1. Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research
Chapter 15

2. “Since the emergence of popular music, movies, television, and video games as influential mass media, the relationship between make-believe stories and real-life imitation has drawn a great deal of attention.”

3. Cause and Effect? Media effects
Attempting to understand, explain, and predict the effects of mass media on individuals and society
Has a long history of research
Does television make you do things?
Does it make you not do things?
Natural Born Killers
Columbine, Colo.
Virginia Tech

4. History of Effects Research
De Tocqueville and Lippmann
Lippmann created “the founding book in American media studies.”
Propaganda studies
Harold Lasswell: defined propaganda as “the control of opinion by significant symbols, by stories, rumors, reports, pictures and other forms of social communication.”
Public opinion research
Is the media too “poll-happy”?
Social psychology
Payne Fund
Marketing research
Advertisers and product companies used it to track consumer preference.

5. Public Opinion Research
Public opinion research is especially influential during political elections.
It can also adversely affect active political involvement.
Journalism is increasingly dependent on political polls.
Unreliability of pseudo-polls

6. Research on Media Effects
Hypodermic-needle model
Media shoots effects directly into unsuspecting victims.
Minimal-effects model
Rise of empirical research techniques
Selective exposure leads to reinforcement of existing beliefs.
Uses and gratifications model
Contests notion of audience passivity
Why do people use media?

7. Scientific Method Hypothesis Experimental design Survey research
Must be worded so that it is testable
Experimental design
Tests whether hypothesis is true
Survey research
Collecting and measuring data
Content analysis
Studies the messages of print and visual media

8. Explaining Media Effects
Social learning theory
Attention
Retention
Motor reproduction
Motivation
Agenda-setting
Media set the agenda for major topics of discussion.
Cultivation effect
Heavy viewing of television leads individuals to perceive reality in ways consistent with portrayals on television.
Spiral of silence
Those whose views are in the minority will keep their views to themselves for fear of social isolation.

9. Qualitative Approaches
Cultural Studies
Challenged mainstream media effects theory
Attempted to make everyday culture the centerpiece of media studies
Textual Analysis
Highlights the close reading and interpretation of cultural messages
Audience Studies
Differs from textual analysis because the subject being researched is the audience for the text
Political Economy
Examine’s interconnections among economic interests,political power, and how that power is used

10. Cultural Approaches James Carey: Offers ability to interpret broadly
Understand, not explain, human behavior
Diagnose meanings, not predict
Offers ability to interpret broadly
Doesn’t just study the serious, but the entertaining
Horace Newcomb
Both empirical and cultural studies have weaknesses.

11. Media Research and Democracy
Academics in media studies charged with increased specialization, use of jargon
Alienates public
Public intellectuals based on campuses must work to help carry on the conversations of society and culture, serving as models for how to participate in public life.