Heroin in Hampton Roads - Documentary Film Review
This blog post will review and analyze the documentary film, Heroin: The Hardest Hit, for COMM 333 – Persuasion. The objectives of the analysis are to apply three persuasion theories: Social Judgment Theory, Age and Credibility, to various elements of the film and describe how these components are influential communication tools. Heroin: The Hardest Hit, produced in 2016 by Virginia State University, is targeting the Hampton Roads community with their messaging and content by illustrating the devastating impact of heroin use by youth in the area.
Social Judgement Theory: Social influences provide users will unintentional persuasion by affecting how one sees themselves in society’s eyes. From associations with different groups and the communities where individuals are living, opinions and behaviors are developed and shaped. Through these beliefs people will have established, messages perceived internally make decisions on how we react or not react. Social Judgement Theory comes into play when dissecting how the families of the young victims of heroin addiction have been persuaded to think about the stereotypical characteristics of a drug addict. Typically certain groups or types of people are targeted by society as being heroin addicts. According to Allen (2011), social identity assumptions are made about a certain class, age or race of people (p. 184). However, in the film it showed that it is not in the characteristic neighborhoods that one would expect to find heroin addicts like the ghetto, but in all types of neighborhoods and all lifestyles. A particular focus of the heroin documentary were athletic youth who were treated for a sports related injury and later became addicted to pain killing drugs.
With so many cases of young people becoming hooked on prescription drugs first, the film cited repeatedly how the families of the drug users had been in denial and had been experiencing a range of latitudes from rejection to non-commitment. Although each family going through this crisis has their own anchor or viewpoint when accepting the truth about the heroin epidemic, most showed signs of perceptual error when objectively rationalizing the behavior. This is supported by research from Zufferey (2009) where it was concluded, “Occasional users of heroin and cocaine make sense of their behavior in order to persuade themselves and their environment that they are not drug addicts”.
The mass media propaganda used to educate the public on heroin addiction used various styles of compelling data. Included in the supporting materials were specific messages tailored at parents to help sell the idea that prescription drugs are in fact dangerous and can be a gateway to stronger drugs like heroin. Imagery shown in the marketing materials highlighted the predisposition parents have on this subject and demonstrated how attitudes must change to accept the danger these medications present to children.
Age: Gass & Seiter (2016) found, children are much more easily targeted than adults are by persuasive messages. The film, Heroin: The Hardest Hit focused its target market for the persuasive documentary on that age group. Several real-life stories were shown as case studies demonstrating the youthfulness of the victims of heroin addiction. One of the predominant stories featured a 13-year-old soccer player first injured in middle school and subsequently prescribed pain relievers from her doctor. This turned into an almost decade long battle with opioid addiction, ending in her death. Since the use of drugs in American society is such a sensitive issue, adolescents and younger people have a tendency to process information about drug use very carefully (Zhao, Capella, 2008, p. 143). The film had to use strong and authentic examples to reach the youth watching the film in order to have an impact on their belief system. This is especially true as children grow older and start to become less susceptible to the persuasive appeal of ads (Gass, Seiter, 2016, p. 98). Risk is another important moderator in adolescents’ processing of anti-drug messages Zhao, Cappella (2008). When these athletes became addicted to a pain-free lifestyle from prescribed doctor-approved medications, they did not see the risk in moving form legal opioids to illegal heroin to solve their plain problems.
Credibility: Doctors are trusted and respected in our society as experts in the medical field and therefore we take what they say and do as imperative rule. In this documentary, doctors are prescribing pain relieving drugs, or opioids, as part of treatment plans to young athletes. Just like heroin, these legal drugs are highlight addictive. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, heroin is also an opioid. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of these young people fall victim to the same pain relieving effects of illegal drugs once they have become hooked on the legal ones. With the trustworthiness the youth have placed into the doctors initially treating them with legal opioids, they naturally consider pain relief necessary for their happiness. Noted in studies from Zufferey (2009), that drug users claim their behavior represents “some sort of constructive pleasure: drug use is, for example, presented as a way of taking care of himself.” This boils down to young addicts of heroin have gone through a counter-attitudinal change; even though they know illegal drugs are bad, the legal versions of the drugs came from credible sources and they are able to rationale use of a painkiller either way it comes.
Allen (2011) demonstrated how power matters when it comes to the weight of various influencers in life. This can be applied directly to the credibility that society gives to people in powerful positions, like doctors. When power players deliver messages to their audience about approval to medicate oneself through pain killers, it would be expected that at least a group of patients would become addicted to the pain-free feeling that these prescription drugs offer.
The film also utilized various authority figures to help build credibility to the case against drug use and to reinforce the damaging effects that heroin is having on the Virginia region. Several key state government officials and local law enforcement officers were featured in the documentary to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the information.
In conclusion, the film was very persuasive in providing many rationales for why non-stereotypical youth might become dependent on heroin. It was successful in showing how the local community, government and law enforcement use a multifaceted approach to reaching youth and persuading them to make better choices in life. Age, social influences and authority figures all play a significant role in the documentary. Through ongoing education resources and marketing materials, the goal is to continue debunking the labels placed on the “typical heroin addict” image and demonstrate how dangerous prescription medications can be to young people in our society.
Allen, B. J. (2011) Difference Matters: Communicating Social Identity. (2nd ed). Long Grove, IL:Waveland Press. Chapter 1, 2, and 9
Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2016). Persuasion: social influence, and compliance gaining. New York: Routledge.
Zhao, X., & Cappella, J. N. (2008). The Influence of Ambivalence on Adolescents' Reactions to Anti-Drug Messages. Communication Quarterly, 56(2), 131-148. doi:10.1080/01463370802026885
Zufferey, M. C. (2009). "I use drugs, but I am not a drug addict": How Heroin and Cocaine Users Make Sense of Their Practice as a Healthy Behaviour. At The Interface / Probing The Boundaries, 55163-176.
