Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research

1. Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research Chapter 15

2. Cause and Effect? • Media effects • Attempting to understand, explain, and predict the effects of mass media on individuals and society • Has a long history of research • Does television make you do things? • Does it make you not do things? • Natural Born Killers • Columbine, CO • Red Lake, MN

3. History of Effects Research • De Tocqueville and Lippmann • Lippmann relies on experts. • Propaganda studies • Harold Lasswell • Public opinion research • Is the media too “poll-happy”? • Social psychology • Payne Fund • Marketing research • Advertisers and product companies

4. Public Opinion Research • Public opinion research is especially influential during political elections. • In 2006 midterm elections, level of enthusiasm for voting was higher among Democrats than Republicans. • It can also adversely affect active political involvement.

5. “My idea of a good time is using jargon and citing authorities.”—Matt Groening

6. Research on Media Effects • Hypodermic-needle model • Media shoots effects directly into unsuspecting victims • Minimal-effects model • Rise of empirical research techniques • Selective exposure leads to reinforcement of existing beliefs. • Uses and gratifications model • Contests notion of audience passivity • Why do people use media?

7. Uses and Gratifications “It is the children who are most active in this relationship. It is they who use television, rather than television that uses them.” —Schramm, Lyle, and Parker

8. Scientific Method • Hypothesis • Must be worded so that it is testable • Experimental design • Tests whether hypothesis is true • Survey research • Collecting and measuring data • Content analysis • Studies the messages of print and visual media

9. Explaining Media Effects • Social learning theory • Attention • Retention • Motor reproduction • Motivation • Agenda-setting • Media set the agenda for major topics of discussion. • Cultivation effect • Heavy viewing of television leads individuals to perceive reality in ways consistent with portrayals on television. • Spiral of silence • Those whose views are in the minority will keep their views to themselves.

10. Ethics and Media Effects • A consequence of the agenda-setting theory is that stories without mass media attention receive no public/political attention. • What are some of the most underreported stories of this year?

11. Qualitative Approaches • Cultural Studies • Textual Analysis • Audience Studies • Political Economy

12. Cultural Approaches • James Carey: • Understand, not explain, human behavior • Diagnose meanings, not predict • Offers ability to interpret broadly • Doesn’t just study the serious, but the entertaining • Horace Newcomb • Both empirical and cultural studies have weaknesses.

13. Media Research and Democracy • Like public journalists, public intellectuals based on campuses help to carry on the conversations of society and culture, serving as models for how to participate in public life.