Chapter 15: Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research

Social Learning Theory - 4 Step Process:

- *attention* (the subject must attend to the media and witness the aggressive behavior; Whether children become more violent after watching violent TV) - *retention* (the subject must retain the memory for later retrieval; Pay attention and retain information to perform the action) - *motor reproduction* (the subject must be able to physically imitate the behavior; The action of punching and kicking) - *motivation* (there must be a social reward or reinforcement to encourage modeling of the behavior)

Experimental group & Control group:

- *experimental group*: the group under study— to a selected media program or text. - *control group*: serves as a basis for comparison; this group is not exposed to the selected media content - ex.) Bobo doll

Scientific method relies on:

- *objectivity* (eliminating bias and judgments on the part of researchers) - *reliability* (getting the same answers or outcomes from a study or measure during repeated testing) - *validity* (demonstrating that a study actually measures what it claims to measure)

Public Opinion Research:

- 1930-1960 - a focus on more general concerns about how the mass media filtered information and shaped public attitudes - citizen surveys - Upside: public opinion research on diverse populations has provided insights into citizen behavior and social differences, especially during election periods or following major national events. - ex.) growth of support of gay marriage from 1980s to 2015 - downside: journalism increasingly dependent on polls, particularly for political insight. Critics argue that this has begun to affect the active political involvement of American citizens. Many do not vote because they have seen or read poll projections and have decided that their votes will not make a difference. - pseudo-polls

Marketing Research:

- 1930-1960 - developed when advertisers and product companies began conducting surveys on consumer buying habits in the 1920s - By the 1930s, radio networks, advertisers, large stations, and advertising agencies all subscribed to ratings services - However, compared with print media, whose circulation departments kept careful track of customers' names and addresses, radio listeners were more difficult to trace. This problem precipitated the development of increasingly sophisticated marketing research methods to determine consumer preferences and media use, such as direct-mail diaries, television meters, phone surveys, telemarketing, and Internet tracking.

Social psychology studies:

- 1930-1960 - measure the behavior and cognition of individuals - In one of the Payne studies, children and teenagers were wired with electrodes (mechanisms that detected any heightened response via the subject's skin) - researchers interpreted changes in the skin as evidence of emotional arousal. - youngest subjects in the group had strongest reaction to violent or tragic movie scenes, whereas the teenage subjects reacted most strongly to scenes with romantic and sexual content. - researchers concluded that films could be dangerous for young children and might foster sexual promiscuity among teenagers. - conclusions of this and other Payne Fund Studies contributed to the establishment of the Motion Picture Production Code, which tamed movie content from the 1930s through the 1950s

Propaganda Analysis:

- 1930-1960 - the study of how governments used propaganda to advance the war effort After WWI - researchers found that during the war, governments routinely relied on propaganda divisions to spread "information" to the public - though propaganda was considered a positive force for mobilizing public opinion during the war, researchers after the war labeled propaganda negatively, calling it "partisan appeal based on half-truths and devious manipulation of communication channels."

Pseudo-polls:

- 1930-1960 - typically call-in, online, or person-in-the-street nonscientific polls that the news media use to address a "question of the day" - "unscientific pseudo-polls are widespread and sometimes entertaining, but they never provide the kind of information that belongs in a serious report," and discourages news media from conducting them - ex.) what the best food item is from a restaurant, what digital camera brand is the respondent's favorite, or the respondent's favorite coffee brand. These are all unscientific due to the fact that the sample is not randomly selected and the respondents have chosen to participate.

Early Theories of Media Effects:

- A major goal of scientific research is to develop theories or laws that can consistently explain or predict human behavior - It has been difficult to develop systematic theories that explain communication because of historical, political, and economic influences

Cultural studies - Interpretative Approach:

- Centralizes (Marginalizes + Minoritized) People - Context & history are important; *meaning, values, experiences rituals & narratives* - Power - class, gender, race, sexuality, etc. (interest in subordinate groups) - *Hegemony & Cultural Imperialism:* - Social, cultural dominance of one group as opposed to the other - Marx & Gramsci: examined how popular culture and sports distract people from redressing social injustices, and they addressed the subordinate status of particular social groups, something emerging media effects researchers were seldom doing.

Emotional Contagion:

- Emotion can permeate through masses of people - Ex.) issue around Russia's intervention on social media

Walter Lippmann:

- Liberty & the News, 1920 - Public Opinion, 1922

Harold Laswell:

- Propaganda Technique in the World War, 1927

Research methods associated with *effects theories*:

- Survey research - Polls - Content analysis - Experiments - Longitudinal studies

Filter Bubble:

- Tends to expose us more to content that people whom we interact with are watching or talking about - Social media sites are keeping us in a bubble - Filtering us through certain algorithms to show us things it thinks we'd like or not like, and then give information to the user about the assumption

Research methods associated with *cultural studies*:

- Textual analysis - Audience studies (reader-response research)

Minimal-Effects Model:

- a mass communication research model based on tightly controlled experiments and survey findings - it argues that the mass media have limited effects on audiences, reinforcing existing behaviors and attitudes rather than changing them.

Uses and Gratifications Model:

- a mass communication research model, usually employing in-depth interviews and survey questionnaires, that argues that people use the media to satisfy various emotional desires or intellectual needs - Why do we use media? - ex.) researchers noted that some individuals used the media to see authority figures elevated or toppled, to seek a sense of community and connectedness, to fulfill a need for drama and stories, and to confirm moral or spiritual values. - Although the U&G model addressed the functions of the mass media for individuals, it did not address important questions related to the impact of media on society - ex.) You watch GOT because all your friends watch it and you don't want to be left out, etc.

Agenda-setting:

- a media-research argument that says that when the mass media pay attention to particular events or issues, they determine — that is, set the agenda for — the major topics of discussion for individuals and society - The media doesn't tell us what to think, but what to think about - *Issue Prioritization:*(Deliberate Selection) Some issues are more weighty than others - Prioritize issues of the day - Front pagers, headliners - Why aren't your student loans more important than headlining news? - ex.) when the media seriously began to cover ecology issues after the first Earth Day in 1970, a much higher percentage of the population began listing the environment as a primary social concern in surveys - ex.) When Jaws became a blockbuster in 1975, the news media started featuring more shark attack stories

Content Analysis:

- a method for studying and coding media texts and programs - researchers recognized that experiments and surveys focused on general topics (violence) while ignoring the effects of specific media messages (gun violence, fistfights) - ex.) George Gerbner and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania: Beginning in the late 1960s, they coded and counted acts of violence on network television. Combined with surveys, their annual "violence profiles" showed that heavy watchers of television, ranging from children to retired Americans, tend to overestimate the amount of violence that exists in the actual world - *Limitations*: - does not measure the effects of the messages on audiences, nor does it explain how those messages are presented. - ex.) a content analysis sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation that examined more than eleven hundred television shows found that 70 percent featured sexual content. But the study didn't explain how viewers interpreted the content or the context of the messages - Second, problems of definition occur in content analysis - Third, critics point out that as content analysis grew to be a primary tool in media research, it sometimes pushed to the sidelines other ways of thinking about television and media content.

Survey research:

- a method of collecting and measuring data taken from a group of respondents -draws on much larger populations than those used in experimental studies - large amounts of info by survey in diverse cross sections of people - help researchers examine demographic factors such as educational background, income level, race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, and political affiliation, along with questions directly related to the survey topic

Random Assignment:

- a social science research method for assigning research subjects - it ensures that every subject has an equal chance of being placed in either the experimental group or the control group

Longitudinal studies:

- a term used for research studies that are conducted over long periods of time and often rely on large government and academic survey databases - ex.) survey research can measure subjects when they are ten, twenty, and thirty years old to track changes in how frequently they watch television and what kinds of programs they prefer at different ages.

Social Learning Theory:

- a theory within media effects research that suggests a link between the mass media and behavior - critics note that many studies conclude just the opposite — that there is no link between media content and aggression. - ex.) millions of people have watched episodes of How to Get Away with Murder and Breaking Bad without subsequently exhibiting aggressive behavior. As critics point out, social learning theory simply makes television, film, and other media scapegoats for larger social problems relating to violence. - ex.) Bobo doll

Scientific method:

- a widely used research method that studies phenomena in systematic stages - it includes: - identifying a research problem - reviewing existing research - developing working hypotheses - determining appropriate research design - collecting information - analyzing results to see if the hypotheses have been verified - interpreting the implications of the study.

Political Economy Studies:

- an area of academic study that specifically examines interconnections among economic interests, political power, and how that power is used - growing concentration of ownership means that the production of media content is being controlled by fewer and fewer organizations, investing those companies with more and more power - ex.) a major media corporation may create a film and market it through a number of venues (political economy), but the film's meaning or popularity makes sense only within the historical and narrative contexts of the culture (textual analysis), and it may be interpreted by various audiences in ways both anticipated and unexpected (audience studies)

Media effects research:

- attempts to understand, explain, and predict the effects of mass media on individuals and society - main goal: to uncover if there is a connection between aggressive behavior and violence in the media, particularly in children and teen - In the late 1960s, government leaders set aside $1 million to examine this potential connection. We've seen that violent scenes on television and in movies stimulate aggressive behavior in children and teens — especially young boys.

Communication as Culture:

- communication creates our reality and maintains that reality in the stories we tell ourselves - ex.) think about the novels; movies; and other stories, representations, and symbols that explicitly or tacitly supported discrimination against African Americans in the United States prior to the Civil Rights movement. When events occur that question reality (like protests and sit-ins in the 1950s and 1960s), communication may repair the culture with adjusted narratives or symbols, or it may completely transform the culture with new dominant symbols - Everything that defines our culture—our language, food, clothing, architecture, mass media content, and the like—is a form of symbolic communication that signifies shared (but often still-contested) beliefs about culture at a point in historical time

Media effects research vs. Cultural studies research:

- cultural studies research involves interpreting written and visual "texts" or artifacts as symbolic representations that contain cultural, historical, and political meaning - ex.) the wave of police and crime TV shows that appeared in the mid-1960s can be interpreted as a cultural response to concerns and fears people had about urban unrest and income disparity. Audiences were drawn to the heroes of these dramas, who often exerted control over forces that, among society in general, seemed out of control - cultural approach does not provide explanations for laws that govern how mass media behave. Rather, it offers interpretations of the stories, messages, and meanings that circulate throughout our culture. - researchers can more easily examine the ties between media messages and the broader social, economic, and political world. - ex.) *media effects research* on politics has generally concentrated on election polls and voting patterns, while *cultural research* has broadened the discussion to examine class, gender, and cultural differences among voters and the various uses of power by individuals and institutions in authority.

Audience Studies (Reader-response research):

- cultural studies research that focuses on how people use and interpret cultural content - differs from textual analysis because the subject being researched is the audience for the text, not the text itself - Women reading romance novels: found as functions as personal time for women, whose complex family and work lives leave them little time for themselves (not scientific or generalizable to all women)

Hypodermic Needle Model:

- early model in mass communication research - People fall into the trap of what they see or hear, they believe - The concept of a powerful media affecting a weak audience. - It suggests that the media shoot their potent effects directly into unsuspecting victims (also called the Magic Bullet Theory or Direct Effects Model) - *Problems:* Assign excessive power to the media, A passive audience, All people respond the same way - ex.) radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, which presented H. G. Wells's Martian invasion novel in the form of a news report and frightened millions of listeners who didn't realize it was fictional - ex.) The Mueller Report People are influenced, so they voted a certain way to vote for a certain candidate

New media theories:

- filter bubble - emotional contagion

Third-person Effect:

- hypothesis predicts that people tend to perceive that mass media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves, based on personal biases - Because of this perception, people tend to take action to counteract the messages' influence - It affects others more than me - proposes the idea that "we" can escape the worst effects of media while still worrying about people who are younger, less educated, more impressionable, or otherwise less capable of guarding against media influence - ex.) we might fear that other people will take tabloid newspapers seriously, imitate violent movies, or get addicted to the Internet, while dismissing the idea that any of those things could happen to us. - Message desirability - Cognitive Distance (self-perceived knowledge aka subjective competence) - *Social Distance:* - "I (first person) am not affected at all, you (second person) are affected a little, and they (third person) are affected quite a bit" - E.g.: An older professor's perceptions of a less informed/educated, younger, more impressionable teenage student

Textual Analysis:

- in media research, a method for closely and critically examining and interpreting the meanings of culture, including architecture, fashion, books, movies, and TV programs - textual analysis looks at rituals, narratives, and meaning - why certain TV programs and formats became popular, especially comedies, westerns, mysteries, soap operas, news reports, and sports programs - shift from studying more elite works of art (debates, films, poems, books) to less elite forms of culture (fashion, magazines, Madonna, telenovelas, cockfights, reality TV, Martha Stewart) - Often the study of these seemingly minor elements of popular culture provides insight into broader meanings within our society.

Cultural studies:

- in media research, the approaches that try to understand how the media and culture are tied to the actual patterns of communication used in daily life - these studies focus on how people make meanings, apprehend reality, and order experience through the use of stories and symbols - examine the way status quo groups in society, particularly corporate and political elites, use media to circulate their messages and sustain their interests - examines the relationships between elite individuals and groups in government and politics, and how media play a role in sustaining the authority of elites and—occasionally—in challenging their power - Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices relate to wider systems of power associated with or operating through social phenomena, such as ideology, class structures, national formations, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and generation.

Experiments:

- in regard to the mass media, research that isolates some aspect of content - suggests a hypothesis - manipulates variables to discover a particular medium's impact on attitudes, emotions, or behavior - *Problems:* - not generalizable to a larger population - they cannot tell us whether cause-effect results can be duplicated outside the laboratory - most academic experiments today are performed on college students, who are convenient subjects for research but are not representative of the general public - while most experiments are fairly good at predicting short-term media effects under controlled conditions, they do not predict how subjects will behave months or years later in the real world

Hypothesis:

- in social science research, tentative general statements that predict a relationship between a dependent variable and an independent variable

Media theories are ways to help us think about how media ____________ our lives:

- influences

Textual Analysis (framing research):

- looks at recurring media story structures, particularly in news stories

Many theories are evolving in the face of "________" media:

- newer

Correlations:

- observed associations between two variables

Media Effects Research

- remains popular among politicians - Media critic Richard Rhodes argues that media effects research is inconsistent and often flawed but continues to resonate with politicians and parents because it offers an easy-to-blame social cause for real-world violence - Funding restricts the scope of some media effects and survey research

No single media theory is always ______ or _______:

- right or perfect

Democratic Society:

- should always work to create the most favorable communication situation possible - a public sphere - fundamental notion is the basis for some arguments on why an open, accessible mass media system is essential - However - mass media could also be an enemy of democracy; cautioned modern societies to beware of "the manipulative deployment of media power to procure mass loyalty, consumer demand, and 'compliance' with systematic imperatives" of those in power

Survey drawbacks:

- survey investigators cannot account for all the variables that might affect media use - therefore, they cannot show cause-effect relationships - Survey research can, however, reveal correlations - the validity of survey questions is a chronic problem for survey practitioners - Surveys are only as good as the wording of their questions and the answer choices they present

Spiral of Silence:

- tendency of people to remain silent when they feel that their views are in opposition of the majority view on a subject (vocal minority) -the theory says that people who hold minority views on controversial issues tend to keep their views silent - fear of isolation, which diminishes or even silences alternative perspectives - ex.) In Asch's study on the effects of group pressure, he demonstrated that a test subject is more likely to give clearly wrong answers to questions about line lengths if all other people in the room unanimously state the same incorrect answers - mass media can help create a false, overrated majority; that is, a true majority of people holding a certain position can grow silent when they sense an opposing majority in the media - in many cases, "hard-core" nonconformists exist and remain vocal even in the face of social isolation and can ultimately prevail in changing public opinion

Minimal effects model - Selective Retention:

- the phenomenon whereby audiences remember or retain messages and meanings that correspond to their preexisting beliefs and values - people expose themselves to the media messages that are most familiar to them, and they retain the messages that confirm the values and attitudes they already hold - Joseph Klapper's important 1960 research study, The Effects of Mass Communication, found that the mass media only influenced individuals who did not already hold strong views on an issue and that the media had a greater impact on poor and uneducated audiences.

Minimal effects model - Selective Exposure:

- the phenomenon whereby audiences seek messages and meanings that correspond to their preexisting beliefs and values - Tune out others - people expose themselves to the media messages that are most familiar to them, and they retain the messages that confirm the values and attitudes they already hold.

Cultivation Effect:

- theory suggests that heavy viewing of television leads individuals to perceive the world in ways that are consistent with television portrayals - The more time individuals spend viewing TV and absorbing its viewpoints, the more likely their views of social reality will be "cultivated" by the images and portrayals they see on television - Ex.) police brutality - *"Mean world" syndrome*: Viewers with heavy, long-term exposure to television violence are more likely to believe that the external world is a mean and dangerous place

Public Sphere:

- those areas or arenas in social life (town square, coffeehouse, meeting halls) where people come together regularly to discuss social and cultural problems and try to influence politics - emerging middle class (1962) - distinguished from governmental spheres, where elected officials and other representatives conduct affairs of state - began to build a society beyond the control of aristocrats, royalty, and religious elites - The outcome of such critical public debate led to support for the right to assembly, free speech, and a free press.

5 news filters of the propaganda model:

1. *ownership* (Who owns CNN? Fox New? It'll help you make sense of the positions is has or speaks about.) 2. *Advertisers* (primary source of income for modern news media. To remain profitable, media must rely on advertising dollars for the bulk of their revenue. So, it is against the interest of the news media to produce content that might antagonize advertisers) 3. *Political and business elite* (Elite news media companies have the resources to facilitate the news-gathering process by sending correspondents to far-off places, provide photo-ops, new conferences, press releases, etc... Largely, these canned news pieces take advantage of the news media's need for continuous and cheap news content (you have to fill the 24/7 news cycles somehow). Business leaders, politicians, and government officials are viewed as credible and unbiased sources in this system and fact-checking or otherly costly research is therefore cast aside) 4. *Flak* (criticism - refers to the negative commentary to a new story or journalist that can work to police and discipline news agencies and those working for them. Stray too far from consensus and flak will get you. Flak includes lawsuits, complaints, petitions, and government sanctions) 5. *Anti-communism/terrorism* (an external enemy or threat. Manifesting as anti-communism during the Cold War period when Manufacturing Consent was published, this filter still operates. In the post-9/11 political climate, this filter can be better assigned to fear of Muslims and a continuation of fear of Mexicans. This filter mobilizes the population against a common enemy (terrorism, energy insecurity, an entire people) while demonizing opponents as insufficiently patriotic or in league with the enemy)

Encoding/Decoding Theory (Cultural Studies Theories):

3 ways audiences read media messages: 1) Dominate 2) Negotiated 3) Resistant