Media Uses and Effects

8/4/2019 Media Uses and Effects

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Media Uses and Effects


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Effects

Effects mean different things to differentpeople.

A psychologist, for example, has psychological

effects in mind when talking about media effects. The political scientist political effect and so on.

So any attempt to understand effects must

necessarily take into account from whoseperspective the effect are being investigated.


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Mass Media/Communication Effects

The effects of media are explained with someproven research.

Reinforcement: Limited Effects Theory Catharsis and Narcosis Incidental Effects Uses and Gratification Cultivation or Cultural Theory

Technological Effects

McLuhans

Perspective Reflex Effects:


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Reinforcement: Limited Effects Theory

Reinforcement theory is a limited effectsmedia model applicable within the realm ofcommunication.

The theory generally states that peopleseek out and remember information thatprovides cognitive support for their pre-

existing attitudes and beliefs.


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The assumption that guides this theory is

that people/human do not like to be wrongand often feel uncomfortable when theirbeliefs are challenged.

Politics provides an excellent setting forthe study of reinforcement theory. Thestatistics on undecided voters indicate thatmost people have pre-existing beliefs

when it comes to politics. Relatively few people remain undecided

late into high-profile elections.


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The reason why undecided voters arefrequent message targets can be found in

reinforcement theory. Reinforcement theory predicts that people

with already developed opinions will

selectively attend to and cognitivelyincorporate information that supports theirown views.

Reinforcement theory has three primary

mechanisms behind it: selective exposure,selective perception and selectiveretention.


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Catharsis and Narcosis

Catharsis

Closely related to narcosis theory, is thecatharsis theory of media effects-

Seymour Feshbach He argued that media may have cathartic

effect on people that somehow purges

them of many anti-social and unfulfilleddesires, frustrations and feelings ofhostility.


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Narcosis

Theorists argue that media havenarcotizing dysfunction that distracts

audiences from real problems and in fact

prevents their doing anything about them.

The mass media have a drug-likeaddictive effect, lulling audiences into

positivist and a sense of elation.


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Incidental Effects

Aldous Huxley took the stand that mediaindeed do teach people things

But most of them are of no consequence;they also have effects, but mostly inunimportant and trivial facets of our livesalthough we may think that they are

important.


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The theory also holds audiencesresponsible for choosing media to meet itsneeds.

The approach suggests that people usethe media to fulfil specific gratifications.

This theory would then imply that themedia compete against other information

sources for the viewers gratification.


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There are three main paradigms in mediaeffects: hypodermic needle (i.e., direct, or

strong effects), limited effects, and thepowerful to limited effects. "Uses andGratifications" falls under the second

paradigm which reached its apex around1940-1960, when studies helped realizethat the first paradigm was inaccurate.


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Cultivation Theory

Television is responsible for shaping, orcultivating viewers conceptions of social reality.

George Gerbner, began the 'Cultural Indicators'research project in the mid-1960s, to studywhether and how watching television mayinfluence viewers' ideas of what the everydayworld is like.

Cultivation research is in the 'effects' tradition.Cultivation theorists argue that television haslong-term effects which are small, gradual,indirect but cumulative and significant.


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He states that combined effect of massivetelevision exposure by viewers over timesubtly shapes the perception of socialreality for individuals and, ultimately, forour culture as a whole.

Gerbner argues that the mass mediacultivate attitudes and values which arealready present in a culture.

There is also a distinction between twogroups of television viewers: the heavyviewers and the light viewers


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The focus is on heavy viewers. People who

watch a lot of television are likely to be more

influenced by the ways in which the world isframed by television programs.

Light viewers may have more sources ofinformation than heavy viewers, especially

regarding topics of which the viewer has littlefirst-hand experience.

Cultivation research looks at the mass media as

a socializing agent and investigates whethertelevision viewers come to believe the televisionversion of reality the more they watch it.


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Technological Effects

The medium is the message is a phrasecoined by Marshall McLuhan meaning thatthe form of a medium embeds itself in the

message, creating a symbiotic relationshipby which the medium influences how themessage is perceived.

He proposes that media itself, not thecontent it carries, should be the focus ofstudy.


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He said that a medium affects the society

in which it plays a role not only by thecontent delivered over the medium, butalso by the characteristics of the medium

itself.


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Reflex Effects

A rather different kind of effect on which notheory has yet been built is the impact of mediaamong and within themselves.

Mass communicators are known to review eachothers work, and reporters carefully go through

rival papers, and switch on to newsprogrammers on the air. It is no surprise;

therefore, that copycatting in content and formhas become a common phenomenon.

Media Uses and Effects

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