Research is formalized curiosity.

It is poking and prying with a purpose.

--Zora Neale Hurston, writer

Media Effects

& Cultural Approaches to Research

Media Research

• Studying the impact of messages transmitted by various mass media

Copycat Incidents

• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight

Copycat Incidents

• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight• 1985 - Judas Priest court case

Copycat Incidents

• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight• 1985 - Judas Priest court case• 1993 - Disney movie The Program

Copycat Incidents

• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight• 1985 - Judas Priest court case• 1993 - Disney movie The Program• 1995 - Oliver Stone’s Natural Born

Killers

Copycat Incidents

• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight• 1985 - Judas Priest court case• 1993 - Disney movie The Program• 1995 - Oliver Stone’s Natural Born

Killers• 1999 - Columbine High School

Shootings

Copycat Incidents

• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight• 1985 - Judas Priest court case• 1993 - Disney movie The Program• 1995 - Oliver Stone’s Natural Born

Killers• 1999 - Columbine High School

Shootings • 2000 - MTV’s Jackass

Key Theories in Media Research

• Hypodermic Needle Model– Leni Riefenstahl films for Hitler:

• Triumph of the Will• Olympiad

– Orson Welles Oct. 30, 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds

Key Phases in Media Research

• Minimal Effects Model - – Selective exposure– Selective retention

• For some children, under some conditions, some television is harmful. For other children under the same conditions, or for the same children under other conditions, it may be beneficial. For most children, under most conditions, most television is probably neither particularly harmful nor particularly beneficial.

Key Phases in Media Research

• Uses and Gratifications Model

– Why do we use the media?

Three Main Scientific Approaches

1. Experimental Research– Experimental Group– Control Group– Random Assignment

Payne Research studies:1927-1930• 13 studies, conducted over a 3-yr. period• In one study, the researchers divided the

children into various control groups• Some children drank 2 cups of coffee at 8:30• Some children were kept up until midnight and then

awakened really early in the morning• Another group was made to watch movies before

bedtime

• The study concluded that watching movies caused just as much sleep disturbance as did drinking two cups of coffee at 8:30 p.m.

• Bobo doll experiment

SOCKO!!!!

Three Main Scientific Approaches

2. Survey Research– Does not control variables– Shows correlations, not causality– But, generalizable to larger

population– Problems of validity of questions

Three Main Scientific Approaches

3. Content Analysis– Systematically code and measure

media content

What counts as

“violence” on television? • Is driving a sport-utility vehicle through a

stream violent? • Is shooting a man before he sets off a bomb

that’s about to kill 100 people violent (or is that a good deed)?

• Is a parent screaming at a child violent? • Is it violence if the child screams back? • Is an accidental shooting by a police officer

violent? • Is an image of a gun violent? • Is an act of nature violent?

What counts as

“violence” on television? • Is the context of violence important? • If there’s remorse after a violent act, or “real”

consequences to violence in a certain program, does that mitigate the conception of violence? Is it possible to count acts of violence?

• Can the context of violent acts on television be objectively understood, or is context more a matter of personal interpretation?

• If there can be many definitions of violence, how can we decide how much violence is on our screens?

Theories of Media Effects

• The Cultivation Effect: Heavy TV viewing leads individuals to perceive reality in ways that are more consistent with TV’s version of reality.

– “mean world syndrome”– Italian TV: Berlusconi

Theories of Media Effects

• The Cultivation Effect: Heavy TV viewing leads individuals to perceive reality in ways that are more consistent with TV’s version of reality.

– “mean world syndrome”– Italian TV: Berlusconi

Theories of Media Effects

• Agenda-Setting: The more the news media covers a subject, the more importance audiences attach to that subject.

e.g., Earth Day, Jaws, child abduction

Theories of Media Effects

• Spiral of Silence: People are generally scared to voice their opinions if they differ greatly from the opinions presented in the media as “majority” opinions

Cultural Approaches to Media Research

• Cultural Studies– Textual Analysis: close reading of

texts

Cultural Approaches to Media Research

• Cultural Studies– Textual Analysis: close reading of

texts– Audience Studies: focuses on people

who use the text

Cultural Approaches to Media Research

• Cultural Studies– Textual Analysis: close reading of

texts– Audience Studies: focuses on people

who use the text– How do teenage boys watch WWF wrestling

and why?– How do midwestern women read romance

novels and why

Cultural Approaches to Media Research

• Cultural Studies– Textual Analysis: close reading of texts– Audience Studies: focuses on people who

use the text

– Political Economy: focuses on economic and political forces that control media content

– Chris Martin– Bettina Fabos

Cultural Approaches to Media Research

• Cultural Studiesthe cultural approach, unlike media effects research, which is grounded in the social sciences, “does not seek to explain human behavior, but to understand it….It does not attempt to predict human behavior, but to diagnose human meanings.”

– James Carey: