Video Game Trailer Who’s played this game? What did you think?

Chapter OutlineHistoryTheory and ResearchControversies

MEDIA IMPACT: Understanding Research and Effects

Why would anyone care about or even do research on the effects media have on society?

Early Studies Concerns about media are as old as media themselves.▪ Church leaders thought bibles would corrupt society

▪ Parents felt the same about the first novels.

▪ Consistent research on media begin in the 1920s.

Payne Fund Studies conducted ▪ 13 separate investigations on the influence movies had on youth behavior

Modeling (Payne Fund Study)▪ The imitation of behavior from media examples▪ Parents worry children may pick up antisocial habits from media consumption

▪ Video Clip Clip 2 Clip 3

▪ Do violent games Increase Violence in Society?▪ Why/Why not

Would these media influence negative behavior? How?

Content analyses (Payne Fund Study)▪ Observers analyze media subject matter

▪ (TV, Magazines, Radio, Web, Newspaper)

Laboratory experiment (Payne Fund Study)▪ Variables are isolated and observed in a controlled environment

Survey methods (Payne Fund Study)

▪ Research that relies on questionnaires to collect data

Payne Fund studies as a whole ▪ Instrumental in developing public support for the 1930 Motion

Picture Production code

Random sample ▪ When members of population have equal chance of being selected

Selective exposure ▪ When people seek out messages that are consistent with their attitudes▪ Where do you get your News, What is your favorite TV show, What type of

movies do you like?

People’s Choice study ▪ Selective perception▪ When people with different

attitudes interpret the same messages differently

Selective retention ▪ When people with different

views remember the same event differently

▪ Opinion leaders ▪ Certain well-informed members of families and neighborhoods

▪ Two-step flow ▪ Process where media effects travel through opinion leaders

▪ From radio and print to the opinion leaders and from them to the less active sections of the population.

Television and violence▪ National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence

▪ Found that ▪ Desensitization

Effect of long-term exposure to mass-media violence. Prevented onlookers from helping victims of crimes

Powerful effects model, Media will have an immediate & potent influence on audiences.

(Youth acting out scenes after violent movie)

Minimal effects model Media will have little influence on behavior.▪ People not changing voting behavior

Researchers today accept ▪ Mixed effects model,

▪ Sometimes media will have Powerful effects, Minimal effects,

▪ Sometimes A mixture of both.

The mixed-effects model makes the most sense.

▪ Bullet theory ▪ Media effects flowed directly from media to individual.

▪ Multi-step flow, ▪ Effects travel from high to lower level opinion leaders then to us.

Politicians to community leaders to clergy to public

▪ There is no simple answer tohow media affects behavior. ▪ The best answer usually is “It depends.”

Social Science Perspectives Social learning theory, aka modeling theory, Social modeling is an important part of socialization,

▪ Where expectations, norms, and values of society are learned

▪ What is an example of being “cool”?▪ How did you learn what “cool is”?

Diffusion of innovations theory ▪ Five types of people have different levels of willingness to accept new

ideas from the media:

1. Innovators tend to be politically liberal extroverts who are venturesome and eager to try new ideas.

2. Early adopters make quick but informed choices.

Diffusion of innovations theory Five types of people have different levels of willingness to

accept new ideas from the media:1. -

2. -

3. Early majority makes careful, deliberate decisions.

4. Late majority tends to be skeptical.

5. Laggards tend to be conservative, traditional & resistant to change.

George Gerbner’s cultivation theory▪ States media use will “cultivate” a particular view of the world within users.

Agenda-setting, ▪ Not telling people what to think, but what to think about ▪ Is the main effect of media.

Homicide report

Cumulative effects theory ▪ Media messages are driven home through redundancy

Uses and gratification theory ▪ Based on how consumers choose & use media to meet their own needs.