CMF Chapter 15

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Group 1 (Aaron Swaidner)

A.    As These Tragic Tales of Violence Illustrate

-The belief of media as a strong influence in society is a popular one. Two kinds of research, media effects research, and cultural studies research have stemmed from interest in this belief

-Media effects research's goal is to make sense of mass media effect on people through comprehension, explanation, and prediction, focusing on the connection between media violence and social aggressive behavior as its primary focus

-Cultural Study Research's primary focus is on how people apply cultural symbols to their lives through meaning, interpretation of reality, values and experience

I.                   Early Media Research Methods (pages 521-526)

    -Early writing's in our history focused on explaining the nature of the media (at the time, news and print)

    -Media analysis has show a steady evolution over the years. 19th c. Frenchman de Tocqueville pointed out differences between French and American newspapers, demonstrating the focus on moral and political argument.

    -Early 20th century analysis focused on a more scientific approach, pioneered by Walter Lippmann, on a basis of collecting data & numerical measurement.

     -After Lippmann's studies, 4 trends led to modern media research in the mid 20th c. 1)Propaganda Analysis 2)Public Opinion Research 3)Social Psychology Studies 4)Marketing Research

A.    Propaganda Analysis

-WWI saw extensive use of propaganda to shape public opinion and boost war effort criticized by some as "half-truths"

-Here is some WWI propaganda in direct effort to boost American war effort http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/ww1posters/5046, as well as some German propaganda as well (which seems a bit more bleak, from the looks of things) http://www.ww1propaganda.com/world-war-1-posters/german-ww1-propaganda-posters?page=1

-Propaganda Analyisis-research on the use of social communication to control opinion

B.     Public Opinion Research

-Early distrust of public and journalist capabilities led to the celebrated rise of the social scientist and focusing on public opinion

-one approach is the citizen survey (known as public opinion research), functioning in a positive manner due to sampling of a diverse population

-over the years, increasing dependence on polls has been criticized for negatively affecting political involvement, as well as a form of passivity

-the overuse of psuedo-polls, based on phone-calls, internet, and street polls have proved to be unscientific and meaningless

C.     Social Psychology Studies

-Social psychology studies pay attention to "behavior and cognition" of people

-The 1929-1932 Payne Fund Studies studied younger viewers' response to movies, claiming they controlled viewers' emotions, linking movie attendance to social problems.

-Payne Fund Studies paved the way for the regulation of the production code of films beginning in the 1930s through the 1950s

D.    Marketing Research

-Marketing research focuses on buying habits to determine consumer preference for advertising and product companies

II.                Research on Media Effects (pages 526-534)

     -as the 20th century progressed, media research narrowed its focus on behavioral science, focusing on the "w"s (who, what, when, where) in people's lives.

A.    Early Theories of Media Effects

-Theories on human behavior were difficult to develop in regards to media influence, due to economic, as well as political involvement in the industry. Focus moved from media effect on society, to media effect on the individual.

1.      The Hypodermic-Needle Model

-The Hypodermic-Needle Model- a mass media theory that offers an oppressive view that media sources "shoot" or "inject" their effects into a vulnerable audience.

-one of the controvesial incidents involving this theory involved the broadcast of Orson Welles' presentation of War of the Worlds, arguing that the response of the public was more out of collective panic from others rather than solely listening and believing the radio program itself. 

2.      The Minimal-Effects Model

-The minimal-effects model argues that media is not the sole reason that changes peoples' actions and attitudes, but rather reinforces pre-existing beliefs and attitudes. People, rather, choose from media what they want to pay attention to through selective exposure (choosing what they're involved with) and selective retention (remembering what supports their preexisting beliefs)

-the 1960 study of The Effects of Mass Communication found mass media to be greatly effective to the less educated, poor, and those with weaker views.

-The minimal-effects theory assumed passivity with audiences, though recent research shows many viewers being actively engaged, using media, rather than the other way around.

3.      The Uses and Gratification Model

-The Uses and Gratification Model offers a theory that people use media to satisfy their needs. Reseachers ask people "why" questions to better understand consumer need.

-The theory is not successful, due to its focus on function of media in people's lives, rather than the impact it makes.

Source:  Campbell, Martin, and Fabos (2012). Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Bedford St. Martin's: New York

Group 2~Audrey Neeley

B. Conducting Media Effects Research

·         Private research, also called proprietary research, is conducted for a business, a corporation, or political campaign and uncovers information that addresses real-life problems or needs.  Public research takes place in academic and government settings and uses information to clarify, explain, or predict effects on mass media rather than addressing a consumer problem.

·         Media research today mainly focuses on learning, attitudes, aggression, and voting habits.  The scientific method is used in the findings for those areas of media research.  The steps to follow for the scientific method are:

1.      Identify the research problem

2.      Review the existing research and theories related to the problem

3.      Develop a hypothesis or predictions about the study

4.      Determine the best method or research design

5.      Collect information and data

6.      Analyze the finding to see if the hypothesis has been verified

7.      Interpret the implications of the study and see if they explain or predict the problem.

·         For the scientific method to work the researchers cannot have any bias or judgments.  There must be reliability, in that the experiments must have the same results time and time again.  The experiment must also have validity, in which the study must actually measure what it claims to be measuring.

·         The hypothesis should make general statements that predict the influence that the independent variable had on the dependent variable.

·         Methods for studying media effects are mainly done through experiments and surveys.  Researchers also count and document specific messages that circulate mass media.

http://youtu.be/OgS46ksAawk

1.      Experiments

§  Experiments single out some aspect of content and suggest a hypothesis.  Researchers then manipulate variables to find mediums that impact attitude, emotion, and/or behavior.  Researchers expose an experimental group (the group that is being studied) to a form of media program or text to test if the hypothesis is true.  To have valid results, a control group (this group is the comparison for the experiment) is not exposed to the media content.  The subjects for the groups are picked at random for both the experimental group and the control group.  This also makes sure that the independent variables are mixed into both groups.

§  When experiments can account for independent variables through random assignment, this practice can product a direct cause-effect hypothesis.  Research like this can be conducted in either a lab or field setting.  Field settings can be more difficult to control variables, whereas in lab setting there researchers have more control but other problems can take place.

§  One problem with experiments is that researchers cannot tell if the results can be duplicated outside of the laboratory.   Second of all, most subjects of experiments ran today are college students and they are not representative of the general public.  Thirdly, experiments are well at predicting short-term effects but not how the subject will react months later in the real world.

2.      Survey Research

§  Survey research is collecting and measuring data taken from a group of respondents.  Random sampling gives each subject an equal chance to be in the survey.  This method draws a larger population than those of experimental studies.  Surveys can be done through mail, personal interviews, telephone calls, e-mail, and Web sites.  This gives researchers the ability to accumulate large amounts of information by surveying a diverse group of people.  This kind of data can examine demographic factors like education, income level, race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, political affiliations, as well as questions related to the survey subject.

§  Longitudinal studies make it possible for social scientists to compare new studies with previous ones.  An example of this is, they take survey a group of people when they are ten, twenty, and thirty years old and compare the data of their frequency of watching television and what shows they preferred at the different ages.

http://youtu.be/ZDq0ELHovLw

§  Surveys can reveal correlations, or associations between two variables unlike how they cannot account for variables that might affect media use.  A survey may show the correlation between ten year old boys’ aggression and watching violent television but it does not explain what it the cause and what is the effect.  Also, the validity of survey questions is a chronic problem.  The survey is only as good as the questions it poses and the answers that are available.

3.      Content Analysis

§  Content analysis was developed to study specific media messages like gun violence because previous experiments and surveys only focused on general subject like violence altogether.

§  During World War II, content analysis was first used for radio but it now used on television, film, and the Internet.  George Gerbner and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania did some of the most influential content analysis during the 1960s where they coded and counted violence on network television.  They found through their reports that all age ranges of television viewers in America tend to overestimate the actual amount of violence that exists.

§  There are limits to content analysis, including the ability to measure effects of messages on an audience and how those messages are presented.  Another problem that exists with content analysis is definition.  An example of definition for the survey would be if there is a difference between cartoon slapstick violence and the violence of murder and rape in evening dramas.  Finally, content analysis does not always think about broader topics about television and media.  Examples of these topics would be concerning the media as a popular art form, a measure of culture, and as a demographic influence.

Sources:

1.      Campbell, Martin, and Fabos (2013). Media and Culture: Mass Communication In A Digital Age. Bedford St. Martin’s: New York.

2.      Apple Oxidation & The Scientific Method: a fun, at-home sience experiment. 2011. video. YouTubeWeb. 6 Aug 2013. <http://youtu.be/OgS46ksAawk>.

3.      Professor Philip Mitchell - A longitudinal study of offspring with bipolar disorder. 2011. video. YouTubeWeb. 6 Aug 2013. <http://youtu.be/ZDq0ELHovLw>.

Group 3

Contemporary Media Effects Theories

1. Social Learning Theory

a. Define Social learning theory

2. Agenda-Setting

a. Define agenda setting

3. The Cultivation Effect

a. Define cultivation effect

4. The Spiral of Silence

a. Define spiral of silence

5. The Third-Person Effect

D. Evaluating Research on Media Effects

Group 4

(Kyle George)

1.     Cultural Approaches to Media Research

a.     With the rise of modern media research, social scientist warned us about the limits of “gathering data”. This gave way to more historical and interpretive methods, which often directly oppose the scientific model.

b.     Cultural Studies arose during the 1960s and challenged the mainstream media effects theories. Cultural studies focus on: how people make meaning, reality, and order experience- by using cultural symbols that appear in the media.

2.     Early Developments in Cultural Studies Research

a.     Europeans have tended to research the media as literary or cultural critics rather than experimental or survey researchers. Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci were early pioneers in this approach. These two investigated effects of mass media in social hierarchy, distracting effects of pop. Culture and sports, and they also addressed the subordinate status of particular social groups.

b.     In the United States, early critics of media effects research came from the Frankfurt School. The group pointed to 3 inadequacies of traditional scientific approaches:

                                               i.     They reduced large cultural questions to measurable and verifiable categories

                                              ii.     Depended on an atmosphere of rigidly enforced neutrality

                                            iii.     Refused to place the phenomena of modern life in a historical and moral context

                                            iv.     Academics who use the cultural approach to media research try to understand how media and culture are tied to the actual patterns of communication in daily life.

3.     Conducting Cultural Studies Research

a.     Cultural research focuses on everyday questions/situations including:

                                               i.     Race

                                              ii.     Gender

                                            iii.     Class

                                            iv.     Sexuality

                                              v.     The unequal arrangements of power and status in contemporary society

b.     This research shows areas where different social groups, African Americans-Native Americans-Asian Americans-etc., have been marginalized throughout history. It also helps these groups receive more attention and recover their “lost voices”.

4.     Textual Analysis

a.     Textual Analysis highlights the close reading and interpretation of cultural messages, including those found in books, movies, and TV programs. It is equivalent to measurements like experiments, surveys, and content analysis.

b.     One form of textual analysis, framing research, focuses on recurring media structures, particularly in news stories.

c.      Horace Newcomb wrote the book TV: The Most Popular Art, which became the first to study television shows, determining why certain shows became popular. Newcomb argued that scientific approaches often failed to consider artistic/social aspects.

d.     Following Newcomb, researchers began studying less elite forms of media like magazines, pop culture, TV, fashion, and architecture (among other topics). These minor elements often provided insight into broader meanings in our society.

5.     Audience Studies

a.     Focuses on how people use and interpret cultural content.

b.     Differs from textual because the audience is being studied not the actual text.

c.      Janice Radway did research involving women and romantic novels. She did not claim scientific results, but focused on the relationship between reading popular fiction and ordinary life.

d.     Radway’s research helped define culture in broad terms, as being made up of both the products a society fashions and the process that forge those products.

6.     Political Economy Studies

a.     Examine the interconnections among economic interests, political power, and how that power is used. Particular focus is placed on increasing conglomeration of media ownership.

b.     Increased concentration of media ownership means that fewer and fewer people are controlling media content.

c.      Political Economy studies are often best utilized when combined with textual and audience studies, which provide context for understanding the cultural content of a media product, its production process, and how the audience responds.

7.     Cultural Studies Theoretical Perspectives

a.     Includes two foundational concepts:

                                               i.     Public Sphere

                                              ii.     Communication as Culture

8.     The Public Sphere More Info

a.     Space for critical public debate. Began when middle class men came together to hold meetings in pubs, coffeehouses, and public halls to discuss life and debate ideas of novels and publications.

b.     This led to support for free speech, right of assembly, and free press.

c.      German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, declared that a democratic society should always work to create the most favorable communication situation possible-a public sphere. However, he also warned of the dangers mass media could present.

9.     Communication as Culture

a.     James Carey argued that communication is more of a cultural ritual as opposed to a simple transmission of a message from sender to receiver. He defined communication as a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed.

b.     This led researchers to consider communications symbolic process as culture itself.

10. Evaluating cultural Studies Research

a.     Cultural studies research, unlike media effects research, involves interpreting written and visual texts or artifacts as symbolic representations that contain cultural, historical, and political meaning.

b.     James Carey stated, “The cultural approach does not seek to explain human behavior, but to understand it…It does not attempt to predict human behavior, but to diagnose human meanings.”

c.      Cultural studies offer a way to broadly interpret the impact of mass media.

d.     The limitations of this form of research are highlighted when the researchers neglect certain more quantitative data. The two research methods, media effects and cultural studies, have been coming together to collaborate and improve the outcomes of their studies.

11. Media Research and Democracy

a.     Academic studies often neglect to address everyday life; sometimes forming their own jargon which can alienate non-academics. This has led to the denial of general public’s access to the research process.

b.     The use of this language can be incomprehensible to students and audiences. The jargon and intellectual fads cause academics to lose contact with the real world and undermine the prospect for progressive social critique.

c.      Researches in the 70s began ‘hiding away’ in their research, studying obscure matters the public couldn’t relate to. However, in the 80s and 90s, they began to come out and write for more political and cultural publications. These appearances helped to bring researches back in touch with the public through mass media. This led to the eventual discussion of digital media production.

d.     Like public journalists, public intellectuals based on campuses help carry on the conversations of society and culture, actively circulating the most important new ideas of the day and serving as models for how to participate in public life.