Quiz 1

Media Effects -1

Do mass media affect our lives? What parts of our lives? •The content we focus on? •Our attitudes on politics and socialissues? •Our behaviors? •Social relationships? •Our perceptions of the realworld?

Social Science •What is social science? •How can we study social phenomena?

Social Science Research “Social science is, in its broadest sense, the study of society and the manner in which people behave and influence the world around us” (Economic and Social ResearchCouncil) Social science research is a systematic, objective, data oriented collection and analysis of information to investigate facts, patterns, and relationships. Disciplines: Communication, Demography, Economics, Education, Political Science, Social Work.

Why is social science difficult? •Human behavior is complex, always evolving and not always ruled bound •Understanding what individuals really think and/or do is complicated •Difficult to show casual relationships between events

Methods of Social ScienceResearch Qualitative research: Focus groups and interviews

Quantitative research: survey and experiments, big data

All these Types of methods are used in mediaeffects research

Media effects Change over time of how ”powerful” we think mass media are

History of media effects: •Powerful effects •Limited effects •Small effect every day: cultivation •Specific effect: agenda setting

Powerful effects Magic bullet/Hypodermic Needle Model Magic Bullet Theory/Hypodermic Needle Model ◦ People in mass society lead socially isolated lives ◦ Humans are not influenced by other people ◦ Humans interpret media messages in a uniform way ◦ Media messages are “symbolic bullets” or “hypodermic needle” ◦ Examples: ◦ Propaganda in WWI ◦ The Payne Fund Studies in 1920s, 1930s

The Payne fund studies •Studies on the effect of media on children in the 1920s/30s

•Experiments involved exposing children and adolescents to films with social messages and measuring before and after attitudes.

•Strong effects of films on respondents attitudes

•First studies on media effects, criticized today for lack of rigor

Limited effects: mass media and interpersonal relationships ◦ Individual differences in psychological makeup ◦ People in mass society are not isolated (social networks) ◦ Selective attention and Selective perception ◦ Media have only limited effects on the audience as a whole

The Columbia studies •1960s •Lazarsfed, Barelson and Gaudet •Research questions: 1. How do people decide to vote as they do? 2. What were the major influences on them?

Columbia studies •Survey of voters in the 1950s and 1960s •Findings

• Mass media don’t directly influence voters • TWO STEP FLOWtheory • Mass media influence opinion leader and opinion leaders influence everyone else

• Opinion leaders: more educated, more informed and knowledgeable

Cultivation Theory

Level of television viewing

Beliefs about the world

Cultivation theory: continuous small effects

• 1970s • Each message acts like a drop in the bucket over time • Repetitive system of themes/lessons/images • Different types of content don’t matter, it’s TV watching overall that matters

Cultivation studies

• Study TV habits and perceptions over time

• Interviews, Surveys and experiments

Cultivation theory: application •Some studies find relationship between TV viewing and perceiving reality to be like the TV world is real

•Topics of cultivation studies: • Crime likelihood • ‘Mean world’ perceptions • Gender roles • Racial and ethnic stereotypes

Cultivation theory: politics Gerber (founder of cultivation theory):

•TV “mainstreams” political discourse

•TV cultivates “middle of the road” perspectives (traditional two parties in the US)

•Is it true anymore? What perspectives are included and which ones are excluded today?