Mass Communication Effects: How Society & Media Interact Chapter 2

Edward Snowden & How Electronic Documents Changed How Information Moves Snowden was able to smuggle 1,000s of documents out of the NSA on a flash drive. Worked with journalist Glenn Greenwald to control release of the documents Differs from Julian Assange & WikiLeaks. No open dump of documents. World with e-documents different from that with only paper documents.

Rise of Mass Society Pre 1800s: People in the U.S. lived in rural communities with people of similar ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. 1800s: Industrial Revolution: People move into cities, live and work with people of diverse backgrounds. Media began to replace church, family, and community in shaping public opinion.

Direct Effects Model Fears: Direct effects of WW I and WW II propaganda (via media) would be strong. Direct effects presumes media messages are a stimulus that leads to consistent, predictable attitudinal or behavioral effects. Indirect effects recognizes that people have different backgrounds, needs, values and thus respond differently.

People’s Choice Study & the Limited Effects Model Lazarsfeld study of voter decision making in 1940 presidential election Opinion leaders (friends and neighbors) more influential than media or campaign Media content and campaign had indirect effect; interpersonal influence was stronger

People’s Choice Findings Voters with strong opinions are unlikely to change them. Voters who pay most attention to campaign are those with strongest views. Most persuadable voters are not informed, not paying attention to campaign, and not influenced by media coverage.

Critical Cultural Model People suffer from exploitation and division of labor. People are treated as “things” to be used rather than individuals with value. Ideas and events must be analyzed within historical context.

Critical Cultural Model Society is dominated by culture industry (mass media) that turns ideas into commodities and sells them to maximize profits. Facts cannot be separated from values attached to them and the circumstances from which these facts emerge (context is everything).

Types of Media Effects Message Effects Medium Effects Ownership Effects Active Audience Effects

Message Effects How are people affected by the content of messages? Cognitive Effects Short-term learning of information Attitudinal Effects Changing people’s attitudes about a person, product, institution, or idea

Message Effects Behavioral Effects Inducing people to adopt new behaviors or change existing ones. Much harder than changing attitudes. Psychological Effects Inspiring strong feelings or arousal in audience members. People often seek feelings such as fear, joy, revulsion, happiness, or amusement.

Medium Effects How does the medium used change the nature of the message and the receiver’s response to the message? What are the social effects of each medium? “The medium is the message.” – Marshall McLuhan

Ownership Effects How does ownership affect the media? Do we get different messages from different owners? How important are the six largest media companies?

Active Audience Effects Audience members seek out and respond to media for a variety of reasons. People can be segmented by geographics, demographics, or psychographics. Audience members are selective consumers rather than naïve victims of the media.

Theories of Media and Society Functional Analysis Agenda Setting Uses and Gratifications Social Learning Spiral of Silence Media Logic Cultivation Analysis

Functional Analysis Surveillance of the environment Correlation of different elements of society Transmission of culture from one generation to the next Entertainment

Agenda Setting The media don’t tell the public what to think, but rather what to think about. Media sets the terms of public discourse. But can media determine what people will care about?

Uses and Gratifications Audience members are active consumers with wants and needs. Media compete with other sources of gratifications. Audience members decide deliberately which choices they will make. Judgments on the media should be made based on audience’s perspective.

Uses and Gratifications Possible gratifications: To be amused To experience the beautiful To have shared experiences with others To find models to imitate To believe in romantic love

Social Learning Albert Bandura: We are able to learn by observing others and the consequences they face.

Social Learning Steps of Social Learning: We extract key information from situations we observe. We integrate these observations to create rules about how the world operates. We put these rules into practice to regulate our own behavior and predict the behavior of others.

Symbolic Interactionism The process by which individuals produce meaning through interaction based on socially agreed-upon symbols “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” – W.I. Thomas

Spiral of Silence People want to see themselves as part of a majority. They will remain silent if they perceive themselves as being in a minority. This tends to make minority opinions appear less prevalent than they are. But some people like having contrary opinions; others speak out because they care.

Spiral of Silence and Social Media Pew Foundation study of people’s willingness to discuss Snowden case on social media found: People are less willing to discuss the case on social media than in person. People are more likely to share opinions when they think the audience agrees with them. People who won’t share opinion face-to-face are even less likely to do so on social media.

Media Logic The forms the media use to present the world become the forms we use to perceive the world. People use media formats to describe the world. People use media formats to prepare for events so that they will be portrayed better through the media.

Cultivation Analysis Watching significant amounts of television alters the way an individual views the nature of the surrounding world. Can cultivate a response known as the Mean World Syndrome

Mean World Syndrome Heavy television viewers are more likely to: Overestimate chance of experiencing violence Believe their neighborhood is unsafe Say fear of crime is a serious personal problem Assume the crime rate is rising