What theory says the media can tell you what to think about but not what to think?

two.2 Media Effects Theories

Learning Objectives

1. Identify the basic theories of media effects.
2. Explicate the uses of various media furnishings theories.

Early media studies focused on the utilise of mass media in propaganda and persuasion. Still, journalists and researchers soon looked to behavioral sciences to help figure out the result of mass media and communications on lodge. Scholars have adult many different approaches and theories to figure this out. Yous can refer to these theories every bit you research and consider the media's effect on culture.

Widespread fearfulness that mass-media messages could outweigh other stabilizing cultural influences, such as family and customs, led to what is known every bit the direct effects model of media studies. This model causeless that audiences passively accustomed media messages and would exhibit predictable reactions in response to those messages. For example, following the radio broadcast of State of war of the Worlds in 1938 (which was a fictional news report of an alien invasion), some people panicked and believed the story to be true.

Challenges to the Direct Furnishings Theory

The results of the People'due south Choice Study challenged this model. Conducted in 1940, the study attempted to approximate the effects of political campaigns on voter choice. Researchers found that voters who consumed the most media had more often than not already decided for which candidate to vote, while undecided voters generally turned to family and community members to help them determine. The study thus discredited the direct effects model and influenced a host of other media theories (Hanson, 2009). These theories do not necessarily requite an all-encompassing picture of media effects only rather work to illuminate a particular aspect of media influence.

Marshall McLuhan's Influence on Media Studies

During the early on 1960s, English professor Marshall McLuhan wrote two books that had an enormous effect on the history of media studies. Published in 1962 and 1964, respectively, the Gutenberg Milky way and Understanding Media both traced the history of media engineering science and illustrated the means these innovations had changed both individual behavior and the wider culture. Understanding Media introduced a phrase that McLuhan has become known for: "The medium is the message." This notion represented a novel take on attitudes toward media—that the media themselves are instrumental in shaping human and cultural experience.

His bold statements about media gained McLuhan a great deal of attention every bit both his supporters and critics responded to his utopian views virtually the means media could transform 20th-century life. McLuhan spoke of a media-inspired "global village" at a time when Cold War paranoia was at its peak and the Vietnam State of war was a hotly debated subject field. Although 1960s-era utopians received these statements positively, social realists establish them cause for contemptuousness. Despite—or perhaps because of—these controversies, McLuhan became a pop civilisation icon, mentioned frequently in the television sketch-comedy program Laugh-In and actualization as himself in Woody Allen's picture Annie Hall.

The Internet and its accompanying cultural revolution have made McLuhan'due south bold utopian visions seem like prophecies. Indeed, his work has received a great bargain of attending in recent years. Assay of McLuhan's work has, interestingly, non changed very much since his works were published. His supporters betoken to the hopes and achievements of digital technology and the utopian land that such innovations hope. The current critique of McLuhan, still, is a bit more revealing of the state of modern media studies. Media scholars are much more numerous now than they were during the 1960s, and many of these scholars criticize McLuhan's lack of methodology and theoretical framework.

Despite his lack of scholarly diligence, McLuhan had a great deal of influence on media studies. Professors at Fordham University have formed an association of McLuhan-influenced scholars. McLuhan's other smashing achievement is the popularization of the concept of media studies. His work brought the idea of media effects into the public arena and created a new mode for the public to consider the influence of media on civilization (Stille, 2000).

Calendar-Setting Theory

In contrast to the extreme views of the straight effects model, the agenda-setting theory of media stated that mass media make up one's mind the issues that business organisation the public rather than the public's views. Nether this theory, the issues that receive the near attention from media go the issues that the public discusses, debates, and demands action on. This ways that the media is determining what problems and stories the public thinks nearly. Therefore, when the media fails to address a particular issue, it becomes marginalized in the minds of the public (Hanson).

When critics claim that a particular media outlet has an calendar, they are drawing on this theory. Agendas tin range from a perceived liberal bias in the news media to the propagation of cutthroat capitalist ethics in films. For example, the agenda-setting theory explains such phenomena equally the rising of public opinion against smoking. Before the mass media began taking an antismoking stance, smoking was considered a personal health consequence. Past promoting antismoking sentiments through advertisements, public relations campaigns, and a variety of media outlets, the mass media moved smoking into the public loonshit, making it a public health event rather than a personal health effect (Dearing & Rogers, 1996). More recently, coverage of natural disasters has been prominent in the news. Yet, every bit news coverage wanes, so does the full general public's involvement.

Figure two.7

Through a diversity of antismoking campaigns, the wellness risks of smoking became a public agenda.

Quinn Dombrowski – Weapons of mass destruction – CC Past-SA 2.0.

Media scholars who specialize in agenda-setting research report the salience, or relative importance, of an issue and then try to understand what causes it to be important. The relative salience of an upshot determines its place within the public agenda, which in turn influences public policy creation. Agenda-setting research traces public policy from its roots as an calendar through its promotion in the mass media and finally to its final form equally a law or policy (Dearing & Rogers, 1996).

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Practitioners of the uses and gratifications theory study the means the public consumes media. This theory states that consumers use the media to satisfy specific needs or desires. For example, you may savor watching a show like Dancing With the Stars while simultaneously tweeting about it on Twitter with your friends. Many people apply the Internet to seek out entertainment, to find information, to communicate with similar-minded individuals, or to pursue cocky-expression. Each of these uses gratifies a detail demand, and the needs make up one's mind the style in which media is used. By examining factors of unlike groups' media choices, researchers tin determine the motivations behind media utilise (Papacharissi, 2009).

A typical uses and gratifications written report explores the motives for media consumption and the consequences associated with utilise of that media. In the case of Dancing With the Stars and Twitter, you are using the Internet as a manner to be entertained and to connect with your friends. Researchers have identified a number of common motives for media consumption. These include relaxation, social interaction, amusement, arousal, escape, and a host of interpersonal and social needs. By examining the motives behind the consumption of a detail form of media, researchers can better understand both the reasons for that medium's popularity and the roles that the medium fills in social club. A study of the motives behind a given user'due south interaction with Facebook, for example, could explain the function Facebook takes in society and the reasons for its appeal.

Uses and gratifications theories of media are oft practical to gimmicky media issues. The analysis of the relationship betwixt media and violence that you read about in preceding sections exemplifies this. Researchers employed the uses and gratifications theory in this case to reveal a nuanced set of circumstances surrounding violent media consumption, every bit individuals with aggressive tendencies were drawn to violent media (Papacharissi, 2009).

Symbolic Interactionism

Another commonly used media theory, symbolic interactionism, states that the cocky is derived from and develops through human interaction. This ways the way y'all act toward someone or something is based on the meaning yous accept for a person or thing. To finer communicate, people utilize symbols with shared cultural meanings. Symbols tin be constructed from just near anything, including material goods, educational activity, or even the way people talk. Consequentially, these symbols are instrumental in the development of the self.

This theory helps media researchers better understand the field because of the important role the media plays in creating and propagating shared symbols. Because of the media'southward ability, information technology tin can construct symbols on its own. By using symbolic interactionist theory, researchers tin await at the ways media affects a society's shared symbols and, in turn, the influence of those symbols on the private (Jansson-Boyd, 2010).

Ane of the ways the media creates and uses cultural symbols to affect an individual'south sense of self is advertizement. Advertisers work to give sure products a shared cultural meaning to make them desirable. For case, when you see someone driving a BMW, what do you call back about that person? You may presume the person is successful or powerful because of the automobile he or she is driving. Ownership of luxury automobiles signifies membership in a certain socioeconomic class. Equally, technology company Apple has used ad and public relations to endeavor to get a symbol of innovation and nonconformity. Employ of an Apple tree product, therefore, may have a symbolic meaning and may send a item message nigh the product's owner.

Media also propagate other noncommercial symbols. National and land flags, religious images, and celebrities gain shared symbolic meanings through their representation in the media.

Screw of Silence

The spiral of silence theory, which states that those who agree a minority opinion silence themselves to prevent social isolation, explains the role of mass media in the formation and maintenance of ascendant opinions. As minority opinions are silenced, the illusion of consensus grows, and and then does social force per unit area to adopt the dominant position. This creates a self-propagating loop in which minority voices are reduced to a minimum and perceived popular opinion sides wholly with the majority stance. For example, prior to and during World War Two, many Germans opposed Adolf Hitler and his policies; however, they kept their opposition silent out of fear of isolation and stigma.

Because the media is 1 of the almost important gauges of public opinion, this theory is often used to explain the interaction between media and public opinion. According to the screw of silence theory, if the media propagates a particular opinion, then that stance will effectively silence opposing opinions through an illusion of consensus. This theory relates especially to public polling and its apply in the media (Papacharissi).

Media Logic

The media logic theory states that common media formats and styles serve as a means of perceiving the world. Today, the deep rooting of media in the cultural consciousness means that media consumers demand appoint for only a few moments with a particular goggle box program to sympathise that it is a news show, a comedy, or a reality show. The pervasiveness of these formats ways that our civilization uses the way and content of these shows as ways to interpret reality. For case, think nigh a TV news program that oftentimes shows heated debates between opposing sides on public policy bug. This style of debate has go a template for handling disagreement to those who consistently watch this type of program.

Media logic affects institutions likewise equally individuals. The modern televangelist has evolved from the adoption of goggle box-style promotion past religious figures, while the utilization of television in political campaigns has led candidates to consider their physical image as an important role of a entrada (Altheide & Snow, 1991).

Cultivation Analysis

The tillage analysis theory states that heavy exposure to media causes individuals to develop an illusory perception of reality based on the near repetitive and consistent messages of a particular medium. This theory nigh commonly applies to analyses of goggle box because of that medium'south uniquely pervasive, repetitive nature. Nether this theory, someone who watches a bully deal of boob tube may grade a picture of reality that does not correspond to bodily life. Televised tearing acts, whether those reported on news programs or portrayed on television dramas, for case, greatly outnumber vehement acts that most people encounter in their daily lives. Thus, an individual who watches a great deal of television may come to view the world as more trigger-happy and dangerous than information technology actually is.

Cultivation analysis projects involve a number of different areas for research, such as the differences in perception between heavy and light users of media. To apply this theory, the media content that an individual ordinarily watches must be analyzed for various types of messages. Then, researchers must consider the given media consumer's cultural groundwork of individuals to correctly determine other factors that are involved in his or her perception of reality. For case, the socially stabilizing influences of family and peer groups influence children's television viewing and the fashion they process media messages. If an individual's family or social life plays a major office in her life, the social messages that she receives from these groups may compete with the letters she receives from television.

Primal Takeaways

• The now largely discredited straight effects model of media studies assumes that media audiences passively have media messages and showroom predictable reactions in response to those messages.
• Apparent media theories generally practise not give as much power to the media, such as the agenda-setting theory, or give a more active role to the media consumer, such as the uses and gratifications theory.
• Other theories focus on specific aspects of media influence, such as the spiral of silence theory's focus on the power of the majority stance or the symbolic interactionism theory'due south exploration of shared cultural symbolism.
• Media logic and cultivation analysis theories deal with how media consumers' perceptions of reality can be influenced by media messages.

Exercises

1. Media theories have a diverseness of uses and applications. Research one of the following topics and its effect on culture. Examine the topic using at least two of the approaches discussed in this section. And so, write a one-folio essay about the topic you've selected.

   • Media bias
   • Internet habits
   • Tv set's effect on attention bridge
   • Advertising and self-epitome
   • Racial stereotyping in moving-picture show
2. Many of the theories discussed in this section were developed decades agone. Identify how each of these theories can exist used today? Do you retrieve these theories are still relevant for mod mass media? Why?

References

David Altheide and Robert Snow, Media Worlds in the Postjournalism Era (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1991), 9–11.

Dearing, James and Everett Rogers, Calendar-Setting (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996), 4.

Hanson, Ralph. Mass Advice: Living in a Media Earth (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009), 80–81.

Hanson, Ralph. Mass Communication, 92.

Jansson-Boyd, Catherine. Consumer Psychology (New York: McGraw-Colina, 2010), 59–62.

Papacharissi, Zizi. "Uses and Gratifications," 153–154.

Papacharissi, Zizi. "Uses and Gratifications," in An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research, ed. Don Stacks and Michael Salwen (New York: Routledge, 2009), 137.

Stille, Alexander. "Marshall McLuhan Is Dorsum From the Dustbin of History; With the Internet, His Ideas Again Seem Ahead of Their Time," New York Times, October 14, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/xiv/arts/marshall-mcluhan-back-dustbin-history-with-internet-his-ideas-again-seem-ahead.html.

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Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/2-2-media-effects-theories/

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