Wendy Macias

• Ph.D. in Advertising
• Professor (Associate) at Texas Christian University

American women are often in the role of being a health advocate, guide, or guardian for family and friends. An examination of gender differences is virtually absent from American-focused health communication literature. I review the topic from an international, professional, and historical perspective and include qualitative data from health commun...

This study aims to tease out why the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) have largely failed to support positive attitudinal and behavioral dietary change in the U.S. over the past decade. Dervin's sense-making methodology (SMM) is employed as a theoretical framework to postulate why DGA has not been more successful with its past communication a...

We aimed to (a) better understand Americans' awareness and attitudes towards the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) from 2005-2015; (b) identify how the public obtains that knowledge, (c) measure their willingness to make healthy changes; and (d) identify important contextual factors that impact knowledge of DGA and nutrition. Quantitative surv...

After over two decades of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCA), the ads have changed very little, both within and over the years. One respondent in this exploratory study called it the “sea of same.” To better understand why agency professionals, their pharmaceutical clients, and consumers operate in a “sea of same,” in-depth interv...

In this article we employ the think-aloud protocol to gain an in-depth look at how 23 individuals searched for online health information. Participants narrated their health searches as we audio and video recorded using screen-capture software. We transcribed the recordings verbatim and used axial and selective coding to inductively identify themes...

While previous research on entertainment-education has assessed its effectiveness, primarily at the conscious level (e.g., free recall and self-reported change in knowledge), few studies have explored its effect on viewers' implicit knowledge. To fill this gap, this study examined the mechanism through which viewers form implicit memory of short he...

The main goal of this content analysis study was to examine the content and form of direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug Web sites and explore their public policy implications. Although studies have examined print communications, very little academic attention has been paid to DTC Web sites. This study is a census of 90 complete DTC drug Web sites. Result...

A multi-method study was conducted to, first, establish the prevalence of types of health- and nutrition-related (HNR) claims (nutrient content, structure/function and health claims) with benefit-seeking and risk-avoidance appeals in food advertisements appearing in magazines with large female audiences and, second, determine the effects of the two...

Background: Over $US4.2 billion was spent on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs in 2008 in the US for all media, which was down from $US5 billion in 2007. However, third quarter 2009 sales were already rebounding and faring the bad economic situation better than most other categories, according to TNS Media Intelligence data...

While e-mail remains a popular advertising medium for marketers, consumers' privacy concerns about the medium have become a serious issue. In this study, an online survey examined how two aspects of privacy—perceived intrusiveness and psychological reactance—influenced consumers' attitudes toward unsolicited commercial e-mail and marketing in gener...

Blogs were examined during the 2 weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. city of New Orleans to better understand what risk and crisis communication functions they served. The 4 major functions—communication, political, information, and helping—included both filtering and linking about rescue needs and efforts, missing persons, ways to offer and...

During the past two decades of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, several recruitment campaigns were designed to generate community involvement in preventive HIV vaccine clinical trials. These efforts utilized a blend of advertising and marketing strategies mixed with public relations and community education approaches to attract potential study participants t...

Earlier studies clearly have shown that older adults are going online and accessing health information, but they are not a monolithic group. The goal of this study is to identify different types of older online Americans and to examine their online health information attitudes and behaviors. A total of 424 individuals age 55+ responded to an online...

Senior citizens are often positioned as 'have nots' in the digital age, but internet use among older Americans ranges from 68 per cent among those just entering their senior years to 17 per cent of those age 75+. About 70 per cent of online seniors report using the internet for health information. This study uses grounded theory to explore online h...

Using content analysis, this study quantitatively analyzes 13 years (1990–2002) of data about survey research methodology in communication journals. Very little research has examined this important method since Yu and Cooper's 1983 study. Of the 54 journals included in our sample, 565 surveys were published in 46 journals. Public relations, marketi...

This study provides qualitative insight into how older adults are using the Internet for health communication. The research is framed with theory from several disciplines, including health and interactive communication, as well as related theoretical models. Data from focus groups was used to develop a model of seniors' online health interactions....

Over $4 billion is being spent on direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs. Although the greatest proportion of this media budget is spent on television, relatively few studies have investigated the key issues of DTCA on television (DTCA-TV), including fair balance, FDA regulations and if information or appeals is focused on more...

This content analysis study examined health-related message boards to better understand who is using this on-line health information and support device and what topics they are discussing. Besides needing to understand this support and coping mechanism for individuals, this has become an increasingly important topic for health communicators to unde...

Direct-to-consumer drug advertising has increasingly become a focus of public policy concern and academic research. However, the Web has received very little of this attention. A content analysis of a sample of 90 complete DTC prescription drug Web sites examined whether the FDA's fair balance criteria are being met, how they are rated according to...

Building on a previously published study of large-agency media specialists, the authors surveyed large-company advertising managers on their judgments of the importance of twenty selection criteria used to evaluate media for national advertising programs. The survey was designed and executed to complement and extend the media specialist study. Foll...

The primary goal of this qualitative study was to begin to understand and gain insight into how women use the Web to search for health information. This has become an increasingly important area to understand because more consumers are taking control of their healthcare, women tend to take responsibility more than men, and the Web is a key source o...

This study explores how interactivity and individual difference variables, product involvement and Web experience, affect comprehension of interactive advertising Web sites. A two-cell (interactivity: low/high) between subjects factorial design tested comprehension (N=153). The limited-capacity processing model provided theoretical framework. The r...

The main goal of this study was to build a preliminary structural equation model to better understand the relationships between interactivity, comprehension, and persuasion. The limited capacity processing model provided theoretical framework. A two-cell (interactivity: low/high) experimental design was used to examine how the level of interactivit...