Honing the message
Recent grad's research could shape antidrug campaigns
Keeping kids off drugs means “keeping it real” in commercials, says Stacey Malstrom, a 2008 graduate of the UO School of Journalism and Communication and the Robert Donald Clark Honors College.
Malstrom, from Salem, Oregon, dissected two televised antidrug public service announcements for her honors thesis, in which she blended reactions of focus groups with a host of communications theories. Not surprisingly, antidrug messaging has evolved since the days of the “Just Say No” campaign in the 1980s. Today’s youths, Malstrom says, can easily sniff out exaggerations and half truths.
“You get one chance at credibility. If you blow it once, you blow it forever,” says Malstrom. “When people watch some of these antidrug advertisements, ones designed to be funny, people laugh and they say, ‘C’mon, are you kidding me?’ They totally blow off the message.”
In fact, a loss of credibility in a single campaign risks the effectiveness of all antidrug messaging, says Malstrom, one of ninety students who graduated this spring from the honors college. Ultimately, Malstrom’s research could influence the way professionals approach antidrug messaging, says Tiffany Derville, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Communication and Malstrom’s adviser on the project.
“Stacey’s taking her work to the next level,” says Derville. “Her level of professionalism is astounding.”
At Malstrom’s thesis defense—the culminating event of the project—she gave a twenty-minute presentation of her research, and then a three-professor faculty committee grilled her for another forty-five minutes. It rivaled many graduate dissertation defenses in depth and intensity. Yet Malstrom’s calm made her presentation seem more like a class than a defense, says Derville.
“She handled herself like a pro,” says Derville. “She seemed like a faculty member up there. She fielded some really tough questions. She taught herself an entire body of research we don’t cover in any class.”
But simply learning and applying theories isn’t enough for Malstrom, who, even after graduating, is continuing to work with Derville to share her results in hopes of having an impact in real-world antidrug messaging.
“There’s no point in doing academic work if you can’t do something with it,” says Malstrom. “We can’t sit in an academic tower. We have to find practical uses of our research. We have to find ways to apply what we’ve learned. That’s what I’ve loved most about this project—we have a chance to really take what we’ve learned and put it to use.”
Click here for a short video feature.