Media StudiesTimeline

Dr. Matthew Giobbi

OVERVIEW

• 1940s: Functionalism• 1960s: Effects Studies

• Cultivation Theory• 1960s: Marxist & Psychoanalytic

Critical Theory• 1970s: Uses & Gratifications

Theory• 1970s: Media Ecology

1940s:Functionalist

Approach • Paul Lazarsfeld & Bureau of Applied Social

Research BASR at Columbia University.• Mass Media:

1. Increases status for selected issues & organizations.

2. Increases the idea of “normal” by spectacle of the oddity.

3. Decreases public action while increasing consumption.

4. Propagates social issues by Monopolization, Canalization, & Supplementation.

Functionalist Approach

• Lazarsfeld’s famous study The Peoples Choice (1944).

• Does the media influence the American voter?

• Observed a sample for 6 months & found that media reinforced a preexisting political view in 95% of subjects.

• Only 5% of subjects were “converted” by media messages.

1960s: Media Effects Approach

• “Mass” replaced by social groups.• Two step flow model: Audience

leaders & audience followers.• Audience is capable of accepting

or rejecting media messages.• Mass media reinforced existing

public opinion through leaders & opinion formers.

1960s: Media Effects

• Effects of violent media• Mass media lowered cultural

standards• Frist TV study in UK: Himmelweit

looked at 1,854 UK viewers & nonviewers of TV.

• TV influenced only in areas where no previous position was formed & was most effective when dramatic.

1960s: Cultivation Theory

• George Gerbner began Cultural Indicators research within Media Effects studies.

• TV has long-term effects which are small & gradually accumulate into significance.

• Gerbner analyzed 450 NJ school children. Heavy TV viewers saw the world as a more dangerous place.

1970s: Uses & Gratifications

Theory• Elihu Katz advocated a more active

role by the audience. NEEDS OF PERSON ARE FULFILLED BY MEDIA.

• The viewer uses the media in a self-confirmatory way.

• Media is used for: diversion, personal relationship, identity, surveillance (information) (Denis McQuail).

1960s:Critical Theory

• Frankfurt School (1923) Institute for Social Research.

• Psychoanalysis & Marxism• The Culture Industry• People “dumbed down” by mass

media so that elite can control “democracy”.

1960s: Marshall McLuhan

• “The medium is the message.”• The medium shapes the mind.• Oral, Print, Sound, electronic…• Global village: technologies will

converge bringing people closer together.

1960s: Semiology, Structuralism, & Deconstruction

• Ferdinand de Saussure• C.S. Peirce• Roland Barthes• Michel Foucault• Jacques Derrida• Jean Baudrillard

1970s: Media Ecology

• Neil Postman