Challenging the Dominant Paradigm:

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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. Overview
• 2. TV Violence Theories
• 3. Social Learning Theory
• 4. Active View of Television Viewing
• 5. Development Perspectives
• 6. System Theories of Communication Process.

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• 7. The rise of the System Theory
• 8. Mathematical Theory of Communication
• 9. Modeling System
• 10. Cybernetic Theory

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• By 1960s 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.

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Social Cognitive Theory

• 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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• Presidents 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
  persons aggressive drive therefore most
  likelihood reduces a person aggressive behavior.

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B. Social Learning Theory

• 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).

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Theory of TV Viewing

• 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 peoples active use of media
• Focuses too narrow on individual rather than
  cultural.

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Part II
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B. System Theory

• 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 1960s 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.

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C. Mathematical Theory of Communication

• 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.

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Information Theory

• 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 Lasswells
  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.

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Critics of the System Model Theory

• 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.

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• 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.

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Thank You

• 7. The rise of the System Theory
• 8. Mathematical Theory of Communication
• 9. Modeling System
• 10. Cybernetic Theories

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