FREUDIANISM IN PROPAGANDA

Freudianism, on the other hand, was very different from behaviorism, though Sigmund Freud shared Watson’s skepticism concerning people’s ability to exercise effective conscious or rational control over their actions. Freud spent considerable time counseling middle-class women who suffered from hysteria. During hysterical fits, seemingly ordinary individuals would suddenly “break down” and display uncontrolled and highly emotional behavior. It was not uncommon for quiet and passive women to “break down” in public places. They would scream, have fits of crying, or become violent. Often these outbursts occurred at times when the likelihood of embarrassment and trouble for themselves and others was at its highest. What could be causing this irrational behavior? To explain hysteria, Freud reasoned that the self that guides action must be fragmented into conflicting parts. Normally one part, the rational mind, or Ego, is in control, but sometimes other parts become dominant. Freud speculated that human action is […]

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PROPAGANDA COMES TO THE UNITED STATES

Americans first began to give serious consideration to the power of propaganda in the years following World War I. The war had demonstrated that modern propaganda techniques could be used with startling effectiveness to assemble massive armies and to maintain civilian morale through long years of warfare. Never before had so many people been mobilized to fight a war. Never before had so many died with so little to show for it over such a long period of time and under such harsh conditions. Earlier wars had been quickly settled by decisive battles. But in this war, massive armies confronted each other along a front that extended for hundreds of miles. From their trenches they bombarded each other and launched occasional attacks that ended in futility. Harold Lasswell, a political scientist who developed several early theories of media, expressed considerable respect for the propaganda efforts marshaled in the cause of […]

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Three Different Theories of Aggression in Media

Summarize the three different theories of aggression. Theories of Aggression: Ever felt you need to kick some people’s butt, yet you couldn’t and had to kick the wall instead? Ever wondered why a three year old yells and screams like an adult? Every wondered why a parent of any kind (human/animal) would possibly kill for any sign of a threat? It’s simple. It’s aggression in three of its kinds; Frustration-Aggression theory Social Learning theory Aggression as an instinct – theories of aggression I personally am very interested in aggression as I could be quite aggressive myself. Aggression: Is any action that’s intended to cause harm. Be it verbal or physical. There are two types of aggression, and they are; Hostile/hot aggression: Is to do something aggressive and get some sort of satisfaction from it. Perhaps, planning someone’s murder or robbing a bank. You get some sort of emotional reward from it. Instrumental/cold […]

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EVALUATING THEORY

EVALUATING THEORY French philosopher André Gide wrote, “No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one uses it to go on beyond” (quoted in Andrews, Biggs, and Seidel, 1996, p. 66). In other words, good theory pushes, advances, improves the social world. There are some specific ways, however, to judge the value of the many theories we will study in this book. When evaluating postpositivist theory, we need to ask these questions: 1. How well does it explain the event, behavior, or relationship of interest? 2. How well does it predict future events, behaviors, or relationships? 3. How testable is it? In other words, is it specific enough in its assertions that it can be systematically supported or rejected based on empirical observation? 4. How parsimonious is it? In other words, is it the simplest explanation possible […]

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DEFINING THEORY – Post Positivism-hermeneutic-critical-normative

Scientists, physical or social (however narrowly or broadly defined), deal in theory.“Theories are stories about how and why events occur…. Scientific theories begin with the assumption that the universe, including the social universe created by acting human beings, reveals certain basic and fundamental properties and processes that explain the ebb and flow of events in specific processes” (Turner, 1998, p. 1). Theory has numerous other definitions. John Bowers and John Courtright offered a traditional scientific definition: “Theories … are sets of statements asserting relationships among classes of variables” (1984, p. 13). So did Charles Berger: “A theory consists of a set of interrelated propositions that stipulate relationships among theoretical constructs and an account of the mechanism or mechanisms that explain the relationships stipulated in the propositions” (2005, p. 417). Kenneth Bailey’s conception of theory accepts a wider array of ways to understand the social world: “Explanations and predictions of social […]

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DEFINING AND REDEFINING MASS COMMUNICATION

In recent decades, DEFINING AND REDEFINING MASS COMMUNICATION the number and variety of mass communication theories have steadily increased. Media theory has emerged as a more or less independent body of thought in both the social science and humanistic literatures. This is intendedas a guide to this diverse and sometimes contradictory thinking. You will find ideas developed by scholars in every area of the social sciences, from history and anthropology to sociology and psychology. Ideas have also been drawn from the humanities, especially from philosophy and literary analysis. The resulting ferment of ideas is both challenging and heuristic. These theories provide the raw materials for constructing even more useful and powerful theoretical perspectives. If you are looking for a concise, definitive definition of theory, you won’t find it in this book. We have avoided narrow definitions of theory in favor of an inclusive approach that finds value in most systematic, […]

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