In the context of developing effective PSAs to help increase the number of young adults who quit smoking or don’t start, this study took cultural orientation into account and assessed the persuasive effect of high and low source credibility. This present study showed that, in terms of attitude toward the ad message, people who were exposed to a commercial brand actually had a more positive attitude than those who saw the video that had CCTV as its producer. However, no significant differences were found in the other four constructs, including attitude toward antismoking, smoking-related social norms and subjective norms, smoking-related anticipated regret and intentions to quit or not start smoking.

This written thesis accompanies three television public service announcement spots. Two of the spots are 60 seconds and one of the spots is 45 seconds in length. I produced this public service television advertising campaign to highlight the issue of child illiteracy in Pakistan and to encourage expatriate and resident Pakistani's to donate to educational charities. A Website created by the filmmaker is promoted in the campaign. This Website provides information about various charities that educate children in Pakistan. Detailed accounts of pre-production, production and post-production of the campaign allow the viewer to comprehend the challenges in producing television campaigns for social causes. Theoretical issues are also discussed, including the causes of illiteracy, the importance and role of social campaigns, the history and uses of propaganda as well as the aesthetic concerns of a public service campaign producer. I discuss the importance of creating the culture of public service campaigns in a third world country like Pakistan, and states that the Pakistani community needs to look inwards to overcome the challenge of illiteracy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) promotes physical activity as a primary way to maintain health, but many individuals do not participate in this health-promoting behavior. Despite the potential for public service announcements (PSAs) to communicate health information and promote behavioral change, no prior research on developing video PSAs to promote physical activity was found. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine how affective and information video PSAs for a public health campaign affect future levels of intention to engage in physical activity. The PSAs were developed and filmed specific for this study using the model of goal directed behavior (MGDB) as the foundation for PSA development. Participants were recruited to view PSAs with the message foci of empathy, fear, information, and combination messages to determine which focus area is perceived to be most persuasive for promoting physical activity. This research examined moderating effects of current physical activity habits related to the duration of physical activity and the covariance with stage of change readiness. Differences in perceived effectiveness between the different message foci were found with participants perceiving the empathy video as most effective, followed by combination, with fear and information being perceived as least effective. For participants who meet WHO recommendations for exercise activity, the PSA based on fear was most effective, with fear also being most effective for those participants right below that level of physical activity. Many participants (61%) had a positive affect while watching the four PSA videos. Social implications related to improving public health communication through video PSAs that effectively promote health behavior change.

This visual analysis of the Stay out of Gangs public service announcement (PSA) is a site for social investigations. The investigation follows the question of what kind of work the campaign does, in terms of the social discourses it works within and its broader social impact. More specifically, this paper explores the design of the campaign, focusing on the way it frames and interpellates intended audiences, paying attention to the discourses that are produced. The discourses observed in the campaign both reflect and reference popular representations of the gangster and the stereotypes of ethnic minority groups in our society. This paper concludes that the interpellation of both the marginalized at-risk and the law abiding subject positions is working within the PSA, thereby reinforcing social discourses of social inclusion and exclusion currently working in society.

Contemporary scholars have been studying audiovisual translation for the past twenty years. However, health communication has never yet been included as a part of the audiovisual material under discussion. The goal of this thesis is to create Russian subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing from the original English version of The Three Amigos, a series of PSAs (Public service announcements) regarding the prevention of HIV/AIDS, and to analyse and discuss the theoretical and practical aspects of this work. After analysing the current situation on HIV/AIDS in Russia and Belarus, I use this series entitled The Three Amigos as an example of health communication that works, and therefore, should be accessible to more viewers. The thesis is organised into three chapters. Following a general introduction, Chapter 1 discusses health communication, presents statistics on HIV/AIDS in Russia and Belarus, and provides an example of health communication that fulfills its functions – public service announcements on HIV/AIDS prevention in the form of The Three Amigos. Chapter 2 discusses the necessity of subtitling for the target audience, and emphasises the fact that people with hearing impairment need special subtitles that differ from the ones that are suitable for viewers without hearing impairment. Chapter 3 contains the analysis of the subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing that I created for this project. Finally, the conclusion summarises the findings of this research, and addresses possible directions for future projects on this topic.

This visual analysis of the Stay out of Gangs public service announcement (PSA) is a site for social investigations. The investigation follows the question of what kind of work the campaign does, in terms of the social discourses it works within and its broader social impact. More specifically, this paper explores the design of the campaign, focusing on the way it frames and interpellates intended audiences, paying attention to the discourses that are produced. The discourses observed in the campaign both reflect and reference popular representations of the gangster and the stereotypes of ethnic minority groups in our society. This paper concludes that the interpellation of both the marginalized at-risk and the law abiding subject positions is working within the PSA, thereby reinforcing social discourses of social inclusion and exclusion currently working in society.

Contemporary scholars have been studying audiovisual translation for the past twenty years. However, health communication has never yet been included as a part of the audiovisual material under discussion. The goal of this thesis is to create Russian subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing from the original English version of The Three Amigos, a series of PSAs (Public service announcements) regarding the prevention of HIV/AIDS, and to analyse and discuss the theoretical and practical aspects of this work. After analysing the current situation on HIV/AIDS in Russia and Belarus, I use this series entitled The Three Amigos as an example of health communication that works, and therefore, should be accessible to more viewers. The thesis is organised into three chapters. Following a general introduction, Chapter 1 discusses health communication, presents statistics on HIV/AIDS in Russia and Belarus, and provides an example of health communication that fulfills its functions – public service announcements on HIV/AIDS prevention in the form of The Three Amigos. Chapter 2 discusses the necessity of subtitling for the target audience, and emphasises the fact that people with hearing impairment need special subtitles that differ from the ones that are suitable for viewers without hearing impairment. Chapter 3 contains the analysis of the subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing that I created for this project. Finally, the conclusion summarises the findings of this research, and addresses possible directions for future projects on this topic.

Работа посвящена исследованию языковых средств, используемых в текстах социальной рекламы на русском и английском языке. Объектом исследования является рекламный текст социальной тематики на русском и английском языках. Предметом исследования выступает лингвистическая репрезентация проблем общества в тексте социальной рекламы на русском и английском языках. Цель работы состоит в выявлении и анализе лингвистических и стилистических средств, используемых при создании рекламы социальной тематики на русском и английском языках. Материал исследования составили 900 рекламных текстов социальной тематики на русском и английском языках. Анализ материала показал, что в социальной рекламе на русском и английском языке употребляются похожие части речи: глагол, существительное, прилагательное и числительное. В обоих языках среди частей речи преобладают глаголы. Употребление глагола в настоящем времени в повелительном наклонении является общим признаком текстов социальной рекламы, как на русском, так и на английском. Как в русских, так и в английских текстах социальной рекламы использовались абстрактные и нарицательные имена существительные. Общими лексическими средствами являлись метафора, метонимия и императивная конструкция. Таким образом, можно сделать вывод, что именно эти лингвистические средства обладают наибольшей эффективностью и создатели социальной рекламы во всем мире чаще всего обращаются именно к ним. Средствами, более характерными для русскоязычной социальной рекламы являлись риторические вопросы, использование прилагательных в превосходной степени, игра слов. Аллитерация преобладала в текстах англоязычной социальной рекламы. Сниженная лексика была замечена в текстах социальной рекламы на русском языке, однако не встречалась в социальной рекламе на английском. Напротив, в социальной рекламе на английском был замечен эвфемизм, который несет функцию замены считающихся неуместных слов. Невербальному компоненту в социальной рекламе англоязычных стран уделялось большее внимание, чем в социальной рекламе на русском языке. / The work is dedicated to the study of figures of speech in the texts of public service announcement in Russian and English. The object of the study is the advertising text of social topics in Russian and English. The subject of the study is the linguistic representation of society's problems in the text of social advertising in Russian and English. The purpose of the work is to identify and analyze the linguistic and stylistic means used to create social advertising in Russian and English. The research material of the study consists of 900 advertising texts of social topics in Russian and English. The analysis of the material showed that similar parts of speech are used in social advertising in Russian and English: verb, noun, adjective and numeral. In both languages, verbs predominate among the parts of speech. The use of the verb in the present tense in the imperative mood is a common feature of social advertising texts, both in Russian and in English. Both Russian and English social advertising texts used abstract and common nouns. Common linguistic means were metaphor, metonymy and imperative construction. Thus, we can conclude that it is these linguistic means that are most effective and the creators of social advertising around the world use them most often. The more typical linguistic means for Russian-language of social advertising were rhetorical questions, the use of superlative adjectives, and a word-play. Alliteration prevailed in the texts of English-language social advertising. Substandard vocabulary was noticed in the texts of social advertising in Russian, was not found in social advertising in English. On the contrary, in social advertising in English, euphemism was noticed, which has the function of replacing words that are considered inappropriate. More attention was paid to the non-verbal component in social advertising in English-speaking countries than in social advertising in Russian.