POSTER TEMPLATE BY: Media Penetration into Everyday Home Life Quentin McKeon, Radio Television and Film, College of Arts and Sciences and Honors College Interim Mentor: Susan Eve, Department of Applied Gerontology, College of Public Affairs and Community Service and Honors College Why Should We Care? Most forms of communication must come through the media in order to reach us. If we are being affected by predetermined opinions it could cause us to draw conclusions that are not our own. Factors that take away the voice of public causes: Corporate Monopolization Unfair Concentration of Power Lack of Citizen Representation These ideas are not appealing and are the reason why this topic must be addressed and a conclusion must be reached. The Internet Abstract My research concerns the media’s effect on people within their own homes and whether or not this effect is detrimental. My review of the research literature shows that the media can instill a definite level of conformity in the general public but the research does not suggest that it is influential enough to cause large scale detrimental effects. People are more likely to be swayed in an emotional setting that is not present in news and other forms of information communicated through home devices such as the television and computer. I plan to conduct a survey to determine how much media influences the opinions of individuals on various issues. My hypothesis is that although most people often use media information, they still exercise rational judgment in forming their own conclusions. Media Connect Everyone What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish. -W.H. Auden The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context. - Carl Bernstein Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another. -G.K. Chesterton References Gilens, M., Vavreck, L., & Cohen, M. (2007). The mass media and the public's assessments of presidential candidates, 1952–2000. Journal of Politics, 69 (4), Kuchment, A., & Gillham, C. (2008). Kids: To TV or not TV. Newsweek, 151 (7), Pouliot, L., & Cowen, P. S. (2007). Does perceived realism really matter in media effects? Media Psychology, 9 (2), Radio also Heavily Influences our Opinions Who is Affected? A Word to the Wise The Internet plays a huge role in home media exposure. Acknowledgments: Dr. Wendy Wilkins, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Warren Burggren, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Gloria Cox, Dean, Honors College You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgments about what is going on. -Harry S Truman Interestingly enough, concerning perceived factual information, children and teenagers are more prone than adults to be influenced by media. Adults tend to treat information with skepticism as they have had more real world experience and have had a chance to form their own opinions. Adults, however, are swayed more than youth by fictional and emotional media of pop culture.