Campaign-Induced Interpersonal Communication: Concepts and Measurement

One way in which media campaigns produce effects is by stimulating talk about the campaigns among audience members. Scientific analysis of that talk requires a means of measuring it, something that is lacking in the current literature. To advance research on this topic, we developed a campaign-induced interpersonal communication (CIC) coding scheme. The scheme was applied to conversation data gathered from participant pairs who were exposed to health-related public service announcements (PSAs), then discussed each one. Results showed that the mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive set of codes could be applied reliably to conversation data. Evidence of construct validity was seen in data patterns that demonstrated dyadic movement toward intersubjectivity, responsiveness to task demands, and over time changes in features of the conversations, all of which are defining features of interpersonal communication. The CIC coding scheme provides a foundation for researchers interested in studying interpersonal processes associated with media campaigns.