Chp. 2: Mass Communication Effects

Question 1

What Had Kept Women’s Stories of Sexual Abuse from Being Published?

Answer 1

•Women were embarrassed and worried they might have been at fault•They still wanted to work where they worked•They were worried they might be blacklisted•They were afraid they wouldn’t be believed

Question 2

Direct Effects Model

Answer 2

•Fears: direct effects of WWI and WWII propaganda (via media) would be strong•Direct effects presumes media messages are a stimulus that leads to consistent, predictable attitudinal or behavioral effects•Indirect effects recognizes that people have different backgrounds, needs, values and thus respond differently

Question 3

Limited Effects Model and Opinion Leaders

Answer 3

•Lazarsfeld study of voter decision making in 1940 presidential election•Opinion leaders (friends and neighbors) more influential than media or campaign•Media content and campaign had indirect effect; interpersonal influence was stronger

Question 4

Critical Cultural Model

Answer 4

• People suffer from exploitation and division of labor•People are treated as “things” to be used rather than individuals with value•Ideas and events must be analyzed within historical context
• Society is dominated by culture industry (mass media) that turns ideas into commodities and sells them to maximize profits•Facts cannot be separated from values attached to them and the circumstances from which these facts emerge (context is everything)

Question 5

Message Effects

Answer 5

How are people affected by the content of messages?
–Cognitive effectsShort-term learning of information
-Attitudinal effects Changing people’s attitudes about a person, product, institution, or idea•Behavioral effects–Inducing people to adopt new behaviors or change existing ones. Much harder than changing attitudes•Psychological effects–Inspiring strong feelings or arousal in audience members. People often seek feelings such as fear, joy, revulsion, happiness, or amusement
•Behavioral effects–Inducing people to adopt new behaviors or change existing ones. Much harder than changing attitudes
•Psychological effects–Inspiring strong feelings or arousal in audience members. People often seek feelings such as fear, joy, revulsion, happiness, or amusement

Question 6

Medium

Answer 6

•How does the medium used change the nature of the message and the receiver’s response to the message?•What are the social effects of each medium?•“The medium is the message” – Marshall McLuhan

Question 7

Ownership Effects

Answer 7

•How does ownership affect the media?•Do we get different messages from different owners?•How important are the six largest media companies?

Question 8

Active Audience Effects

Answer 8

•Audience members seek out and respond to media for a variety of reasons•People can be segmented by geographics, demographics, or psychographics•Audience members are selective consumers rather than naïve victims of the media

Question 9

Theories of Media and Society

Answer 9

•Functional analysis•Agenda setting•Uses and gratifications•Social learning•Spiral of silence•Media logic•Cultivation analysis

Question 10

Functional Analysis

Answer 10

•Surveillance of the environment•Status conferral•Correlation of different elements of society•Transmission of culture from one generation to the next•Entertainment

Question 11

Agenda Setting

Answer 11

• The media don’t tell the public what to think, but rather what to think about
• Media sets the terms of public discourse
• But can media determine what people will care about?

Question 12

Uses and Gratifications

Answer 12

•Audience members are active consumers with wants and needs•Media compete with other sources of gratifications
•Audience members decide deliberately which choices they will make
•Judgments on the media should be made based on audience’s perspective
•Possible gratifications:
–To be amused
–To experience the beautiful
–To have shared experiences with others
–To find models to imitate
–To believe in romantic love

Question 13

Social Learning

Answer 13

•Albert Bandura: we are able to learn by observing others and the consequences they face•Steps of social learning:
–We extract key information from situations we observe
–We integrate these observations to create rules about how the world operates
–We put these rules into practice to regulate our own behavior and predict the behavior of others

Question 14

Symbolic Interactionism

Answer 14

• The process by which individuals produce meaning through interaction based on socially agreed-upon symbols
• “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” – W.I. Thomas

Question 15

Spiral of Silence

Answer 15

• People want to see themselves as part of a majority
• They will remain silent if they perceive themselves as being in a minority
• This tends to make minority opinions appear less prevalent than they are•But some people like having contrary opinions; others speak out because they care

Question 16

Spiral of Silence and Social Media

Answer 16

•Pew Foundation study of people’s willingness to discuss Snowden case on social media found:–People are less willing to discuss the case on social media than in person–People are more likely to share opinions when they think the audience agrees with them–People who won’t share opinion face-to-face are even less likely to do so on social media

Question 17

Cultivation Analysis

Answer 17

• Watching significant amounts of television alters the way an individual views the nature of the surrounding world
• Can cultivate a response known as the Mean World Syndrome

Question 18

Mean World Syndrome

Answer 18

Heavy television viewers are more likely to:–Overestimate chance of experiencing violence–Believe their neighborhood is unsafe–Say fear of crime is a serious personal problem–Assume the crime rate is rising