The establishment of the ‘limited effects’ paradigm

1. The establishment of the ‘limited effects’ paradigm End of the ‘powerful effects’ model of media influence

2. Powerful effects model • During the period from the turn of the century till the mid-1940s, the predominant view of media effects was that the media had a powerful influence over their audiences and society. Media were able to tap into the audience member’s unconscious, stir his passions and get him to think and behave as the message source wished. • Freudian psychology • Mass society theory

3. Limited effects model • Beginning in the mid-1940s and lasting until the mid-1960s a very different view of media effects came to prevail—one that assigned a much more limited impact to the mass media • The American Soldier • Mr. Biggott studies • The People’s Choice and Voting • Klapper’s Effects of Mass Communication

4. WWII American Soldier studies • Part of a large-scale social science investigation of American soldiers recruited or drafted for service in WWII • This part especially interested in the effects of Frank Capra’s propaganda films on the morale of new recruits/draftees • Why We Fight • Documentary explanation of the buildup to and early years of the war

5. Episodes taken from Why We Fight • Prelude to War • The Nazis Strike • Divide and Conquer • The Battle of Britain

6. Battle of Britain • Men in two camps--some exposed to film, some not • 2100 in one camp (before/after control group) • 900 in another camp (before/after control group) • 1200 (after-only control group) • Sampling by company units • Units matched on several demographic variables

7. Battle of Britain • Before and after questionnaires were slightly different • Tried to distract men from wondering why answering twice by writing “revised” on the questionnaire • One week between exposure and after measure • Anonymity was assured

8. Results • The movies had a significant impact on factual knowledge • Ex. Why weren’t the Germans “successful at bombing British planes on the ground”? • Ans. “because the British kept their planes scattered at the edge of the field” • Experimental group: 78% correct • Control group: 21% correct

9. Results: Learning from films

10. Results • Opinions and interpretations • Effects were not as great • “the heavy bombing attacks on Britain were an attempt by the Nazis to . . .” • Answer: “invade and conquer England” • Experimental group: 58% • Control group: 43%

11. Results • Effects on general attitudes were slight • “Do you feel that the British are doing all they can to help win the war?” • Experimental group 7% greater than control • On several measures, only 2-3% positive difference was found

12. Results • Strengthening the overall morale and motivation of viewers • The series was ineffective • Question concerning whether trainees would prefer military duty in the U.S. or overseas • Experimental group 41% overseas • Control group 38% overseas

13. Results • Unconditional surrender by Nazis is an important war aim • Experimental group 62% • Control group 60%

14. Results • 9 weeks after exposure • Factual material was forgotten • Retained only about 50% of factual items that 1-week groups remembered • On 1/3 of opinion issues, the long-term group showed less change • However, on more than half of the fifteen issues under study, the long term group showed greater change than the short-term group • “Sleeper effect”

15. Hovland et al. • Set up Yale school research on persuasion • Study the effect of: • Source characteristics • Message characteristics • Order of presentation • Psychological characteristics of audience

16. Source characteristics • Credibility • Topic: Atomic submarines • Sources: J. Robert Oppenheimer/Pravda • Topic: Future of Movie Theaters • Sources: Fortune magazine/A woman movie gossip columnist • Greater persuasion with more credible source • However, after 4 weeks difference had disappeared

17. Content • Fear appeals • The greater the fearfulness, the greater the effect on interest, tension • The less fearful messages had a greater effect on intension to change behavior • Fear appeals were thought to invoke some sort of interference

18. Message • Fear appeals • You might expect that an appeal based on fear has to be hard-hitting to be effective. However, a study conducted by Janis and Feshbach in 1954 suggests that a minimal appeal is likely to be more effective. They used three different versions of a lecture on dental hygiene. The strong appeal provoked the most tension in the audience, but the greatest change in behavior in conformity with the message was produced by the minimal appeal to fear. • This probably suggests that when people feel they can do nothing about the threat then they are not likely to change their behavior.

19. Channel • The main study here tends to indicate that interpersonal channels are more effective at changing attitudes than are mass media channels.

20. An excellent example of this is provided by Kendall and Woolf's analysis of reactions to anti-racist cartoons. The cartoons featured Mr Biggott whose absurdly racist ideas were intended to discredit bigotry. In fact 31% failed to recognise that Mr Biggott was racially prejudiced or that the cartoons were intended to be anti-racist (Kendall & Wolff (1949) in Curran (1990)).

21. Another study referred to by Curran was conducted by Hastorf and Cantril in 1954. Subjects were showed film of a particularly dirty football match between Princeton and Dartmouth and asked to log the number of infractions of the rules by either side. The Princeton students concluded that the Dartmouth players committed over twice as many fouls as their team. The Dartmouth students concluded that both sides were about equally at fault. The authors concluded that it is not accurate to say that different people have different attitudes to the same thing, as in fact, 'the thing is not the same for different people, whether the thing is a football game, a presidential candidate, communism or spinach.' As Curran suggests, it might be more accurate to say 'believing is seeing' rather than 'seeing is believing'.

22. Audience factors • Scouts who valued group membership highly were least influenced by speaker who criticized wood craft learning

23. Personality Personality variables such as self-esteem, anxiety and depression have an influence on persuasibility. Janis's research suggests that people with low self-esteem are likely to be relatively easily persuaded.

24. Overall conclusions • Mass media are not as overwhelmingly persuasive as the propaganda theorists considered them • Persuasive effectiveness varied by source of the message, format of the message, audience factors such as personality and channel of communication

25. Columbia School • Paul Felix Lazarsfeld emigrated from Austria to the U.S. in the 1930s. • A mathematician • Interested in the application of mathematics, especially the new statistics, to study of social problems • Set up research programs at Princeton (Radio Research Bureau) and at Columbia (Bureau of Applied Social Research) that combine study of practical problems with academic methods of research • Some of his first studies focused on audience size, reactions to and use of radio programming

26. Features of the approach • Interested in individual knowledge, attitudes and behavior resulting from exposure to media messages and campaigns • Focus groups and/or surveys were the usual methods of study

27. The People’s Choice • Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet • Study of 1940 election in Erie county, Ohio • 20th Century--strong, commercially successful newspapers, radio, mags, that had ability to say what they wanted to in Western European countries

28. Research Questions 1. How do people decide to vote as they do? 2. What were the major influences on them? • "Social characteristics determine political preference."

29. Lazarsfeld could predict with 76% accuracy which candidate a person would vote for based on her demographics. That was better than the people themselves could predict. • Prediction is taken as the criterion of validity • "Cross-Pressures" • Opinion Leaders (21%) • ("Have you tried to influence someone on a political issue recently?"; "Has anyone asked your advice recently on a political issue?") • opinion leaders were thought to be a rather small group of influential people • Evidence of actual influence was lacking

30. Media influence Whenever a person in the sample changed his/her vote intention, the interviewer asked why: • Democrats mentioned radio most often (30% vs. 20% for newspapers) • Republicans mentioned newspapers (31% vs. 17% for radio).

31. Over half the voters said the media had the most important impact, 2/3 said news media were helpful • “Two-step flow” • Conclusion--interpersonal communication most important

32. Those most likely to be predisposed to vote Democratic were exposed to more pro-Democratic propaganda • the analogous situation was true for Republicans • Lazarsfeld decided this showed ‘selective exposure’--those who were predisposed to vote one way or another chose to expose themselves to propaganda that was positive toward the preferred party

33. When did they choose? • 1/2 made up their minds before May • Once they knew the nomination, another 1/4 made up their mind • 1/4 made up their mind between nomination and election • Columbia did another study in 1948, then got out of campaign studies • Voting, by Berelson, Lazarsfeld and McPhee

34. Since 1940, predictive power has decreased--SES, ethnicity, religion have declined • Issues may now be more important • --television has come in

35. Generalizability? • a. particular presidential campaign • b. not looking at nonvoters • c. not looking at influences outside of campaign (nomination, etc.) • d. formal education levels have increased since that time • e. professionalization of campaigns

36. Katz and Lazarsfeld • Personal influence: The two-step flow of communication • Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) • Decatur study of opinion leaders conducted by the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia

37. Assessing opinion leaders’ role in four areas of influence: • 1. marketing • 2. fashion • 3. public affairs • 4. film choice • Talked to women in Decatur about where they went to get advice on the topics • Women acted as opinion leaders in a topic area depending on their position in the life cycle, SES, social contacts

38. Other research • Prejudice studies • Prejudiced and non-prejudiced individuals read anti-racist cartoons • Information campaigns • Cincinnati United Nations campaign • Persuasion studies • Political effects surveys

39. Klapper’ Five Generalizations • 1. Mass communication ordinarily does not serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, but rather functions among and through a nexus of mediating factors and influences.

40. 2. These mediating factors are such that they typically render mass communication a contributory agent, but not the sole cause, in a process of reinforcing the existing conditions.

41. 3. On such occasions as mass communication does function in the service of change, one of two conditions is likely to exist. Either: • a. the mediating factors will be found to be inoperative and the effect of the media will be found to be direct; or • b. the mediating factors, which normally favor reinforcement, will be found to be themselves impelling toward change.

42. 4. There are certain residual situations in which mass communication seems to produce direct effects, or directly and of itself to serve certain psycho-physical functions.

43. 5. The efficacy of mass communication, either as a contributory agent or as an agent of direct effect, is affected by various aspects of the media and communications themselves or of the communication situation (including, for example, aspects of textual organization, the nature of the source and medium, the existing climate of public opinion, and the like).

44. Selectivity • Notions of selectivity are a movement away from notions of mass society. It reflects a more sophisticated understanding of social organization. These three levels of selectivity represent somewhat different levels of analysis which reflect the influence and development of the disciplines which contributed to the knowledge and development of mass communication research. • this type of research contributed to the notion that the mass media have only limited effects • because they were looking only at short-term effects • reliance on experimental methodology