Video Game Trailer Has anyone played this

game? What did you think?

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Chapter OutlineHistoryTheory and ResearchControversies

MEDIA IMPACT: Understanding Research and Effects

Early Studies Concerns about media impact are as old as the media

themselves.▪ 15th century church leaders thought printed bibles would

corrupt society

▪ Parents felt the same about the first novels.

▪ Consistent research into media effects did not begin until the 1920s.

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Propaganda ▪ Information spread to promote a doctrine or cause.

During WWI propaganda had been so blatant and useful to both sides ▪ People feared media would “brainwash” an innocent

public and influence them in ways they did not realize.

▪ Do you believe the media is powerful enough to do this

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Are these examples of positive or negative media? Why?

Content analyses (Payne Fund Study)

Research where observers analyze media subject matter▪ (TV, Magazines, Radio, Web, Newspaper) ▪ Has shown that the vast majority of movies dealt with crime, sex, and

love. Laboratory experiment (Payne Fund Study)

▪ Research where variables are isolated and observed in a controlled environment

Survey methods (Payne Fund Study)

▪ Research that relies on questionnaires to collect data▪ Administering surveys to young movie viewers, parents and teachers, ▪ Asking teens to recall effects that early movie viewing had on them. ▪ Results showed movie viewing was harmful to a child’s health,

contributed to an erosion of moral standards and had a negative influence on the child’s conduct.

Payne Fund studies ▪ Instrumental in developing public support for the 1930 Motion

Picture Production code

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People’s Choice study▪ Examined how media affected voter behavior in the 1940 presidential election

between FDR and Wendell Wilkie. Random sample ▪ Method to ensure members of population have equal chance of being selected

Selective exposure ▪ Process by which people seek out messages that are consistent with their

attitudes▪ Where do you get your News, What is your favorite TV show, What type of

movies do you like?

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People’s Choice study

Selective perception ▪ Process by which people

with different attitudes interpret the same messages differently

Selective retention ▪ Process where people with

different views remember the same event differently

Peoples Choice Study▪ Media strengthened attitudes already held by voters – ▪ Presidential campaigns persuaded only 8% to switch sides.▪ Also▪ Voters in all categories received much information and influence

directly from other people.

▪ Opinion leaders ▪ Certain well-informed members of families and neighborhoods who

then created a

▪ Two-step flow ▪ Process where media effects travel through opinion leaders▪ From radio and print to the opinion leaders and from them to the less

active sections of the population.

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Studies into the Effects of Television Television in the Lives of Our Children study Thousands of school children and their parents were interviewed,

surveyed and tested ▪ On how children used TV and how that use affected those children.

The study found ▪ Some TV is harmful for some children under some conditions. ▪ For other children under the same, or other, conditions TV may be

beneficial. For most children, under most conditions, most TV is probably

neither harmful nor particularly beneficial. What do you think? Do you agree that TV is mostly neutral

▪ Or does it have a more positive or negative effect?

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Television and violence▪ National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence

▪ Partly dealt with media and TV

▪ Commission found that ▪ Desensitization - Effect of long-term exposure to mass-media

portrayals of violence.▪ Prevented onlookers from helping victims of crimes▪ Video Clip

▪ Does more real violence occur between strangers or between family members, friends or acquaintances?

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What is a Theory Set of related statements that seek to explain and predict behavior.

Effects Models Powerful effects model, ▪ Predicted that media will have an immediate and potent influence on their

audiences. (Youth acting bad after violent movie)

Minimal effects model ▪ Predicts that media will have little influence on behavior.

▪ People not changing voting behavior

Researchers today accept ▪ Mixed effects model,

▪ Sometimes media will have powerful effects, ▪ Sometimes minimal effects, ▪ Sometimes - depending on a variety of factors - a

mixture of both.

Mixed-effects model makes the most sense. ▪ We know that an effective ad can make a

product fly off shelves, and that a news report can fuel a riot.

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Theories ▪ Bullet theory (A.K.A. Hypodermic needle theory)

▪ Implies that media effects flowed directly from media to individual – like a bullet.

▪ From movie to viewer, from book to reader

▪ Multi-step flow, ▪ Media effects travel from high level opinion leaders to lower level

opinion leaders to us.▪ Politicians to community leaders to clergy to public

▪ There is really no general, simple answer to the question of how media affects behavior. The best answer usually is “It depends.”

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Social Science Perspectives Social learning theory, aka modeling theory,

▪ Assumption that people learn to behave by observing others, including those portrayed in the mass media.

Social modeling is an important part of socialization, ▪ Where expectations, norms, and values of society are learned▪ What is an example of a person that is “cool”▪ How did you learn what “cool is”

Social learning theory suggests ▪ Stereotypical depictions of minorities and women teach others to

react to them as stereotypes and teach these groups to behave in the ways they are depicted.

Individual differences theory ▪ How media users with different characteristics are affected in different ways by

the mass media. Diffusion of innovations theory

▪ Five types of people have different levels of willingness to accept new ideas from the media:

1. Innovators tend to be politically liberal extroverts who are venturesome and eager to try new ideas.

2. Early adopters make quick but informed choices.

Diffusion of innovations theory Five types of people have different levels of willingness to

accept new ideas from the media:1. -

2. -

3. Early majority makes careful, deliberate decisions.

4. Late majority tends to be skeptical.

5. Laggards tend to be conservative, traditional and resistant to any type of change.

George Gerbner’s cultivation theory predicts that over time, media use will “cultivate” a particular view of the world within users.

Researchers in the 1970s found that agenda-setting, Not telling people what to think, but telling them what to think

about , was the main effect of media.

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Homicide report

Cumulative effects theory ▪ Holds that media messages are driven home through redundancy, have

profound effects over time, and do, in fact, tell us how to think. Uses and gratification theory

▪ Based on the ways in which consumers actively choose and use media to meet their own needs.