Download Chapter 2 Mass Communication Effects: How Society & Media Interact

Chapter 2
Mass Communication Effects:
How Society & Media Interact
Rise of Mass Society
• Pre 1800s: People in the United States lived in
rural communities with people of similar
ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds.
• 1800s: Industrial revolution – People move
into cities, work for wages, interact with
people of diverse backgrounds.
• Fears: Media would replace church, family,
and community in shaping public opinion.
Direct Effects Model
• People feared strong, direct effects of World
War I and World War II propaganda.
• Direct effects—presume media messages are
a stimulus that leads to consistent,
predictable attitudinal or behavioral effects.
• Indirect effects—recognize that people have
different backgrounds, needs, values and so
respond differently.
People’s Choice Study
and the Limited Effects Model
• Lazarsfeld study of voter decision making in
1940 presidential election.
• Found importance of opinion leaders (friends
and neighbors) over mass media and
campaigns.
• Media content and campaigns had indirect
effects; interpersonal influence was stronger.
People’s Choice Findings
• Voters with strong opinions are unlikely to
change them.
• Voters who pay most attention to campaigns
are those who start with strongest views.
• The most persuadable voters are least likely to
pay attention to campaigns.
Critical Cultural Model
• Focus is on how people use media to
construct view of the world; not effect of
media on people’s behavior.
• Examines creation of meaning and how
communication takes place; not survey or
experimental results.
• Who controls the creation and flow of
information?
Types of Media Effects
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•
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Message Effects
Medium Effects
Ownership Effects
Active Audience Effects
Message Effects
How are people affected by the content of
messages?
• Cognitive Effects
Short-term learning of information.
• Attitudinal Effects
Changing people’s attitudes about a person,
product, institution, or idea.
Message Effects
• Behavioral Effects
Inducing people to adopt new behaviors or
change existing ones. Much harder than
changing attitudes.
• Psychological Effects
Inspiring strong feelings or arousal in audience
members. People often seek feelings such as
fear, joy, revulsion, happiness, or amusement.
Medium Effects
• How does the medium used change the
nature of the message and the receiver’s
response to the message?
• What are the social effects of each medium?
• “The medium is the message”—Marshall
McLuhan
Ownership Effects
• How does ownership affect the media?
• Do we get different messages from different
owners?
• How important are the six largest media
companies?
Active Audience Effects
• Audience members seek out and respond to
media for a variety of reasons.
• People can be segmented by geographics,
demographics, or psychographics.
• Looks at audience members as selective
consumers rather than naïve victims of the
media.
Theories of Media and Society
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•
•
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Functional Analysis
Agenda Setting
Uses and Gratifications
Social Learning
• Spiral of Silence
• Media Logic
• Cultivation Analysis
Functional Analysis
• Surveillance of the environment
• Correlation of different elements of society
• Transmission of culture from one generation
to the next
• Entertainment
Agenda Setting
• The media don’t tell the public what to think,
but rather what to think about.
• Media sets the terms of public discourse.
• But can media determine what people will
care about?
Uses and Gratifications
• What do audience members attempt to get
out of their media use?
• And do they receive it?
Uses and Gratifications
Possible gratifications
• To be amused
• To experience the beautiful
• To have shared experiences with others
• To find models to imitate
• To believe in romantic love
Social Learning
Albert Bandura—We are able to learn by
observing others and the consequences they
face.
Social Learning
Steps of Social Learning
• We extract key information from situations
we observe.
• We integrate these observations to create
rules about how the world operates.
• We put these rules into practice to regulate
our own behavior and predict the behavior of
others.
Symbolic Interactionism
• The process by which individuals produce
meaning through interaction based on socially
agreed-upon symbols.
• “If men define situations as real, they are real
in their consequences.”—W.I. Thomas
Spiral of Silence
• People want to see themselves as part of a
majority.
• They will remain silent if they perceive
themselves as being in a minority.
• This tends to make minority opinions appear
less prevalent than they are.
• But some people like having contrary
opinions; others speak out because they care.
Media Logic
• The forms the media use to present the world
become the forms we use to perceive the
world.
• People use media formats to describe the
world.
• People use media formats to prepare for
events so that they will be portrayed better
through the media.
Cultivation Analysis
• Watching significant amounts of television
alters the way an individual views the nature
of the surrounding world.
• Can cultivate a response known as the “Mean
World Syndrome.”
Mean World Syndrome
Heavy television viewers are more likely to:
• Overestimate chance of experiencing violence
• Believe their neighborhood is unsafe
• Say fear of crime is a serious personal
problem
• Assume the crime rate is rising.
How Do Campaigns Affect Voters?
• Resonance Model
A candidate’s success depends on how well
his or her basic message resonates with and
reinforces voters’ preexisting political
feelings.
• Competitive Model
Views the political campaign as a competition
for the hearts and minds of voters. A
candidate’s response to an attack is as
important as the attack itself.
Media and Political Bias
• News with an explicit point of view is popular
on cable television.
• Audience members tend to view news as
biased if it does not actively match their own
point of view.
Liberal vs. Conservative Bias
• Conservatives point out reporters tend to be
more liberal than public at large.
“The duty of the press is to comfort the
afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
• Liberals point out that media are owned by
large corporations that tend to be more
conservative than the public at large.
“Freedom of the press belongs to those who
own a press.”
FOX
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#/v/1437426225001/chryslerssuper-bowl-commerical-a-nod-to-obama/?playlist_id=86923
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1412429186001/no-spin-state-of-theunion/?playlist_id=86934
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/ns/msnbc_tv-the_ed_show/#46288379
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#41124279
CSPAN
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ThreatstoUS
Herbert Gans:
Basic Journalistic Values
• Ethnocentrism
The belief that your own country and culture
are better than all others.
• Altruistic democracy
The idea that politicians should serve the
public good, not their own interests.
Herbert Gans:
Basic Journalistic Values
• Responsible capitalism
The idea that open competition among
businesses will create a better, more
prosperous world. But must be responsible.
• Small-town pastoralism
Nostalgia for the old-fashioned rural
community.
Herbert Gans:
Basic Journalistic Values
• Individualism
The quest to identify the one person who
makes a difference.
• Moderatism
The value of moderation in all things.
Extremists on left and right are viewed with
suspicion.
Herbert Gans:
Basic Journalistic Values
• Social order
When journalists cover disorder they tend to
focus on the restoration of order.
• Leadership
Media look at the actions of leaders, whereas
the actions of lower-level bureaucrats are
ignored.