Communication Theory

Diksha Jawle,Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism,

09,S. K. Somaiya College of Arts, Science and

Commerce, Vidyavihar(Affiliated to the University of Mumbai)

Agenda Setting Theory

Powerful influence of the media

Media tells us what issues are important

Eg- A person may give more importance to the stock market boom over the mal nutrition deaths because the media may give more importance to the former

Media tells public ‘What’ to think about the issueEg- The coverage given to a war may supersede all other events and make people think it is the most important issue

Media tells public ‘How’ to think about the issueEg- The coverage given to the war may be critical of the war, driving public opinion against it

Bernard Cohen (1963): ‘The Press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think

about.’

Lippmann- There is a world outside, and a picture in our head

What we know about the world largely depends on what the media tells us

Eg- The mal nutrition deaths in Vidharba were ignored by a lot of the English urban media, as a result of which the middle class and upper middle class actually thought that India is prospering

How do we determine the importance of a story

In newspaper- the length of the story the position of the story (above fold, below

fold) size of the headline

Eg- A story on the top half of page 1 is more important than a story on the bottom half of page 2

In broadcast- the order of the story the time devoted to a story

Eg- The first story in a TV or radio newscast is considered more important than the second story

Recipients: Undecided voters in North Carolina

Content: Asked to choose most important issue of the day

Analysis: It matched with the actual issues covered by the media during the election campaign

Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw1968

Uses and Gratification Theory

Audience reads/ views content only if has some ‘use’ from themAudience has some ‘needs’ which media helps to gratify (satisfy)How people use media to gratify or satisfy their needs

Uses that people have from mediaa) Surveillance/ Informationb) Personal Identityc) Personal Relationshipsd) Diversion/ Entertainment

Surveillance

Gives information about our immediate environment

Helps satisfy general curiosity

Helps us solve practical problems (Kitchen Tips)

Personal Identity

Identifying with people in the media (Identifying with a sympathetic heroine in K serials)

Finding models of behavior (I should really be like him/ her)

Comparing oneself with others (I am so much more good looking than that hero)

Reinforcing personal values (My favorite actor agrees with me!)

Personal Relationships

Using media to substitute for real life companionship (I’m in love with the heroine of that movie)

Using media to bond with family and friends

Diversion/ Entertainment

Diverting problems temporarily

Relaxation

Passing time

Emotional release

Medium Theory

known as Channel theory

Medium affects the perception

McLuhan (1964)- Medium is the message

Channels differ not only in terms of content but also in regard to how they awaken and alter thoughts

Channels are dominant force

Focuses more on the medium than what it conveys

Eg.- Cotton Sari were originally set up at Breach Candy (elite class), Ritu Kumar’s designer ads in Vogue (elite class),

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Known as Magic Bullet theory

Media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audience

Media injects or shoots the audience with a message designed to trigger a desired response

Message is bullet, fired from the media gun into the viewers head

Media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver is powerless to resist the impact of the message

No escape from the message

Public is the sitting duck

War of the Worlds, 30th Oct, 1938

Recipients: 12 million people in USA

Content: Orson Welles and Mercury Theater broadcasted radio drama of H. G. Wells ‘War of the Worlds.’ fictional account of how Martians attack the earth

Analysis: 1 million listeners panicked and fled their homes, disrupted households, interrupted religious services, traffic jams, clogged communication systems, raided grocery stores and began to ration food

Gatekeeping Theory Regulates flow of information

Kurt Lewin used the term for the first time

Describe a wife or mother as the person who decides which food ends up on the family’s dinner table

Later applied to communication

White sized upon Lewin’s comment and solidly turned toward journalism in in 1950

Gatekeeper is the person who decides what shall pass through each gate

Gatekeepers control public’s knowledge of actual events by letting some stories pass through the system but keeping others out of it.

Gatekeeping can be dangerous as it can lead to abuse of power

Cultivation Theory

George Gerbner and his associates at the University of Pennsylvania

Total phenomenon of television

Person watching television excessively got information from it which shaped his perception on reality

Television modified ones views of the world that he lived in

Did 2 studies a) Message System Analysisb) Cultivation analysis

Message System Analysis

Content : Drama based television program

Analysis: Showed events and characters shown in the television were variance with real people and actual situation. This analysis was not explaining everything so lead to the cultivation analysis.

Eg- criminals (White Collar), doctors (Grey’s Anatomy), police (Castle) are glamorized in television serials and in real life they hardly get any publicity

Eg- stereotyping image of women as young, beautiful (Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl)stereotyping image of men as macho, smart handsome (Grey’s Anatomy, White Collar, Castle)stereotyping image of parents (Friends, How I Met Your Mother, )

People addicted to television adapt their lives to the value system and views that are brought to them by this media toolEg- Couch potatoes watching comedy shows believe life is hunky dory Eg- People viewing more of detective serials tend to act like one

No instantaneous process but acquires over a period of time

3 type of viewersa) Heavyb) Medium categorized on basis of time devoted to

television watching everyday

c) Light

Recipients: Heavy and light viewers, both adults and adolescents

Content: a) were they ever involved in violence? b) how many people did they think worked in the

government security agencies? c) what was the percentage of violent crimes? d) was murder more common among strangers or

among people who were known to one another?

Analysis: heavy watcher exaggerated presence of violence in society

Dependency Theory

Sandra J. Ball Rokeach and Melvin L. DeFleur

People depend on media to make sense of what is happening in their lives how to react to situation and at times how to escape from some of them

Eg- whenever there is a crisis at a macro level we turn to mass media to understand what has passed and to find out how we should behave in such a situation

Audience and media depend on each other

Two Step Flow Theory

Paul Lazarfeld from Austria

Conducted research in Ohio, USA

Recipients: over 600 people on town

Content: asked whom they would vote for every month for 7 months leading up to election.

Analysis: most people were early deciders. Only small portion of voters were converts who changed their mind in between. Early deciders were heavy users of media. Converts did not use media much.

Heavy users use media to reinforce their own opinion

Media does not directly influence public

Opinion leaders act as mediators

Observed certain interest groups like politicians, businessman, celebrities, etc. serve as primary opinion leaders in society

Six Degree of Separation

An idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world

Because we are all linked by chains of acquaintance

A 'degree of separation' is a measure of social distance between people

You are one degree away from everyone you know, two degrees away from everyone they know, and so on.

Concept was popularised by John Guare's 1990 play, later turned into film

Eg.- Facebook is testing the “six degrees of separation” theory by asking Facebook’s 750 million users, each of whom have an average of 130 friends, to select one Facebook friend to be the “target person.” A message will then be sent from friend to friend in what they hope is less than six friends until they get to the target person.

A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend is a friend

Six Degree of Separation Theory

Eg- He’s Just Not That Into You, Salaame Ishq, Valentines Day

Media gives you exactly what you want… and what you deserve.

Uses and Gratification Theory(refer slide 35 and link the question)

Our perception of the world around us depends on the level of our education and knowledge, which in turned is

shaped by the media. Discuss the statement.

Agenda Setting Theory

Cultivation Theory

Gatekeeping Theory

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Medium Theory

Dependency Theory

The condition of the world you live in is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend with the

media.

Cultivation Theory

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Medium Theory

Agenda Setting Theory

Is the public so naïve that it believes everything that the media says? If it doesn’t then has media lost its

credibility?Audience Reception Theory

Stuart Hall, a Jamaican

Had interdisciplinary approach of politics and culture.

Felt that a message that popular media conveyed having more than one meaning and a lot depended on the people to interpret the same.

The interpretation or decoding would in turn depend on the culture of the receiver.

What the reader interprets and what the media meant maybe different and this difference is called ‘Margin of Understanding.’

Eg- An ad showing a hand closing the lid of a jar full of tomatoes. The jar was full enough that some of the tomatoes were dripping of the jar in pieces. The tomatoes were used as a metaphor to the over rising population. This ad would be difficult for the rural audience to understand

Eg- Fifty Shades of Grey, Lady Chatterley's Lover (Some consider is as soft porn, but in the end it is a form of literary work) also add old Greek paintings

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Agenda Setting Theory

I HAVE to use a shampoo, a conditioner, a fairness cream, a toothpaste, a deodorant, wear branded clothes, to look and feel sexy and beautiful! What theories, effects would you

associate with this statement?

Agenda Setting Theory

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Two Step Flow TheoryEg.- One Direction launching a perfume brand made it sales beyond 1 lakh in a month, Olay- Sushmita Sen launch, Chak De India- SRK

Dependency TheoryEg.- Taj Attacks, Uttarakhand flood, Jessica case

With consumers turning into producers, there is nothing called gatekeeping anymore.

Gatekeeping Theory Uses and Gratification Theory

Eg.- Cooks shows for a person interested in cooking, Travel shows, Big Boss, Saas Bahu serials, Golmaal 1, 2, 3, Iron Man 1 and 2, Batman (Christian Bale), Masti, later Grand Masti, scripting for Vikram Bhatt

Is medium really the message? Does it apply to new media?

Medium Theory

Eg.- Cottan Sari were originally set up at Breach Candy (elite class), Ritu Kumar’s designer ads in Vogue (elite class), Any news through twitter or facebook (Arab revolution) (Kolavari Di) ( hashtag # system)

The media gives us what we want and they are absolutely right in doing so. After all, media is business.

Noam Chomsky, a political activist and philosopher

Lippmann said public does not have time and intelligence to think about major issues on their own.

The public should be guided on the issues by a special class.

Chomsky completely rejected Lippmann’s view.

He believed that if all decisions are made by only the special class and if the public only watches, then the public becomes the spectator and not a participant in democracy.

He framed a propaganda model which had 5 filters.

Among them the very first- OWNERSHIP- major media outlets are owned by large corporations and these corporations are primarily interested in profit and try to influence public.

Second- FUNDING- media derives the majority of their funding from advertisers and not readers. Thus, they are profit oriented business selling a product to readers and audience.

Uses and Gratification Theory

Thank You