The subjects will be tested during the first week of class to lessen the threat of mortality. A pre-test survey will be administered to two platoons at each of the schools on the first day of instruction as part of normal in-processing procedures. During the course of regular classroom instruction, the treatment platoons will watch the first 15-minute video giving an overview of the roles and responsibilities of public affairs. The other two videos will be watched day two and three respectively. At the end of the first week of class, both the treatment and control group platoons will take a post-test survey.
Materials
The classroom
instruction will be in the form of three 15-minute videotapes. The
primary reason for using three 15-minute videotapes is to provide repetition
and redundancy of the message. The first tape will detail the roles
and responsibilities of the public affairs officer as detailed in Department
of Defense Directive 5122.5. The second videotape will be service
specific and address public affairs issues that relate directly to that
branch of service.
However, each service participant will only view his or her own service-specific video. The last video will briefly review material covered in the first two videos and provide scenarios where public affairs was a high priority in the command and where public affairs was a low priority. Each video will include elements of compliance-gaining and diffusion of innovations strategies to convince the audience of the importance of including public affairs in operations planning.
Using compliance-gaining strategy of promise, this video will demonstrate how rewarding a successful mission can be in terms of positive media exposure and community support of the event. This event will showcase how the U.S. Marines’ more developed plan for “getting the news back” worked in favor for providing a vast amount of U.S. Marine coverage during the Persian Gulf War (Fialka 1991, p. 25). The video will also contain the promise of punishment if public affairs is overlooked. The punishment in the form of the military operation will either not be covered by the media or covered poorly as was the Army’s experience in the Gulf War (Fialka, 1991).
Diffusion
of innovations will be used in the video in the form of senior officers
supporting the use of public affairs. Senior officers can be considered
opinion leaders because they are primarily the ones influencing their subordinates
through words and deeds. Having senior officers provide testimony
will help influence the audience. Using military leaders as testimonials
is also part of decision-making aspect of diffusion of innovations.
Once the audience is first exposed to the information and learns that a
leader has already adopted it. Then, individuals have to decide whether
or not to adopt it for future use. 
Homepage
Introduction
Literature Review
Stage 1
Stage 2
Participants
Analysis
Limitations
Projected Results
Discussion
References