Scholars Hostile Media Effect

"Quasi-statistical organ"

6th sense that monitors what others around us are thinking or feeling people deploy 6th sense because THEY FEAR ISOLATION

Mass Media Effects

Bandura--> argued people do not inherit criminal or violent tendencies but learn them

Social Learning Theory

Bandura--> people learn by observing others or via media environment (demonstrated with BoBo Dolls)

How does the spiral work?

Components: human ability to ascertain trends in public sentiment individuals' fear of isolation people's fear of expressing minority views

SPIRAL OF SILENCE THEORY

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann theory aims to explain the growth and spread of public opinion defined PO as the attitude one can express without running into the danger of isolating oneself

Solomon ASCH

LINE EXPERIMENT: in 18 trails, 75% of the subjects conformed at least once they did so because they did not believe their conforming answers but had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed or thought "peculiar"

To Speak or Not To Speak

Noelle-Neumann argues that when people see their view is popular/spreading they tend to speak out those who feel that they are in the majority are willing to speak out low self esteem causes views to be muted males, young adults, and people of the upper class are more likely to speak out more willing to speak to those who share their views

3 Main Processing Mechanisms

Selective Categorization: individuals accurately recall all statements made within news coverage but see neutral info as biased because they classify more statments to be against their POV Different Standards: consider arguments against POV not to be as important as the statements in their favor and so their inclusion in the same context leads them to believe news coverage is biased. Selective Recall: more likely to recall statements that are against their POV as dominant in the news story

Industry Perspective

Violence is a natural part of life and thus a natural part of its cultural representations violence is necessary component of dramatic portrayals drama is based on conflict and violence is a tool of conflict THUS many dramatic portrayals will need to portray violence

Biological Model

alternative view of the relationship between violent media content and violent behavior--innate motivation for or against violent behavior exists within individuals

Who cannot be silenced?

hard-core nonconformists avant garde

Bobo Doll Experiments

children who observed the aggressive model made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non-aggressive or control groups boys imitated more PHYSICALLY aggressive acts than girls children received no encouragement or incentives to beat up the doll, simply imitating behavior they observed

Reciprocal Causation Model

integrates a continuous interaction between behaviors, personal factors and the environment

Role of Media in Theory

media accelerates the silencing of the minority in the spiral of silence because opinions supported by influential media are overestimated

Beyond Agenda Setting

media not only tell us what to think about but provide us the "socially sanctioned view of what everyone was thinking" she argues can create a false consensus because those who disagree are rendered silent

Third Person Effect

partisans perceive others as vulnerable to undesirable influence

Desensitization

people can become jaded even after minimal exposure to media violence as a result some individuals exhibit greater acceptance of violence and a decrease in empathy and concern for victims of violence

Consequences of HME

perceived as negative coverage growing cynicism and disaffection from politics creates sense of political and social alienation distrust of the source of the news also seriously undercuts then potential for the news to inform and shape public opinion

biased assimilation

phenomenon in which people uncritically accept information that confirms their views but ignore or discount contrary info

What is the spiral of silence?

refers to the pressure people feel to conceal their views when they think that they are in the minority

Who is more likely to experience HME?

subjects with more knowledge/emotional involvement are more inclined to view the media as biased against themselves

Catalyst Model

the environment can supply the immediate motive for violence Style or form of violence may be socially modeled but not eh desire to act violently itself

Critique of the Spiral of Silence

theory presumes rather than tests fear of isolation factors other than fear of isolation might be at work focus on national environment rather than reference group environment artificial nature plane/train test

Generalized Aggression Model

viewing violent media causes the formation of aggressive cognitive scripts the greater extent to which a person is exposed to violent stimuli, the more aggressive scripts are formed violent stimuli (like video games) provoke both short and long term violent behavior