Examining Online Posters on Cervical Cancer through the Lens of Extended Parallel Processing Model

The magnitude of deaths in women recorded globally as a result of cervical cancer are largely due to unhealthy behaviours (WHO, 2014, 2015), hence the main objective of health promoting information is to enlighten, encourage and motivate people to engage in desirable health-promoting behaviours (Riet & Ruiter, 2013). Health communication campaigns represent a viable and important tool for influencing public health (Noar, 2006). A number of health communication studies especially the most recent meta-analysis of about 100 experimental studies on fear appeals have revealed that when perceptions of efficacy (i.e., beliefs about whether one is able to do an effective recommended response to avert a threat) are taken into account, when designing a health communication message, fear appeals have an even stronger effect, such that the greater the fear aroused, threat perceived, the greater the behavioral change as long as perceived efficacy is high (Tannenbaun, Helper Zimmerman, Jacobs , Wilson & Albarracin 2015; Grifin, 2015; Witte & Allen, 2000; Morman, 2000; Smalec & Klingle, 2000; Stephenson &Witte, 1998; Clarke, 1998; Witte, Berkowitz, Cameron,& Lillie, 1998).