About 60-65 years ago, universities began to graduate Ph.D.-level researchers interested in and skilled at applying scientific methods to analyzi

Assignment 2: Media Effects

 

About 60-65 years ago, universities began to graduate Ph.D.-level researchers interested in and skilled at applying scientific methods to analyzing mass communication. These researchers soon began seeing patterns in mass communication production and consumption that they summarized in what have become some of the most influential theories about mass media effects: social learning theory, agenda-setting, the cultivation effect, the spiral of silence, media systems dependency, and the third-person effect.

Even as modern media research developed, Littlejohn and Foss (2023) say qualitative approaches with strong historical and interpretative bents were emerging. This cultural studies  approach to mass communication research examines how people make meaning, understand reality, and order experiences according to cultural symbols propagated by the media.  For example, some researchers explore the relationship between mass communication and democracy, while others study how media messages create and maintain our reality through the stories they tell. The critical theorists among them focus on how those stories reinforce existing power structures in a society.

Still other researchers see communication’s symbolic process as culture itself. These researchers say everything that defines our culture—our language, food, clothing, art, books, architecture, music, and other mass media content—is a form of symbolic communication that signifies shared beliefs about culture. According to Campbell, Martin, and Fabos (2015), when events occur that question reality, such as the #MeToo or Black Lives Matter movements, communication may repair the culture with adjusted narratives or symbols, or it may completely transform the culture with new symbols.

Objective:

This activity will introduce you to ways you can explain how your media use can be affecting your life.

Background:

After studying the assigned reading,  Chapter 2, “Media Effects,” in  Saylor’s Understanding Media and Culture  and watching this " Media Effects " video on YouTube, ponder the media effects theories they mention, such as:

· Agenda-setting

· Cultivation Analysis

· Direct Effects

· Media Logic

· Symbolic Interactionism

· Spiral of Silence

· Uses and Gratifications

Activity:

Identify  ONE of the theories listed in the assigned resources for this week and answer the following questions:   

1. Does mass media directly influence individuals? Explain your answer. 

2. Which mass communication theory do you feel most accurately portrays your mass media experiences? Why? Be sure to provide an example that supports your opinion. 

Requirements:

1. A thoughtful, thorough 1-2 page (about 250-500 words) essay, double-spaced, essay in 12-point, Times Roman or similar serif font, with all the basic components for a beginning, middle, and end. 

1.

· The  first paragraph should contain a thesis that introduces your main idea or position on the question posed to you in the assignment prompt. What is the point you intend to make in your answer? 

· The middle paragraphs should provide information, examples, and details to support your main idea or position. This is where you should show use  because statements and detail what you know or think about the topic. 

· The final paragraph should sum up your main idea or position on the topic. 

2. Support your comments with relevant information that you researched in the course’s learning resources. 

· Use  APA-style in-text citations  to cite the sources of the information that you used in assembling ideas for your argument. 

· Create a matching  APA reference list  at the end of the document.  

3. References: 

4. Campbell, R., Martin, C. R., & Fabos, B. (2015).  Media and culture: Mass communication in a digital age. Bedford/St. Martin’s.

5. Littlejohn, S. W. & Foss, K. A. (Eds.) (2023). Media and mass communication theories. In  Encyclopedia of Communication Theory. Sage.  https://sk-sagepub-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/reference/communicationtheory/n231.xml?rskey=xmBgTL&row=1  

6. ©2024 University of Maryland Global Campus 

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Chapter 2Media Effects

Harry Potter and the Media Bogeyman

J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books about a young boy’s education as a wizard caused many parents—at least initially—to be somewhat wary. When they received an email warning them about the content of books, some of these parents had their fears justified. It seemed Rowling, the author of the books, was a Satan worshiper! According to the email, Rowling said the following:

“I think it’s absolute rubbish to protest children’s books on the grounds that they are luring children to Satan,” Rowling told a London  Times reporter in a July 17 interview. “People should be praising them for that! These books guide children to an understanding that the weak, idiotic Son Of God is a living hoax who will be humiliated when the rain of fire comes … while we, his faithful servants, laugh and cavort in victory.”Barbara Mikkelson and David Mikkelson, “Harry Potter,”  Snopes.com , May 30, 2008,  http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/potter.asp .

Figure 2.1

Web publication  WorldNetDaily posted an article at about the same time that used similar quotes, provoking a number of concerned letters and emails to the London  Times. Both outlets, however, had quoted from the same source: the satirical newspaper  The Onion. The original article was an intentially over-the-top satire of the Harry Potter phenomenon. In typical  Onion fashion, the article included absurd, fake quotes from 6-year-old Satanists reported in a straightforward style. Unbelievably, both the email and the  WorldNetDaily article quoted  The Onion article apparently without realizing the article was a parody.Barbara Mikkelson and David Mikkelson, “Harry Potter,”  Snopes.com , May 30, 2008,  http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/potter.asp .

This example of a rumor gone wild is a remarkable, if bizarre, example of how people worry about media effects. On the surface, the email typifies some people’s fears of the media’s influence on children. This fear reflects the ways some parents process new-media information and react to the media’s influence on the lives of children and teens. The concerns about one medium did not, however, stop the author of the email from using another medium to spread a false rumor. The concerned parents who believed the email trusted it because it was a form of media that validated their own preconceptions.

Ironically enough,  The Onion article itself addressed such overblown fears. By satirizing the sometimes-hysterical concerns of parents in such a convincing reporting style, the article positioned itself as knowledgeable and comfortable within the framework of competing media claims. The article was, in essence, predicated on the idea that the readers of  The Onion are savvy enough to understand media messages and that they have no reason to fear the media because they understand it.

Yet the rumor also validates concerns about media’s effects on culture. By quoting from an unsourced article that was read without regard for its context, the emailer and the  WorldNetDaily writer presented the kind of woeful scholarship that online media has enabled. The email and its underlying narrative illustrate the fear that new forms of media can be used more readily than traditional media as tools for unfounded propaganda and biased punditry.

The story provides an intriguing introduction to the various ways media messages are created and consumed and the widespread concern over media effects. As a constant presence in modern life, media serve numerous functions and send seemingly unlimited messages. Studying the possible effects of media provides a crucial perspective on modern culture.

2.1 Mass Media and Its Messages

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the different ways mass media affects culture.

2. Analyze cultural messages that the media send.

3. Explain the ways new media have affected culture.

When media consumers think of media messages, they may think of televised public service announcements or political advertisements. These obvious examples provide a venue for the transfer of a message through a medium, whether that message is a plea for fire safety or the statement of a political position. But what about more abstract political advertisements that simply show the logo of a candidate and a few simple words? Media messages can range from overt statements to vague expressions of cultural values.

Disagreements over the content of media messages certainly exist. Consider the common allegations of political bias against various news organizations. Accusations of hidden messages or agenda-driven content have always been an issue in the media, but as the presence of media grows, the debate concerning media messages increases. This dialogue is an important one; after all, mass media have long been used to persuade. Many modern persuasive techniques stem from the use of media as a propaganda tool. The role of propaganda and persuasion in the mass media is a good place to start when considering various types of media effects.

Propaganda and Persuasion

Encyclopedia Britannica defines propaganda simply as the “manipulation of information to influence public opinion.” Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, s.v. “Propaganda.” This definition works well for this discussion because the study and use of propaganda has had an enormous influence on the role of persuasion in modern mass media. In his book  The Creation of the Media, Paul Starr argues that the United States, as a liberal democracy, has favored employing an independent press as a public guardian, thus putting the media in an inherently political position.Paul Starr,  Creation of the Media (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 394–395. The United States—in contrast to other nations where media are held in check—has encouraged an independent commercial press and thus given the powers of propaganda and persuasion to the public.Paul Starr,  Creation of the Media (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 394–395.

Figure 2.2

Benjamin Franklin used a powerful image of a severed snake to emphasize the importance of the colonies joining together during the American Revolution.

Like any type of communication, propaganda is not inherently good or bad. Whether propaganda has a positive or negative effect on society and culture depends on the motivations of those who use it and the understandings of those who receive it. People promoting movements as wide-ranging as Christianity, the American Revolution, and the communist revolutions of the 20th century have all used propaganda to disseminate their messages.Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell,  Propaganda and Persuasion (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 60–61. Newspapers and pamphlets that glorified the sacrifices at Lexington and Concord and trumpeted the victories of George Washington’s army greatly aided the American Revolution. For example, Benjamin Franklin’s famous illustration of a severed snake with the caption “Join, or Die” serves as an early testament to the power and use of print propaganda.Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell,  Propaganda and Persuasion (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 80–81.

As you will learn in  Chapter 4 "Newspapers" , the penny press made newspapers accessible to a mass audience and became a force for social cohesion during the 1830s.Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell,  Propaganda and Persuasion (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 95–96. Magazines adopted a similar format later in the 19th century, and print media’s political and social power rose. In an infamous example of the new power of print media, some newspapers encouraged the Spanish-American War of 1898 by fabricating stories of Spanish atrocities and sabotage.Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell,  Propaganda and Persuasion (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 103–104. For example, after the USS  Maine sunk off the coast of Havana, Cuba, some newspapers blamed the Spanish—even though there was no evidence—fueling the public’s desire for war with Spain.

The present-day, pejorative connotation of propaganda recalls the utilization of mass media by World War I–era governments to motivate the citizenry of many countries to go to war. Some media outlets characterized that war as a global fight between Anglo civilization and Prussian barbarianism. Although some of those fighting the war had little understanding of the political motivations behind it, wartime propaganda convinced them to enlist.Mark Crispin Miller, introduction to  Propaganda, by Edward Bernays (Brooklyn, NY: IG Publishing, 2005), 11. As you will read in  Chapter 12 "Advertising and Public Relations" , World War I legitimized the advertising profession in the minds of government and corporate leaders because its techniques were useful in patriotic propaganda campaigns. Corporations quickly adapted to this development and created an advertising boom in the 1920s by using World War I propaganda techniques to sell products.Mark Crispin Miller, introduction to  Propaganda, by Edward Bernays (Brooklyn, NY: IG Publishing, 2005), 12.

In modern society, the persuasive power of the mass media is well known. In the years after 9/11, there were multiple reports of the death of Osama bin Laden; people desperately wanted to believe he was killed. In reality, he was killed in 2011. Governments, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and political campaigns rely on both new and old media to create messages and to send them to the general public. During and since the 2008 Presidential election, there has been constant scrutiny over Barack Obama’s birthplace and citizenship; the reports are discredited, but the questions resurface. The comparatively unregulated nature of U.S. media has made, for better or worse, a society in which the tools of public persuasion are available to everyone.

Media Effects and Behavior

Although the mass media send messages created specifically for public consumption, they also convey messages that are not properly defined as propaganda or persuasion. Some argue that these messages influence behavior, especially the behavior of young people.Alexandra Beatty, “Studying Media Effects on Children and Youth: Improving Methods and Measures, Workshop Summary,” March 2–3, 2006, The National Academies Press,  http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11706 ; “Media Influence on Youth,” Crisis Connection,  http://www.crisisconnectioninc.org/teens/media_influence_on_youth.htm . Violent, sexual, and compulsive behaviors have been linked to media consumption and thus raise important questions about the effects of media on culture.

Violence and the Media

On April 20, 1999, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered their Denver-area high school, Columbine High School, armed with semiautomatic weapons and explosives. Over the next few hours, the pair killed 12 classmates and one faculty member before committing suicide.Gina Lamb, “Columbine High School,” Times Topics,  New York Times, April 17, 2008,  http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/columbine_high_school/index.html . The tragedy and its aftermath captured national attention, and in the weeks following the Columbine High School shootings, politicians and pundits worked to assign blame. Their targets ranged from the makers of the first-person shooter video game  Doom to the Hollywood studios responsible for  The Matrix.Tom Brook, “Is Hollywood to Blame?”  BBC News, April 23, 1999,  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/03/99/tom_brook/326529.stm .

However, in the years since the massacre, research has revealed that the perpetrators were actually attempting a terrorist bombing rather than a first-person shooter style rampage.Greg Toppo, “10 Years Later, the Real Story Behind Columbine,”  USA Today, April 13, 2009,  http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm . But did violent video games so desensitize the two teenagers to violence that they could contemplate such a plan? Did movies that glorify violent solutions create a culture that would encourage people to consider such methods? Because modern culture is so immersed in media, the issue becomes a particularly complex one, and it can be difficult to understand the types of effects that violent media produce.

A number of studies have verified certain connections between violent video games and violent behavior in young people. For example, studies have found that some young people who play violent video games reported angry thoughts and aggressive feelings immediately after playing. Other studies, such as one conducted by Dr. Chris A. Anderson and colleagues, point to correlations between the amount of time spent playing violent video games and increased incidence of aggression.Craig A. Anderson and others, “The Influence of Media Violence on Youth,”  Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4, no. 3 (2003): 81–110. However, these studies do not prove that video games cause violence. Video game defenders argue that violent people can be drawn to violent games, and they point to lower overall incidence of youth violence in recent years compared to past decades.Jill U. Adams, “Effects of Violent Video Games,”  Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2010,  http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/03/health/la-he-closer-20100503 . Other researchers admit that individuals prone to violent acts are indeed drawn to violent media; however, they claim that by keeping these individuals in a movie theater or at home, violent media have actually contributed to a reduction in violent social acts.Peter Goodman, “Violent Films May Cut Real Crime, Study Finds,”  New York Times, January 7, 2008,  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/technology/07iht-violence.4.9058958.html .

Figure 2.3

The 1999 Columbine High School shooting led to greater debate and criticism over violent video games.

Source: Used with permission from Getty Images.

Whether violent media actually cause violence remains unknown, but unquestionably these forms of media send an emotional message to which individuals respond. Media messages are not limited to overt statements; they can also use emotions, such as fear, love, happiness, and depression. These emotional reactions partially account for the intense power of media in our culture.

Sex and the Media

In many types of media, sexual content—and its strong emotional message—can be prolific. A recent study by researchers at the University of North Carolina titled “Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents’ Sexual Behavior” found that young people with heavy exposure to sexually themed media ranging from music to movies are twice as likely to engage in early sexual behavior as young people with light exposure. Although the study does not prove a conclusive link between sexual behavior and sexually oriented media, researchers concluded that media acted as an influential source of information about sex for these youth groups.Kathleen Doheny, “Mass Media May Prompt Kids to Try Sex: Study,”  Health Scout, April 3, 2006,  http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/531862/main.html . Researcher Jane Brown thinks part of the reason children watch sexual content is related to puberty and their desire to learn about sex. While many parents are hesitant to discuss sex with their children, the media can act like a “super peer,” providing information in movies, television, music, and magazines.Kathleen Doheny, “Mass Media May Prompt Kids to Try Sex: Study,”  Health Scout, April 3, 2006,  http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/531862/main.html . Reality series, such as  Teen Mom and  16 and Pregnant, are prevalent on the popular MTV station. We will explore in greater detail the impact of sexual content in the media in  Chapter 14 "Ethics of Mass Media" .

Cultural Messages and the Media

The media sends messages that reinforce cultural values. These values are perhaps most visible in celebrities and the roles that they adopt. Actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Scarlett Johansson have come to represent aspects of masculinity and femininity that have been adopted into mainstream culture in the last 10 years. In recent years, baseball player Derek Jeter appeared in television, film, magazines, and advertising campaigns as a model of athleticism and willpower. Singers such as Bono of U2 have represented a sense of freedom and rebellion against mainstream culture.

Although many consider celebrity culture superficial and a poor reflection of a country’s values, not all celebrities are simply entertainers. Civil rights leaders, social reformers, and other famous public figures have come to represent important cultural accomplishments and advancements through their representations in the media. When images of Abraham Lincoln or Lady Gaga appear in the media, they resonate with cultural and historical themes greatly separated from mere fame.

Celebrities can also reinforce cultural stereotypes that marginalize certain groups. Television and magazines from the mid-20th century often portrayed women in a submissive, domestic role, both reflecting and reinforcing the cultural limitations imposed on women at the time. Advertising icons developed during the early 20th century, such as Aunt Jemima and the Cream of Wheat chef, similarly reflected and reinforced a submissive, domestic servant role for African Americans. Other famous stereotypes—such as the Lone Ranger’s Native American sidekick, Tonto, or Mickey Rooney’s Mr. Yunioshi role in  Breakfast at Tiffany’s—also reinforced American preconceptions about ethnic predispositions and capabilities.

Figure 2.4

Tonto from The Lone Ranger reinforced cultural stereotypes about Native Americans. Do you think this type of characterization would be acceptable in modern television?

Source: Used with permission from Getty Images.

Whether actual or fictional, celebrities and their assumed roles send a number of different messages about cultural values. They can promote courageous truth telling, hide and prolong social problems, or provide a concrete example of an abstract cultural value.

New Media and Society

New media—the Internet and other digital forms of communication—have had large effects on society. This communication and information revolution has created a great deal of anguish about digital literacy and other issues that inevitably accompany such a social change. In his book on technology and communication,  A Better Pencil, Dennis Baron discusses this issue:

For Plato, only speech, not writing, can produce the kind of back-and-forth—the dialogue—that’s needed to get at the truth … the text, orphaned by its author once it’s on the page, cannot defend itself against misreading…. These are strong arguments, but even in Plato’s day they had been rendered moot by the success of the written word. Although the literacy rate in classical Greece was well below 10 percent, writing had become an important feature of the culture. People had learned to trust and use certain kinds of writing—legal texts, public inscriptions, business documents, personal letters, and even literature—and as they did so, they realized that writing, on closer examination, turned out to be neither more nor less reliable or ambiguous than the spoken word, and it was just as real.Dennis Baron,  A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 5.

Baron makes the point that all communication revolutions have created upheavals and have changed the standards of literacy and communication. This historical perspective gives a positive interpretation to some otherwise ominous developments in communication and culture.

Information

The Internet has made an incredible amount of new informati