COM 226, Summer 2011 PPT #2 Includes chapters 1, 9-10 of DeFleur textbook

Relationship Between Mass Media & Society (textbook) 1600s—Early Period: Mercantilism/Private Enterprise Local & Autonomous Government Separation of Church & State Individualism & Frontier Mentality 1700s-Colonial Era: Distrust of Big Government/England Newspapers & Independence Movement

Relationship Between Mass Media & Society (textbook) 1800s—America Expands: Industrial Revolution—Steam, Literacy, Advertising, Transportation, Communication Technologies Territorial Expansion Civil War Urbanization, Migrations 1900s—Urban/Industrial Society: U.S. as a Mass Communication Society Golden Age of Print Media American Movies dominate the world Radio Television

Thus-- The U.S. became uniquely poised for media effects on: Individuals Society Reasons? DISCUSS: ????

Mass Media Effects: A Common Viewpoint “Well, I really don’t think media violence makes us more violent. After all, look at me. On Saturday mornings, I watched every violent cartoon that the networks put on. Today, I like movies like Rambo. The more blood and guts, the better. But am I a violent person? Of course not! I’ve never even gotten into a fight. My whole life is a personal testimony to the fact that media violence has no negative effect at all. Kids can tell the difference between real and fantasy violence. So, I just don’t buy it. Media violence is just fun entertainment. I don’t see the harmful effects.”

Strong vs. Weak Media Effects Are we “sitting ducks,” at the mercy of media? Or are we in complete control over our reactions of messages? Or somewhere in between? Over the past 70 years, this three-pronged debate has raged!

Strong vs. Weak Media Effects Magic Bullet Theory (textbook)/Hypodermic Needle Model People in mass society lead socially isolated lives Humans have a uniform set of instincts Humans attend to and interpret media messages in a uniform way Therefore, media messages are “symbolic bullets”... that strike with direct, immediate, uniform, and powerful effects EXAMPLE: Propaganda in WWI EXAMPLE: The Payne Fund Studies in 1920s, 1930s... MORE in a minute

Strong vs. Weak Media Effects Selective & Limited Influences Theory (textbook) Individual differences in psychological makeup Social categories People in mass society are not isolated (social networks) Selective attention and Selective perception Therefore, media have only limited effects on the audience as a whole EXAMPLE: 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast... VIDEO— The Night That America Trembled EXAMPLE: Why We Fight studies during WWII

Strong vs. Weak Media Effects Accumulation of Minimal Effects Theory (textbook) Cultivation Effects??? (a la Gerbner)—the Mean World Syndrome

Strong vs. Weak Media Effects Accumulation of Minimal Effects Theory (textbook) Cultivation Effects??? (a la Gerbner)—the Mean World Syndrome VS. Greenberg’s Drench Hypothesis (1988) Drip vs. Drench EXAMPLE: Eliza in The Wild Thornberrys (Calvert et al., 2003)... Both girl and boy fans of the program more likely to write about female role models, heroes

The Payne Fund Studies

Immense Popularity of Film

The Payne Fund Studies ( ) Offshoot of public concern and emergence of social science in the 1920s. Designed to find out impact of films on children and adolescents, using social scientific methods. Phase One: Content Analysis by Edgar Dale Attempted to categorize movies according to most popular themes. What were the most popular themes from 1920 to 30, accounting for 75% of 1500 films?

Dale’s Movie Categories Children Comedy Crime History Love Mystery Sex Travel Social Propaganda War

Dale’s Movie Categories Children Comedy Crime History Love Mystery Sex Travel Social Propaganda War

The Payne Fund Studies ( ) Dale also had coders content analyze films... In “real time” in movie theaters! Coded for nine types of “social values,” with numerous measured variables under each one: Nature of American life and characters Nature of foreign life and characters Motivation of characters Emotional appeals to audience Crime/delinquency/violence Relations of the sexes Military situations Depictions of underprivileged peoples Deportment.

The Payne Fund Studies ( ) Dale’s diverse findings included this “balance sheet” for 1930: EmphasizedNot emphasized Portrayals of life in the upper economic strata Life among the middle and lower economic strata Problems of the unmarried and youngProblems of the married, middle-aged, and old Problems of love, sex, and crimeEveryday problems Motifs of escape and entertainmentMotifs of education and social enlightenment Individual and personal goalsSocial goals Physical beautyBeauty of character

The Payne Fund Studies ( ) Another Phase: Emotional Responses to Romantic or Sexual Content (Dysinger & Rucknick) Physiological measures used. Younger children not affected but adolescents were— became more aroused by content.

The Payne Fund Studies ( ) Another Phase: Effects of Movies on Social Attitudes (Peterson & Thurstone) Series of experiments involved exposing children and adolescents to films with social messages and measuring before and after attitudes. One experiment used D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation as stimulus—shown to 434 high school children in Illinois.

Effect of Birth of a Nation School children’s attitudes toward Blacks went down, from a mean of 7.46 to 5.95 (on a 0-10 Unfavorable/Favorable scale)... The effect was still apparent 5 months later (Peterson & Thurstone, 1933; also studied impact of Four Sons on attitudes toward Germans)

The Payne Fund Studies ( ) Another Phase: Behavioral Effects of Motion Pictures (Blumer) Used questionnaires and interviews. Asked respondents to recall instances when they were affected by media. What are some strengths and weaknesses of this technique? How have you been affected by media?

The Payne Fund Studies ( ) Huge role in development of the study of media effects. Helped establish legacy of fear, or belief that media is powerful and dangerous and might pervert and upset proper social order. Does this still exist today?

The War of the Worlds Broadcast, 1938 Halloween eve—CBS radio show Mercury Theater on the Air (narrated by Orson Welles) broadcast an adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel War of the Worlds. Around 6 million heard the broadcast. More than 1 million were frightened or disturbed.

Orson Welles on the air

Aftermath

The War of the Worlds Broadcast Aftermath studied by sociologist Hadley Cantril. Why did it frighten some and not others? 1) Characteristics of the Broadcast Highly realistic Dramatic excellence 2) Characteristics of Affected Listeners Naive, rural, low SES country Had faith in broadcasting 3) Situational Variables (maximized influence) Tuning in late Poor reception from competing stations

The War of the Worlds Broadcast Cantril identified four groups of listeners: 1) Those who checked internal evidence. 2) Those who checked broadcast against other info. 3) Those who checked against other info but continued to believe. 4) Those who made no attempt to check.

The War of the Worlds Broadcast Powerful effects on some Individual differences very important Q: Could (does) the same type of thing happen after 1938?