Page 215 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

204 ROGERS

A search for other data sets or studies characterized by similar research
methodologies to those used by Gellert et al. (1992) located four studies:

1. Data on the number of calls made to the National AIDS Tele-
phone Hotline (provided by Dr. Fred Kroeger, Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention) at the time of such specific media
events as basketball player Magic Johnson’s announcement that
he was HIV positive on November 7, 1991. Some 118,124 tele-
phone call attempts were made the day following Magic John-
son’s announcement, then an all-time record for the hotline, up
from an average of 7,372 call-attempts for the 90 previous days.
2. The January 26, 1986, Challenger disaster and its effects on the
American public’s participation in memorial events for the Chal-
lenger’s crew, as measured in a national sample survey conducted
by Dr. Jon D. Miller (1987) at Northern Illinois University’s Public
Opinion Laboratory. 5
3. The diffusion of a highly unusual news event in New Delhi, India,
on September 21, 1995: That stone and metal statues of Hindu
deities were drinking milk (Singhal, Sood, & Rogers, 1999).
4. An investigation of the effects of an entertainment-education
radio soap opera to promote family planning and HIV/AIDS
prevention in Tanzania in 1993–1999 (Rogers et al., 1999;
Vaughan, Rogers, Singhal, & Swalehe, 2000; Vaughan & Rogers,
2000).

Magic Johnson and Calls to the AIDS Hotline

The federal government established the National AIDS Hotline in 1983
through a contract by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) with the American Social Health Association to provide a toll-free
telephone system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The hotline furnishes
information on how HIV is spread and how its transmission can be
prevented. Access is provided to the English-speaking population, the
Spanish-speaking population, and to the deaf community (through
TDD/TTY) by calling 1–800-342-AIDS. The CDC’s National AIDS Hotline
is by far the most important of numerous AIDS hotlines in the United
States and is the only service provided to the entire nation.

5 The Challenger accident caused a 20% drop in the price of Morton-Thiokol stock on the
New York Stock Exchange within 30 minutes immediately following this event (the
Morton-Thiokol Company manufactured the rocket boosters whose O-rings failed). Obvi-
ously, the investment community was immediately effected by media coverage of the
Challenger disaster.