The Impact of the Media in Influencing Extension's Perceptions of Methamphetamine.

The study reported here explored media dependency and moral panic involving methamphetamine perceptions among a national sample of Extension Directors through survey methodology. With a 70.0% response rate, the questionnaire concentrated on demographics; methamphetamine knowledge, information sources, and dependency; and perceptions of the media. Supporting the media dependency and moral panic theories, 85.0% perceived the media as their primary source of methamphetamine information. Yet 90.3% of Extension Directors possessed inaccurate methamphetamine use perceptions. Introduction The media dependency theory (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; Price & Roberts, 1987) attempts to explain why the mass media has powerful and direct effects on individuals and societies. Media dependency relies on the goals and resources of an individual—under the assumption that individuals depend on the media to meet the goal of being informed on certain topics (Defleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989). Mass media makes information accessible to attain understanding and orientation. The goal of the research reported here was to determine if Extension Directors (blocked as Area Directors, District Directors, Program Directors, Regional Directors, and Other of 1862 landgrant universities) were influenced by the media's coverage of methamphetamine and if the media affected their perceptions. Although methamphetamine was first developed in 1919 by the Japanese and was used by German, Japanese, and American military throughout World War II (Sato, 2008; Ulrich, 2005; Grinspoon & Hedblom, 1975), the drug gained national exposure in the United States through the media starting in the 2000s. Methamphetamine played a leading role in documentaries like PBS Frontline's The Meth Epidemic (2006); reality television such as A&E's Intervention (2005); fictional dramas like FX's Nip/Tuck (2007), and AMC's Breaking Bad (2008) and local and national news covering laboratory (lab) seizures. Amy R. Beaudreault Research, Evaluation, and Communication Independent Consultant abeaudreault@me.co m Methamphetamine, commonly referred to as "crystal meth," is a highly addictive drug that affects the human central nervous system and can be injected, snorted, smoked, or ingested orally. Methamphetamine can be produced almost anywhere with limited supplies, including the one-pot lab, which can be "cooked" in the backseat of moving vehicles. Despite high rates of Mexico drug trafficking, the National Drug Threat Assessment reported small-scale methamphetamine production in the United States is most prevalent in rural areas of the Florida/Caribbean, Great Lakes, Southeast, and West Central Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Regions (U.S. Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center, 2011). Although research is limited concerning media dependency and illicit drugs, in particular methamphetamine, studies do support media dependency in similar social topics. News dependency elevates during times of intense conflict or change. During these times, media responds with additional coverage to interest audiences. Research found positive relationships between health and other general risk situations and media exposure (Coleman, 1993; Loges, 1994; Tucker, Whaley, & Sharp, 2006). In addition to media dependency with methamphetamine is the theory of moral panic, which began in the 1970s in the sociology of deviance (Zajdow, 2008). Cohen (1972) identified a moral panic as when the majority of society views a social group or activity as threatening. Moral panics assist the news industry in developing emotional appeal to content (McRobbie & Thornton, 1995), ultimately intensifying the interest of the audience. Stereotyping is one way the media connects unrelated events. With methamphetamine, the extreme physical decay after continued use is an example of emotional involvement. Weisheit and White (2009) described that using words like "epidemic" inflames the public rather than informs them. Despite the media's attention to methamphetamine, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010) findings are positive regarding methamphetamine use. From 2002 to 2008, the past month use of methamphetamine decreased for young adults (from 0.6% to 0.2%). The number of first users aged 12 or older was105,000 in 2010, down from 157,000 in 2007 and 299,000 in 2002. Yet a 2005 National Association for Counties report found that of the 500 responding law enforcement agencies, 87% reported an increase in meth-related arrests since 2002, and 58% of counties responded that methamphetamine was "their" largest drug problem. A moral panic covered by the media has two outcomes: corrective action or increase of panic (Figure 1). Similar to the CNN effect (Robinson, 2002), corrective action most likely forms policy. New technologies such as the Internet, smartphones, and social media have amplified the 24-hour news cycle. Figure 1. Stages of Moral Panic and Media Exposure December 2013 The Impact of the Media in Influencing Extension's Perceptions of Methamphetamine JOE 51(6) ©2013 Extension Journal Inc. 2 With methamphetamine, many federal policies were enacted because of the moral panic. The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 is found in Title VII of the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 (H.R. 3199). Another federal initiative against methamphetamine was the Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control Methamphetamine (2005). Purpose of Study and Objectives The purpose of the study reported here (Beaudreault & Miller, 2011) was to explore and describe the methamphetamine perceptions of the media among a random sample of U.S. states and their Extension Directors. Objective 1: To describe Extension Directors in: (a) age, (b) gender, (c) level of education obtained, (d) years in current Extension title, (e) geographic location description of residence, (f) geographic location description of Extension territory, (g) U.S. state geographic description, and (h) current community involvement. Objective 2: To describe the methamphetamine information sources of Extension Directors. Objective 3: To describe the perceived media dependency of Extension Directors for methamphetamine information. Objective 4: To describe the perceived methamphetamine knowledge of Extension Directors. Objective 5: To describe the portrayal of methamphetamine in the media as perceived by Extension Directors. Objective 6: To describe the relationships among selected demographic characteristics (gender, age, level of education obtained, years of Extension experience, geographic location description of residence and Extension territory, U.S state geographic description, years in current Extension title, and current community involvement) and perceived media dependency, methamphetamine knowledge, and methamphetamine media portrayal. Objective 7: To identify significant differences in selected demographic characteristics (gender, age, level of education obtained, years of Extension experience, geographic location description of December 2013 The Impact of the Media in Influencing Extension's Perceptions of Methamphetamine JOE 51(6) ©2013 Extension Journal Inc. 3 residence and Extension territory, U.S state geographic description, years in current Extension title, and current community involvement) and perceived media dependency, methamphetamine knowledge, and methamphetamine media portrayal. Method The study focused on a random sample of U.S. states and the Extension Directors (or similar appointee) within each state. Extension Directors were an appropriate sample because they work with diverse populations, are active in community engagement, are aware of state's programming, and many live in the rural communities they service. A random sample of 50 states (n = 44) resulted in an N = 207 of Extension Directors (CI of 95%; Cochran, 1977). The instrument was an online survey and a mixed-mode approach of U.S. mail and email. Reliability of the instrument was established through a pilot test among Ohio State University Extension agents (N = 24) who were not included in the sample of the study. Content validity was secured through an expert review (N = 4). Cronbach's alpha (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994) assessed internal consistency of the domain of the instrument for the items that used Likert-type scales. All domains received a Cronbach's Alpha of . 80 or higher. A series of five contacts was implemented in data collection (during the summer of 2009) to secure a high response rate (Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2009). In addition, multiple follow-ups, precontact with subjects, use of hand-stamped return envelopes, incentive distribution, and institution sponsorship(s) with the title and signature of the responsible individual were implemented as effective strategies to maximize a survey response (Linsky, 1975). Frames were complete, and a 95% confidence interval was identified to control sampling error. Early and late respondents were compared for significant differences using t-tests for independent groups, resulting in no significant differences. Therefore, an assumption employed was that subjects who responded late were similar to those who did not respond and that the findings can be generalized (Miller & Smith, 1983). The alpha level was set a priori at . 05. Nominal, and ordinal data analysis included frequencies and percentages. Interval and ratio data analysis included means and standard deviations. For R x C contingency tables, Cramer's V was computed to describe the association for the nominal variables of responses of gender, geographic location, description of residence and Extension territory, and U.S. state description. Spearman rank order correlations (rs) were computed for the ordinal variables of community involvement and level of education obtained. Pearson product-moment correlations (r) were computed for the ratio variables of respondents' scores of a