Mass Media Effects

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Mass Media Effects
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• Hostile Media Effect some feel that media
  coverage is biased against opinions on issues

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• Research has shown that hostile media effect is
  not just differences of opinion but a difference
  of perception

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• People seem to pay more attention to information
  that contradicts rather than supports their
  pre-existing views

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• Media bias non-uniform selection or coverage of
  news stories in media
• Many Americans seek out biased news- to find
  confirmation for their preconceived opinions

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• Newspapers used to reflect the opinions of the
  publisher
• 1798 Congress passed the Alien and Sedition
  Acts prohibited the publication of false,
  scandalous, or malicious writing against govt

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• Made it a crime to voice any public opposition to
  any law or presidential act- act was in effect
  until 1801

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• 1861 Lincoln ordered many newspapers closed
  when he felt border states were biased in favor
  of the Southern cause

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• 19th century American newspapers openly
  advocated one or another political party
• Editorials and editorial cartoons- go against the
  publishers opponents

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• Early 20th Century Yellow journalism to
  increase sales
• William Randolph Hearst- publisher of several
  major market newspapers- deliberately falsified
  stories, which may have contributed to
  Spanish-American War

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• Leading up to WWII- politicians who favored U.S.
  entering the war on the German side accused the
  media of pro-Jewish bias, said that newspapers
  were controlled by the Jewish

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• Hollywood was said to be full of Jewish bias-
  pro-German politicians in U.S. called for Charlie
  Chaplins film The Great Dictator to be banned-
  they said it insulted a respected leader

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• 1960s- Civil Rights Movement- some White
  Southerners stated that television was biased
  against White Southerners and in favor of mixing
  the races- Star Trek didnt air on some Southern
  stations

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• 1969 Spiro Agnew (VP for Nixon) said he saw the
  media as bias against the Vietnam War and called
  those who opposed the war to be nattering nabobs
  of negativism

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• American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1997-
  survey said 61 of reporters stated they were
  members of or shared the beliefs of the
  Democratic Party
• 15 said their beliefs were represented by the
  Republican Party

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• 2002 study- Dartmouth College- 116 mainstream
  U.S. papers (The New York Times, Washington Post,
  Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle
  included) found that mainstream press in America
  tends to favor liberal viewpoints

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• Reporters who expressed moderate or conservative
  points of view were often labeled as holding a
  minority point of view
• Liberal bias about issues like race, welfare
  reform, environmental protection, and gun control

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• Zogby International- survey results said that 83
  of people surveyed believe there is a bias in the
  media, 64 said that the bias favors liberals,
  28 of respondents believe the bias is
  conservative

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• Patrick Buchanan- The American Conservative
  editorial- wrote the liberal media
  establishments reporting on the Watergate
  scandal played a central role in bringing down
  the President.

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• Nixon I gave them a sword and they ran it
  right through me.

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Books about Liberal Bias

• John Stossel- Give Me a Break How I Exposed
  Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became
  the Scourge of the Liberal Media

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• Ann Coulter- Slander Liberal Lies About the
  American Right
• Brian C. Anderson- South Park Conservatives The
  Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias

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Claims of Conservative Bias

• Disney, CBS Corporation, New Corporation,
  TimeWarner, General Electric- corporate
  conglomerates own the majority of mass media
  outlets

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• Media is operated for profit- through the sale of
  advertisements, which tends to drive news,
  commentary, and public affairs towards supporting
  industry

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• Capitalist model creates competition for fair and
  quick news coverage and investigative reports

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• Rupert Murdoch (CEO of News Corporation- parent
  of FOX News)
• Richards Parsons- CEO of Time Warner
• Both contribute to Republican candidates

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• Fox News The roots of FOX News Channels day
  to day on air bias are actual and direct. They
  come in the form of an executive memo distributed
  electronically each morning, addressing what
  stories will be covered and, often, suggesting
  how they should be covered.

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Books on Conservative Bias

• Eric Alterman- What Liberal Media? The Truth
  About Bias and the News
• Al Franken Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell
  Them

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• Concerns about coverage of Iraq- saying that
  media had insufficient coverage of invasion and
  occupation, but some have also said that media
  has been unfair to US forces

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• Did the U.S. media criticize the conduct of
  American soldiers? (some feel that media was
  worried about upsetting viewers and losing
  profits)

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• Some though feel that media has been too critical
  of U.S. forces
• Media has failed to send a message to support the
  U.S. forces

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Effects on Elections

• Some feel that elections on centered on
  candidates, and the amount of funds, personality,
  and sound-bites instead of serious political
  discussion or policies offered by parties

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• Americans are influenced by the way the media
  report- concentrated on short sound-bites,
  scandals, mistakes by candidates

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• Reporting of elections avoids complex issues or
  issues which are time consuming to explain

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• Doonesbury comic strip, accused of liberal bias
• A conservative letter writing campaign caused
  Doonesbury to disappear from 38 newspapers, but
  it was reinstated

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Violent Media Effects

• Television
• 61 of TV shows are violent
• Violence is on the rise for both cable and
  broadcast networks
• Few shows emphasize and anti-violence theme

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• 40 of violent scenes on TV include humor
• 54 of violence is lethal
• 51 of TV violence shows no pain
• Out of 9000 analyzed over 4 years- only 4 had an
  anti-violent theme

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• Media violence can be one contributing factor
  that leads a person to exhibit aggressive
  attitudes and behavior

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• Exposure to media violence can increase the
  probability of both short and long term harmful
  effects
• Effects are mediated by characteristics of the
  viewer (demographics, psychological states)

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• Media violence does NOT affect all viewers in the
  same way

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Short Term Media Effects

• Viewer aggression Bobo Doll experiments in
  1970s demonstrated how children who watched
  violent media portrayals were more likely to
  punch a Bobo Doll afterwards than children who
  did not watch a violent media portrayal

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• Recent studies find that kids who watch violent
  television are at an increased risk for
  aggression
• Exposure to violent media increases aggression
  and anti-social behavior in adults too

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Fear

• Kids who are high television viewers are more
  likely than low television viewers to exhibit
  symptoms such as anxiety, trauma, and
  post-traumatic stress

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• When kids view scary events in the media, they
  become more likely to fear those events in the
  real world
• Fear induced by media in childhood is likely to
  linger into adulthood

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Desensitization

• People can become jaded even after minimal
  exposure to media violence
• As a result, some individuals exhibit a greater
  acceptance of violence and a decrease in empathy
  and concern for victims of violence

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Long Term Media Effects

• Long Term exposure to media violence is related
  to aggression in a persons life

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• Longitudinal research shows childhood viewing of
  violence has a causal effect on aggressive
  behavior in adults
• The degree to which viewers identify with the
  characters who behave violently impacts their
  likelihood of exhibiting aggressive behavior

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• Once children become adults, their behavioral
  dispositions are difficult to change

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Media violence is related to violence in society

• When TV is introduced into a country, crime rates
  in the country increase
• When a high profile violent act is depicted on
  television, the incidents of criminal aggression
  increase afterwards

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• (For example, teen suicides increase after a
  suicide appears on a fictional TV program)

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• Exposure to violence over time leads people to
  exaggerate their chances of being victimized

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• Research conducted on this theory states that
• The television world is a violent landscape
• As a result, TV viewers will cultivate a view of
  the real world that matches the TV world

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• They will believe the world is a mean and violent
  place
• They overestimate the amount of violence in
  society as well as their chances of being
  victimized

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Exposure to violence over times leads people to
grow more accepting of violence

• Similar to short term desensitization effect-
  research also shows that long term exposure to
  media violence leads people to be more accepting
  of violence and less concerned about victims of
  violence

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• Incitement effects the production of a
  behavioral tendency towards violence
• Instructional effects the teaching of audiences
  of how to do something

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• When media produce an incitement effect, the
  media have created a behavioral tendency that did
  not already exist (viewer aggression is a
  behavioral effect created by the media)

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• Instructional effects might occur when an already
  violent person learns how to conduct a bloody
  rampage by learning skills on television

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Industry Perspective

• Violence is a natural part of life-
• Interviews with producers of the top primetime
  shows say that violence is just a natural part of
  human life, and thus a natural part of its
  cultural representations

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• Violence is necessary component of dramatic
  portrayals Drama is based on conflict, and
  violence is a tool of conflict. Thus, many
  dramatic portrayals will need to portray violence

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• The industry shows responsible violence
  portrayals- They claim to show the negative side
  of violence

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• The Hollywood industry has same family values as
  the rest of America- They claim that Hollywood is
  not in fact disconnected from the values of
  mid-America

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• Media violence does not harm audiences anyway,
  even kids

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• Industry has tried to deny that the television
  landscape is a violent space- They are selective
  in supporting content analyses that support their
  claims that television is not violent

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• They applaud a study conducted by the UCLA Center
  for Communications Policy, which claimed that
  only 2 network shows in 96-97 season raised
  serious concerns about violence

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• Members of the industry have engaged in
  self-regulation of media content

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• Most networks have their own departments of
  broadcasting standards and research departments

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• The V-Chip provision of the Telecommunications
  Act of 1996
• Television industry devised its own system of
  categorizing programs for violence, sex, and
  offensive language

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• The V-chip technology involves an electronic
  filtering device that parents can use to block
  the reception of sensitive or potentially harmful
  programming

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• Parents are reliant, however, on the ratings
  assigned by the networks themselves
• 1998 study found the 79 of all shows containing
  violence did not receive a V rating

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• Within childrens programming, 81 of the
  programs with violence did not receive an FV
  rating for Fantasy Violence