Historical trends in the study of media effects: Theory and method

1. Historical trends in the study of media effects: Theory and method

2. Historical change • Late 19th Century till 1940s saw a fear of powerful media effects • 1940s through early 1970s was the era of ‘limited effects’ • From 1980s media studies splinter into a wide variety of approaches, with the mainstream view moving toward partial and mediated effects

4. Early 20th century • Professionalization of advertising • Development and growth of new mass media technologies • The Great War • England and the U.S. develop propaganda on a large scale • After the war, Bernays and others claim to be able to ‘engineer consent’

5. Popular fears of mass manipulation • Sudden and rapid growth of mass media • Newspapers • Periodicals • Movies • Radio

6. Social fears • Growth and increasing sophistication of persuasion ‘professions’ • Advertising • Public relations/propaganda • Massive WWI propaganda output • Exorbitant post-warclaims of efficacy post-war by Creel Committee members • Creel • Bernays

7. Committee on Public Information • Woodrow Wilson re-elected President in 1916 • Ran on a platform emphasizing “He kept us out of war” • Within a year, was leading the country into war with Germany • Created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) on April 13, 1917

8. "Lead this people into war, and they'll forget there was ever such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of national life, infecting the Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street."

9. Edward L. Bernays • Freud’s nephew • Attempted to apply psychoanalysis to propaganda • Used psychological research methods, advertising methods to “manufacture consent” • Tireless promoter of PR as way to control public opinion

10. Lasswell’s study of propaganda • Interested in the application of symbol manipulation to influence psychological unconscious • Nationalism and ego-involvement • Manipulation of emotions via propaganda • Tried to take a distanced, ‘uninterested’ position toward propaganda • Identified goals and methods of propaganda • Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War (New York: Knopf, 1927).

12. Creel Committee Emphases in their propaganda • Emotional Appeals • Demonization • The War to End All Wars • Dishonesty

13. "Propaganda in the broadest sense is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations. These representations may take spoken, written, pictorial or musical form."

14. "Some of those [persons who participated in World War I] who trusted so much and hated so passionately have put their hands to the killing of man, they have mutilated others and perhaps been mutilated in return, they have encouraged others to draw the sword, and they have derided and besmirched those who refused to rage as they did. Fooled by propaganda? If so, they writhe in the knowledge that they were the blind pawns in plans which they did not incubate, and which they neither devised nor comprehended nor approved."{2} • 2. Harold D. Lasswell. Propaganda Technique in the World War. First edition, 1927. Reprint. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1972. Page 8.

15. Payne Fund Studies: The effects of movies on children Conducted in the late 20's and early 30's • this series of studies occurred in two categories: 1. assess content of films and audience size and composition (Dale) 2. audience effects of themes and messages a. acquisition of information (Holaday and Stoddard) b. attitude change (R.C. Peterson and Thurstone) c. stimulating emotions (Dysinger and Ruckmick) d. harming health (Renshaw, Miller and Marquis) e. eroding moral standards (C.C. Peters) f. influencing conduct (Shuttleworth and May, Blumer and Hauser)

16. Payne Fund • Conclusions: • Movies affected the way children dressed, their expectations with regard to sex, led to fear and lost sleep. • Movies also provided some positive role models, innocent entertainment, etc. • Some disconfirmation of the worst fears found in popular culture

17. The War of the Worlds • An accidental occurrence seemed to validate some of the worst fears about mass society and the power of the newest mass medium, the radio • Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater of the Air’s broadcast of an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds on Halloween eve, 1938

20. Research on the broadcast • The invasion from Mars: A study in the psychology of panic (1940: Princeton University) • Cantril, Gaudet, Herzog

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

22. 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 • Sets 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 • Model that would be followed by the field from then on. • First studies focus on audience size, reactions to and use of radio programming • As well as a wide array of social concerns that were not communication-oriented

23. The People’s Choice • Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet • Study of the 1940 presidential election in Erie county, Ohio • 20th Century--strong, commercially successful newspapers, radio, magazines, that had the ability to say what they wanted to in Western European countries • The research comes from vague ideas of what is worth studying

24. 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."

25. Results • Lazarsfeld could predict with 76% accuracy which candidate someone would vote for based on his 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 relatively small group of influential people • Lacked evidence of actual influence

26. 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).

27. 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

28. 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

29. When did they make up their minds? • 1/2 made up their minds before May • Once they knew who won the nomination, another 1/4 made up their mind • 1/4 made up their mind between the nomination and the election • Columbia did another campaign study in 1948, then turned to other concerns • Voting, by Berelson, Lazarsfeld and McPhee

30. Impact of the studies • The studies set the parameters of political communication research for over a decade and still influence the field now • Major studies of elections did not even ask about media for several election cycles

31. Hovland • Experiments on mass communication: Persuading the American soldier in World War II • Hovland, Lumsdaine and Sheffield (1949) • Studied the impact of showing Frank Capra’s propaganda films in “Why We Fight” series to American soldiers in a training camp • Many were draftees and did not want to fight • Attempted to measure the effects of movies on information acquisition and modification of soldiers' interpretations and opinions, attitudes toward allies, and motivation

32. Why We Fight • Films from the series included in the study: Prelude to War, The Nazis Strike, Divide and Conquer, The Battle of Britain

33. Battle of Britain • Men in two camps--some were exposed to a 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 were matched on several demographic variables

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

35. 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

36. Results: Learning from films dependent upon education

37. 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%

38. Results • General attitudes • Effect was slight • “Do you feel that the British are doing all they can to help win the war?” • Experimental group 7% greater than control • In many cases, only 2-3% positive difference was found

39. Results • Morale • Almost no impact at all • Preference to serve overseas rather than in the United States • Experimental group 42% • Control group 39% • Unconditional surrender by Nazis is an important war aim • Experimental group 62% • Control group 60%

40. “Sleeper effect” • 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

41. One-sided v. two-sided argument • Radio presentation saying war would be lengthy • Presented either as one-sided argument or with additional 4 minutes discussing view that it would be short • Before/after with control group

42. Results • One-sided argument more effective with soldiers who: • Initially supported the idea that it would be a lengthy war • Had not completed high school • Two-sided arguments more effective with soldiers who: • initially felt the war would be short • had a high school degree education or greater

43. Yale School • Hovland et al. set up Yale School of research on persuasion • Studied the effect of: • Source characteristics • Message characteristics • Order of presentation • Psychological characteristics of audience

44. 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 differences had disappeared

45. Content • Fear appeals • The more fearful the message, the greater the effect on interest, tension • Less fearful message had a greater effect on intension to change behavior • Fear was thought to invoke some sort of interference

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

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

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

49. Katz and Lazarsfeld • Personal influence: The two-step flow of communication • Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) • Based on ideas originating in the "People's Choice" • Concerned with the movement of information from media through interpersonal networks • Decatur study of opinion leaders conducted by the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia

50. Assessed opinion leaders’ role in four areas of influence: • 1. marketing • 2. fashion • 3. public affairs • 4. film choice • Delineated the characteristics of opinion leaders • position in the life cycle, SES, social contacts • Marketing—middle-aged women, especially with families • Fashion—younger and single women • Public affairs—older and more educated • Film choice—younger and single