Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research

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Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research

• Chapter 15

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• Since the emergence of popular music, movies,
  television, and video games as influential mass
  media, the relationship between make-believe
  stories and real-life imitation has drawn a great
  deal of attention.

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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, Colo.
• Virginia Tech

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History of Effects Research

• De Tocqueville and Lippmann
• Lippmann created the founding book in American
  media studies.
• Propaganda studies
• Harold Lasswell defined propaganda as the
  control of opinion by significant symbols, . . .
  by stories, rumors, reports, pictures and other
  forms of social communication.
• Public opinion research
• Is the media too poll-happy?
• Social psychology
• Payne Fund
• Marketing research
• Advertisers and product companies used it to
  track consumer preference.

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Public Opinion Research

• Public opinion research is especially influential
  during political elections.
• It can also adversely affect active political
  involvement.
• Journalism is increasingly dependent on political
  polls.
• Unreliability of pseudo-polls

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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?

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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

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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 for fear of social
  isolation.

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Qualitative Approaches

• Cultural Studies
• Challenged mainstream media effects theory
• Attempted to make everyday culture the
  centerpiece of media studies
• Textual Analysis
• Highlights the close reading and interpretation
  of cultural messages
• Audience Studies
• Differs from textual analysis because the subject
  being researched is the audience for the text
• Political Economy
• Examines interconnections among economic
  interests,political power, and how that power is
  used

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Cultural Approaches

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

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Media Research and Democracy

• Academics in media studies charged with increased
  specialization, use of jargon
• Alienates public
• Public intellectuals based on campuses must work
  to help carry on the conversations of society and
  culture, serving as models for how to participate
  in public life.