Test 1 Flashcards
Why study media effect?
- High media saturation
- High degree of exposure
- Accelerating production of information
Accelerating production of information leads to
More information generated in your lifetime than in all human history before
What is the biggest driver of new information?
Internet
How much new information is produced every day?
2.5 Quintillion bytes
Average American spends how many hours per day with media?
12+ hours
How do we cope with the mass amounts of media?
- We stop paying close attention
- We make mental shortcuts to decisions
- We automatically process media messages
Media effects research helps us…
Understand media’s influence to lessen effects
What is the nature of the audience
Human mind as a machine vs. Interpretive beings
What are the two ways to view the human mind?
- The human mind as a machine
2. Interpretive beings
Explain the view of human mind as a machine
- We process meaning from the outside
- We learn meaning and store it mentally
- When we encounter media, we decode its meaning
Explain the view of humans as interpretive beings
-We continually create meaning for ourselves though our own experiences etc.
Define Exposure
Merely being exposed to or coming in contact with a stimulus
Define Attention
Actually giving something attention. Only happens when all exposure conditions are met
What are the three levels of exposure?
- Physical Exposure
- Perceptual Exposure
- Psychological Exposure
Explain physical exposure
Being in the same physical space as the stimulus. Even if you do not engage with the stimulus.
Explain perceptual exposure
Our ability to perceive sensory (audio, visual) input
Explain psychological exposure
- Stimuli must leave some trace element in the mind
- Must enter memory, even if short term
- Can be conscious or unconscious
What is subliminal messaging?
Any stimuli outside the boundaries of human perception (they cannot be physically perceived)
Subliminal exposure is considered
Non-exposure
Can subliminal messaging be perceived?
No
Attention can only occur when
All three levels of exposure are met
If you are sitting in a waiting room, and there is
music playing in the background, but you are
listening to the video you’re watching on your phone,
what is your level of exposure to the music?
Psychological
What are the four exposure states?
- Attentional
- Automatic
- Transported
- Self-reflexive
Explain attentional exposure
You are conscious of being exposed to media message, and you pay attention to these messages
Explain the automatic state of exposure
You are not consciously aware of messages in your physical environment.
What is an example of attentional sate of exposure
Scrolling through Netflix queue
What is an example of the automatic state of exposure
Tuning out others conversations at a restaurant
Explain the transported state of exposure
Drawn into the message so much you lose track of time and place
What is an example of the transported state of exposure
Binge watching a show on Netflix
Explain the Self-reflexive state of exposure
You are hyperaware of the message and your own processing of the message
That sense of loss you might feel when you’ve just
finished binge-watching a series means you were in
what exposure state?
Transported
Information-processing tasks includes
Filtering
Explain Filtering
We automatically filter out most messages to keep from being overwhelmed
If we filter a message in (pay attention to it) we determine its meaning in what two steps?
- Meaning matching
2. Meaning Construction
Explain meaning matching as it relates to filtering
- We match elements of the message to meanings stored in our memory.
- Requires competency
- E.g. Knowing the English alphabet
Explain meaning construction as it relates to filtering
- We have to create the meaning of something based on what we already know
- Requires skill
- E.g. Making meaning of the words you are reading
Define algorithms
A set of (mental) codes that we use to make sense of media messages
Algorithms are also know as…
- Schemas
- Mental Models
- Cognitive maps
What are the eight issues in media effects?
- Timing
- Duration
- Valence
- Change
- Intention
- Level of effect
- Direct
- Manifestation
Explain timing as an issue in media effects
Immediate vs. Long term
Explain duration as an issue in media effects
Temporary vs. Permanent
Explain valence as an issue in media effects
Negative vs. Positive
Explain change as an issue in media effects
Difference vs. No difference
Explain intention as an issue in media effects
Intention vs. Non-intention
Explain level as an issue in media effects
Micro vs. Macro
Explain Direct as an issue in media effects
Direct vs. Indirect
Explain manifestation as an issue in media effects
Observable vs. Latent
Define media effect
Those things that occur as a result-either in part or in whole-from media influence
How do you organize media effects
By type of effect and functions
Organize Media Effects by the types of effect:
- Cognition
- Belief
- Attitude
- Affect
- Physiology
- Behavior
Organize Media Effects by the type of Functions
- Acquiring
- Triggering
- Altering
- Reinforcing
Explain cognitive effects of media
When media exposure influences your mental processes. ex. attention & memorization
Explain belief effects
Cognition about probability that object/event is associated with given attribute. ex. believing in things we’ve never experienced.
Explain Attitude effects
When media effects your judgments about something. Ex. linking/disliking tv show characters
Explain affect effects
When media affects our feelings that we experience. ex. emotions & moods
Explain physiological effects
When media automatic changes bodily responses
Explain behavioral effects
When media changes overt actions of an individual
Functions of Effects: Explain acquiring
You gain some thing new from media exposure
Functions of Effects: Explain triggering
Media exposure activates something that already exists in you
Functions of Effects: Explain altering
Media exposure changes something that already exists
Functions of Effects: Explain reinforcing
Repeated exposure strengthens existing thing
What are the four patterns of influence
- Long-Term Alteration of Baseline
- Reinforcement Effect
- Immediate Shift
- Short-Term Fluctuation
Pattern of Influence: Explain long-term alteration of baseline
Gradual exposure might shift your opinon in a different direction
Pattern of Influence: Explain Reinforcement Effect
Longer term pattern as well over time media can reinforce someone’s opinion
Pattern of Influence: Explain Immediate shift
A quick immediate shift which changes your opinion and then you stick with that new level.
Pattern of Influence: Explain short term fluctuation
Something might influence you right away and then you go away from that belief later
What are the types of factors that shape influence
- Mass Media
- Environment
- Message
- Audience
What are the most influential factors that shape influence
- Arousing nature
- Consequences of actions
- Repetition
- Point of view
What are the purpose of theories?
- Help organize thinking about a phenomenon
- Can predict which effects will occur, under certain situations
- Can explain effects, by revealing the factors that lead to those effects
- Provide critiques of scholarly practices
Explain cultivation theory
The more time people spend with TV the more likely they are to believe the social reality portrayed on TV
What are the two types of cultivation?
- First-order cultivation
2. Second-Order cultivation
Explain First-Order cultivation
Heavy viewers believe real world = TV world
Explain Second-order cultivation
Heavy viewers adopt particular attitudes & behaviors accordingly
Cultivation Processes: Explain mainstreaming
Despite initial individual differences, heavy TV viewers become more similar in views and beliefs
Cultivation Processes: Explain Resonance
When a persons real-life environment strongly resembles environment depicted in media
Explain third-person effect
Tendency to think media influence is stronger for others than for oneself
Third-Person effect is moderated by
- Messsage Desirability
2. Social Distance
Explain Agenda Setting Theory:
The press doesn’t tell us what to think, but tells us what to think about.
Agenda setting and the original study of 1968 presidential campaign showed…
The top five campaign issues in the press were the same top five campaign issues for the voters
Explain cognitive capacity
A three step system of how people screen information and process it.
What are the 3 tasks of cognitive capacity? (These steps all process at the same time (Parallel processing))
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
Cognitive Capacity: explain encoding
Sensory organs are stimulated and information automatically enters the brain
Cognitive Capacity: explain storage
Information spends a few seconds in sensory storage. Most of it is wiped out; a small amount moves on to short-term memory
Cognitive Capacity: explain retrieval
Representations are constructed from information and stored for later retrieval
Explain Priming theory
Mental associations between concepts
What are the two types of priming?
- Cognitive Association
2. Spreding Activation
Explain Cognitive association
Thoughts, feelings, motor reactions, memories = nodes in cognitive network of pathways
Explain spreading activation
Thought activates spread along pathways causing other related thought to be activated
Explain Schema
Simply Put its a set of symbols-More complex: a cognitive structure that represents knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus, including its attributes and the relations among those attributes.
Schemas & Scripts
Schemas help us comprehend events and can also be sequences of events or scripts
Gender/Role Schema
Expectations about roles that people should have influenced by media if not learned elsewhere
Explain framing
When the press tells us how to think about a topic
Name the four framing strategies
- Selection
- Emphasis
- Exclusion
- Elaboration
Who is generally most affected by framing?
Those with a high need for orientation, who have: a need to know what’s going on
Explain Social Learning Theory
Vicarious learning: we learn behaviors by observing others. Shaped by reward and punishment
What is the Elaboration Likelihood Model
The way in which someone processes information.
What are the two types processing routes in the Elaboration likelihood model
- Central route
2. Peripheral route
Elaboration Likelihood Model: Explain central route
- Cognitive route
- Viewer scrutinizes facts in message
- More permanent attitude change
- Harder to achieve
Elaboration Likelihood Model: Explain peripheral route
- Viewers rely on cues (shortcuts) in message
- More superficial processing
- Less permanent attitude change
Uses & Gratifications states that
Users actively seeking different media for different needs
Uses & Gratifications: Assumptions
- Communication behavior is goal directed, purposive,
and motivated - People initiate the selection and use of communication
vehicles - A host of social and psychological factors guide, filter,
or mediate communication behavior - The media compete with other forms of communication in
the gratification of needs or wants - People are typically more influential than the media in
the effects process
Gratifications sought
what we expect from use
Gratifications obtained
what we get from use
Diffusion of Innovations attempts to explain
How an innovation is communicated over time through different channels to members of a social system
Name the five steps of the Diffusion of Innovations decision process
- Knowledge
- Persuasion
- Decision
- Implementation
- Confirmation
Name the five steps of the Diffusion of Innovations Technology adoption cycle
- Innovators
- Early Adopters
- Early Majority
- Late Majority
- Laggards
Feminist Theory focuses on
What questions are being asked
Feminist theory: examples of what questions are being asked?
- How are discourses about gender encoded into media texts?
- How do audiences use and interpret gendered media texts?
- How does audience reception contribute to the construction of gender?
