2. Effects tradition
Asks the question:
How do mass media affect us?
3. Why this question?
4. Mass media are...
communication/messages/information
emanating from an individual or organisational source
through electronic or mechanical coding giving multiplication of
message
to a relatively large heterogeneous and anonymous audience
with limited and indirect means of feedback
5. In a mass-mediated society...
we are bombarded by symbolic messages
derived by others with power
who are generally inaccessible
in which individuality is not respected
over which we have little control through feedback or
protest.
6. Different Effects theories
Hypodermic
Social learning
Psychological theory
Uses and gratifications
Cultivation analysis
7. The hypodermic or magic bullet approach
Based on the Shannon & Weaver model
The broadcaster injects his message unhindered into the minds of
people
Laden with many assumptions
8. Modifications to the theory
Intervening variables
Opinion leadersExposure, access or attention to the media
Differential nature of media
Nature and organization of the content
Attitudes and psychological disposition of the audience
Personal relations of audience members
9. Wilbur Schramm
The dominant influence of media = reinforcement
Long-term effects that are hard to measure:
10. Lab experiments
Bobo Doll
11. Lab experiments
Bobo Doll
Children who viewed the adult film were more aggressive
They used the same type of behaviours as viewed
Reward increased aggression
More -> more
Other experiments
12. Results?
It was believed that these experiments demonstrateda link between
media and violence.
Direct imitation of play aggression
Vicarious consequences and the acquisition
performance distinction
Studies of disinhibitoryeffects
13. Reasons for effect?
Social learning theory
Arousal
Aggression becomes primed
Desensitization
Included measures of justification and consequences
Moral threshold
The natural - tempered by morals - reduced by viewing
14. The U.S. Surgeon-Generals Report - 1972
Range of issues studied and methodologies used
Conclusions
None rejected the nil effects
No agreement on what effects
TV violence held unharmful to youth
15. A crisis in objective research
Human behaviour is too complex to explain and predict
objectively
The limitations of empirical methodologies
Difficulty in defining violent media
Policy is not made on the basis of data or even common sense
alone
16. The Uses and Gratifications Approach
Media as Instruments
17. The Uses and Gratifications
The social and psychological origins
of needs
which generate expectations
ofthe mass media or other sources
which lead to differential patterns of media exposure
resulting in need gratifications
and other consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones.
18. Katz, Gurevitch & Haas:"On the Use of Mass Media for
Important Things."
A. MODE
B. CONNECTION
3. REFERENT
1. Self
2. Family
3. Friends
4. State, society
5. Tradition/culture
6. World
7. Others
19. Some interesting findings from U & G research
The uses and gratifications derived from the different media differ
for different population groups and change over an individual's
life span.
2. Different media typically serve different needs, although all
may be turned to for entertainment and relaxation, and any one may
serve all needs to some degree.
3. The mass media become more important the greater the "distance"
from a referent.
4. The medium most readily available at a given period will be most
heavily used by those with fewest resources.
20. Some interesting findings.
5. Television as the most accessible medium is very frequently the
recourse when there is no involvement in other activities.
6. Media aimed at broad audiences tend to appeal to the least
positive in outlook. Those more forward looking tend to prefer the
more specialised media.
7. Taste in part reflects what the medium offers.
21. Some interesting findings
8. The search for more satisfying sources of gratification tends to
be characterized by "satisficing" behaviour i.e. seeking and
choosing alternatives which are satisfactory rather than optimal
and reducing one's expectations to the level achieved.
9. Even in media-related needs, personal communication is seen to
be more helpful in satisfying needs than mass media.
10. The uses of a new medium may be such that established interests
and activities are affected.
22. Reviewing the effects theoretical tradition
23. What they have in common
Focus on communication as process
Focus on cause and effect
Research process:
Isolate variables
Manipulate and test
Explain
Predict & control
Test of truth: quantify and measure
Research methodologies = quantitative
24. The attractiveness of effects theories
Relatively simple
Builds on our tacit understanding that action has
consequences
Theories for action
Simple theory sets mind free for strategy
Learn the techniques you can achieve the results
Purports to offer objective information apolitical,
indifferent
Reinforces the knowledge power structures
25. Criticisms
Effects theories tackle social problems backwards
The objective claim of knowledge hides vested interests
Atomistic and fragmenting
Treats audiences as dumb
Downplays difference
Ignores meaning-making
