media Flashcards
media
any method of communication, other than one to one interactions, which is facilitated by some type of technology
four elements that determine the emergence of mass medium
o Purpose of, or need for, communication
o Technology for public communication
Might be related with the first one
o Social organization for production and distribution
o Governance in “the public interest”
the medium is the message meaning
media and their messages can’t be separated and studied as separate entities
hot vs cold media
Hot (tv – we don’t have to fill in anything) vs cold (telephone – we have to fill in a lot)
McLuhan hot take
o Media is an extension of man – any phenomenon that changed the way we go about the world (ex: electric light, the car)
o Media aren’t just convenient technologies for communicating the same content
information overload
encounter so much material in everyday life that it leads to disorientation
o Sorting our reliable and useful information – requires media literacy
write
ancient Greece about writing
writing is detrimental to memory, will create forgetfulness in the learners
o Later – it helps structure thoughts
o But taking notes with pen and paper might be more effective than using a laptop – limited capacity and multitasking, difference in encoding (slower – forced to think about it)
invention of the telephone
originally invented as a means of business communication – concern about the use of coarse language
o Continued with the internet – more extreme behavior online, both positive and negative (lack of visibility, non-verbal cues, eye-contact, effects of negative behavior + anonymity
google as part of our cognitive system
o Ex: misattribution of knowledge and overconfidence – people tend to think that they already had the knowledge they were looking for and overestimate their future performance
o Using Google as an external memory system – we could forgo remembering things ourselves, we’d need to prioritize remembering where we can retrieve information (as opposed to the actual info itself), we would have more capacity left for creative problem solving
thin ideal + us stats
association of thin with good
o 5% of US women are underweight vs 30% of tv characters
o 50% are overweight vs 13% of tv characters (usually portrayed as villains)
- Exposure to idealized images has a detrimental effect on self-perception
exposure to idealized images
detrimental effect on self-perception
o Exposure to “thin media” – related to perception of thin ideal as desirable and achievable
o Meta-analyses – small effects on body satisfaction, internalization and eating behavior
difference between the person we think we are and personal standard
o Ideal self – based on hopes, wishes and aspirations
o Ought self – based on obligations and responsibilities
o Comparisons between these actual and possible selves drive self-regulatory behavior
contrast effect
– lower self-esteem after comparing oneself to a standard that’s very different
o Ex: women asked to compare themselves to a model and then looked at themselves in a distorted mirror – lower self-esteem
Self-esteem isn’t lowered if they’re just told to imagine that they’re the model
counteracting effects of thin idealization
o More knowledge about influencing seems to be related to weaker impact of idealized images
Ex: resistance after recognition of persuasion attempt – increase in self-esteem and less appreciation for the brand
o Warning messages seem to have the opposite effect – more attention it paid to that aspect
o Intervention – girls writing a warning letter to a peer or role-play – if you warn somebody, less effect on you
o Watching the film “Evolution” – how models walk in + the whole transformation to the ad
how can Facebook help
could have such a self-confirming influence by providing positive but reasonably accurate information about the self – can be used to restore self-esteem or to create a buffer against the negative impact of feedback
treadmill experiment
people running on the treadmill – avatar getting thicker or thinner when participant is moving
o More movement after vicarious reinforcement
the agenda setting effect
Exposure in the media tends to predict perceived personal relevance of topics
o Accessible information has more of an impact – personal above the abstract, drama conflict and action, novelty, connection with important theme
news framing influence examples
o Ex: People are more likely to support abortion if fetus was used vs baby
o Ex: attitude – free speech vs public order at KKK
o Building associations with an effectively charged concepts – tsunami or islamization
what’s the goal of propaganda
the world where everything is true, and nothing is true
identifying vs sharing news experiment
- Ex: one group just asked to identify false information – able to do it relatively accurately
o Another group – asked if they would share the information online – no difference between false and true information
important aspects of fake news
o Familiarity – a single prior exposure to a fake news headline increases later belief in the headline
o Source – attributing a false claim to Trump increases Trump supporters’ belief in the claim, reduces democrats’ belief in the claim
o Emotion – people who report experiencing more emotion at the outset task more likely to believe false (but not true) news
post-truth
circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion that appeals to emotion and personal beliefs
Americans fake news stats
- 64% Americans – fake news has left them feeling confused about basic facts
o Only 4% could systematically differentiate between actual and fake news
o 75% of Americans who were familiar with a fake news headline thought that the story was accurate
inoculation theory
by preemptively exposing people to a weakened version of a (counter)-argument and by refuting that argument, attitudinal resistance can be conferred against future persuasion attempt
o Affective and cognitive component – “threat” (motivation, recognition that one’s attitude on an issue is vulnerable to attack) and “refutational preemption” (specific arguments in order to resist
refutationaly same and different
- Refutational-same – inoculating people against specific information to which they will be exposed later on
o Refutational-different – the message refutes challenges that aren’t specifically featured in the subsequent attack (hypothesis that this could provide umbrella protection)
hypotheses of the study tm
o Active inoculation induced by playing the fake news game will reduce both the perceived reliability and persuasiveness of previously unseen fake news articles
o A mediation hypothesis – playing the game reduces the persuasiveness of fake news through decreased reliability judgements
o Negative affective content has shown to be an important element of eliciting attitudinal threat and issue engagement playing the game will elicit greater affective involvement
methods of the study
o Each group had to produce a news article that reflects their character’s unique goals and motivation
o Denier (strives to make the topics look small and insignificant), alarmist (who wants the topics to look as problematic as possible), the clickbait manager (goal is to get as many clicks as possible), the conspiracy theorist (distrusts any kind of official mainstream narrative)
o Two articles: one about bad conditions in immigrant camps, one about how they’re too many immigrants in the Netherlands
results of the study
reduced the perceived reliability and persuasiveness of fake news articles
o Active inoculation required more cognitive effort and engagement from people
o Overlooked – all participants were young, maybe still developing their attitudes + small sample size
how does google produce search results
o Relevance as popularity
o Relevance as a match to preferences – probability that a person’s existing opinions will be confirmed greater than for them to run into new information – confirmation bias
filter bubbles
the result of biased information processing, resulting in exposure to a tailored selection of information that is in line with pre-existing attitudes
three levels of filter bubbles
o Individual – cognitive and motivational processes (confirmation bias, maintaining a positive self-view, cognitive dissonance reduction, motivated skepticism)
o Social - preference for similar individuals, forming a shared social identity
o Technological - algorithms designed or trained to maximize screen time – less varied information
fewer women in entertainment media
o 39% of new characters 1993-2004 were women + more often in stereotyped roles, in a less wide range of roles
o Overrepresentation in advertisements for household and beauty products
o Female characters more often portrayed as lust objects (especially in games)
what kind of motivation is necessary for analyzing media
accuracy motivation
