Reinforcement Theory

History Established by Joseph Klapper (1960) Released a book ‘The Effects of Mass Communication’ Suggested that the media has little power to influence people Thought it was important to move away from thinking that the media is all powerful in influence The reinforcement theory is a linear theory that contains relatively open texts

School of Thought Reinforcement theory is a form of a reception theory more than a cultural effects model – why? Kappler’s theory suggests: Media has power but it isn’t that significant The audience use the media to reinforce their predispositions Audience therefore has an active involvement due to the three primary mechanisms that are behind the theory

Three Primary Mechanisms As an audience member we have; Selective Exposure: we favor information that supports our own beliefs and views Selective Perception: we won’t notice/will forget stimuli that contradicts prior beliefs Selective Retention: based on prior two mechanisms, we will selectively continue to retain the information we want to

Media as a Reinforcer Klapper theorised that the media acts only to reinforce our – pre-existing attitudes and beliefs It’s unlikely that media will actually change audience’s attitudes or ideas under this theory

Media as an Influencer Media only influences people on new ideas or concepts Media is unlikely to change audience’s views on most issues with deeply entrenched values such as racial or religious views

Main Influences Since he theorised that media wasn’t the main source of influence in people’s lives, he suggested that things like; Schools Family Community Religious institutions

Real World Example Violent Video games – reinforcement of violent behavior Participating in violent video games where users are ‘awarded’ for killing opponents could reinforce violent behaviors The reinforcement theory however would suggest that the games don’t actually impart the behavior, but would simply reinforce violent tendencies users would already have