Transcript MCM 733: Communication Theory

MCM 733:
Communication Theory
Chapters 6, 7, 8
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Orson Welles: The War of the Worlds
– Only certain personality types were affected:
• Emotionally insecure, phobic, lacking self-confidence,
fatalists
– Led social scientists to investigate these “narrow
effects”? If it was true for WotW, then could it be
true for all media – limited effects was born.
– Tied in well with fears surrounding propaganda
– Neo-Marxist (critical-cultural) and LimEff battled
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• LE was developed by methodologists in 40s &
50s
• We focus on Paul Lazarsfeld and Carl Hovland
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Lazarsfeld & Hovland
– Did not assume the power of media, wanted to
prove it empirically
– if media’s power could be understood then it
could be controlled or harnessed for good.
– Believed that the society with the best scientists
would also have the best democracy
– Found that Media influences were much less
powerful than SES (socio-economic status)
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Factors that led to limited effects
– The refinement of and respect for empirical
methods.
– Successful branding of mass society /propaganda
models as unscientific
– Big commercial potential
– Strong gov’t & private backers (NSF, Rockefeller)
– Media corps started their own research depts
– Gained interdisciplinary acceptance.
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Two-Step Flow Theory
– An inductive theory:
• data/observations first, generalizations second
– Led to middle-range theory:
• empirical generalizations based on a empirical facts
– Unlike “grand” social TOE’s: Mass
Society/Propaganda
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Presidential election of 1940 FDR vs Wendell Willkie
• One of the largest LE studies ever
• Chose Sandusky, Ohio for its averageness
• Chose a panel of 600 who were interviewed seven times
from May until November
• Used a long questionnaire that focused on speech
effectiveness (radio was prevalent mode of Mass Comm)
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Findings were telling because they led to voter typing
– Early Deciders: chose a candidate in May and never
changed
– Waverers: chose one candidate then were undecided or
switched, but ended up voting for their first choice
– Converts: chose one candidate but then switched and
voted for his opponent (ideological conversion)
– Crystallizers: did not choose early, but choose by e-day.
Their choice were predictable along certain vectors
(party affiliation, farm or not, etc.)
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• These findings directly conflicted with
propaganda theory predictions
• Lazarsfeld concluded that mass media
reinforced the voters’ choices.
• People were not converted by media. Rather
they were “cross-pressured” (i.e. religion,
friendship bonds, kinship)
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Generalizations that Lazarsfeld came up with
– Gatekeepers: people who screen messages and
pass on those messages and help other share
their views
– Opinion leaders: people who pass info on to
opinion followers
– Opinion followers: passive receivers of info from
opinion leaders
– Two step flow: message pass from media to
opinion leaders then to opinion followers
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Limitations to Lazarsfeld Method
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Surveys are not “real time”
Surveys are expensive and cumbersome
Very conservative in terms of media effects
Produced contradictory results (i.e. was contextual to
type of info transmitted)
– Surveys are crude: only take a gross measurement
– Surveys omit important things because the researcher
must choose what to include
– Theory ignores the effects of historical context at the
time.
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Great Contributions of Limited Effects Theory
– Media rarely directly influence individuals
– There is a two-step flow of media influence
– By adulthood, people have developed strong
group commitments
– Media effects, when they do occurs, are modest
and isolated.
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Motivations for Attitude-Change theory
– Success of Nazi propaganda challenges American’s
optimism about the people’s wisdom
– The military needed methods to quickly induce
bonding among the diverse thousands who signed
up from varied geo and cultural locations
– Psychologists saw a readily available and
controlled subject pool.
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Karl Hovland used controlled variation to assess
the strength of elements of propaganda
– Why did Why we fight (Frank Capra) fail?
– Propaganda did not have an immediate effect rather it
required a cultivated audience.
– Time was a major factor in propaganda effectiveness
– One-sided arguments were effective with people
already in favour of the message,
– Two sided arguments worked better with the
undecided.
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• The Communication Research Program (Yale)
– High credibility communicators increased attitude
change
– Fear-arousing appeals worked, but depended on
the experiences and knowledge of the participants
– Individual differences research: your personal
attributes make you more or less susceptible to
persuasion.
• High intelligence = high persuasability
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Mass Comm Research & Media Effects
– Individual Differences: people differ so media
messages must contain specific elements to
appeal to specific personality types
– Social categories: people who belong to welldefined social categories will respond to media
messages in a coherent fashion
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Cognitive consistency: people seek out and
believe messages that are consistent with the
values and beliefs of those around them
• Cognitive dissonance (Festinger): information
inconsistent with people’s beliefs create
discomfort
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Selective Processes: exposure (attention),
retention, and perception
– Selective exposure: people tend to expose
themselves to messages they feel are familiar
– Selective retention: people remember messages
best that are in sync with their worldview
– Selective perception: people will believe what
they want to believe, altering the meaning of
messages to suit themselves.
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Limitations of the experimental persuasion research
– Experiments were conducted in labs in controlled
environments
– Experiments have opposite problems from surveys (i.e
focus on immediate effects, not long-term)
– Conservative about assessing media influence: eliminated
key factors such as convos pre/post TV watching
– Experiments are crude for studying long-term media
effects
– Many variables that are hard to explore in experminents
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Information Flow Theory
– 1950s saw a rise in interest of how messages flow
from media organizations to audiences
– Based on the idea that maximizing how wellinformed citizens are will improve democracy
– Hard News (politics, science, world events,
community organizations): people did not partake
much and learned little
– Soft News (sports, life, gossip, entertainment):
partook a lot and learned much
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• The trick to making information flow theory
work is embed soft ideas into hard news.
These act as hooks making people pay
attention to the hard facts (Colbert Report)
• Limitations: Info-flow is a simplistic, linear,
source-dominated theory.
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Klapper’s phenomenistic theory
– Argued that researchers exaggerated the effects of
media
– Mass comm does not serve as a cause of audience
effects, rather functions through a nexus of
mediating factors and effects
– These factors lend mass comm a reinforcing
power – exaggerating already held beliefs and
existing trends
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Elite pluralism
– This theory came of the desire to understand
Lazarsfeld’s opinion leader observation.
– Most audience members are apathetic, but they
listen to opinion leaders, who are well-informed
– This is in contradiction to libertarian theory
– Elite: a small number of opinion leaders
– Pluralism: a diversity of groups
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• C. Wright Mills and the Power Elite
– Democratic theorists disdained elite pluralism
• They felt it was just reflective of current trends and did
not offer a hope for a return to libertarian democracy
– Mills’ book raised lots of interesting questions
• If elite pluralism was true, why were black and religious
minority elites not powerful?
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Major Generalizations of Limited Effects
Perspective:
– Role of mass media is limited, it mostly reinforces
existing trends
– Role is limited in people’s lives, tends to be
positive, can be negative in certain pathological
cases (personality dis., addicts)
– The role of mass media is overwhelmingly positive
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Drawbacks of Limited Effects Perspective
– Survey and experimental research are very limited
methodologically
– Systematically excluded certain effects for fear of
spurious effects
– Too large of a focus on immediate effects. Very
little focus on long-term effects
Ch 6: Rise of Limited-Effects …
• Contributions of Limited Effects
– Supplanted Mass Society theories
– Prioritized empirical observation and downgraded
speculative forms of theory construction
– Provided a framework for research in universities
and colleges in the 50s and 60s
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Functionalism: a theoretical approach that
conceives of social systems as living organisms
whose various parts work, or function, together
to maintain essential processes
• Communication Systems Theory: the mass media
as a series of parts that work together to meet a
goal
• Social cognitive theory: theory of elarnign
through interaction with the environment that
involves reciprocal causation of behaviour,
personal factors and environmental effects
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Theories of the Middle Range and the Functional
Analysis (Merton, 1967, p. 45):
– consist of limited sets of assumptions from which specific
hypotheses are logically derived and confirmed by
empirical investigation
– do not remain separate but are consolidated into wider
networks of theory
– sufficiently abstract to deal with differing spheres of social
behaviour & social structure; transcend sheer description
– cuts across the distinction between micro-sociological
problems
– Involves the specification of ignorance
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Merton was value-neutral: he did not divide the
world into “us and them” bad guys and good guys
• Merton promoted the cumulative nature of
small, limited-effects studies that were
empirically grounded
• Manifest functions: intended and observed
consequences of media use
• Latent functions: unintended and less easily
observed consequences of media use
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Merton’s Four Functions of the Media:
• Surveillance of the environment
• Correlation of the parts of society in
responding to the enivroment
• Transmission of the social heritage from one
generation to the next (oral culture)
• Entertainment
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Narcotizing dysfunction: as news about an
issue inundates people, they become
apathetic to it, substituting knowing about
the issue for action on it.
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Mendelsohn’s Mass Entertainment theory:
– The relaxing and entertaining properties of TV serve a vital
social function.
– Some very few become addicted, but most are happily pacified
and removed from the daily tension of worklife
• Typical of Functionalist theory: some functions are good,
some are bad, but they are balanced in the organism, like
toxins and vital elements in a body.
• Researchers found that they could combine LE findings to
come up with a functionalist middle-range theory
• Television and the Lives of Our Children (1961): TV made
some kids violent, but most were simply pacified.
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• The Rise of Systems Theories
– System: consists ofa set of parts that are
interlinked so that changes in one part induce
changes in other parts
– Cybernetics: the study of regulation and control in
complex systems
– Feedback loops: ongoing mutual adjustments in
systems
– Communication systems: systems that function
primarily to facilitate communication
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Modeling Systems
– Model: any representation of a system, whether in
words or a diagram
– Goal-orientation: characteristic of a system that
serves a specific overall or long-term purpose
• Systems models can be adapted to human
communication (email, internet use, etc.)
• In mass comm, systems models replaced the
linear transmission model of Lasswell
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Criticisms of Functionalism
– Humanists dislike the mechanistic and biological
analogies used in systems theory
– Do not focus on traditional views of causality
because functional systems are not linear
– Are biased towards the status quo because of
their basis in description and empiricism
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• TV changed the global mediascape in at the World’s Fair in
New York 1939. TV occurred simultaneously with big
changes in USA society
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WWII made USA more urban
Shift work and regularly scheduled jobs
Had more leisure
More regular incomes to spend on leisure
Non-Caucasian fought in WWII and demanded share of
American Dream
– Women permanently entered the workforce
– People moved away from small towns and traditional
influences, like church and school diminished in importance.
– New demographic because of the baby boom: the Teenager!
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• More changes:
– Crime waves,
– JFK, RFK, MLK assassinations
– Civil rights & Anti-Vietnam War
– Weathermen & Black Panthers
– Young people behaving oddly: weird music and
taking drugs
– Generation gap was observed
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Media’s role in these changes was hotly
debated
• TV and film became the subject of many
investigations
• Surgeon General Scientific Advisory
Committee on Television and Social Behaviour
was founded in 1969
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Television Violence Theories
– Catharsis: viewing violence is enough to sate or
reduce people’s natural aggressive drives
– This theory doesn’t really hold generally: people who
watch video sex don’t have diminished sex drive
– Aristotle used catharsis to explain the effects of Greek
tragedy, so the argument from the tradition was used
for TV
– Final finding: showing representations of violence can
reduce violent behaviour, but because of learning –
not catharsis.
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Humans learn from observation (although cognitivism
denies this)
• Imitation: we learn by direct reproduction of others’
behaviours
• Identification: a special form of imitation that springs
from wanting to be like an observed model relative to
some broader characteristics or qualities (thin like
Cindy Crawford, hip like Angeline Jolie,
tough/sensitive/rugged like Brad Pitt)
• Social learning: encompasses both imitation and
identification to explain how people learn through
observation of others in their environments
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Social Cognition from Mass Media
– Operant learning theory: learning occurs only
through the making and subsequent reinforcement of
behaviour
– Behavioural repertoire: learned responses available
to an individual in a given situation
– Negative reinforcer: particular stimulus whose
removal, reduction or prevention increases the
probability of a given behaviour over time
– Modeling: acquisition of behaviour through
observation
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Social Cognition from Mass Media (cont)
– Observational effects: when the observation of a
behaviour is enough to learn that behaviour
– Inhibitory effects: the effects of seeing a model
punished for a behaviour, reducing the likelihood
of the observer reproducing the behaviour
– Disinhibitory effects: model rewarded for an
aggressive or prohibited behaviour, increasing the
likelihood observer will engage in the behaviour
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Social Cognition from Mass Media (cont)
– Vicarious reinforcement: reinforcement that is
observed rather than is directly experienced
– Reinforcement contingencies: the value, positive
or negative, associated with a given reinforcer
– Behavioural hierarchy: the likelihood that we will
engage in a particular behaviour.
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Aggressive Cues: information contained in media
portrayals of violence that suggests (or cues) the
appropriateness of aggression against specific victims
• Boxer example: boxer got shocked more often
• Two observations:
– Viewers’ psychological state can lead them to respond to
cues in programs that meet the needs of that state
– Viewers who see justified violence see it as a good or
useful problem-solving device (disinhibition)
• Aggressive cues research is supported by priming
effects research
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Bandura’s summary of so-coggie findings:
• Reward/Punishment: rewarded aggression is more
frequently modeled (disinhibitory); punished
aggression is less frequently modeled (inhibitory).
• Consequences: mediated violence accompanied by
portrayals of negative or harmful consequences
produces less modeling (inhibitory).
• Motive: motivated media aggression produces greater
levels of modeling, and unjustified media violence
results in less viewer aggression. Viewers are cued to
the appropriateness of using aggression.
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Bandura’s summary of so-coggie findings cont
• Realism: especially with boys, realistic media violence
tends to produce more real-world aggression.
• Humor: because it reduces the seriousness of the
behaviour, humourously presented media violence
elads to the greater probability that viewers will
behave aggressively in real life.
• Identification with media characters: the more
viewers identify with media characters (like themselves
or attractive models) the more likely it is that they will
model the behaviours demonstrated by those
characters.
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Active Theory of Television Viewing: View of TV
consumption that assumes viewer
comprehension causes attention and, therefore,
effects or no effects
• Viewing Schema: interpretational skills that aid
people in understanding media content
conventions
• Active-audience theories: put a focus on
assessing what people do with media, these are
audience-centered theories
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Developmental perspective: the view of
learning from media that specifies different
intellectual and communication stages in a
child’s life that influence the nature of media
interaction and impact.
• Jean Piaget – argued that children, as they
move from infancy to adolescence have
different cognitive abilities avail. to them.
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Video Games Reignite interest in media
violence
– There has been a shift away from TV toward video
game research
– Kaiser Family Foundation study revealed that
more than eight out of ten young people have a
game console at home, half have one in their
bedroom
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Four major reasons why video games are of
research interest:
– Amount of game play kids engage in
– Presence of video games in high-profile high
school shootings (Columbine/Jonesboro)
– Video games’ interactivity: gamers are actors, not
viewers
– Sheer brutality of many video games
Ch. 7: Beyond Limited Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children…
• Media & Children’s Socialization
– Early Window theory: media allow children to see
the world before the have the skill to successfully
act in it
– This is particularly powerful for gender learning
– Advertising, junk food and obesity: most ads are
for candy and snacks – leads to a desire to
consume theses instead of healthy alternatives.