Short-term media influences on Individuals: Limited effects I. Early research supporting "maximum effects"/ powerful effects A. The magic bullet theory--> implied that media had direct, immediate, and powerful effects of a uniform nature on those who attended to media. B. late 1920s --1930s: The Payne Fund (motivated by the Motion Picture Research Council) conducted large-scale scientific studies. 1) sociologist Herbert Blumler asked young people what they thought seeing films did to them-- his theory of emotional possession was that people watching films had strong emotional responses, and that they copied what was seen on films. (This study is FLAWED, but was influential in its time). 2) Ruth Peterson and L.L. Thurstone studied how movies affected children's attitudes toward social issues. They found children could have attitudes strongly changed by one film (supported magic bullet theory) 3) These and other studies published by the Payne Fund supported the magic bullet C. Oct 1938--H.G. Well's War of the Worlds broadcast reinforced the belief in powerful effects. 1) Hadley Cantril, Princeton University Office of Radio Research studied 135 people frightened by the broadcast. He found people low in critical ability were most likely to be fooled 2) Cantril's findings suggested effects may be powerful, but may NOT be uniform. (Psychologists began examining categories of people, and Cantril's low versus high crit ability reasoning was similar. Also after this time studies began looking at class, ethnic groups, education, etc.) II. After the Magic bullet--selected and limited effects-- A. At the start of WWII: U.S. Army studied the effectiveness of film to influence recruits & increase their motivation. The recruits completed a questionnaire before and after viewing the films (control group saw another film). Findings: factual knowledge increased, opinions slightly modified, and the better educated "learned" more. Differential effects demonstrated. (again) B. After WWII Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berleson & Hazel Gaudet published The People's Choice which looked at 1940 presidential election and media influences. Extremely careful scientific method set the standard for future research Findings: media was not all-powerful, but was a part of the web of influences, which also included family, friends and associates. Three kinds of results were names. 1) activation results: getting people to do what they had decided to do 2) reinforcement: strengthening intentions of those decided (most common) 3) conversion: changing minds (least common) Developed two-step flow theory. Opinion leaders paid attention to media, and then provided information to others. Lead to the notions of selective and sometimes minimal media consequences. III. Audience Uses and Gratifications in media content selection A. 1940-1950 scholars found that audience members were active in determining what media to attend to and how it would influence them. (e.g., Berleson studied lack of newspapers during a strike to determine reader needs) B. In the 1950s when TV was new, studies said it appeared to delay bedtimes and limit study times C. 1960 Schramm. Lyle and Parker studied 6,000 children and TV viewing. They found viewing differed by age, family income, etc. They found "incidental learning" even for children of low ability, and that as a group children were not endangered by TV viewing. IV. The issue of TV violence A. Congress commissioned the National Institute of Mental Health to study effect of TV--they published 60 studies as a result 1) For 1969 (new at the time) the study said children's TV included violence in unrealistic settings 2) Reprint of Bandura study in which children modeled depicted violence (unless they say such actions punished in the program they viewed) B. A volume entitled Television and Adolescent Aggression involving longitudinal and cumulative studies stated that there may not be a causal relation between viewing and performing violence 1) 1972 study claimed that televised violence did harm some children. 2) By 1982 another study was conducted with similar findings, but with the statement that researchers could not predict that a given person would be violent. V. Conclusions??? Most research reveals limited or weak effects A. Research methods have improved, but statements relating findings to effects have become more tentative. B. Most research is concerned with influences upon "inappropriate" behaviors. C. Magic bullet was replaced by selective effects theory. The audience was discovered to be more active than originally thought. *********************************************************** Media effects on society and Culture: Powerful effects I. Theories of long-term influences (stimulating social & cultural change) A. Accumulation theory--significant changes can occur over time if 1)Persistence: the media focus repeatedly on an issue 2) Consistency: if the media present a uniform interpretation 3) Corroboration: if the major media give parallel accounts B. Adoption theory--society embraces new technologies and new ideas, this theory explains how mass media participate in this process. SEVERAL STAGES: 1) awareness of new item; 2) an individual becomes an early adopter 3) more people adopt the thing, 4) adoption levels off The media play a role by providing information, some persuasion. C. Both of the above say that initial change in individuals is NOT drastic, but repeated exposure to a message results in significant social change II. Socialization theories--internalizing behaviors that are approved and expected by society A. Modeling theory: under certain circumstances individuals who view others performing actions may adopt aspects of others as their own personal habits (Observational learning) SEVERAL STAGES: 1) seeing an action portrayed in the media, 2) viewer identifies with the actor, 3) the viewer imitates (remembers & reproduces) the actor later, 4) if performing the reproduced activity gains reward for the viewer (s)he will do it again. B. Social expectations theory: people learn the rules for acting "their parts" within groups--customs and routines of group behavior studied. The goals are accomplished by coordination=individuals utilizing advantages of group activity AND social organization=group following established patterns in order to accomplish goals STAGES: 1) establish general norms, 2) identify specialized roles, 3) establish differential ranking, 4) enforce social controls (rewards/ punishment) C. In a media-based society, people learn the norms, roles, and rules from watching TV or going to the movies. And they learn specific behaviors through observational learning. The media effects are long-range, subtle and accumulative III. Meaning construction and media influences A. meaning construction theory of media portrayals--media play a part in the processes whereby we modify meanings (on word units) TYPES of INFLUENCES: establishment (new words become part of our language system from media), extension (media expand definitions), substitution (displacement of older meanings), stabilization (reinforcing conventions between words/symbols and their meanings) B. Stereotype theory--explains how media reinforce existing cultural patterns DeFleur & Dennis say these are negative meanings about groups of people C. The media participate in creating or modifying links between words and their meanings, and between reality and our interpretation of images Media critics say media can misrepresent links between symbols and understanding, and create a social disservice. ******************************************* MORE on MEDIA EFFECTS ON SOCIETY I. Agenda Setting: definition and examples A. Agenda setting is the idea that the news media, by the display of news, comes to determine the issues the public thinks about and talks about B. Agenda Setting and Prior Mass Media Theories 1) Movement away from Limited Effect Model of the 1950's &60's 2). Agenda Setting researchers shift away from looking at how mass media changes attitudes and look rather at its impact on people' perceptions and views of the world 3) Movement corresponds with shift within psychology to a cognitive model C. early Thoughts on Agenda Setting 1). Long (1958)-- "newspaper prime mover in setting agendas" 2). Lang (1958)-- "mass media forces attention to certain issues" 3). Cohen (1963)-- "mass media may not be successful in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about" II. The Chapel Hill Study-- 1st study of Agenda Setting (A.S.) A. McCombs and Shaw (1972) 1) Looked as A.S. in the presidential campaign of 1968 2) Hypothesis-- that mass media set the agenda for each campaign, influencing the salience of attitudes toward the issues 3) Subjects-- undecided voters in Chapel Hill, N.C.-- "undecided" should be the most susceptible to A.S. 4) Method-- surveys ("What do you see as the most important issues?") and content analysis of mass media serving those surveyed 5) Results-- high correlation between answers and issues mass media emphasized-- hypo. correct III. The Spiral of Silence: Noelle-Nuemann A. Definition of Spiral of Silence - On a controversial issue. people form impressions about the distribution of public opinion. People in the minority will tend to remain silent, this silence leads to a continuation of not being heard. 1. people look to mass media to find the distribution of public opinion. 2. perception of the climate surrounding the individual's opinion will determine whether or not they speak out 3. diverse reporting will overcome the spiral of silence B. Three characteristic of media that combine to produce effects on public opinion according to Noelle-Nuemann: 1. cumulation 2. ubiquity 3. consonance This theory gives the media more power. Noelle-Nuemann says the limitations of research have lead to an underestimation of its power. IV. Cultivation theory: Gerbner A. Key concepts of cultivation theory: 1. television has become the central cultural arm of American society. "The television set has become a key member of the family, the one who tells most of the stories most of the time. 2. The effect of all of this exposure to the same messages produces cultivation which is the teaching of a common world view, common roles and common values. Later added: 1. mainstreaming - occurs when heavy viewing leads to a convergence of outlooks across groups. 2. resonance - occurs when the cultivation effect is boosted for a certain group of the population. Rubin, Perse and Taylor (1988) 1. Cast further doubt on cultivation as a general, across-the-board effect due to heavy, ritualistic television viewing. 2. They found that effects of television on perceptions of social reality, but the effects were program specific. V. Size of Effects: Fig.14.4, Severin & Tankard text A. Bullet theory, Limited effects model, moderate effects model, Powerful effects model B. McGuire (1986) focused on the empirical results rather than on theories 1. intended effects 2. unintended effects 3. concluded that the data is inconclusive. Data do not indicate the absence of impact, but more importantly the research data do not conclusively indicate a presence of causal impact. VI. A Synthesis--linking attention and influence A. Katz (1980) the 2 important factors in mass communication attention (and thereby effects) are: 1. selectivity-process that operate to make perception selective (selective exposure, selective perception, selective retention) 2. interpersonal relations - group membership and the other processes by which groups influence people. B. in a complex and modern society there are many matters that the audience can be uncertain about - this ambiguity is stressful, constantly people may turn to the mass media to reduce uncertainty. This may give the mass media a great deal of power in defining and structuring reality (pointed out by Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur) VII. Dependency theory A. stressed the 3-way relationship of society, media and audiences as the determinant of media dependencies B. Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976) "dependency theory" states people have various dependencies on the media, and these dependencies vary from person to person, from group to group and from culture to culture 1. in a modern, urban society audiences have a high level of dependence on mass media information 2. stresses the tripartite relationship of media, audience and society 3. as societies grow more complex the media take on more and more unique functions C. can be applied to understanding the operation of cultivation, agenda setting, knowledge gap. D. Becker and Whitney (1980) showed that individuals can become dependent on a particular medium for their information and that people dependent on different media tend to have different pictures of the world. E. Miller and Reese (1982) found the more an individual is dependent upon a particular medium the more likely it is that a message in that medium will have its intended effects. VIII. Conclusions A. Media scholars do not have a unified theory that will explain mass communication effects. Each theory attempts to explain particular aspects. B. Deustch (1986): most results may be due to a plurality of weak forces and pressures. C. "It depends" may be the best answer. 1400 Ch 16 notes