Measuring Change After a Public Education Campaign

This article offers insight into the process of conducting pre- and post- campaign comparisons to measure the effectiveness of communications methodologies. The authors analyzed a California public education campaign called the War on Waste which attempted to raise already-high participation in community recycling. Notable shifts in participation failed to occur, but the authors feel their postcampaign measurements show some success in affecting behavior. Mark A. Larson is an associate professor in the Journalism Department, Humboldt State University, Arcata, Calif. Karen L. Massetti-Miller is a doctoral candidate in the Rhetoric Program, University of Iowa. They presented this paper at the 1983 AEJMC convention.