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Jisu Huh
Journalism and Mass Communication
PHOTO BY LEE BECKER |
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Assistant Professor Jisu Huh, who joined the School of Jounalism
and Mass Communication in 2003, is fascinated by prescription drugs-specifically,
in the effect that drug advertising campaigns have on the public's
health perceptions and behaviors.
Huh credits her doctoral adviser, Dr. Leonard Reid, with sparking
her interest in this area of research, but she also cites a more
unusual source for her work on prescription drug advertising: her
landlady. While in graduate school at the University of Georgia,
Huh lived with an elderly woman who had a number of health issues
and, as a result, a profound interest in new prescription drugs.
"Mrs. Lovell and I would watch TV together and would often
talk about the drug ads," Huh recalls. "Mrs. Lovell is
in her 70s and takes a number of prescription drugs every day, and
she had a great interest in the advertising for new drugs coming
on the market," says Huh.
Mrs. Lovell is not alone in her interest. Over the past ten years,
pharmaceutical companies have drastically increased their direct-to-consumer
(DTC) marketing efforts, and consumers have responded. According
to Huh's research, 41% of consumers who had seen DTC ads asked their
doctors about the drug, and 13% came right out and asked for a prescription.
"The success of this form of advertising is directly linked
to consumers," Huh says. "Consumers are increasingly more
involved in their healthcare decision-making, and seem to welcome
DTC ads as another source of information on medical conditions and
treatment options."
Huh's research focuses on how consumers-both patients and physicians-perceive
the effects of prescription drug advertising on themselves and on
others. Her dissertation research at Georgia, for example, showed
that consumers tend to think advertising has a greater influence
on others than on themselves. This phenomenon is called the "third-person
effect," and it has implications for behavior as well as perception.
In her current research project, which focuses on physicians' perceptions
of drug advertising on patients, Huh is finding a connection between
the third-person effect and doctors' response to patient requests
for new prescription drugs.
"Physicians believe that DTC ads have influence over their
patients, perhaps undue influence," Huh explains. Fearing that
undue influence, she says, makes doctors much less willing to prescribe
the drugs the patient sees on TV. Huh's study, which is funded by
the University's Graduate School Grant-in-Aid program, has made
a significant connection between this effect and physicians' refusal
of patient request for advertised drugs, even after controlling
for physicians' demographic and attitudinal characteristics.
Huh uses her research as a teaching tool as well. She has assigned
the "Purple Pill" campaign for the drug Nexium as a case
study for her Strategic Communication Research course, and often
uses DTC advertising as a jumping-off point for the discussion of
ethical, social, and policy issues in advertising in Principles
of Strategic Communication. "Surprisingly, students tend to
hold very negative views of DTC advertising," she comments,
noting that students tend to support stronger government regulation
of pharmaceutical advertising practices. But students are always
interested in the topic, she says, "because DTC advertising
is so different in form and function from other types of advertising."
Huh knows that Mrs. Lovell, her landlady, would be interested in
her continued work in the field as well. "She was very proud
of me when I finished my research," says Huh with a smile.
Written by Ami Berger
Reprinted with permission from the summer 2005 edition of The
Murphy Reporter, a publication of the School of
Journalism and Mass Communication.
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