (Pelz, 1983:22-23). The usefulness
of each channel varies for differing innovations, for differing stages in the
inno vation process, and for soft vs. hard technology transfer.
Creating the proper fit begins with understanding the effectiveness
areas of each media. Creating the proper fit also includes recognizing that no
one channel is always sufficient (Reardon & Rogers, 1988). Sometimes the
interplay among the varied channels generate awareness and interest
simultaneously or sequentially. People may hear of an innovation via mass
media but pursue it themselves only after a friend or acquaintance has
introduced them to it in a comfortable setting. Reardon and Rogers
(1988:286-287) caution against dichotomous separation of dissemination
strategies into mass media and interpersonal. Each contributes to the other
over time through the various stages of adoption proposed by Rogers (1983):
knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation.
This section presents the features of the information channels in
terms of their perceived or validated effective ness areas. The channels
highlighted include mass media (e.g., radio, television, teletext, videotext,
newspapers, magazines, comics), personal contacts (e.g., informal: family,
friends, neighbors, druggists, mail carrier; formal: change agents,
consultants), information service systems (e.g., libraries, online databases),
training and educational programs (e.g., professional preparation, workshops,
computer-assisted), and other (e.g., billboards, posters).
Characteristics of communication channels worthy of note, according to
Rogers (1986:21), are: message flow, source knowledge of the audience,
segmentation, degree of interactivity, feedback, asynchronocity,
socioemotional vs. task-related content, nonverbal, control of the
communication flow, and privacy afforded. He charted these characteristics
across face-to-face interpersonal communication, interactive (machine-assisted
interpersonal) communication, and mass media.

I. Mass media
Mass communication includes electronic and print media. Electronic
media includes radio, television, teletext, videotext, and satellite
telecommunications. Print media encompasses books, newspapers, magazines,
newsletters, and comics. Historically, as each new media entered the scene,
owners of existing forms of mass communication reassessed the futures of their
respective media. The advantages and disadvantages of each form of mass
communication provides guidance for selecting the best medium to fit the
intended audience and the dissemination purpose.

A. Effectiveness areas of electronic media

Radio
Radios with their great flexibility and adaptability wake us up,
inform us, and entertain us. Hiebert and others (1988:173) say that radio has
become more individualized and personalized. Talk show hosts communicate
directly to each listener and caller. No longer is radio the medium that
unites family members at night. Each family member now listens to differing
stations at differing locations and at differing times of the day.
Individualization of the radio is in keeping with the megatrends identified by
Naisbitt and Aburdene.
Of the 8300 radio stations, according to Hiebert and others
(1988:167), more of us listen to FM stations on the VHF broadcast frequency
than to AM stations on the UHF frequency. The public can hear Class C stations
up to 60 miles away and Class A stations up to 15 miles away. Black
populations can find up to 300 stations targeted to them. Hispanic
populations also can find a significant number of stations targeted to them.
Many other stations devote a significant portion of their schedules to ethnic
programming--primarily foreign language--including more than 20 stations that
broadcast exclusively to American Indians and Eskimos.
The content of radio stations revolve around music, news, and talk.
The program director designates each hour of programming for the disc jockeys,
radio announcers, and others to follow (Ibid, 168). Classifications of radio
programming which are based on format broadcasting targeted for audience
segments are: (1) adult contemporary, (2) contemporary hit radio, (3)
album-oriented rock, (4) easy listening, (5) country, (6) news/talk, (7) urban
contemporary, (8) oldies/nostalgia, (9) ethnic, (10) religious, (11)
classical (Ibid, 175-6). Efforts to disseminate knowledge via radio need to be
linked to that station's specific audience and structure. The radio structure
includes the local station, network, and program suppliers.

Television
To reach the most numbers of people with general information,
television is the logical, though most expensive, choice. Television is in
more than 98 percent of the American homes. It appeals to more than one of the
five senses and has become the dominant leisure activity. Television "is
society's mass entertainer, mass informer, mass persuader, and mass educator"
(Ibid, 215).
In 1976 the average household viewed television almost seven hours a
day (Ibid; Comstock et al, 1978 in Roberts & Maccoby, 1985). The increases in
viewing between 1963 and 1976 correlated with an increase in the amount of
available leisure time (Peterson, 1981; Sahin and Robinson, 1981; in Roberts
and Maccoby, 1985). Television-use patterns have not changed significantly
since then. In general women, children, and retirees view television more
than men, adolescents and working adults. Viewing has been negatively related
to education, income, and occupational status (Roberts & Maccoby, 1985). The
differences between groups, however, has reduced over time on indexes such as
educational level, income, occupational status, and gender. Comparisons of
men and women in the paid labor force resulted in men watching much more
television than women. Sahin and Robinson (1981 in Roberts & Maccoby, 1985)
"characterize the trend in television use over the 1970's as moving in the
direction of levelling of past differences and convergence towards truly mass
viewing."
Blacks and Spanish surname groups reportedly view more television than
do whites. Allen and Bielby indicate that there are wide variations in media
behavior amoung blacks and warn against thinking of them as homogenous or as
exhibiting behaviors similar to whites (1979 reported in Roberts and Maccoby,
1985). Younger black adults and better educated black people view television
more than older black people or less educated ones (Comstock, et al, 1978
reported in Roberts and Maccoby, 1985).
The networks--NBC, ABC, and CBS--share 71 percent of the viewing
audience (Heibert et al, 1988:212). Independents and cable television share
the rest. Programming and schedules on the networks are put together one to
two years in advance (Ibid, 213). Channels 2-13 on VHF have the greatest
geographical span (Ibid, 212). Stations in major market areas get most of the
national advertising dollar; stations in smaller markets depend heavily on
local advertising (Ibid, 212). "The future of television rests on the ability
of audiences to control and use it for their own purposes" (Ibid, 215).
Knowledge utilization proponents could contribute to that shaping.

Teletext & Videotext
(Hiebert et al, 1988:200-201; Rogers, 1986:45-50)
Teletext permits individuals to select textual and graphic information
available through standard broadcasting signals. They access this information
by using keypads or decoders connected to television sets. The information
providers insert digital data into lines of television referred to as vertical
blanking intervals. Users select pages of information from up to 400 potential
frames of information and wait from ten to twenty-five seconds for the desired
frame to appear. Because advertising supports teletext, the service is
virtually free to anyone who buys a decoder.
Videotext, on the other hand, is a more highly interactive and
speedier information service. Because videotext uses telephone lines or cable
connectors between the data bank and television rather than
on-air-broadcasting to transmit information, telephone charges, per frame
charges, and special receivers ($600-900 purchase or $20-40 rental costs per
month) make videotext more expensive. European forms are more sophisticated
and prosperous thus far than American forms of videotext and teletext. Early
companies sponsoring these newer technologies in America such as Knight-Ridder
and Times Mirror, have failed because of the expense of the technology,
difficulty in use, and the lack of understanding of what consumers want
(Heibert et al, 1988:201). Attempts in America to provide news services on
television i.e., teletext, did not sell as well as anticipated.
Agritex, according to Pat MacDonald and Jim Marisi (1984), is a
Canadian commercial videotex service targeted to Saskatchewan's large rural
community. "Originally, Agritex was conceived only as a telephone/television
videotex service, but SaskTel incorporated into the system American standard
code for information interchange (ASCII) databases, making the service
available to consumers whose home computers do not have videotex graphics
capabilities" (Ibid, 28). Because many rural audiences use multiparty lines,
Sasktel devised special arrangements for using Agritex. A party line emergency
device, which connects the home computer and the telephone line, emits a tone
indicates a neighbor needs to use the phone for an emergency call. The
Agritex user, thereby, knows to log off immediately.
Now farmers have access to telebanking, teleshopping, news & weather
services, distance educational courses, agricultural, farm management, and
lifestyle databases. Agritex thus links information brokers and rural
families. It provides direct access to information and reduces the need for
county agents to visit farmers to demonstrate the latest innovations.
Heikkinen and Reese (1986) studied information need and information
channel orientation as predictors of videotex adoption. They developed a model
that assumed functional equivalency between newspapers and videotex and that
people with high information need would desire both media as compared with
individuals having low information needs. They cited several studies (Reese et
al, 1984; Butler & Kent, 1983; Dozier & Hellweg, 1984; and Ettema, 1983) who
point to young people having more favorable attitudes toward new
communications media than their parents (Heikkinen & Reese, 1986:22-23). They
identified three kinds of newspaper readers--loyalists, shifters, and
adders--, each having a higher level of probability of changing media for
meeting information needs. Their study of 369 (randomly selected telephone
directory listed) persons in Gainesville, Florida, measured information need
in terms of newspaper subscriptions, time spent with newspaper, hard news
motivation, education and family income. They measured channel orientation in
terms of age, adoption of home computers, videocassette recorders, and
perceived utility of various electronic services.
Findings suggest that while one-third of the respondents would shift
to videotex if it were available more would add it to newspapers. "Adders
included the well-documented, information rich group of early innovation
adopters, characterized by high information need. The other group, the
shifters--who indicated they would replace newspapers with videotex--....are
characterized by a relatively low need for information and a 'modern'
orientation toward new technologies" (Ibid). The authors recognized that their
study did not address institutional, technological, or market developments
surrounding the new technology.

Videocassettes/discs
Videocassette recorders (VCRs) have become integral to home
entertainment. More than 40 percent of all American households have VCRs.
Users average six hours a week for recording and more for playing (Heibert et
al, 1988:202). Videodiscs are also becoming more prominent and are marketed
much like records or books. Corporate videos are emerging as a major
communication medium (Ibid, 215).
In the educational arena interactive video has come more and more to
the forefront. Interactive video provides a way to be with knowledge as well
as provides knowledge itself. It encourages individual autonomy and shows
respect for individual pacing of knowledge acquisition. This instructional
mode of information giving further individualizes information access and use.

B. Effectiveness areas of print media

Newspapers
Although newspapers are no longer the fastest medium for carrying the
bulletins and headlines of the day, they still provide the best display and
indepth coverage of events and news (Ibid, 70-72). Hiebert and others (1988)
say there has been an increase in readers at the same time there has been a
decrease in the number of newspapers. Roberts & Maccoby (1985), on the other
hand, cite studies that indicate a decrease in readership especially among
younger adults who do not have the newspaper-reading habit and are less likely
to develop it as they grow older. They even offer references and explanations
for why there is a decrease. Factors they cite include decline in home
ownership, increase in single-person households, increase of women in the
labor force, fractionation of the city, and changes in amounts of available
time. They also highlight Stamm and Fortini-Campbell's 1977 study that shows
strong, positive correlations between people's sense of belonging to a
community and newspaper relationship.
Hiebert ascribes the decrease in the number of newspapers in part to
the fact that more newspapers are now owned by chain newspaper companies
"making the business more efficient and profitable" (Ibid, 71).
Among the top papers are the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian
Science Monitor, Washington Post, & USA Today (Ibid, 54-55). Among the
newspaper chains are Gannett Co., Inc., Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Newhouse
Newspapers, Tribune Co., Dow Jones & Co. Inc., Times Mirror Co., News America
Pub. Corp., and the NY Times Co. (Ibid, 64).
Small weekly newspapers and specialized weekly newspapers serve the
local community or distinct ethnic, cultural, or professional groups (Ibid,
57-8). Some papers provide an English version of foreign ones for specific
ethnic populations (e.g., company in Colorado publishes the Soviet newspaper
PRAVDA in English) (Ibid, 58-59). More and more big city newspapers such as
the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herald, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times,
and the Cincinnati Enquirer are using zoned inserts to suburban communities
(Ibid, 16-17).
Two hundred twenty (220) of 3,000 black newspapers founded in the
United States still exist. They are financially strong and circulate to
approximately 4 million (Ibid, 62). The National Newspaper Publishers
Association is a black press organization begun in 1940. After World War II,
black press began declining as "blacks became increasingly assimilated into
white culture" (Ibid). James D. Williams in his book, The black press and the
first amendment, suggested the decline was in part due to more people turning
to television, the indifference of major advertisers to black media, and the
quality and quantity of reporting in some instances (Ibid).
The newspaper audience includes 138 million Americans of whom 2 out of
3 read a newspaper daily, 9 out of 10 adults read at least 1 newspaper weekly
and 2.2 people read each newspaper delivered to a household (Ibid, 67). The
average reader is likely to be male, mature, college graduate, higher income,
white, and stable vs. mobile. Six out of ten readers read the comics daily,
100 million people read the Sunday comics section (supplied mostly by 25
syndicates and led by King Features with 65 of the 300 strips) (Ibid, 67).
A study on dissemination of information about cancer in rural
communities in South Carolina found the newspaper generally more effective
than television or radio for almost all subpopulations studied (Cantor et al,
1979). Cantor cautioned against accepting too readily "the belief that
housewives, economically deprived persons, rural dwellers, and the aged have
unique patterns of media utilization for acquiring health educational
material" (Ibid, 1234). He found only two subpopulations (small town and
blacks) where newspapers were not superior. "In those cases the sample sizes
were small and the observed results could be attributable to chance" (Ibid).

Magazines and Journals
Unlike newspapers with daily deadlines, magazines have time to look
more closely at issues for analysis and interpretation. They can follow the
flow of events over time through a series on a given topic in subsequent
editions of the magazine. "Surveys of magazine readers' actions suggest that
readers tend to take more action as a result of their reading than is taken by
consumers of other media" (Hiebert et al, 1988:92).
Four thousand of the more than 11,320 magazines published in the
continental United States in 1986 were monthlies (Ibid, 88). The 11,320 does
not include the private, institutional, or in-house publications (Ibid). New
York based publishers produce one-third of the magazines published; the rest
are scattered among the fifty states (Ibid, 89). More people buy magazines on
a single-copy basis rather than subscriptions, partly due to the rising costs
of postage (Ibid, 87).
Magazine publishers are increasingly using computers and demographic
data to segment audiences for their advertisements and content. Readers
preselect categories of interest and the magazine publishers assure that each
issue has at least one appealing article for each segment. Neighbors,
therefore, may get one differing article in their copy of the same magazine in
a given month (Ibid, 87).
Unlike past practices where editors waited for freelance
contributions for their editorial content, they now most often use
staff-developed and staff-written materials. "Schedules are too demanding and
story development is too complicated to allow the editors to depend on
volunteer contributions" (Ibid, 93). This means dissemination of information
must whet the appetite of staff to write the story on selected research
discoveries.
Consumer magazines fall into 13 or more categories: Women's, men's,
sophisticated, quality, romance, news, sports, travel, exploration, humor,
shelter, class, and city. Specialized magazines consist of juvenile, comic,
little literary (Prairie Schooner), literary (Paris Review), scholarly
(Journalism Quarterly), educational (College & University Journal), business
(Nation's Business), religious (Christianity Today), industrial or company
(Western Electric World), farm (Farm Journal), transportation (Railway Age),
science (Scientific American), and discussion (New Republic)(Ibid, 94-95).
Most magazines keep subscription costs down by using advertisements.
Only a few such as MS. magazine attempt to control the content of their
periodicals by eliminating all advertisements and the content controls
associated with those ads. Advertisers in many cases must be taken into
account when promoting articles on recent research findings.

Newsletters
Newsletters, generally free of ads, provide a more personal mode of
communication. These more timely, modest styled, vehicles of communication
appeal to all strata of society and varied forms of literacy. There are more
than 4,000 commercial newsletters and thousands of subsidized newsletters
published. The latter may be used to promote or persuade, or provide
communication within an organization or a group. Congressional members use
newsletters to keep in touch with their constituencies. Professional
associations, church groups, factory workers, fraternal organizations, alumni,
labor units, etc. also use newsletters to communicate with their members
(Ibid, 100). While the newsletter is inexpensive and simple to produce, its
longevity depends on its content appeal to its targeted audience. "Many
newsletters have short lifetimes and make only a fleeting impression" (Ibid,
100). A typical newsletter publishing company is Phillips Publishing of
Washington, D.C. They now publish 20 newsletters.
The Kiplinger Washington Letters, begun in 1923, is a subject of
imitation. Unlike the normal journalistic restrictions of objectivity and
attribution to sources, Kiplinger made analyses and predictions for his
readers, taking them into his confidence (Ibid, 98). He created a warm,
personal, and intimate form of communication with his readers using a letter
format beginning with dear reader and ending with his signature in blue ink
(even though it was more costly) (Ibid, 99).

Books
Books are more permanent but less timely than other print media. They
are more personal and more respected. They have a higher rate of reusability
(Ibid, 38-39). While books at one point in history were written for a more
literate or elite audience, today's books, especially the "how-to" ones appeal
to the less literate. No longer does a person need to be a "reader" to
appreciate and use a book's contents. As a tool for disseminating information
about new research or technology, books contribute to the enlightenment
models of utilization or the spread effect. Production schedules, display
practices, and marketability factor into decisions on whether to communicate
new research via books.

Comics
Comic strips and comic books are still other print vehicles for
communicating. While not the typical research dissemination mode, their
potential may have been under-assessed. More than 100 comicbook companies
publish 300 titles and sell in excess of 250 million copies annually (Ibid,
98).

Five classes of comics serve mass communication functions:

1.The single-picture (panel) newspaper feature, such as Grin and Bear
It, The Family Circus, and the cartoons in the New Yorker, Playboy and other
magazines.

2. The black-and-white multipanel, daily-newspaper comic strip, such
as Dick Tracy, B.C., and Mary Worth.

3. The multicolor Sunday supplement, which is a collection of strips
that either continue the daily newspaper feature's story line or tell a
separate story.

4. The multipage color narrative in magazine form, which is issued
monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly and is called a comic book (Action Comics).

5. The anti-Establishment, social-political-economic commentary comic,
or underground comic book, which is usually published irregularly in black and
white (Zap, Despair, and the like) (Ibid, 95-96).
While the amount of information that can be given in a comic strip is
limited, people do read, cut out, display, and share comic strips. Many of the
doors in the hallway by this author's office door have comic strips or scenes
available for educators and students to smile over. This is an untapped mine
for informing the public. A creative researcher or change agent might want to
explore more fully its potential and even suggest a series that a comic writer
might want to explore.

C. Information selection process in mass media
Disseminating information by mass media is contingent upon having that
information accepted by the selected media. Factors influencing the
information selection process include individual personalities or biases
mediated by professionalism, organizations, government, and audience demand.
Professionalism stimulates individuals in media settings to adhere to
standards of objectivity and nonprejudicial practices. Organizations with
their policies and procedures, roles and cultures provide the framework and
the expectancy levels for performance of reporters and editors. Owners suggest
or dictate directions to follow. For instance, new ownership at News American
in Baltimore, Maryland, turned the paper into a pilot environment for U.S.A.
Today. Content changed, formats changed, and subsequently personnel changed.
National wire services and national networks impact information
content. Even television producers who reign over reporters, writers, and
directors are only "middle men" when it comes to the network level of the
media hierarchy (Hirsch, 1977:277). Decisions by local editors or program
directors to use an item of information versus the many competing items for
limited space has been found to coincide with the selections at the national
level through syndicated services (White, 1950 in Hirsch, 1977:274).
The government laws and regulations influence content. Postal rates,
mergers, copyrights, taxes, antitrusts, VHF and UHF broadcast spectrums,
television programming, and cable television policies contribute to decisions
about content. Audience demand also enters into the information content
selection arena. People with disabilities can help influence content
individually and collectively directly and indirectly. To do so they must do
their homework and identify the multiple influences on a given form of media.
There are guides to accessing the media that many skilled public
relations directors know about. These guides, such as the Writer's Digest and
the Writer's Market, describe how to query mass media about an idea for a
column, a story, an oped piece, etc.

D. Systematic approach to mass media
One media specialist, Robert Bomboy, won a state award and a national
award in 1990 for creating and documenting the effects of the Geisinger
Medical News Service. The Service received the Meritorious Achievement Award
of the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania Public Relations and Marketing
Society and the Touch Tone Award of the American Society for Health Care,
Marketing, and Public Relations (part of the American Hospital Association).
Those associations recognized the Geisinger Medical News Service for its
replicable, cost-effective, and systematic approach to accessing the mass
media to reach its consumers. More importantly, the approach "developed and
buttressed the media's reliance on Geisinger, and the Geisinger name, as a
source of medical and scientific expertise" (Bomboy, 1990:1).
The news service provides a variety of public relations products to
newspapers, magazines, television, radio outlets, and 1,000 freelance writers
and columnists. It does not charge for its services. For radio stations in
Pennsylvania, the service distributes weekly radio actualities (20-second
cuts) that include physicians' comments on health news topics. Studies of the
media's responsiveness report: "An average of 40 stations per week accept the
radio feed when a secretary from the service phones it to them. A phone survey
by Mass Communication Department interns from Bloomsburg University found
two-thirds of the stations reporting that they used between three-quarters and
all of the radio actualities the service sent. All said they used some of the
actualities" (Ibid, 3).
For 12 Pennsylvania television stations, the service develops six
90-second video news releases annually. Bomboy reports:

Each video news release includes B Roll, natural sound and
narration on a separate sound channel so that the TV station
can repackage it, if necessary, according to the station's
own news format. The cost of producing, duplicating and
distributing each video news release is less than $1,000,
compared to an average cost of between $12,000 and $20,000
for video news releases nationally. We supply TV stations
with return-mail user cards: the average number of uses,
according to those cards, is five per video news release, or
41.6 percent. During the year's time, 30 video news
releases appeared on Pennsylvania TV stations (Ibid).

For the national magazines, Geisinger Medical News Service provides
monthly Geisinger Media Lead Sheets. The service also stays abreast of the
target audiences of national magazines and schedules visits to New York
magazine editors. Bomboy, the creator of the service, not only provides
material for staff to use in writing articles but also suggests a point of
view for the articles that is likely to appeal to readers of a given magazine.
For the news media, the Geisinger Medical News Service goes beyond
traditional hospital related news to offer 400-word monthly features on
medical topics resulting from national media analysis. In nine months time the
Burrelle Clipping Service identified 136 feature releases among Pennsylvania
newspapers (Ibid, 4). The total annual budget for this ongoing 12-month
multimedia approach to mass media is $32,260. That includes videography and
secretarial support for mailing out the columns and sending the radio
actualities. It does not include salaries of public relations staff.

E. Mass media campaigns
For a shorter-term approach to information dissemination through the
mass media, consider some of the findings on health behavior communication
campaigns (Backer, 1990). Backer and Rogers developed an analytic framework
for mass media campaigns on health behavior. The framework consists of six
areas: media components, collaborators, contexts, structure of campaigns,
principles for what works, and effects (1990:322). From a review of mass
communications literature, Backer extracted ten principles for effective
campaigns (1988a). The abbreviated version of these are:

a. Use multiple media
b. Combine media and interpersonal/community strategies
c. Segment the intended audience
d. Use celebrities to get attention and entertainment
programs to sustain attention
e. Provide simple, clear, and repeated messages
f. Emphasize positive behavior more than negative
consequences of current behavior
g. Emphasize current rewards, not distant negative
consequences
h. Involve key power figures and organizations
i. Take advantage of timing
j. Use formative evaluation (Backer, 1988:322).

Among the media components suggested were: public service announcements, news
programs, information programs, entertainment programs, celebrity personal
appearances, fund-raising events, print media, posters, feature films, radio
interview/discussion, educational films/video, and special events--contest,
awards. Collaborators included mass media product developers, government,
health care prevention, community/advocacy, media experts and expert
organizations, and media trade/professional organizations.
In 1985 the Corporation for Public Broadcasting supported the creation
of a national outreach program (CPB, 1989). The Public Television Outreach
Alliance (PTOA), headquartered at WQED in Pittsburg with four regional
headquarters, sponsors two projects per year. The PTOA collaborated with
Capital Cities/ABC and launched a highly successful literacy campaign (PLUS)
using prime time documentaries and showcasing successful community programs.
PTOA worked through broadcast outlets, coordinated available local information
about literacy projects, task forces, and agencies. Each year the PLUS
campaign added another focus such as literacy in the workforce, literacy and
youth, and now literacy in the family. Among the campaign accomplishments
are 366 local PLUS task forces in all 50 states with strong local PBS and
Capital Cities/ABC station participation; local and statewide hotlines, 410
business breakfasts with a national one hosted by the First Lady, a 13%
increase in enrollment in adult education programs, i.e., 500,000 students and
a 44 percent increase in the number of volunteer tutors in federally funded
education programs. In another outreach project PTOA's efforts generated
11,200 town meetings resulting in 8,000 permanent community task forces which
are still in place four years later.

F. Potential effects of mass media
Mass media can help acculturate or polarize its audiences (Heibert et
al, 1988:696-7). Mass media helps speed the process of acculturation by making
available to diverse audiences the opportunities for simultaneous exposure to
a given event, story, or kind of information. It polarizes through its
channels and emphases on cultural or specialty interests.
Research on the effects of mass media have offered three models:
direct effects, limited effects, and powerful effects under limiting
conditions (Roberts & Maccoby, 1985). Each model has been influenced by the
theories prevalent in the social sciences for a given time period. For
instance, the stimulus-response theory influenced the simplistic, direct cause
and effect model. The limited effects model indicated that generally mass
communication does not "serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience
effects" but rather only a means of reinforcing existing values and attitudes
(Ibid). This model stemmed from assumptions and subsequent fears that the mass
audience was at the mercy of the mass media (Bauer & Bauer, 1960; DeFleur and
Ball-Rokeach, 1982 in Roberts & Maccoby, 1985). The third model built on new
theories of social-learning and advances in political science studies of the
media. It posits powerful media effects conditioned by a variety of
contingent and/or contributory third variables.
Roberts & Maccoby (1985:552), building on work by McGuire (1969,
1973), developed a matrix to depict the variables conditioning the effects of
mass communication. Those variables included exposure, attention,
comprehension, acceptance, retention, and behavior on the first plane,
person-, stimulus-, or environment-related on a second plane, and exposure to
specific content before, during, or after in the third plane. These
conditioning variables are important to understanding effects of mass media.
Chaffee and Schleuder (1986:104) warn against use of research results
comparing media when researchers utilize only exposure as the measure of media
use. While reading of newspapers often includes exposure and attention,
Chaffee and Schleuder believe television may be viewed without engaging the
mind in any serious sense. They suggest the use of only exposure may account
for findings that one media is more effective than another.
Research on effects of mass media also needs to consider, according to
Rogers (1983), the amount of time within the exposure as well as between
exposure and decision or action. It includes the duration of the consequence
and the differing rates of change associated with differing consequences.
Assessments of consequences involve attitudes, cognition, and/or behaviors.
Consequences may include total change, reinforcement of existing responses, or
crystallization of existing responses. Change may be minor, dramatic
conversions, or nonexistent.
From a television viewing motivational perspective, Finn and Gorr
(1988) have explored predictors of viewing that in this author's opinion also
enter into the perceived effects picture. They suggest from a student sample
of 290 two distinct sources of needs that subsequently lead to viewing: social
compensation (including companionship, pass time, habit, and escape) and mood
management (includes relaxation, entertainment, arousal, and information). "To
the extent that individuals enjoy high levels of social support, they seem to
utilize television in a more assertive and selective fashion, not so much to
remedy social deficits as to satisfy relaxation, entertainment, arousal, and
information needs" (Ibid, 153).

G. Portrayals of people with disabilities in the media
The way the media portrays people with disabilities affects how it is
likely to portray research findings about disability and rehabilitation. The
media helps influence societal attitudes towards people with disabilities. To
help change attitudes, the media could create positive images of people with
disabilities, funnel information on research findings needed by people with
disabilities, clarify issues related to integration of people with
disabilities into society, and model people with disabilities in diverse
career roles (Edwards, 1989).
Many organizations are concerned about how the media portrays people
with disabilities. Some have developed guidelines for portrayal in the media.
The President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities has
sponsored awards for advertisers who depict people with disabilities in a more
favorable image. Since those awards began, the public has seen a youth wearing
Levi's doing a wheelie (i.e., raising the front wheels of his wheelchair and
spinning around), two teenagers who are deaf signing "let's go get a Big Mac,"
a man getting his wheelchair out of his Bronco at the fishing lake, the award
winning deaf actress communicating with her cat as she opens the can of cat
food, special olympics participants practicing walking the beam, and many more
depictions in normal every day settings. Media Access in California has
helped promote the use of actors and actresses with disabilities in television
entertainment. Two shows--L.A. Law and Family Life-- in particular have
illustrated the abilities of people with mental retardation. They are shown in
every day life situations rather than as heroes or superhuman and in Family
Life the actor is retarded.
John Clogston studied portrayals of this population in the media. He
distinguishes between the traditional and progressive ways to portray people
with disabilities in the media. Traditional stories present persons with
disabilities "primarily as malfunctioning in a medical or economic way. The
source of these individuals' problems is perceived as lying within the
individual. Society's role is to either cure or maintain the individual
medically or economically" (Clogston, 1990:1).
Progressive stories, on the other hand, "reflect the view that the
major disabling aspect of a person lies in society's inability to adapt its
physical, social or occupational environment and its attitudes toward full
inclusion of all individuals, both with and without disabilities" (Clogston,
1990: 2).
After conducting a content analysis of perceptions of disability in
the New York Times, Clogston determined that there is a trend away from
portraying individuals with disabilities as charity recipients and toward a
more minority/civil rights view of disability.

II. PERSONAL CONTACTS
Where do citizens go for information? Williams, Dordick, and Hostmann
(1977) sought answers to that question among citizens in three Los Angeles
communities: Watts, Boyle Heights, and Reseda. Watts at the time of the study
was almost totally black and low-income; Boyle Heights was predominantly
Mexican-American; Reseda was predominantly white middle-income. They found
marked differences in the patterns of information seeking among the
communities. Watts residents preferred interpersonal networks of family and
friends, as information sources. Boyle Heights residents preferred
institutions or agencies and Reseda residents preferred mass media (print,
television, radio) and the telephone. The communities also differed in choice
of newspaper or station to watch or hear.
The Human Resources Center (1990) surveyed information seeking and
using among people with disabilities (some of whom were Hispanic and some
rural). Preliminary findings were:

--most used sources of information include friends and social service programs
--of all sources accessed, users are most satisfied with friends and least
satisfied with service programs
--the primary reason for preferring an information source is its low cost
--almost all respondents were users of formal sources of information, such
as libraries, social service programs, newsletters, hotlines, etc.
--most people sought information at least once a month
--health information and information specific to disability were the most
sought after
--the most prevalent ways of contacting a source were in person or by telephone
--people do not want to spend much money for information as they do not
believe they can afford it
Several studies have looked at information giving practices,
especially in the patient-doctor relationship. Waitzkin found that doctors
spent very little time giving information to their patients--"a little more
than a minute on the average in encounters lasting about 20 minutes"
(1984:2442). Studies of sex and information giving by doctors point to women
receiving more time and more total and multilevel explanations (Ibid, 2442);
women asked more questions (Ibid, 2442; Pendleton and Bochner, 1980:671).
Similar findings applied to social class with the upper or upper middle class
receiving more time and explanations (Waitzkin, 1984:2442; Pendleton and
Bochner, 1980:671). "Lower-class patients tend to be diffident, that is, they
usually ask fewer questions" (Korsch et al, 1968 & 1969 cited in Waitzkin,
1984:2442). Information-giving tended to increase when the doctor was less
certain of the diagnosis and prognosis (Waitzkin, 1984:2443). "Patients with
an unfavorable prognosis tended to get more doctor time, more total
explanations, more multi-level explanations, and more nondiscrepant responses"
(Ibid, 2443).
Information giving and patients satisfaction have been linked to timing, amount , frequency, honesty, and completeness. Sample findings are:

Patients express the desire to receive as much information
as possible about their illness (Cartwright, 1967 & 1977
cited in Penderton and Bochner, 1980:672).

Details alone will not do, however, since many patients find
medical information confusing or hard to remember (Ley, 1972
and Houghton 1968 cited in Penderton and Bochner, 1980:672).

In being given the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, patients expected the physician to be
straightforward, honest but not premature, sensitive to
patients' readiness for information, and to convey some
degree of hope (Beisecker, Cobb, & Ziegler, 1988:553).

The vast majority of patients with seizures and parents of
children with seizures wanted to be informed about all
benefits and risks associated with medication, including
rare side effects. On the other hand, a very small
proportion of neurologists responded in a questionnaire that
they routinely discuss each benefit and risk of medication
(Faden, Becker, and Lewis, 1981 cited in Waitzkin,
1984:2442).

Patients wanted to know almost everything and thought that
the information would be helpful, but doctors underestimated
the patients' desire for information and, when compared with
the patients, underrated the clinical usefulness of
information giving. In 65% of the encounters, doctors
underestimated their patients' desire for information; in
6%, they overestimated; and in 29%, they estimated correctly
(Waitzkin, 1984:2442).

Information giving can be a form of permission giving for seeking
remedial action such as in the case of doctors acknowledging the battered
status of an abused woman (Chez, 1988). It can also be a form of uncertainty
reduction for patients and physician power reduction. "Doctors may wish,
therefore, not to give information and so to maintain an imbalance of
power" (Waitzkin and Stoeckle, 1976 cited in Penderton and Bochner,
1980:672). However, the changes occurring in the doctor-patient relationship
point to potentially more equal participation in the recovery process and
"hence the paucity of threatening compliance-gaining tactics" (Lane,
19??:791). Patients are becoming consumers of health care rather than passive
recipients (Reeder, 1980 cited in Lane, 19??:791). "Patients are
recognized as having the ability to participate in their own recovery, as
being decision makers and as being more demanding than in the past"
(Mechanic, 1976; Stimson, 1974 cited in Lane, 19??:791). Professional
practice is changing through integration of clients' rights and control. Some
professionals view this as "have to" let them have more control; others view
it as "it's good for the patient." Still others assume treating patients
equally is part of good professional practice on a par with "do no harm."

III. CHANGE AGENTS
Change agents link research sources with organizations and societies
interested in change. Change agents may also be known as research utilization
specialists, organization developers, consultants, or integrators. They
facilitate communication about research results and the needs and problems of
a specific group. As an example, Area Extension Personnel served as change
agents for local and regional community changes (Goudy and Wepprecht, 1977).
They provided summaries of a large community-based research study through the
media, via mail, and presentations in town meetings. They helped structure
planning and implementation programs to bring about changes identified by
residents in designated rural communities.
Rogers, in generalizing from the many studies he has reviewed, says
that success of change agents is positively related to: (l) the extent of
change agent effort in contacting clients; (2) a client orientation; (3) the
degree to which the diffusion program is compatible with clients' needs; (4)
empathy with clients; (5) higher social status among clients; (6) greater
social participation among clients; (7) higher education among clients; (8)
cosmopoliteness among clients; (9) homophily with clients; (10) credibility
in the clients' eyes; (11) the extent that he or she works through opinion
leaders; (12) increasing clients' ability to evaluate innovations (Rogers,
1983:317-322).
Aides may function in a change agent role to help influence
innovation decisions. While they lack the credentials or 'competence
credibility,' they provide the advantage of 'safety credibility,' "due to his
or her social homophily with the client system" (Rogers, 1983:343).
Organization developers assist leaders in producing change. Their
role is "to enhance cultural elements that are viewed as critical to
maintaining identity and to promote the 'unlearning' of cultural elements
that are viewed as increasingly dysfunctional" (Argyris, Putnam, & Smith,
1985; Argyris & Schon, 1978; Beckhard & Harris, 1987; Hanna, 1988; Lippitt,
1982; Walton, 1987 cited in Schein, 1990:117). Such cultural change efforts,
Schein says, may involve tapping subcultures that have grown amid complacent
and ill adapting organizations in the midlife of their life cycle. Or change
may involve replacing the group that carries the old culture and putting in
new people able to develop a new culture. Schein sees an analogous process
between organizational development and individual psycho-therapy (Schein,
1990:117).
Patton (1986) highlights the importance of the right people assuming
responsibility for getting information to the right people.

The specifics vary from case to case, but the pattern is markedly
clear: Where the personal factor emerges, where some individual takes direct,
personal responsibility for getting the information to the right people,
evaluations have an impact. Where the personal factor is absent, there is a
marked absence of impact. Use is not simply determined by some configuration
of abstract factors; it is determined in large part by real, live, caring
human beings (Ibid, 49).

But our data on the personal factor suggest that increased contact
with the wrong persons (i.e., people who are not oriented toward the use of
evaluative information) is likely to accomplish little (Ibid, 50).
The prosumer approach seeks to instill in consumers as well as
current producers of research that element of caring about knowledge and its
advancement. By becoming active, committed partners in knowledge production
and use, researchers, practitioners, clients, etc. can improve the quality
and usefulness of knowledge. The prosumer approach, however, once adopted
points to changes in current roles. The partners, including change agents,
will have new and different expectations of themselves in this collaborative
effort.

IV. Information service systems
Information service systems include libraries, clearinghouses,
online retrieval services, information and referral services, and centers
whose primary role is information storage, retrieval, and dissemination or
laboratories whose primary role is repackaging of information. Information
service systems vary in how users access and use them (i.e., by phone, by
mail, by computer modem, or in person) as well as in the nature of their
collections of information. Some systems are highly specialized (e.g.,
National Library of Medicine) while others are fairly general (e.g., public
library). Some systems are electronically accessed and may represent
collections from other smaller systems (e.g., DIALOG, BRS, NEXIS).

A. Libraries
Libraries are becoming more technologically sophisticated. Computers
are replacing card catalogs. Now users touch computer screens to access
reference information and touch one key to print out the selected references.
Users access entire books, documents, or references on CD-ROM disks or
microfiche/film. Users are borrowing videotapes, records, and works of art as
well as print materials. Specialized libraries offer curriculum, audiovisual
aids, assistive devices, and other teaching resources. Librarians are
becoming not only specialized in information sources, classification,
storage, and retrieval but also in one or more disciplines.
Individuals responsible for library instruction in school systems are
turning away from source and pathfinder approaches to instructing students in
library use. Those approaches have been simplistic, specific to a given
library, and answer oriented. Instead they are exploring instructional
strategies that promote thinking about and managing information for lifelong
learning and problem solving. They are building on the research findings of
cognitive and developmental psychologists in their curricula (Kuhlthau,
1987:27). "Marland, a British educator and curriculum specialist, has been
concerned that schools are not teaching students to be effective library and
information users" (Cleaver, 1987:30).

His proposed curriculum would emphasize such concepts as selection,
rejection, evaluation, organization, topic definition, and question
definition. The student who masters these would be prepared to examine
information critically, look for relationships, and put bits of information
together in new ways that could result in new insights or knowledge (Ibid,
30).

Smith echoes a similar sentiment:

It is not sufficient merely to teach students how to locate
and retrieve information; we must also help them develop
skill in manipulating that information by questioning,
challenging, analyzing, comparing, contrasting, evaluating,
summarizing, and synthesizing it. Unfortunately, only a
small percentage of students presently leave school with
these skills (Smith, 1987: 38).

People who could benefit from the use of libraries may fail to take
advantage of it unless they learn in youth or in special instructional
programs how to find and use information. Chatman (1987) explored the
information needs and information seeking behaviors of janitorial workers at a
large southern university. He found that respondents did not use the available
library though they had health, career, and relationship needs which library
resources could help address.

B. Online databases
Four electronic databases lead the market in knowledge storage and
retrieval systems: DIALOG, Bibliographic Retrieval System (BRS), NEXIS, and
ORBIT. Glossbrenner views the relationship of BRS and DIALOG as somewhat
analogous with Apple and IBM in personal computers (1987). BRS has fewer
databases, a User Advisory Board, and "at times suffers from a lack of focus
and a lack of follow-through in its online offerings" (Ibid, 201-2). DIALOG,
on the other hand, according to Glossbrenner "is quite simply the world's
premier electronic information system. No one else offers such a wide
selection of databases. And no one else can match the breadth, depth, and
quality of its training, search aids, and customer support" (Ibid, 165).
Unlike BRS and DIALOG, NEXIS is a full-text database and has been from
its 1979 start. NEXIS represented an expansion of the LEXIS database system
for lawyers that began before personal computers were in wide use. NEXIS
includes the full text of The New York Times, full-text magazines, wire
services, industry newsletters, banking firm reports, and the Encyclopedia
Britannica.
ORBIT began as an information retrieval system for the Advanced
Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense. This search service,
according to Glossbrenner, is exclusive and highly technical with more
scientific and technical databases than any other kind. Permission for access
is required for several of the databases within the ORBIT Search Service
(Ibid, 227).
Online databases facilitate and deter access to knowledge. Such
databases require access to telecommunications and finances to cover costs of
use. Those who can afford it can gain a wealth of knowledge that can lead to
more financial wealth. CD-ROM offers access to knowledge sources for less
money and can enable Third World countries to gain more readily the knowledge
they need for growth and renewal (Brito, 1987).

C. Information and referral centers
While traditionally information and referral centers have been sources
of information on community resources and governmental services, these could
be expanded to reference information service systems that channel individuals
to the desired research information.

V. TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
Training and educational programs have been a significant
dissemination strategy. These include pre-service and inservice. Pre-service
educational programs are also referred to as professional preparation
programs. Inservice refers to education provided on the job in the form of
induction training, apprenticeships, and short-term workshops or courses. Both
offer vehicles for getting new knowledge into practice.

A. Professional preparation programs
Professional preparation programs are a major vehicle over time for
knowledge dissemination. Such programs include, but are not limited to,
lectures, labs, discussions, and practicums. Garkovich (1985), speaking
from an applied sociologist's perspective, suggests that the practicum
experience can become a means for mutually satisfying information exchange and
knowledge development for sociology students and the rural information-poor
agencies.

B. Workshops/seminars/conferences (face-to-face)
Takayama (1986) says that conferences and conference proceedings are
more timely means of information transfer than publications. Conferences
generally precede the publication. They supplement preservice and inservice
educational efforts. Informal, as well as formal, information exchange marks
this dissemination strategy.
The decision seminar, according to Bolland and Muth (1984:75-88), can
serve as a conduit for information not readily and timely accessed by
decisionmakers. The decision seminar is an ongoing nucleus of people who meet
regularly for an extended period of time to explore problems and the social,
technical, and political implications of alternative solutions. The seminar
can be especially useful in urban policy planning because it facilitates
collective problem solving. It also can provide a more thorough analysis of
issues. The authors reference Lasswell's five problem-solving tasks of the
decision seminar: goal clarification, trend description, analysis of
conditions, projection of developments, and invention, evaluation, and
selection of alternatives. The authors describe examples of such seminars and
cautions for groups structuring the decision seminar. The seminar itself can
become a tool for teaching urban policymakers how to make better informed
decisions.

C. Computer conferencing/electronic networking
Levin, Riel, Miyake, and Cohen (1987) demonstrated the use of
electronic networking to interconnect students and teachers in the United
States, Mexico, Japan, and Israel. These authors describe the water project
conducted by the InterCultural Network as a case study in problem solving. "By
addressing a problem shared across the different locations, students learned
to transfer solutions used elsewhere to their own problems" (Ibid, 254).
Fulk, Steinfield, Schmitz, and Power (1987) describe the involving
aspects of computer-mediated communication and the influence of peers and
group membership on that process.

A number of studies of computer-mediated communication, for example,
have demonstrated that highly emotional and interpersonally involving
applications such as conflict and negotiation are more frequent than would be
expected in what is typically considered to be a low-social-presence medium
(Hiltz & Turoff, 1978; Kiesler, Siegel, & McGuire, 1984; Phillips, 1983; Rice
& Love, 1987; Steinfield, 1985)....Hiltz (1984, p.90) notes that "being a
member of one group (or subculture) rather than another seems to shape the
experiences of the members and the quality of their (electronic) life." The
extent to which relevant co-workers also used an electronic mail system was
the primary predictor of task-related uses in a study by Steinfield (1986a
cited in Fulk, Steinfield, Schmitz, Power, 1987: 534).

VI. MULTICHANNELS
Bagenstos (1989) has pointed to the fact that people are individuals
who often are also members of groups, organizations, and communities.
Dissemination needs to recognize both aspects. Glaser (et al, 1983)
highlighted studies on 'cosmopoliteness,' 'role accumulators,' and
'professionalism' which reinforce the need for multiplicity of avenues for
reaching potential users. Studies on this aspect cited by Glaser and others
(1983:70-71) included, but are not limited to, Katz (1961), Rogers (1962a),
Coleman, Katz, and Menzel (1966a, 1966b), Hemphill, Griffiths, and
Fredericksen (1962), Zaltman and Wallendorf (1979), Rogers (1967), Evan and
Black (1967), Havelock (1969a), Aiken and Hage (1968), and Beyer and Trice
(1978).
Fessenden-Raden, Fitchen and Heath (1987) identified factors related
to getting risk information (such as contaminated drinking water) to
communities and getting them to act on it. They conducted more than 12 case
studies in New York and Maine to determine factors influencing what is heard
and what is accepted by receivers of risk information. They identified as
factors the mixing of official and unofficial messages and/or messengers; use
of untrained vs. trained messengers; simplification and over-simplification of
messages; individual experiences versus collective attitudes toward the
messengers or the associated institutions. In discussing messages and
messengers they pointed to potential conflicts for receivers when they hear
experts, the media, and nonexperts saying different things as well as hear
words such as 'don't worry' and then see technicians dressed in 'moonsuits'
gathering soil samples from an area where children usually play
(Fessenden-Raden et al, 1987:100). Consistency of message giving across
multi-channels is indeed important.

VII. Other
Other dissemination strategies have been underutilized or understudied
by researchers or change agents not in the fields of communication or
marketing. These include the use of pretaped telephone messages such as
Tele-Med, billboards, signs in and outside of stores, yellow pages,
directories, welcome wagons, direct mail strategies, technical assistance,
self-ratings, surveys. Instead researchers have relied mostly on abstracts,
annotated bibliographies, executive summaries, manuals, handbooks,
directories, and state-of-the-art reviews. All of the latter are outside of
the daily experience stream of most citizens. Some innovative individuals are
sharing information about local services and resources on C-Span or cable.
Why not add research results or where to go to learn more about the latest
research on a disability or rehabilitation topic.

SUMMARY:
Chapter 5 has explored the many dissemination strategies and
information channels for getting research into practice. It identified the
effectiveness areas for each in terms of the advances in information
technology. It even suggested channels that have not as yet been researched
by knowledge utilization researchers and writers. What's more important, it
reinforced the trend towards individualization in the mass media. Greater
specialization and targeting of audiences is occurring. This is consistent
with the thrust of the prosumer approach and current rehabilitation
philosophy.

A LOOK AHEAD:
Chapter 6 overviews the models of knowledge utilization that
illustrate how factors work together. The models range from simple to complex,
from linear to curvilinear, from product-centered to user-centered. They have
components suggesting the importance of a prosumer model of knowledge
utilization for the rehabilitation field.