Download Challenging the Dominant Paradigm:

Challenging the
Dominant Paradigm:
Theories on Children, Systems &
Effects
Chapter 8. Pgs. 185-216
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At the end of this lesson you should be able
to identify the following theories:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Overview
TV Violence Theories
Social Learning Theory
Active View of Television Viewing
Development Perspectives
System Theories of Communication
Process.
7. The rise of the System Theory
 8. Mathematical Theory of
Communication
 9. Modeling System
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10. Cybernetic Theory
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By 1960’s about 90% of homes in US
reached by TV & its influence in a
social system.
A system theory was created. Theory
that examines the mass
communication process as composed
of inter-related parts that work
together to meet some goals.
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Psychologist turned their attention to
mass media esp. TV which later
created the theory of social cognitive
i.e. learning takes place through
interactions with many factors such as
behaviors, personal factors & the
environment.
Social Cognitive Theory
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This is a theory where learning takes
place through interaction with the
environment that involves reciprocal
causation of behavior, personal
factors & environmental events.
(work of White, 1972; Miller & Dollard
(19411); Bendura, 1965, 1971,1994;
Berkowitz, 1965; Potter, 1997)
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About this time, there is a greater concerned in
America on the effects of TV because of the
following reasons:
1. More women entered the workforce resulting
both parents working outside homes.
2. Migrations to urban areas.
3. TV is very popular & the focus increased on
the real world of violence. John & Robert
Kennedy and Martin Luther King were
dignitaries that were assassinated. The world
is a dangerous place to lived.
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4. Social movement such as Civil
Rights & anti Vietnam war protests
catch the attention of the
nation.
5. Young people were listening to new
unfamiliar music.
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6. There exist a generation gap between
conservative , middle-class parents & their
liberal, radical parents.
7. Evidence showed that families, school and
churches became less important to children.
Children are being socialized more and more
away from home and classrooms.
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8. TV became target criticism esp.
on violence \ programming
forming social instability.
9. Riots everywhere -in Los
Angeles, Detroit and Cleveland.
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President’s Johnson established a National
Commission to locate causes of violence.
This Commission recommended changes in
both news reporting and entertainment.
Research suggest the idea of CATHARSIS
or SUBLIMATION Hypothesis i.e. the idea
that viewing violence is sufficient purge to
satisfy a person’s aggressive drive &
therefore most likelihood reduces a person
aggressive behavior.
B. Social Learning Theory
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Human learn from observation.
IMITATION is the direct reproduction
of observed behavior.
IDENTIFICATION is a form of
imitation in which copying a model ,
wanting & trying to be like a model in
terms of characters or quality.
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Miller & Dollard argued that imitation
learning occurred when observers
were motivated to learn , when the
cues or elements of the behavior to
be learned were present and when
he/she perform the same behavior
were positively reinforced.
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SOCIAL LEARNING is applying both
imitation and identification to explain how
people learn through observations of others
in their environment.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY is that
observers can acquire symbolic
representations of behaviors & these
‘pictures’ provide information on which to
base on their subsequent behavior. E.g.
behavior depicted on screen.
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MODELING is a efficient way to learn
a wide range of behaviors & solutions
to problems that we would otherwise
learn slowly or pay high price to learn
the same thing.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING refers
to when the observation of the
behavior is sufficient to learn that
behavior.
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AGGRASIVE CUES refer to media
portrayals of violence and expected to show
higher level subsequent aggression.
PRIMING EFFECTS refers to the idea that
presentation in media heighten the
likelihood that people will develop similar
thoughts about those things in the real
world.
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CONTEXTUAL VARIABLES –
referring to the environmental
variables surrounding the presentation
of violence (e.g. reward/punishment,
consequences, motive, realism, humor,
media characters, arousal).
Theory of TV Viewing
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ACTIVE THEORY – refer to viewing of TV
consumption that assumes viewer
comprehension causes attention (effects)
DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE refers
to view that child undergo cognitive growth
and adulthood influence. Part of the
intellectual development through media
exposure (Sesame's Street).
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CHILDREN’ SOCIALIZATION – this
is the view that children learning
beyond social cognition. It also
involves process of socialization.
EARLY WINDOW – refers to the idea
that television allows children to see
the world before they have the skill to
successfully act on it.
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STRENGTH
Causal link between the media and
behavior.
Applies across several viewer and
viewing situations
Has strong explanatory power (e.g.
catharsis, cues etc)
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WEAKNESSES
Lab. Demonstration raises questions of
generalizability.
Demonstration might overestimate media
power.
Has difficulty explaining long term effects.
Underestimate people’s active use of media
Focuses too narrow on individual rather
than cultural.
Part II
B. System Theory
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This theory examines the role of mass
communication process consisted of interrelated
parts that work together to meet some goals. It
can influence & control one another through
communication and feedback loops.
Some system are capable of monitoring the
environment and alter their operations in
response to environmental changes.
Bukley, 1967; Wiener1954, 1961; Shannon &
Weaver 1949; Fisher & Fisher, 1996; Westly &
MacLean 1957.
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Engineers are concerned with
designing a system which
communication links efficiently
transmit information accurately.
Communication is a means to an end.
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COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS –
Systems that function primarily to
facilitate communication.
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TH E RISE OF THE SYSTEM THEORY
In 1960’s engineers development of system
theories based on the idea of Cybernetics
i.e. is the study of regulation & control in
complex machines.
CYBERNETICS investigates how
communication links between various parts
of machine to perform very complex tasks
and adjusted to changes taking place in its
external environment. e.g. in weapon
system, radar, air conditioning,
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FEEDBACK LOOPS referring to
ongoing adjustments in systems.
Complex machines rely on feedback
loops as a means of making ongoing
adjustments to change caused by the
environment. Feedback loops enable
sources to monitor the influence of
their message.
C. Mathematical Theory
of Communication
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Shannon & Weaver (1949) created a
system model known as the
Mathematical Theory of
Communication. The components of
this theory consisted of SIGNAL,
INFORMATION, NOISE, REDUNDANT,
CHANNEL & CHANNEL CAPACITY.
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SIGNAL – the flow of communication from
one part of the system to the other.
INFORMATION BIT – individual elements
of the signal.
NOISE – The difference between the signal
sent and the signal received.
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REDUNDANT – when the system contains
many bits carrying the same information
CHANNEL – the carrier of the signal
CARRYING CAPACITY –the ability for the
channel to transmit complex and simple
accurate signal
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Shannon & Weaver (1949)
Mathematical Model led to the
development of the INFORMATION
THEORY.
A theory that attempts to explain the
process of communication.
Information Theory
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This theory attempts to explain the
application of mechanical notions of
information flow to the understanding of all
forms of communication & applied it to
human communication.
Using the concept of SYSTEM MODELING.
The system of this model is
INTERDEPENDENCE to each other
(relationships) as such that changes in one
element changes the other elements.
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This theory was then adopted
replacing the TRANSMISSIONAL
Model that assumes the message
source dominates the communication
process, & that the primary outcome
of the process is the effects on the
receiver.
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E.g of the TRANSMISSIONAL Model is
Lasswell’s Theory (1949) Who Says
What Through what Medium with
What Effects.
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System theory has greatest practical impact
on communication. In particular the system
theory can be applied both close system
(Homeostatic) or open system
(dynamically balanced).
E.g of close system applied on machines air
conditioning, machines using some form of
automatic regulator etc.
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E.g. of open system like the biological
organism in our body. Using electrical
& chemical messages transmitted by
nervous and circulatory system our
organs functions and make adjustment
accordingly. The same analogy is
applied on human communications.
Critics of the System
Model Theory
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Two types of critics argued strongly against
this theory:
(a) The humanistic scholars
(b) The Social Scientists
Dehumanizing & overly simplistic. This is
just an elaborate metaphors or analogies. It
is not suitable to explain complex human
interrelationships. People are not like
machines.
System theorists argued that the model
can represent quite complicated
phenomena. The Simulation Model for
example is capable of analyzing
complex social system in which
interrelationships between agents are
represented.
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Another critics of the system theory is that
the system assumed that the structure
functions accordingly as designed.
Functionally properly and maintaining a
proper relationships with other parts.
Our body, one organ tells the other organ
what to do – control & command. But in the
process of communication, communication
sometimes play different roles.
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As an improvement to the system theory
model other scholars suggested the
introduction of SECOND ORDER OF
CYBERNATIC THEORY.
These theorists argued that many system
theory often continually undergo
fundamental sometimes chaotic,
transformations of their own structures. As
such that it is not possible to predict by
simply examining the past behavior of the
system.
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By the end of this lessons you should
have learned the following topics:
2. TV Violence Theories
3. Social Learning Theory
4. Active View of Television Viewing
5.Development Perspectives
6. System Theories of Communication
Process.
Thank You
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7. The rise of the System Theory
8. Mathematical Theory of
Communication
9. Modeling System
10. Cybernetic Theories