homework

1- Early communication theory ,and the general study of communication itself , grew out of several other areas of investigation and discourse into human activity. How did this evolve and what were some of the shaping and molding concepts, ideas and theories ?

The communication studies started from other areas such as sociology, psychology. Those studies from other areas was studying human activities, behavior, attitude. Communication is the process of understanding and sharing meanings with the receiver by different mediums such as TV or other communication tools. One of the first studies that was in the communication field conducted that the sender creates the message and then use channel to send it to the receiver who will have a feedback to the sender . Also, the early communication research studies focused on studying the effects of the media toward its audiences . After that the communication research evolved and started to study the uses side. Basically, the researchers started to understand that the media did not have the power that they though the media have since the media started to designed their messages to the opinion leader because they had a power that can make them influence people . Also, the researchers found that some people had critical ability that made them able to accept the message from the media . Researchers started to study the uses instead of the effect of the media. There are some of the studies that focused on the effects and uses of the media.

Magic bullet theory: The magic bullet theory assumes that the media have a great power and impact on people.

Payne fund studies: The study was concerning about the effects of of motion pictures on children. The studies focused on five different areas that may affect children which included information, attitude, emotions, health, and behavior.

Agenda setting theory: the theory describes the ability of the media to create an importance of some topic among the public.

The people’s choice: the two steps flow model states that peoples’ opinions are influence through opinion leaders. Which means that the media does not have the power to influence its audience directly. However, the media can influence the opinion leaders who then can influence peoples’ opinion.