TY - JOUR
T1 - Public reaction to the death of steve jobs
T2 - Implications for cancer communication
AU - Myrick, Jessica Gall
AU - Noar, Seth M.
AU - Willoughby, Jessica Fitts
AU - Brown, Jennifer
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by funding provided by the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University Cancer Research Fund at the University of North Carolina.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2014/11/30
Y1 - 2014/11/30
N2 - The present study aimed to examine the public reaction to the death of Steve Jobs, focusing on general and cancer-specific information seeking and interpersonal communication. Shortly after Jobs's death, employees from a large university in the Southeastern United States (N = 1,398) completed a web-based survey. Every employee had heard about Steve Jobs's death, and 97% correctly identified pancreatic cancer as the cause of his death. General (50%) and pancreatic cancer-specific (7%) information seeking, as well as general (74%) and pancreatic cancer-specific (17%) interpersonal communication, took place in response to Steve Jobs's death. In multivariate logistic regression analyses controlling for demographics and several cancer-oriented variables, both identification with Steve Jobs and cancer worry in response to Steve Jobs's death significantly (p <.05) predicted pancreatic cancer information seeking as well as interpersonal communication about pancreatic cancer. Additional analyses revealed that cancer worry partially mediated the effects of identification on these outcome variables. Implications of these results for future research as well as cancer prevention and communication efforts are discussed.
AB - The present study aimed to examine the public reaction to the death of Steve Jobs, focusing on general and cancer-specific information seeking and interpersonal communication. Shortly after Jobs's death, employees from a large university in the Southeastern United States (N = 1,398) completed a web-based survey. Every employee had heard about Steve Jobs's death, and 97% correctly identified pancreatic cancer as the cause of his death. General (50%) and pancreatic cancer-specific (7%) information seeking, as well as general (74%) and pancreatic cancer-specific (17%) interpersonal communication, took place in response to Steve Jobs's death. In multivariate logistic regression analyses controlling for demographics and several cancer-oriented variables, both identification with Steve Jobs and cancer worry in response to Steve Jobs's death significantly (p <.05) predicted pancreatic cancer information seeking as well as interpersonal communication about pancreatic cancer. Additional analyses revealed that cancer worry partially mediated the effects of identification on these outcome variables. Implications of these results for future research as well as cancer prevention and communication efforts are discussed.
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U2 - 10.1080/10810730.2013.872729
DO - 10.1080/10810730.2013.872729
M3 - Article
C2 - 24716627
AN - SCOPUS:84920279857
SN - 1081-0730
VL - 19
SP - 1278
EP - 1295
JO - Journal of health communication
JF - Journal of health communication
IS - 11
ER -