Drunk Driving

How has driving fatigued been affected by mass media? “You shouldn’t drive drunk” is a phrase often repeated by the media, between friends sometimes by passers-by, and is seen as the be-all end-all of driving safely. But spare a thought for driving while fatigued, for all the night owls, night shift workers, long haul truckers and so on. An issue such as this affects many around the country, especially those listed above, which are primarily workers. This essay will be broken down into three different parts, covering various topics. Firstly, cover the various ways in which being fatigued can negatively affect your driving, secondly the media campaign which the NZTA employed to combat the issue, finally how that campaign fits into a mass media theory.

Drunk driving is an issue that springs to mind when “Distracted Driving” is mentioned however, when driving fatigued is mentioned, many think of it as “falling asleep at the wheel” whereas the NZTA describes that as a “extreme form of fatigue”. (Dead on their feet, n.d.) Driving while fatigued can mean many things, you may not react as
Employers should have rules and regulations in place to ensure their employees are well rested, and provide an opportunity and a place to rest before returning home, especially in professions that operate outside of the human bodies normal functioning hours. The NZTA has attempted to do this using a specifically targeted mass media campaign covering many mediums, one which fits squarely into the framing mass communication theory, but this leaves the question; how much has this campaign truly done towards changing the attitude of New Zealand drivers across the