A Content and Visual Analysis of Promotional Pieces Used to Promote the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board

A communications campaign was developed for a commodity promotion board in the southern region of the United States with promotional pieces produced and disseminated by a third-party communications group to reach the general public, soybean producers, and animal agriculture producers target audiences through key themes and messages. A systematic, content-driven approach assessed the potential impact on perceptions of individuals. This study utilized a content and visual analysis based on semiotic theory to analyze creative pieces and focus groups to assess content quality and impact. Many of the creative pieces displayed too many themes, and the themes did not accurately represent the intended message. Although TCG achieved predominately consistent messaging, a portion of promotional pieces across all audiences lacked an outlined message for comparison. Thus, one-third of the creative pieces lacked a means of evaluating the piece to determine overall campaign success. A local celebrity endorser, P. Allen Smith, was utilized to establish credibility in the general public target audience. Many participants also felt the promotional piece was not targeted to their audience and felt the key message was unclear and message was vague and non-descriptive, due to the lack of targeted, audience specific messaging present in promotional pieces. The quality of promotional pieces ranked between fair and average in all five areas: copy, image, design, video, and audio across all three audiences. However, scores were slightly higher in the general public audience, due to efforts by Smith\u27s production team. Additionally, because the ASPB campaign materials did not identify a specific audience segment of Arkansas\u27 general public, it was difficult to recruit a targeted group of individuals to assist with campaign evaluation through focus groups. Promotional campaigns must be evaluated to determine effectiveness. The researchers recommend utilizing a needs assessment to aid in identifying appropriate messaging, and test those messaged through evaluation procedures, such as focus groups. A gatekeeper, responsible for reviewing or testing any materials, is recommended for future campaign communications efforts. Future research should continue to assess commodity promotion effectiveness. Finally, the Model of Messaging and Campaign Development was developed by researchers for future communication campaign efforts

Persistence of ethnic dress traditions in contemporary society: an interpretive study of Germany's Black Forest Trachten

2014 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.The ethnic dress of Germany's Black Forest, called Tracht, dates back to the 16th century and has historically been worn by rural inhabitants for social and religious occasions. Although most people living within the Black Forest do not presently wear Trachten (plural for Tracht), some persistence in this tradition exists. Thus, the purpose of this interpretive inquiry was to explore the factors that have supported the persistence of Trachten tradition, specifically related to the wearing and crafting of Trachten by women, in a contemporary society. The work was informed by theory proposing that ethnic dress is not static, but rather, changes across space and time in ways that enable its persistence. A qualitative, ethnographic approach was adopted. During her immersion in the field, the researcher conducted extensive observations to "develop an insider's view" (Genzuk, 2003, p. 2) of the Trachten tradition. Formal interviews were conducted with 10 individuals: eight adult female Trachten wearers, six of whom also were Trachten handcrafters, and two local Trachten experts. Numerous informal interviews with Trachten wearers and experts rounded out the data set. Data were analyzed using constant comparison processes. Analyses revealed that the maintenance of the Trachten tradition was linked to varied factors that revolved around the overarching themes of both persistence and change for wearers and handcrafters. More specifically, findings revealed that the persistence of the Trachten tradition could be linked to three factors: (a) formalized practice, (b) meaningful identities, and (c) desires to preserve and promote local culture. Additionally, the persistence of the Trachten tradition was further supported by change in the tradition, which was characterized by two factors: (a) Trachten as a "lived practice" and (b) the negotiation of Trachten authenticity. Thus, although, in some ways, Tracthen wearing and crafting were bound by traditions of the past, they also constituted a lived practice that reflected the incorporation of changes related to technological, social, and cultural patterns of contemporary life. Moreover, participants located relevant meanings (e.g., cultural identity, heritage, Heimat, authenticity) in their Trachten and related practices, thereby illuminating the role of such meanings in promoting the persistence of cultural traditions within a context of change. It is through these incorporations of the contemporary with the traditional that Trachten have remained relevant. As such, findings provided support for the proposition that ethnic dress may change in ways that actually enable its persistence

Master of Science

thesisThe objective of this study was to examine how emotional processing (i.e., understanding, acknowledging, and accepting emotions) moderated self-control (i.e., regulation of thoughts, emotion, and behavior) in explaining diabetes-specific self-regulation and metabolic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Strong emotional processing was expected to confer regulatory benefit and promote adaptive outcomes, especially so for adolescents with poor self-control. General self-control capacity, and particularly self-control combined with emotional processing, may also underlie the relation of diabetes-specific management self-competence, negative affect, and adherence, and metabolic control. Self-report measures of self-control, emotional processing, diabetes management self-competence, diabetes-specific negative affect, adherence, and measured HbA1c were obtained from 137 adolescents with type 1 diabetes (M age = 13.48 years). Emotional processing significantly moderated the relation of self-control and metabolic control. Adolescents with high emotional processing were buffered from the effects of poor self-control. Adolescents with low self-control and low emotional processing had the poorest metabolic control. This interaction predicted metabolic control better than diabetes-specific self-regulatory constructs, and mediated the relations between those constructs and metabolic control. These findings suggest the importance of considering strength of emotional processing and self-control in the study of diabetes-specific self-regulation and health outcomes in adolescents with type 1 diabetes