Case Study:
Drunk driving
Results of in-depth interviews with different individuals.
Drunk driving is driving under the influence of alcohol or other drinks or substances that may make a person to be drunk. Drunk driving has a lot of effects in our communities and societies. The main effect of driving under the influence of alcohol is death. Most accidents that normally happen on the roads are caused by drunk drivers. This is due to the fact that a drunk driver will always tend to drive carelessly and this may lead to accident which may then lead to deaths or even injuries.
Drunk driving is a very common public issue in our societies today. The government is not doing enough to ensure that this issue is ended once and for all (Hingson& Winter, 2003, p. 63). The issue is a public and social issue since it affects social lives of individuals who ate involved in this act. In the interviews that I did, it was quite clear that the mostly involved individuals are youths aged 25-45 (Hingson& Winter, 2003, p. 70). They are the ones who mainly drive while drunk. From the interviews, this is the target group due to the fact that most individuals who are in this age set do some actions due to peer pressure.
From the interviews with internal security ministry, I realized that there are no policies that have been clearly set in order to govern those who drive while drunk. Also, there are no forms of heavy punishment that such drivers are given. This issue is not well communicated in our societies and thus, there has been an increase in the number of accidents caused by drunk driving. The members of this security department indicated that they are working out on new rules and penalties for persons who drive while drunk. Also, the ministry stated that they are creating an awareness movement where different youths and middle aged individuals will be taught on the effects of drinking illicit brews. To add on this, the body concerned with this social and public issue stated that there are different campaigns going on through the media and the internet. These campaigns are aimed at providing solutions to individuals who are socially affected and those that are so much engaged to illicit brews that they cannot stop its usage.
Suggestions on how to improve communication about this issue.
This public issue at hand has affected individuals from all walks of life. The mostly affected individuals are those that do not understand the effects of drunk driving. From the interviews done with the country's internal security department, I realized that communication about this public and social issue should be improved. This is because in most cases, when this department is communicating to the public about drunk driving, it's usually done through the media. However, not all drunk drivers and affected families can afford media services. For instance, in US, 30% of the families do not have access to media services due to their low social lives. This then has an implication that these individuals are not able to understand and even reach for the information being spread through media by the government. Such individuals are not bound to change and they may remain drunk drivers for a very long time (Quinlan et al., 2005, p. 500).
From my own point of view, I would suggest that communications on drunk driving can be improved by doing door to door campaigns especially in rural areas where most individuals cannot afford accessing media services. By doing so, there will be surety that almost 90% of individuals will receive the information from this ministry.
Also, there can be trainings in different schools. This will ensure that school going individuals come out of the school when they are aware of the implications of drunk driving and the penalties that one may receive if caught driving while drunk. This will help these students and also their families as they will be knowledgeable on the effects of drunk driving and how to abstain from drinking illicit brews and even how to avoid being influenced by peer pressure.
Lessons learnt about asking questions during research.
During interviewing the different individuals from the internal security department, I learnt a lot of lessons concerning how to ask questions during research. First, I learnt that it is of great importance to ask simple and clear questions during a research interview. This is mainly to promote understand between the interviewer and the interviewee. Also, this helps the interviewee to be capable of fully understanding the questions being asked and to be able to provide the interviewer with clear, reliable and relevant answers to the questions being asked.
During these sessions, I also learnt that as an interviewer, I should possess good communication skills. This will help in ensuring that my questions are well understood and an interviewee will be capable to remain relevant throughout the interview session. I also learnt that good skills of communicating are important since an interviewer will be able to frame his/her questions in a manner that they can be well understood by the group of individuals being interviewed.
References
Hingson, R., &Winter, M. (2003). Epidemiology and consequences of drinking and driving.Alcohol Research and Health, 27(1), 63-78.
Quinlan, K. P., Brewer, R. D., Siegel, P., Sleet, D. A., Mokdad, A. H., Shults, R. A., & Flowers, N. (2005). Alcohol-impaired driving among US adults, 1993-2002.American journal of preventive medicine, 28(4), 346-570.
Question: Assess (through secondary research) what attributes the key target market segments consider in making judgments about the social or public policy issue you are interested in. Which attributes do they find most important? How do they make decisions about this issue? What can be done to reposition the issue or to communicate the issue more effectively? How is this issue currently being addressed?