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Identify and discuss the key features of the media effects debate. Why is the question of media

effects so important to our understanding of the role of media in society?

Theories of media effects are numerous and often contradictory. Collectively these theories occupy

a continuum from those whose adherents believe in powerful effects on the audience, to those

confident there are only minimal and or short term effects.

The question of how the media affects society is important because it often lacks accountability and

transparency protocols. The influence of the media must be examined in order to protect the

integrity of our democratic ideals. This issue is especially pertinent in Australia where ownership is

so condensed (Pearson et al., 2001).The recent rise of vast, international media businesses such as

News Corporation1 allows 'moguls' almost unprecedented ability to influence media content around

the globe (NewsCorp). Even if media influence is relatively minimal this presents a worrying level

of control over the flow of information on a global level (Arsenault, 2008) and, if media effects are

powerful, then these media empires have enormous potential power.

The earliest media effects theories2 were the 'hypodermic needle' or 'magic bullet' models

(Scheufele, 2007). These theories posited an extremely powerful effect; that media influenced all

audiences in a direct and quantifiable way and that the effects were the same, or similar, for all

audience members (Twente). This view of the media, as a hugely powerful force, directly

influencing vast and diffuse audiences, gave way in the 1940s to, almost diametrically opposed,

'minimal effects' theory. Minimal effects theory argued that: The mass media are all pervasive but

not particularly persuasive (Shaw, 1979). Media, according to this theory, generally reinforced

existing attitudes rather than changed them(Scheufele, 2007) and the influence of the media was

seen as contingent on social filters and interpersonal cues (Bennett, 2008).

1 Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

2 Which first appeared in the 1920s (SCHEUFELE, D. A. 2007. Framing, agenda setting, and priming: The evolution

of three media effects models.Journal of communication, 57, 9.)

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The 1970s saw another major paradigm shift (Scheufele, 2007) with new research suggesting that

the media was capable of strong effects on audiences. Agenda setting theory, introduced in 1972

(McCombs, 1972), has been described as the cumulative effect of news coverage (Ward, 1995, p.

49) and claims that the media may not be successful in telling people what to think, but it is

stunningly successful in telling people what to thinkabout (Cohen cited inWard, 1995). In essence

the theory claims that gate-keeping judgements3 determine societies' perceptions of what is

important (Ward, 1995, p. 49-50)4.

The 'spiral of silence' theory(NoelleNeumann, 1974) espoused the idea that society was being

conditioned into believing some ideas legitimate, and suitable for public expression, and others not.

His paper was prefaced by a quote5; More frightened of isolation than of committing an error, they

joined the masses even though they did not agree with them (NoelleNeumann, 1974). Noelle-

Neumann believed that the masses will self censor in order to not stray from general consensus. So

a mass media bias6misrepresents the public consensus, and in doing so silences opposition7

(NoelleNeumann, 1974).

3 Decisions about what is and is not reported and the prominence it is given.

4 Opponents of agenda setting theory claim that research data is inconclusive because many agenda setting studies

have established... a correlation between issues given news coverage and those which people regard as salient but

correlation and causation are not synonymous (Ward, 1995, p. 52). Even if causality could be proved it is claimed that

any agenda setting effect may vary significantly from issue to issue (Ward, 1995, p. 52-53).

5 Apparently from de Tocqueville,

6 According to Noelle-Neumann the bias is decidedly left-wing (NOELLENEUMANN, E. 1974. The Spiral of Silence

A Theory of Public Opinion.Journal of communication, 24, 43.)

7 This tendency he saw as a self perpetuating, and self exacerbating, cycle given that the more people were dissuaded

from sharing their opinions, through fear of going against the consensus, the more the apparent 'consensus' of society

became skewed Ibid..

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(Hastie, 1986)10.

Framing theory11 has its basis in both psychology and sociology and in experiments in 1979 and

1984 ((Kahneman, 1979, Kahneman, 1984) which examined how different presentations of

essentially identical decision-making scenarios influence peoples choices and their evaluation of the

various options presented to them (Scheufele, 2007). The idea is that the modern world exposes

people to so much stimulus that they must apply interpretive schema or 'primary frameworks' to...

interpret it meaningfully (Scheufele, 2007) and that these 'frames' can be manipulated through

repetition of messages. A knowledgeable viewer will be less affected because they have more

salient information on which to draw (Scheufele, 2007).

The rate of change in modern media makes it increasingly difficult to conclusively measure media

effects, in large part because a plethora of new media sources have fragmented the audience. Fifty

years ago nearly everyone got their news from a small handful of sources and the norms of ethical

journalism meant that coverage was almost identical (Bennett, 2008). People now have twenty-four

hour access to media from all over the world and many have drifted away from traditional news

media (Bennett, 2008). In the 1960s, an advertiser could reach 80 percent of U.S. women with a

prime-time spot on the three networks. Today, it has been estimated that the same spot would have

to run on one hundred TV channels to reach the same number of viewers (Jenkins cited in Bennett,

2008).

Despite audience fragmentation, media's effect on public opinion remains critical. The plethora of

10 Separating the two theories is difficult because By making some issues more salient in peoples mind (agenda

setting), mass media can also shape the considerations that people take into account when making judgements about

political candidates or issues (priming) (Scheufele, 2007).

11 Also sometimes called schema theory or information processing theory.

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media sources allows viewers to avoid information that does not interest them. This increases the

knowledge gap (Bennett, 2008) and can lead to group polarisation which can impede the

functioning of democracy (Sunstein, 2002, Cason, 1997)).

It has been claimed that 'balanced' media is a myth and media bias is widespread (Baron, 2006).

Media can also represent a bias without behaving unethically; it has been shown that on the issue of

climate change the norm of 'balanced' journalism has led to an informational bias as the views of

a vocal minority are given equal weight to that of the vast majority of the scientific community

(Boykoff, 2004, Oreskes and Conway, 2011).

With media evolving so quickly, it is difficult for any one theory to fully explain the complexity of

media effects. In order to build a more conclusive and comprehensive picture the study of media

effects needs to take social change into more account (Bennett, 2008) and researchers need to put

more thought into the interplay between competing media effects theories (Scheufele, 2007).

Regardless of the lack of a unifying theory, the general consensus among media and communication

researchers today seems to be that the media has powerful and potentially damaging effects on

society and that we ignore its influence at our peril.

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