Shark bytes: message sensation value and emotional appeals in shark diving websites

Maria Knight Lapinski, Lindsay Neuberger, Meredith L. Gore, Bret A. Muter and Brandon Van Der Heide

Journal of Risk Research, 2013, vol. 16, issue 6, 733-751

Abstract: Websites designed to promote risky activities provide a novel context for studying the role of emotional appeals and message sensation value (MSV) in risk messages in order to ultimately understand the type of messages that motivate people to engage in risk behaviors. Framed in theories of message design and emotion, this study investigates representations of threat, efficacy, and the extent to which risk messages appeal to a range of positive and negative emotions through the examination of 53 shark diving websites using content analysis and computer generated linguistic analysis. Results indicate that few websites provide explicit threat information (i.e. severity and susceptibility) but many do present implicit threats. Efficacy-related messages were present on all websites. Positive emotion was more common than negative emotion and there is little representation of the traditional components of MSV. Implications for theory development and communication about risk-seeking are addressed.

Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669877.2012.737822 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:16:y:2013:i:6:p:733-751

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RJRR20

DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2012.737822

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Risk Research is currently edited by Bryan MacGregor

More articles in Journal of Risk Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().