Figure 1: individuals and drink driving. Adapted from “women and drink-driving” by McCarthy, 2017 (https://www.saga.co.uk).
This message is directed towards eligible drivers. Since drink driving is a major concern around the world with 2.3 billion individuals engaging in alcohol consumption (WHO 2004 as cited in Rowland, Toumbourou & Allen, 2012), this road safety message advises the drivers to avoid drink driving. This is because drink driving results in deaths, injuries and disabilities (Gargett, Connelly and Nghiem 2011). According to Armstrong, Watling, Watson, and Davey (2017), in Australian alone, drink driving, and alcohol remains to be the biggest contributing factor to almost one-third of overall traffic deaths plus the injuries.
The way this message is interpreted and understood depends on the noise. Cenere, Gill, Lawson, and Lewis (2015) define noise as a modification of the message. The noise can take different forms – physical, psychological and semantic noises. Physical noise is the external interference to both the sender of the message and the drivers. For example, pop-up ads which might divert viewers’ focus when they view this message. The psychological noise depends on the mental make up the target audience. This illustrates the quality of the audience in how the message is decoded and understood (Nordguist, 2018). The semantic noise is the audience’s misunderstanding of the words used. In this message, there are simple words used which are easy to be understood.
The context is the situation encompassing this message. According to Suciu and Simon (2015), message is communicated within a situation which modifies and changes its intended meaning. For example, it would be out of context to deliver this message to a group of people who do not drink alcohol due to their religious norms. Therefore, this message needs to be delivered to the right individuals.
To conclude, this message regarding drink driving targets the drivers. The way the audience members interpret this message is influenced by the noise that is present and the context within which this message is communicated.
References:
Armstrong, K., A., Watling, H., Watson, A., & Davey, J., (2017). Profile of urban vs rural drivers detected drink driving via Roadside Breath Testing (RBT) in Queensland, Australia, between 2000 and 2011. Transportation Research Part F: Psychology and Behaviour, 47, 114-121.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2017.03.003
Gargett, S., Connelly, L., B., & Nghiem, S. (2011). Are we there yet? Australian road safety targets and road traffic crash fatalities. BMC Public Health, 11, 270. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/ps
McCarthy, M. (2017 January). Women and drink-driving. Saga Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/motoring/cars/using/women-and-drink-driving
Nordquist R., (2018) Noise and Interference in Various Types of Communication. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/noise-communication-term-1691349
Rowland, B., Toumbourou, J., & Allen, F. (2012). Drink-driving in community sports clubs: Adopting the good sports alcohol management program.(Report). Accident Analysis and Prevention, 48, 264.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2012.01.024
Suciu, L., & Simon S. (2015). Informing strategies: Building the communication framework. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197, 1246-1249. https://doi.org./10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.392
Accounting and Thoughts 