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The Five Main Media Effect Theories

The Five Main Media Effect Theories. Or: how this stuff winds up making us feel/do things…. Magic Bullet/Hypodermic Needle Theory. 1920’s Most simple model Basis of most effects that followed

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The Five Main Media Effect Theories

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  1. The Five Main Media Effect Theories Or: how this stuff winds up making us feel/do things…

  2. Magic Bullet/Hypodermic Needle Theory • 1920’s • Most simple model • Basis of most effects that followed • Believes that the media is SO powerful and that viewers are SO spongelike that it is able to inject its audience with its messages.

  3. Example: War of the Worlds • 1938 Broadcast by Orson Welles of H.G. Well’s novel The War of the Worlds • Broadcast as part of the Mercury Theater regular radio program • Performed as a “mockumentary” • Believed by Millions! • http://www.archive.org/details/WAROFTHEWORLDS2

  4. Were they crazy? • According the The Guardian the New Jersey police HQ was besieged by callers and numbers of people fled their homes in terror. • EXPERIENCE IS 100%! • Welles’ program began a minute or two prior to a popular show ended – people flipped to the middle of the show

  5. The Two-Step Flow • 1940’s • Katz and Lazarsfeld • Hypodermic=too strong • Media is filtered by “opinion leaders” • People are the intervening factors between stimuli and belief/action • Source  Message  Media Opinion Leaders  General Public (GP)

  6. Example: • Source: Burger King • Message: Open Late • Medium: television commercial • Opinion Leader: Diddy • General public

  7. Who are today’s opinion leaders?

  8. “Limited” Effects • 1940’s to 1960’s • Hovland, Lazarsfeld, Cooper and Jahod, and Klapper • Aka law of minimal consequences • Media has a small effect on population.

  9. The Limitations • Intervening variables • Individual differences • Social differences

  10. The Hovland Army Experiment • Why We Fight – a film series by Frank Capra • Tested how effective propaganda techniques (a form of media influence) were on groups of soldiers.

  11. What Hovland noticed • Who learned • Who changed their minds about the enemy • Who was more eager to die (not many) • Gap between smarter and less educated

  12. Basically, media is powerful… • Sometimes forms attitudes • Sometimes only reaches a fragment of the audience • Sometimes only reinforces what is already there • Sometimes provides a model for behavior (not true effect bc no 100% causality)

  13. Uses and Gratifications • 1970s (the me era) • Katz and Blumler • Uses play an active role in media (we use media to gratify ourselves) • Media Gratification can come from • Content • Familiarity • General exposure • Social context

  14. 4 Basic Uses • Surveillance: knowledge brings securty (Maslow) • Personal Identity: to determine what we are like and what we are not • Personal Relationships: we gain belonging. • The Watercooler Effect • Show/Team Ownership • Diversion: escapism

  15. Spiral of Silence • 1980’s • Noelle-Neumann • People look to mass media to provide the popular opinion • People then choose to share opinion or not based on its relationship to the popular opinion • Media has more power than individual.

  16. Other important theories • Cultivation (Gerbner): tv is the thing that speaks the most to most families; therefore, tv creates the common view of the world, the common social roles, and common values • Revision (Hirsch): some groups are more effected than others (based on SES)

  17. More important theories • Media Determinism (McLuhan): “the medium is the message” • We believe based on the type of media • Newspapers • Books • Radio • Television/Film • Internet

  18. And Lastly, • Synthesis (Katz): the most important things are the • Media we select • The people we associate with

  19. So BASICALLY, we are affected by media • Somewhat • Dependent on our Socio-Economic Status • In-groups • Education • Economics • Dependent on our experience

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