Behavior Change in the Funny Papers: Feedback to Cartoonists on Safety Belt Use

Exploration of undergraduate preservice teachers' experiences learning advocacy: A mixed-methods study

“…Advocacy letter writing has been employed to express concerns to people in power and suggest changes on behalf of individuals, minority groups, majority groups, and the environment. Syndicated cartoonists who were the recipients of advocacy letters changed their behaviors and began drawing seat belts on their characters when depicting them in vehicles (Mathews & Dix, 1992). Writing advocacy letters has been suggested as a method for contacting politicians on behalf of legislative health issues (Huntington, 2001), as an effective tool for individuals living with disabilities (White, Thomson, & Nary, 1997), and as a transformative activity for preservice English for Academic Purposes and English as a Second Language teachers (Morgan, 2009).…”

Injury Prevention Practices as Depicted in G-Rated and PG-Rated Movies

“…35 Although the exact role of media images on injury prevention practices by children can be debated, changing behaviors by characters in movies could be an inexpensive, minimally intrusive method of modeling appropriate behaviors to a large audience. 36 Attempts to influence media portrayals of injury prevention practices have met with some success. After a letter advocating safety belt use was sent to 8 cartoonists who used vehicle occupants in their comic strips, safety belt use increased from 15% to 41% in these comic strips.…”

“…After a letter advocating safety belt use was sent to 8 cartoonists who used vehicle occupants in their comic strips, safety belt use increased from 15% to 41% in these comic strips. 36 Safety belt use by at least 1 star of a television action show increased after a letter-writing campaign by students. 37 However, the overall improvement in safety belt use by television characters in the past 2 decades has been disappointing.…”

Tobacco, Drug, and HIV Preventive Media Interventions

“…In part, this might have been due to several factors, including (a) a fear among media sources that adoption of restrictive standards in accepting advertisements might encourage companies to select other outlets for advertising; and (b) decision-making processes in the media which were still dominated by White, upper-income males, who might have been insensitive and unresponsive to the concerns of women, minorities, and the elderly. More specific and targeted interventions might be more successful, as in Mathews and Dix's (1992) effective letter-writing campaign that led to cartoonists more frequently depicting safety belt use in comic strips.…”