Social influence of a religious hero: the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan's effect on cornea donation and volunteerism.

This study examined the mediated influence of a celebrated religious hero in South Korea, Cardinal Stephen Kim, through two forms of involvement--parasocial interaction and identification--on intention toward cornea donation and volunteerism, and it investigated how the news media diffused of his death. A structural equation modeling analysis with a Web-based voluntary survey of more than 1,200 people in South Korea revealed a multistep social influence process, beginning with parasocial interaction with Cardinal Kim, leading to identification with him, which predicted intention toward cornea donation and volunteerism. Additional investigations found that news of Cardinal Kim's death diffused rapidly through media and interpersonal communication. Results of this study demonstrate that religious leaders who achieve a celebrity hero status can prompt public discussion of important issues rather quickly through extensive media coverage, enabling them to promote prosocial behavior and positively affect public health.

Coverage of Alzheimer's disease from 1984 to 2008 in television news and information talk shows in the United States: an analysis of news framing.

This study examined 1371 TV news transcripts on Alzheimer's disease (AD) from 6 TV news networks during a 25-year period (1984-2008) employing the news framing perspective. Issues, sources, and episodic-thematic news about AD derived from the news framing perspective were analyzed. Results revealed that AD issues, such as treatments, personal stories, celebrities, and policy increased over time, whereas other issues including facts, causes, signs, and diagnosis received relatively limited news attention. Correlation analyses among episodic-thematic frames, issues, and sources found that episodic-thematic frames were positively linked with such issues as personal stories and policy and sources, including patients and politicians. The results suggest that although TV news covers episodic frames more than thematic ones, both frames can interact with each other to influence personal and social news about AD. Particularly, the role of celebrity affecting AD news at both individual and social levels is salient.

The influence of viewing an entertainment-education program on cornea donation intention: a test of the theory of planned behavior.

This study was designed to examine the role of issue involvement and the 3 components of the theory of planned behavior in predicting intentions to sign a cornea donor card. This study also compares viewers and nonviewers of an entertainment-education program in terms of issue involvement and the theory of planned behavior. The breakdown of effects for the latent constructs confirms that issue involvement is an important intermediary in the persuasion process. Issue involvement is a common causal antecedent of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, the last 2 of which, in turn, predict intentions, whereas attitude does not. The revised path model confirms that involvement directly influences intentions. In the comparison of viewers with nonviewers, viewers exhibit a significantly higher degree of involvement, attitude toward cornea donation, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention to sign a cornea donor card. The overall findings of this study suggest that adding issue involvement in the theory of planned behavior enhances the explanatory power of the theory in predicting intentions.

Entertainment-education and recruitment of cornea donors: the role of emotion and issue involvement.

This study examined the role of emotional responses and viewer's level of issue involvement to an entertainment-education show about cornea donation in order to predict intention to register as cornea donors. Results confirmed that sympathy and empathy responses operated as a catalyst for issue involvement, which emerged as an important intermediary in the persuasion process. Issue involvement also was found to be a common causal antecedent of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, the last two of which predict intentions unlike attitude, which does not. The revised path model confirmed that involvement directly influences intention. The findings of this study suggest that adding emotion and involvement in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) enhances the explanatory power of the theory in predicting intentions, which indicates the possibility of combining the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the TPB in the prediction of human behaviors.