MOD 3: (1) Media Priming

Berkowitz's neo-associationistic model

- Depictions of media violence activate hostility and aggression-related concepts in memory - The activation of these concepts in memory increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviors and the interpretation of others' behaviors as aggressive or hostile - Without further activation, the effects fade with time

Network models of memory

1) Information is storied in the memory as nodes and each node represents a concept 2) Nodes are connected to related nodes in memory by associative pathways (connection between anger node and violence node) 3) Each node has an activation threshold, when reached the node fire which can, in turn, activate the related nodes 4) Activation level of a node will dissipate over time if no additional source of activation is present

Two characteristics of priming

1) Priming effect is a function of the intensity and recency of the prime - Intensity: The frequency or the duration of the prime, high intensity = larger priming effect - Recency: Time lag between the prime and the target, more recent exposure to prime = larger priming effect 2) Effects fade with time (aka time course) - Most recent priming research involves a max delay of 15-20 minutes

3 main categories

1) Priming violence - Research shifted from a focus on TV and movies as source to video games as a source 2) Political Priming - Focus on how movies and TV shows influence political judgments 3) Stereotyping - Influence of media priming on gender and racial stereotypes

Three stages of GAAM

1) Situational variables (Pain, frustration, depictions of violence) prime aggressive cognitions (hostile thoughts) and affect (hostility and anger) 2) These primed cognitions and effect paired with arousal, or automatic interpretation of a situation 3) Or secondary (more thoughtful controlled) appraisals are used which override the primary appraisal

Mental Model

A dynamic mental representation of a situation, event or object - Used to process organize and comprehend incoming information - People comprehend media stories, they construct situational models of the stories and thus mental models of larger events - These models are used to understand future stories and events and influence peoples understanding of the components of the larger world as they relate to the mental mode

Price and Tewksbury's model of political priming

Based on network models of memory and media role in increasing accessibility of information from memory - Incorporate applicability of information, or deliberate judgments regarding the relevance of information to the current situation - If primed information is not relevant, it will not be used when making political judgments - Constructs that are activated by the media and judged as applicable influence interpretation Problem: Research in field is somewhat inconsistent in explaining time fade of effects - 30 minutes to 24 hours to several weeks - Explanation: Frequent and repeated coverage of a particular issue increases the chronic accessibility of the information - Due to this, some say political priming should be referred to as "political cultivation"

African Americans on the news

Participants had stronger support for death penalty when suspects were depicted as African American compared to a story about the same crime where race was not revealed - Pictures of African Americans in crime-related news primed a racial stereotype and led to more stereotypical judgments regarding African Americans and crime

Focus of priming effects

Perceptions! - Of individuals in interpersonal settings - Of ambiguous individuals (people about whom there is some uncertainty, like someone accused of a crime but their guilt may be unknown) - and political judgments

Stereotyping

Research concerned about the potential for media to prime various stereotypes including gender and racial

Stereotyping Summary

Research indicates that the media can prime stereotypes and that there primed stereo types influence how people are perceived

Media violence and Priming

Research is focused on child behavior - Example: Boys viewed violent or nonviolent TV program, then 1/2 watched a cartoon that became intentionally static ridden and sent to play floor hockey - Results: Violent programmings resulted in certain boys acting more violently during sports, heightened when programming was followed by frustrating activity - Effects faded with time (less influence during later periods of play)

Example of Political Priming

Evaluations of Reagan before and after the Iran-Contra announcement (the priming events) - Before the priming events, domestic issues predicted overall evaluations of Reagan - After the priming events, foreign affairs issues (Central America) predicted overall evaluations of Reagan - Conclusion: Media coverage of events can prime the information people use when judging presidential performance

Priming effect on perceptions of individuals in interpersonal settings

Exposure to rock videos portraying gender stereotypes resulting in more stereotypical impressions of a man and a woman in subsequent video - Participants viewed the woman as less dominant after exposure to rock videos - Reading stereotypical information in a newsletter about African Americans of women influenced judgments of unrelated media events about the target group

Political priming

Focus on influence of media coverage of events on how people weigh information when making judgments or politicians - Should focus on the kind of information people use to make judgments and how that information is relied on or weighted

Priming effect on perceptions of ambiguous individuals and political judgments

Immigration = how a news story was framed )economic effects v. ethics) influenced whether Hispanic racial stereotypes were primed, subsequently affecting political judgments

Anderson's General Affective Aggression Model (GAAM)

Incorporates affect and arousal into a network framework - 3 stage process where situations influence aggressive behaviors and affect

Political Priming Research

Looked at effects of movies, crime dramas, and late-night talk shows - Simpler or more familiar topics (economy, character) are more likely to have political priming effects than more complex ones (domestic, international policies)

Video game research

Study of undergrads playing racing game - violent behavior was either rewarded, punished, or not an option - Rewarding violence can increase aggression, the accessibility of aggressive cognitions, and aggressive behavior - Other research supports the conclusion that violent video games prime aggression - in short term

Research conclusions

The media act as a prime and influence later judgments and behavior in a number of different domains and through a number of different channels

Priming effect on perceptions of ambiguous individuals

The media prime rape myths (women enjoy being raped) which can influence perceptions of a plaintiff and defendant in a rape trial - Exposure to such media priming resulted in a lower likelihood to believe the man was guilty of rape and suggested a shorter sentence if he were guilty

Framework for understanding Media Priming

The priming effect addressed by network models dissipates too quickly to explain mny of the media priming effects (Violence priming, stereotyping, and political priming)

Media Priming

The short term impact of exposure to the media on subsequent judgments or behaviors - The effect of some preceding stimulus or event on how people react to come subsequent stimulus - Priming effect is time bound - the effect fades quickly, often within the course of the experiment