media effects socialization. media socialization theories strong media theories weak media theories...

Media Effects

Socialization

Media Socialization Theories

• Strong media theories

• Weak media theories

• Purposive Audience Theories

• Active Audience Theories

• Processing Media Content

Culture

• Components of culture:– symbols– beliefs– values– norms

• Socialization– process by which components of culture are

transmitted from one generation to the next

Strong Media Theories

• Hypodermic Theory– Media is sufficiently insiduous and powerful to inject

whatever message it wants into the “body politic”

– Women, children, and other “vulnerable” populations may need special protection

– Particularly common to see versions of this whenever new media are introduced (e.g., movies, television, rock/rap music, internet)

– Tends to lead to calls for government regulation/intervention

Strong Media Theories

• Cultivation Theory– Exposure to particular media forms is positively

correlated with influence of those forms

– That is, the more television viewed, the greater the likelihood that the viewer will come to accept that the televised world is a representation of the real world

– People who inhabit an environment that mimicks or conforms to the dominant medium of choice are more susceptible to messages and more easily influenced

Weak Media Theory

• Other approaches argue that the Strong Media theories overstate the influence and power of media

• In particular, these studies emphasize factors that help “mediate” the relationship between the media and the people

Media People

Government

These mediating factors include:

Weak Media Theory

• Importance of Preexisting Conditions– Selective Exposure

• people choose media that already conform with or confirm preexisting views, opinions, or inclinations

– Selective Perception• people perceive media information according to preexisting

beliefs, opinions, inclination

– Selective Retention• people recall content that that is consonant with views and

preferences

Weak Media Theory

• Interpersonal Dissemination– Content of communication is disseminated and

influenced by:• friends, family, shared interests, and opinions

• Group Membership– Understanding and perception of media content is

influenced by prior group conditioning that provide context for that understanding and perception

• e.g., religious, racial, political, geographic, age, gender

Weak Media Theory

• Opinion Leaders– People often do not digest information directly, but

have it processed by “opinion leaders” who provide context, cues, and meaning for audience

• Economics– Due to economic constraints, media tend not to

broadcast, publish, or disseminate views that are likely to be rejected or questioned by large segments of the population

Purposive Audience Theories

• Uses and Gratification Approach– People turn to media for a variety of reasons

beyond information gathering (uses)– People choose media, then, based on needs of

the moment (gratification)• e.g. emotional release (diversion)

stay informed (surveillance) reinforce personal identity


• For example, studies of televsion viewing show that television serves a variety of uses and satisfies a range or gratifications:– environmental (background noise, companionship, entertainment)

– regulative (punctuates time, activity, talk patterns)

– communication facilitation (illustrate experience, enter conversations, reduce anxiety, set agenda for talk, clarify values)

– affiliation/avoidance (family solidarity, relaxation, conflict)

– social learning (decision-making, value transmission, information

dissemination, substitute schooling)


• Attention to television, then, will vary on the context in which it is being viewed and the specific needs/intentions of the viewers attending to it

• The “message” of any programming, is just as likely to be distorted, changed, ignored as much as it is to be absorbed

Purposive Audience

• Media Systems Dependency– To understand media influence, we need to understand

the divergent “needs” of people to fulfill their lives (beyond basic biological necessities):

• understanding

• orientation

• play

– Given these needs, we can identify six “dependency relations” between people and the media


• Media Systems Dependency– self understanding – social understanding– action orientation (what to buy, how to dress, etc.)

– interaction orientation (how to handle social situations)

– solitary play– social play


• In both U&G and MSD, people use the media to fulfill certain needs and goals

• Both are socio-psychological approaches in which studying individuals (in the aggregate) is viewed as the best way to study broad social processes

Active Audience

• Response Approach– Focus is on how people comprehend and

interpret media conent– Comprehension may differ sharply from the

intentions (stated or implied) of the media• Referential - relate program/content to reality

• Metalinguistic/critical - recognize program/content as media construct and examine these various components in addition to the “message”

Processing Media Content

• Attempts have been made to explain the differences observed in these theories by focusing on how people process the content they experience


• Schematic Thinking– A “schema” - cognitive structure consisting of organized

knowlege about situations and individuals that has been abstracted from prior experience

• e.g., negative views on government, big business as corrupt, democracy is great

– These schema enable people to extract and incorporate the information they consider imiportant

– Note, then, without schema, people are less likely or even unlikely to absorb the information that will allow them to understand these areas; and in these situations, they are more likely simply to reflect media content directly


• Constructionist Approach– People operate from a core of “common

knowledge” that guides interest in, and attention to, media fare

– This core consists of “frames” which people use to convey, interpret, and evaluate, information


• Constructionist Approach– This sets up possibility (probability) that

individual frames will differ from media framing of an event

• e.g., personal interest and morality

• political vs. apolitical framing


• All of these theories depend, at least in part, on recall, that is, the ability for people to remember what information they just received

• Factors influencing recall:– demographics (education/income)– motivation– background knowledge– visual vs. textual– compilation pace and presentation– detail vs. general patterns

Learning Theories

• Given this importance, we need to understand or at least have a theory for understanding, how learning takes place

• One sense of learning would be the acquisition and retention of new knowledge

• But how does that take place?• To what extent is learning “stimulus determined”

and what extent is it “perceiver determined”?

Learning Theories

• Stimulus Determined– mental image reflects the actual stimulus senses

have absorbed

• Perceiver Determined– mental image is shaped by what the individual

already know/believe

Learning Theories

• On the other hand, information about aspects/events that are not widely known (and thus individuals are unlikely to have any preconceived content) are open to stimulus-determined images

• Media framing then becomes crucial to how the images are going to be perceived, and thus stored for future use

Learning Theories

• But keep in mind that all these studies are laboratory based and we need to bear in mind the transitory influences of actual media consumption

• That is:– attention

– context (social setting)

– quality/content of story (style impacts learning)

– credibility

Learning Theories

• In political studies of attitudes towards candidates/parties in an election, we find that most people are largely “perceiver” determined– that is, they absorb the events of the campaign

(e.g., the candidates, the issues, the race) through a filter of predetermined dispositions