Intro to Communication

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Intro to Communication

• AK/SOSC 2410 9.0/6.0
• Summer 2006
• Course Director Pierre Ouellet
• www.atkinson.yorku.ca/sosc2410/

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The Emergence of the Effects Paradigm

• Harold Lasswell

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The Emergence of the Effects Paradigm

• Lecture Outline
• review propaganda theory
• the problem of content
• the relationship between content and effect
• 5 observable behavioural components
• the construction of the message
• some conclusions.

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Synthesizing Effects Harold Lasswell

• increased societal stress
• vulnerability to emotionally suggestive
• messages
• lowered ego resistance
• increased id
• subject is powerless to resist.

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The Transmissive Model
Sender
Message
Receiver
Effect
S
M
R
R1
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Lasswell and the Problem of Content

• the problem of content
• the problem of a differentiated society
• lack of coherent social behaviour
• concerns with democratic polity
• sheer size of the social sphere
• the objectives of the mass media.

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The Relationship Between Content and Effect

• content presupposes intended effect
• content must be understood as relationship
  between two structures
• content itself
• the mind of the receiver
• allows for analysis of message as content
• in terms of direction
• in terms of intensity.

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The Relationship Between Content and Effect
Content
Effect
Values/Beliefs
Behaviour
Intensity - Direction - Orientation
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Three Principles of Mass Media Messages

• Messages understood in relation to the values
• targeted for change in the individual in terms
  of
• direction is type of behavior encouraged
• intensity is the amount of change desired
• orientation pertains to the symbols deployed in
  the message itself (language - script - images -
  sounds - etc.).

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Considering the Intended Effect
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Five Observable Behavioural Components

• attention
• comprehension
• enjoyment
• evaluation
• behaviour (effect or change).

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Laswells Conclusions

• values are extremely resistant to change
• must be a fit between message and receiver
• basic values almost never change
• change takes long time to occur
• must differentiate message for different social
  and cultural groups.

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