Media effects

1
Media effects
2
Laswells Model of Mass Communication

• Who
• Says What
• In Which Channel
• To Whom
• With What Effect

3
Effects Theories

• Walter Lippmann Public Opinion (1922)
• We see the world as "pictures in our heads"
• Media shape perception of things we have not
  experienced personally

4
Powerful Effects Theory

• Media have immediate, direct influence
• Assumes people are passive and absorb media
  content uncritically unconditionally
• Hypodermic Needle model
• Magic Bullet model

5
Minimalist Effects

• Paul Lazarsfeld Erie County study (1940)
• Mass media had hardly any direct effect
• Personal contact more important than media
  contact
• Media effects mostly indirect

6
Two-step Flow model

• Media affect individuals through opinion leaders
• Opinion leaders are those who influence others
• Clergy, teachers, neighborhood leaders, etc.

7
Status Conferral

• Media coverage can create prominence for issues
  people
• Agenda Setting
• Maxwell McCombs Don Shaw
• Media tell people what to think about but not
  what to think

8
Media can

• Create awareness
• Establish priorities
• Perpetuate issues
• Intramedia effect as well

9
Narcoticizing dysfunction

• Media do not energize people into taking action
• Media lull people into passivity by overwhelming
  them with information
• People deceive selves into believing theyre
  involved when theyre actually only informed

10
Cumulative Effects Theory

• Media influence is gradual over time
• Effect is often powerful
• Spiral of Silence (Noelle-Neumann)
• Vocal majority intimidates others into silence

11
Focus on the audience

• 1940s challenge to audience passivity

12
Uses Gratifications

• People choose media that meet their needs
  interests
• Needs such as
• Surveillance
• Diversion
• Socialization

13
Surveillance

• Media provide info about whats going on
• Both news entertainment

14
Diversion

• Media as entertainment
• Stimulate
• Relax
• Release

15
Socialization

• Mass media can help initiate people into society
• And help them fit in
• Demonstrate dominant behaviors and norms
• Observational learning

16
Role modeling

• Imitative behavior
• Impact can be negative or positive ("prosocial)

17
Socialization via eavesdropping

• Children learn about adult topics by seeing them
  depicted in media

18

• Parasocial interaction
• False sense of participating in dialogue
• Communication is actually one-way

19
Consistency theory

• Individuals exercise control over medias effects
  on them
• People choose media messages consistent with
  their existing views values
• Selective
• Exposure
• Perception
• Retention Recall

20
Selective Exposure

• People choose some media messages over others
• People ignore messages that contradict their
  beliefs

21
Selective Perception

• People tend to hear what they want or expect to
  hear

22
Selective retention recall

• People retain recollect some media messages and
  not others

23

• Bottom line
• Individuals have a large degree of control over
  how the mass media affect them

24
War of the Worlds Revisited

• Why did the Orson Welles broadcast have such a
  powerful effect on its audience?
• EarthStation1.com's Radio Sounds Showcase The
  1938 "War of the Worlds" Radio Broadcast Wavs

25

• Reverence for radio as a reliable medium
• Predisposition to expect bad news
• Selective perception
• Gullibility fueled by awe of science
• WWI memories gas warfare
• Failure of common sense

26
Determining Causality

• Correlation means that 2 or more variables
  coexist
• Causality means that one variable causes another
• Beware of bad science (studies purporting
  causality)