Theories of Mass Communication Archives

THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN THE SOCIAL WORLDNCE THEORIES

January 30, 2017 No Comments

Chapter#10: AUDIEMEDIA AND SOCIETY: THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN THE SOCIAL WORLDNCE THEORIES: USES, RECEPTION, AND EFFECTS Information (Innovation) Diffusion Theory In 1962, Everett Rogers information/ innovation diffusion theory Theory that explains how innovations are introduced and adopted by various communities Meta Analysis Identifies important consistencies in previous research findings on a specific issue and systematically integrate them into a fuller understanding Early Adopters In information/ innovation diffusion theory, people who adopt an innovation early, even before receiving significant amounts of information Change agents In information/ innovation diffusion theory, those who directly influence early adopters and opinion leaders Strengths Weakness 1. Integrates large amount of empirical findings into useful theory 2. Provides practical guide for information campaigns in United States and abroad 1. Is linear and source-dominated 2. Underestimates power of media, especially contemporary media 3. Stimulates adoption by groups that don’t understand or want the innovation Social Marketing Theory […]

Theories of Mass Communication

AUDIENCE THEORIES: USES, RECEPTION, AND EFFECTS

January 30, 2017 No Comments

Chapter#9: AUDIENCE THEORIES: USES, RECEPTION, AND EFFECTS Audience Theories: From Source-Dominated to Active-Audience Propaganda theories are concerned with audiences. The power of propaganda resides in its ability to quickly reach vast audiences and expose them to the same simple but subversive messages. In these theories, the propagandist dominates the audience and controls the messages that reach it. The focus is on how propagandists are able to manipulate audiences using messages that affect them as the propagandist intends. Most are source-dominated theories. They center their attention primarily on message sources and content, not on the audiences the sources want to influence. As media theories have developed, this focus has gradually shifted. As early as the 1940s, the work of people like Herta Herzog, Paul Lazarsfeld, and Frank Stanton reflected at least the implicit concern for studying an active, gratifications-seeking audience. Lazarsfeld and Stanton (1942) produced a series of books and studies […]

Theories of Mass Communication

THE EMERGENCE OF CRITICAL AND CULTURAL THEORIES

January 27, 2017 No Comments

Chapter#8: THE EMERGENCE OF CRITICAL AND CULTURAL THEORIES OF MASS COMMUNICATION In this chapter, we will trace the emergence of theories directly addressing questions about the way media might produce profound changes in social life through their subtle influence on the myriad of social practices that form the foundation of everyday life. These new perspectives argued that media might have the power to intrude into and alter how we make sense of ourselves and our social world. Media could alter how we view ourselves, our relationship to others, even the image that we have of our body. Culture The learned behavior of members of a given social group CHANGING TIMES Media have become a primary means by which most of us experience or learn about many aspects of the world around us. Even when we don’t learn about these things directly from media, we learn about them from other people […]

Theories of Mass Communication

FOCUS ON FUNCTIONALISM AND CHILDREN

January 26, 2017 No Comments

MOVING BEYOND LIMITED EFFECTS: FOCUS ON FUNCTIONALISM AND CHILDREN Functionalism Theoretical approach that conceives of social systems as living organisms whose various parts work, or function, together to maintain essential processes Communication systems theory Theory that examines the mass communication process as composed of interrelated parts that work together to meet some goal Social cognitive theory Theory of learning through interaction with the environment that involves reciprocal causation of behavior, personal factors, and environmental events THEORIES OF THE MIDDLE RANGE AND THE FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS APPROACH Merton (1967, p. 68) described middle-range theory as follows: Middle-range theories consist of limited sets of assumptions from which specific hypotheses are logically derived and confirmed by empirical investigation. These theories do not remain separate but are consolidated into wider networks of theory. These theories are sufficiently abstract to deal with differing spheres of social behavior and social structure, so that they transcend sheer description […]

Theories of Mass Communication

THE RISE OF LIMITED-EFFECTS THEORY

January 26, 2017 No Comments

THE RISE OF LIMITED-EFFECTS THEORY Two wars—one imaginary, one real—helped move mass communication theory away from notions of powerful and subversive mass media to a more moderate and benign view. The War of the Worlds researchers, led by Hadley Cantril, were part of a vanguard of social scientists who transformed our view of how media influence society. Within twenty years of Welles’s broadcast, the way many scholars looked at mass media had been radically altered. They no longer feared media as potential instruments of political oppression and manipulation, but instead portrayed mass communication as a relatively benign force with much potential for social good. Researchers gradually came to see media’s power over the public as limited—so limited that no government regulations were deemed necessary to prevent manipulation. limited-effects perspective The guiding idea that media have minimal or limited effects THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIMITED-EFFECTS THEORY The people who developed limited-effects theory […]

Theories of Mass Communication

NORMATIVE THEORIES OF MASS COMMUNICATION (Review)

December 9, 2016 No Comments

Chapter#5: NORMATIVE THEORIES OF MASS COMMUNICATION During the era of yellow journalism, most media professionals cared very little for the niceties of accuracy, objectivity, and public sensitivities. But in the first decades of the twentieth century, a crusade began among some media industry people and various social elites to clean up the media and make them more respectable and credible. The watchword of this crusade was professionalism, and its goal was elimination of shoddy and irresponsible content. Some sort of theory was needed to guide this task of media reform. The goal of this theory would be to answer questions such as these: Should media do something more than merely distribute whatever content will earn them the greatest profits in the shortest time? Are there some essential public services that media should provide even if no immediate profits can be earned? Should media become involved in identifying and solving social […]

Theories of Mass Communication

THE RISE OF MEDIA INDUSTRIES AND MASS SOCIETY THEORY

November 29, 2016 No Comments

Chapter# 3: THE RISE OF MEDIA INDUSTRIES AND MASS SOCIETY THEORY (Review) First Amendment Guarantees freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion Culture war Struggle to define the cultural foundation of the broader social order in which we live THE RISE OF YELLOW JOURNALISM At the beginning of the twentieth century, every industry had its barons, and the most notorious—if not the greatest—of the press lords was Hearst. Hearst specialized in buying up failing newspapers and transforming them into profitable enterprises. He demonstrated that the news business could be as profitable as railroads, steel, or oil. One secret to his success was devising better strategies for luring low income readers. His newspapers combined a low-selling price with innovative new forms of content that included lots of pictures, serialized stories, and comic strips. Some experts even say that yellow journalism got its name from one of the first comic strips: “The Yellow […]