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Introduction to Mass Communication. For educational purposes only.
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Mass Media TheoryHow do media affect us? How do the images we see change us?
• Media theorists have tried to measure what effects the media have on us.
• As a result, theories have come and gone over the decades.
• Powerful effects theory, or magic bullet theory – Belief that mass media have a profound, direct effect on people.
• Based on Walter Lippmann’s 1922 book Public Opinion, which said that the pictures in our heads are shaped by media. Now discredited.
• Minimal effects theory – Believes that the media’s effects are indirect.
• Based on studies done by Paul Lazarsfeld of Columbia University.
• Opinion leaders – Part of minimal effects theory that says influential people in a person’s life that have more control over beliefs and information than the media (e.g., a teacher, a supervisor, a clergy member).
• Cumulative effects theory – States that the media’s influence collects, or accumulates, over time.– Created by German
scholar Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
– Cites advertising campaigns that repeatedly hammer same message
• Spiral of Silence model – Belief also by Noelle-Neumann that majority viewpoints intimidate minority voices, hindering the “marketplace of ideas” concept.
• Agenda setting– Process by which
issues bubble up into public attention through mass-media selection of what to cover• Scholars Maxwell
McCombs and Don Shaw said media don’t tell public what to think, but what to think about
• Many instances where media set direction for important events
Maxwell McCombs
Don Shaw
• Socialization – The process of learning how to fit into society.
• Media reflect the changes taking place in the world.
• Role models – People or characters whose behavior, actions are imitated by others.
• Stereotypes – Broad characterizations of people, either by a demographic group or other trait.
• Cultural imperialism – One culture’s dominance over another.– Created by Herbert
Schiller, whose 1969 book Mass Communications and American Empire warned about Western culture undermining cultures of other lands.
• Motivational research – Seeks subconscious appeals that can be used in advertising.– Based on Ernest Dichter,
who believed like Freud that the mind is unconsciously susceptible to suggestion.
• Subliminal message– One that cannot be
consciously perceived
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• Observational learning – Theory that people learn behavior by seeing it in real life or in depictions of real life.
• Cathartic effect – Belief that people release any violent tendencies they have by watching them portrayed in the media.– Aristotle subscribed to
this theory in ancient Greece.
– Seymour Feshbach found evidence for this theory in modern times.
• Aggressive stimulation – Theory that people are inspired to violence by media depictions.
• Bobo doll studies by Albert Bandura– Showed violent film to
children
– Children showed violent tendencies toward a doll.
• Catalytic theory – States that media-depicted violence has a contributing role in violent behavior, but not a triggering one.– Factors include:
• Whether violence portrayed in media is rewarded
• Whether media exposure is heavy
• Whether a violent person fits other profiles
• Desensitizing theory – States that tolerance of real-life violence grows because of media-depicted violence.
– The Basketball Diaries, a 1995 film that has a dream sequence of a classroom shooting, was widely criticized after Columbine and other school shootings.
• George Gerbner – Believed in what he called the “mean-world syndrome”– Syndrome says people
who see violent images believe world is scarier than it really is.
– As a result, these people will in time be more willing to accept less freedom to ensure their safety, possibly leading to a police state.
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