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Models of Media Effects

The document summarizes different theories and models of media effects that have developed over time: 1) The stimulus-response model from the early 20th century viewed media as having powerful effects in inducing uniform responses. 2) Limited effects era from the 1960s saw media as having minimal influence due to audience selectivity. 3) Return to powerful effects in the TV era found media could overcome selectivity and have subtle agenda setting and cultivation effects. 4) Conditional/social cognitive models recognized both media influence and the audience's role in determining effects. Schemas and automatic/controlled processing explain how media primes can affect responses.

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AG. Eka Wenats Wuryanta
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1K views

Models of Media Effects

The document summarizes different theories and models of media effects that have developed over time: 1) The stimulus-response model from the early 20th century viewed media as having powerful effects in inducing uniform responses. 2) Limited effects era from the 1960s saw media as having minimal influence due to audience selectivity. 3) Return to powerful effects in the TV era found media could overcome selectivity and have subtle agenda setting and cultivation effects. 4) Conditional/social cognitive models recognized both media influence and the audience's role in determining effects. Schemas and automatic/controlled processing explain how media primes can affect responses.

Uploaded by

AG. Eka Wenats Wuryanta
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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m The first phase covered the early 20th century through

the 1930s.

ñ The stimulus-response model drawn from psychology & grounded


in mass society theory drawn from sociology
d {owerful stimuli, such as effective media messages, could induce people to
respond mechanically, immediately, & relatively uniformly, consistent with the
intentions of the creators of the messages.
m The second phase of media effects research
ñ The era of limited effects
d Úegard media as having only minimal influence on the audience.

d Úeasons: 1) selective exposure (control over what they watched, listened to, or
read in the media); 2) Selective attention (control over which elements of media
messages people would pay attention to); 3) Selective perception (control over
how messages were interpreted); 4)Selective recall (control over how and what
was learned from the media).

d Social & personal characteristics of people influenced their selective approach


to mass communication so much that media¶s main and most common impact
was believed to be reinforcement.

d Lasted until the 1960s«.


m The return to the concept of powerful mass media
ñ The introduction & widespread adoption of TV
ñ Television-saturated media environment
ñ TV---the possibility to overcome some selectivity processes.

ñ Other Strong Media Effects


d genda setting²marked the ability of the mass media to tell people ³what to
think about´
d Cultivation---the heaviest viewers of TV were the most likely to be ³cultivated´ by
its patterns of images and accept the television world view as their vision of
reality.

ñ This era of media effects focused on media¶s power to bring about


subtle, yet direct media effects.
ñ 2ocuses on media content as the most important explanation for
media influence.
ñ Effects as immediate , relatively uniform, & consistent with the
goals of the media producer. Effects-observable
ñ The emphasis of this model is on effects that represent Y ,
not reinforcement.
ñ Effects are either behavioral, cognitive, or affective effects that
lead directly to noticeable actions.
ñ Ignores the role of the audience in the media effects process
m Structural and Content 2eatures.
ñ Commercial breaks, cuts and edits, and camera and lens
movement---orienting response
ñ The orienting response is involuntary & automatic attention that is
unrelated to the meaning of the media stimulus
m rousal.
ñ rousal is an automatic, non-specific physiological response that is
conceptualized as an activator or energizer. It is stimulated by the
environment. Violence and erotica
m Úealism.
ñ More realistic media content is more likely to activate mental
images
m Most direct effects are relatively short term
m Œrawn from the limited effects model
m Emphasis on the audience & based on notions of selectivity
and social influence
m Úecognizes that media effects can occur and offers
explanations for those effects (unlike the limited effects model)
m The conditional model---media effects are conditional on the
audience member.
m ll media exposure is not bound to result in media effects
ñ The audience has the power to avoid exposure and reject influence
ñ Œifferent people may be affected quite differently by the same media
content
ñ Cognitive, affective, or behavioral
m Three classes of audience variables that can intervene
in the process of media effects:  YY  Y
   

 

 Y
m These classes either as barrier to media effects or as a
lens to enhance the likelihood of media effects
m spects of people that are fairly easy to observe
ñ Œemographic characteristics of people such as gender, age, SES,
ethnicity, educational level«
ñ Common self-designations such as religion, political party
membership, and occupation.
ñ Ways to separate people into broad groups
ñ {rovide explanations for media effects b/c the categories
represent the common frames of reference of different groups of
people.
m Úepresent the social connections and interpersonal
interactions among people that mediate media effects.
m The social facilitation hypothesis suggests that people
should enjoy media content more in groups setting than
when alone.
ñ Droup viewing is a powerful mediator of TV¶s effects on children.
m Those aspects that differentiate one person from another.
Unique to an individual
m {ersonality, prior attitudes, preexisting attitudes, physical
and mental states, attitudes toward the media, and
gratifications sought from the media.
m Œrawn from the ³return of powerful effects´ era of the received view
of media effects history.
m The ubiquitous nature of certain media content that overrides any
potential of the audience to limit exposure to certain messages.
m Media content is so pervasive that selective exposure is impossible.
m This model explains that media effects are a result of cumulative
exposure, not due to a single event.
ñ genda setting ---the power of the news media to direct our concerns
toward certain issues. Over time, people accept those issues on the
media agenda as important issues.
ñ Cultivation research
m Œrawn from cognitive psychology.
m It applies the notion of schematic processing to the
media context.
m 6 Y 
ñ  mental structure that represent knowledge about a concept.
ñ Contain the attributes of the concept and the connections among
those attributes
d {at sajack ---- wheel of fourtune
ñ 2unctions of schemas
d Œirect selective exposure, perception, attention, & recall
d Control how new information is integrated with prior knowledge
d llow people to make inferences about new situations and help reduce
uncertainty about what to think or how to act.
m Two ways that schemas operate: through controlled or
through automatic processing.
ñ Controlled processing is individual-controlled mental activity. It
involves goal-directed thoughtful mental action. It involves a good
deal of selectivity.
ñ utomatic processing is an effortless, low-involved mental
processing of environmental stimuli. Environmental stimuli (media
content) may prime or activate schemas.
d {riming effects
d Once primed, schemas are more readily accessible, so primed
schema can also influence the interpretation of and reaction to
subsequent stimuli.
m Media content
ñ Salience of visual cues
ñ spects of content that attract involuntary attention are
more likely to prime
ñ Sexual and violence content ±potent primes. Úealistic
depictions. Character identification.
m udience variables

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