Exam 2 Flashcards
Obedience experiment (Stanley Milgram, 1961). Method, findings, explanation.
Experiment methods: participants gave a quiz to an unseen test-taker; if the test-taker gave a wrong answer the study participant was asked to administer an electric shock. An experimenter in a white coat told the participant to continue giving the shock, even if the participant asked to stop.
Finding: The study participants were willing to shock the test-taker. Person with a “white gown” was an authority figure.
Explanation: Deference to authority was seen as the explanation for why people continued to administer shocks even when they didn’t want to.
Conformity experiment (Solomon Asch, 1951) Summary, findings, explanation.
Line Match Experiment (7 people in on the experiment gave the same wrong answer and asked 8th student which line matches the length of the given line).
Finding: The 8th student gave the same answer as the rest of the group (more than 30% of the time, the student gave the very clearly wrong answer).
Explanation: Normative influence
Normative Influence
Conformity based on one’s desire to fulfill others’ expectations and gain acceptance, especially from those similar to you.
Public Opinion
Aggregate of a public’s attitude toward an issue or object.
How did studies of public opinion come about?
Studies of public opinion started from the concerns that people would be swayed by the persuasive power of the mass media.
How is public opinion measured?
Public opinion is measured using surveys; media effects scholars also study the persuasive power of public opinion using experiments.
Spiral of Silence (Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, 1974): prediction
People who believe their opinion is not in the majority will not speak out on a contested issue.
Spiral of Silence (Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, 1974): explanation
People are motivated to keep silent if they hold a minority opinion on a contested issue because they fear of rejection or isolation from a social group.
Application of Spiral of Silence to online behavior (2014 PEW Study): research question, variables, findings
Research question: Does the “spiral of silence” effect vary in offline and online settings?
Variables:
1) Perceptions of public opinion on the contested issue (Snowden case).
2) Willingness to share opinions in offline and online
settings.
Findings:
1. Spiral of silence theory supported: Social media users were less willing to share their views if they thought their social media followers disagreed with them.
- Regular social media users were also less willing to share views in person compared to people who used social media infrequently.
How do we assess public opinion?
Spiral of silence says we use “quasi-statistical organ”or “q-sense” to discern what opinion is in the majority and predict what most people are thinking and feeling.
Three sources that we use to predict public opinion?
News media (Mass media), Interpersonal contact, Social media
Why study the production and consumption of news?
News is a free flow of accurate and timely information, whichis crucial to a democracy.
News media, particularly journalism, shapes our ideas on what issues are important, helps people and politicians assess public opinion.
Trust in news media is declining
Changes in how we get news (cable TV, digital) should be studied to see how they alter news consumption and effects
Factors determining news worthiness (discussed in Gatekeeping chapter on ICON)
Deviance, Social Significance
Deviance
An event is out of the ordinary or differs from “normal” social values and beliefs.
What are the 3 forms of deviance?
normative, social change, statistical
Social significance
level of importance to society, based on politics, arts and culture, economics, or well-being (health, environment).
What are the 4 forms of social significance?
political, cultural, economic, social
Gatekeeping Theory (make sure to check out the image in the book chapter on ICON)
The process by which countless events and ideas are reduced to the messages we see in the news media.
3 Channels of the gate keeping theory?
- Sources: those who see an event (observers), those who participate in it (participants), and those who have expertise about it (experts).
- Media: reporters, editors, owners/management. (individual factors, organizational factors)
- Audience: reading and sharing articles suggest which stories are most interesting and relevant.
Individual Factors
An Individual media workers’or journalists’ backgrounds, attitudes, and judgments.
Organizational Factors
Journalistic routines (deadline, space limit, news values, 24 hour news cycle) and corporate concerns (profit, parent company influence).
What are the three types of selectivity?
Selective exposure
Selective attention
Selective retention
Selective Exposure
People tend to expose themselves to media channels and messages that are in agreement with their world views and ignore those that don’t.
Selective Attention
People tend to pay attention to parts of a message that fit their world views and avoid those that don’t.
Selective Retention
People will generally be able to remember information that fits their world views and forget what doesn’t.
Hostile Media Effect: prediction
Viewers who hold strong views about a contested issue will perceive neutral or balanced media coverage of that issue as biased against their opinions.
Hostile Media Effect: example
Identical, unbiased news clips were shown to pro-Palestinian students and pro-Israeli students.
Pro-Palestinian students answered that the news clips contain more anti-Palestinian references and were biased against their view; pro-Israeli students said that the clips included more anti-Israeli references and were biased against their view
Need for Cognition
Our basic level of interest in actively seeking out information.
High Need for Cognition
Actively seek out information and critically process news.
Low Need for Cognition
Passive news consumers and rely on shortcuts to get information.
Political Sophistication
One’s level of political sophistication is a function of knowledge and political ideology.
LOOK MORE INTO THIS
Agenda Setting Theory
The press may not be successful much of the times in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.
What is the idea of the agenda setting theory?
The news media set the public agenda
Framing
A process of supplying context and suggesting what an issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration.
Fear of Isolation
An important motivating factor in an individual’s decision to be quiet.
Train Test
Respondents are asked to imagine that they are on a train ride and are seated with a person who holds a view on some issue that is very different from their own. Then, they are asked to indicate how likely they would be to articulate to their view on the issue to this hypothetical stranger.
Werther Effect
Modern day research has documented that suicide rates increase after suicide stories are widely publicized in the press - an effect now named after the character in “The Sorrows of Young Werther”
Salience
The importance placed on particular issues.
Agenda Setting prediction:
Repeated news coverage of an issue over time raises the importance of that issue in the public mind.
“Transfer of salience” of issues from the news media agenda to the public agenda.
The amount of media coverage of issues tells audiences what issues are more/less important.
What is the difference between framing and agenda setting?
Agenda-setting is about which issues are the most important in the media and to the public.
Framing is about how a story about that issue was told in the media, which can influence audience’s interpretation of the issue.
Why does the news have effects on us (public)?
Walter Lippmann –“Public does not have ability to know all and must rely heavily on mass media.” We rely on media for information about the world because we can’t experience or observe everything directly.
We are Cognitive Misers
What is a cognitive miser?
We consume just enough information to get through our daily life. We conserve cognitive resources whenever possible, So we rely on media to tell us which issues are important.
Characteristics of the Issue and Agenda-Setting
Unobtrusive Issue
Obtrusive Issue
Unobtrusive issue
▪Issues we have little or no personal experience with; far away, complex, large-scale, major implications are in the future (e.g., foreign policy, natural disasters in other parts of the world).
▪Agenda-setting occurs (amount of news coverage increases prior to public assessment of issue importance increasing)
Obtrusive Issue
Issues that the public can experience personally, closer to everyday life (e.g., unemployment, taxes, education, crime, weather effects of climate change, etc.)
▪Agenda-setting does NOT occur (audiences already consider those issues important; in other words, the amount of news coverage does not precede importance of the issue to the public).
What research methods would you use to study agenda-setting?
Content Analysis: count news stories in community’s media outlets to determine frequency of coverage for different issues.
Surveys: ask community members, “What are the most important issues facing your community?”
Criticism of agenda-setting
It is difficult to show cause and effect (consider the 3 criteria for causality)
▪Time-order (e.g., for the obtrusive issues, the amount of news coverage does not precede importance of issue to the public).
▪Third-variables (e.g., personal experience and interpersonal communication can influence public opinion, and real-world indicators of the importance of the issue can influence both public opinion and frequent coverage of the issue in the media)
What is the goal of news vs the goal of persuasion?
The goal of news is to inform the public, whereas the goal of persuasion is to influence an audience.
Persuasion: Definition
Communication that uses rational and/or emotional arguments to change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.
▪Rational arguments are based on reason or logic.
▪Emotional arguments evoke strong feelings.
Persuasion is not _____.
Coercive
What does it mean to say that persuasion is not coercive?
It doesn’t force people to change attitudes, beliefs or behaviors, but seeks to change or reinforce through communication.
Belief
A description of what an individual assumes to be true or false (“Climate change is occurring”)
Attitude
General and enduring positive or negative feeling about a person, object, or issue (“Climate change is wrecking the planet”)
Behavior
The way in which a person acts in response to a particular situation or stimulus (e.g., “I bought a Prius based on my concerns about climate change”).
What are the 3 behavioral goals of persuasion
Response Shaping
Response Reinforcing
Response Changing
Response Shaping
Establishing a new attitudes or behavior (e.g., teaching how to use a new brand or product).
Response Reinforcing
Currently held beliefs or attitudes are strengthened to be more resistant to change.
Response Changing
New attitudes or behaviors replace old ones.
▪This is the most difficult kind of persuasion because we are reluctant to change.
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Predicts that there are two main routes by which people are persuaded.
Central Route
Peripheral Route
Central Route
▪A highly rational or cognitive route to persuasion
▪They scrutinize the message carefully and assess whether the argument made in the message is strong.
- argument quality matters
When does the central route occur
▪It occurs when people
1) are motivated to process the message
2) pay close attention to the message
3) know a message is trying to persuade them
If a person was persuaded through the central route, it is….
MORE long-lasting and MORE resistant to change.
However, a person’s resistance toward the message is also high. They are more likely to counter argue, or argue against the persuasive message.
Peripheral Route
▪Persuasion that occurs with less thinking and less scrutiny.
▪They do NOT scrutinize the message carefully but make judgments based on message cues, such as 1) authority, 2) attractiveness, and 3) humor.
A person’s natural defenses are low
When does the peripheral route occur
It occurs when people
1) are NOT motivated to process the message
2) are NOT paying close attention to the message
3) may not realize a message is trying to persuade them.
If a person was persuaded through peripheral route, it is…
LESS long-lasting and LESS resistant to change.
Counter-attitudinal
Different from the position one holds themselves.
Product placement
Products appear in movies or TV shows as more or less incidental to the plot.
ex. ET and how he was eating Reece’s Pieces
A practice in which manufacturers of goods or providers of a service gain exposure for their products by paying for them to be featured in movies and television programs.
Landscape model
When people watch a movie, their primary focus is on comprehending the story. What viewers cognitively do with different information in a movie - including brand placements - depends on the implications of the information for comprehending the movie.
Explicit memory
It is the conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences and concepts.
Implicit memory
It is acquired and used unconsciously, and can affect thoughts and behaviors.
First-order cultivation
The process in which heavy viewers come to believe hat the real world is like the TV world
Second-order Cultivation
Heavy viewers adopt a particular attitude as a result of their media exposure
mainstreaming
Refers to what happens when people of different groups are exposed to the same media
Resonance
Refers to what happens when a person’s real like environment strongly resembles the environment depicted in the media
Drench Hypothesis
Media effects that occur as a result of processing a particularly powerful or critical message that is unusual, intense, or highly involving. Effects that occur through the drench process are relatively immediate and easy to document because of the power of the critical image
“drip-drip-drip” Hypothesis
Media effects as a result of long-term cumulative exposure to similar content.
These effects take time and are relatively difficult to document since any change is slow and requires observations through time in order to capture the change dynamic
Entertainment Education
A communication strategy that aims to reduce a social issue or educate the public through a custom-tailored piece of entertainment.
Entertainment Overcoming Resistance Model (EORM) to Persuasion
A type of entertainment education designed to overcome viewer resistance to a particular attitude or behavior.
By drawing the viewer into a highly involving plot line, initial resistance to particular attitudes or behaviors is overcome and the viewer is more likely to change.
Credability
Two chief components of credibility are expertise and trustworthiness
Expertise
Has to do with the extend to which people perceive that the source of the message is an expert on the topic that he or she is speaking out
Trustworthiness
Has to do with the extent to which people find the source of the message to be reliable or truthful.
Protection motivation theory
A theory used to predict the condition under which persuasive messages containing a fear appeal will be effective.
The theory holds that if a fear appeal convinces an audience of…
- The severity of the threat
- Their vulnerability to the threat
- Their ability to respond effectively to the threat
…The message will be persuasive
Subliminal Persuasion
The idea that people are influenced by message feature they can not consciously perceive because they are presented in such a way that they are below the minimum threshold of awareness
Illusion of personal invulnerability
A concept usually used in the persuasion context to describe the self-perception that one is not susceptible or vulnerable to the persuasion effects of messages.
The concept can also refer more generally to the perception that one is not susceptible to media effects of any sort.
What are the 6 Principles of persuasion?
Reciprocity: a small gift from a persuader leads people to reciprocate; e.g., “free mint” can increase tips; a free gift can lead to a purchase.
Scarcity: people care more about uniqueness and something that they may lose (e.g., “only 24 hrs”).
Authority: people care about someone’s expertise (e.g., uniform, diploma, etc.).
Consistency (commitment): people tend to be consistent with their initial commitment; making a small commitment leads to a bigger commitment late (e.g., people who agree to post a small “drive safe” card in their window, were more likely to agree to post a big “drive safe” sign later.)
Liking: We’re more likely to be persuaded by someone we like or someone who is similar to use(e.g.,buying products at a Mary Kay party held by a friend).
Consensus (social proof): we are persuaded if others have the same attitude or behavior (e.g., “75% of our guests agreed to reuse the towel” can be an effective cue to persuade people to reuse towels).
Third person Effect: Prediction
People believe that the media have a stronger impact on others than on the self.
What are two factors that explain why the third-person effect occurs?
▪Self-enhancement: people are motivated to think well of themselves and to boost their own self-esteem
▪Illusion of personal invulnerability: people tend to be overconfident about that they can avoid negative sides of the message and they can experience positive sides of the message.
Theory of planned behavior: Prediction
Three variables,
1) “attitude” towards behavior
2) “social pressure” to act,
3) “self-efficacy” (belief in your own ability to complete a task, can influence a person’s behavioral intention and then their behaviors.
One solution to inattention is
ad targeting
Possible challenges that persuaders confront in the current era
Inattention–we, audiences, are already encountering tons of persuasive messages on a daily basis; it’s hard to get our attention
In order to “target” the audience, what types of information (variables) do persuaders rely on?
Demographic information - Advertisers match demographics of desired audience to the demographics of particular media.
Psychographic information - Psychographic information is collected through online surveys, credit card use, programs you watch on Netflix, things you do on social media.
Demographic information
variables used to categorize people by life characteristics.
age, gender, education level, income, race/ethnicity.
Psychographic information
variables used to reflect personality, values, attitudes, and behavior
Example: topics you talk about online, political leanings, purchase behavior
Reactance Theory: Prediction
When we perceive we are being heavily pressured, we are motivated to regain our freedom. When we see a message that is trying hard to persuade us, we may work to resolve that negative feeling by acting in the opposite way.
Reactance Theory: Explanation
we don’t like to feel that our free choice is threatened.
How do persuaders address reactance? With persuasion that we don’t notice as persuasion
Entertainment Education
- By inserting messages regarding a positive social change into entertainment programs, it will be less likely to spark a reactance response because we don’t know we’re being persuaded.
Uses and Gratifications Perspective
The media choices individuals make are motivated by their desire to gratify their needs
Assumptions of the Uses and Gratifications Perspective:
▪Individuals consciously choose media to meet certain needs
▪Motivations for consuming media are not the same for everyone; they vary among individuals
Motivations for media use
- Learning
- Habit
- Companionship (Connection to other people, Para-social relationships)
- Social interaction
- arousal
- relaxation
- escape
- passing time
Parasocial relationshipS
The one-sided feelings for and attachments we have to celebrities and fictional characters.
Criticisms of the Uses and Gratifications Perspective
▪It focuses only on the individual
▪It assumes that media use is based on conscious choice. ▪It relies on self-reported descriptions reasons for media use
- Social desirability bias–Tendency to answer questions in a way that will be viewed favorably by others.
Displacement Hypothesis
▪The time that we spend with media is displacing time we would otherwise spend on important activities
▪Displacement hypothesis has implications for individuals and for society
Societal implications of too much media use
▪Bowling Alone (2001)
▪Losing our social capital(=value we earn from social relationships)
▪Media is replacing important social activities that help our society–voting, volunteering, membership in community groups
