The persistence case of ‘media effects’ research�

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The importance of audience research data

Commercial broadcasters Politicians Policy planners Regulators Health care professionals Academics Technology companies Content producers The general public

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5% 13%

18%

31%

19%

14% Audience

share

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17-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55+

The media terrain is wide…

Books Art Film Television Internet Video games Music Comics

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Different stakeholders = different interests

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Time consuming, costly and complex

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Myths

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Myths

‘The history of audience research is littered with the corpses of studies that have tried and failed to demonstrate, once and for all, a cause and effect relationship between media message and receiver behaviour’ (Ross & Nightingale, 2003: p9)

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Sensitive to ideological objections

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Effects Research

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A few useful background texts

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The direction of effects research

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The direction of effects research

‘despite decades of work in which researchers have tried to demonstrate the cause-effect relationship, it has never actually been possible to isolate out the specific influence of media from the other factors, including individual pathology, on human behaviour’ (Ross and Nightengale, 2003: 72)

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The basic historical trajectory

Effects Now? Encoding / Decoding

Uses and Gratifications

Passive Active Autonomous? Interactive?

Socially situated

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4 phases (see McQuail, 1993, 2010)

Phase 1 – media as all-powerful Phase 2 - media as all-powerful challenged Phase 3 – powerful media revisited Phase 4 – negotiating media meaning

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Phase 1 – media as all-powerful

1900-1930s Media as a top-down model of communication From the power elites to ‘the masses’

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Phase 1 – media as all-powerful

Ivan Pavlov Physiologist 1901 ‘Conditional reflex’ Classical conditioning

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Phase 1 – media as all-powerful

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The tail wagging the dog?

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Phase 2 - media as all-powerful challenged

1930s-1950s Studies into voting patterns Studies into juvenile delinquency Acknowledgment of multiple variables Impact of positivism Influence of behaviourism

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Phase 2 - media as all-powerful challenged

B.F. Skinner Behaviourist Schedules of reinforcement Operant Conditioning Chamber (aka the Skinner Box) Cause and effect

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Phase 2 - media as all-powerful challenged

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Phase 2 - media as all-powerful challenged

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Phase 3 – powerful media revisited

1960s longer-term effects more subtle shifts in comprehension diversity in motivations of media use George Gerbner’s cultivation analysis theory

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Phase 3 – powerful media revisited

Albert Bandura 1961-63 Social learning theory The Bobo Doll Experiments Exposure to aggressive modelling

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Phase 3 – powerful media revisited

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Phase 3 – powerful media revisited

Criticisms? Ferguson (2010) suggest the Bobo Doll studies are not studies of aggression at all •  Children were motivated to imitate the adult

in the belief the videos were instructions. •  Children were motivated by the desire to

please adults rather than genuine aggression. •  The external validity of the study noting that

Bobo Dolls are designed to be hit.

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Phase 4 – negotiating media meaning

1970s onwards Focus on media message construction and how audiences deconstruct these An examination of what audiences did with media, rather than what the media did to audiences Qualitative research Ethnography

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What happens next?

A new dimension? More cause and effect? Brain science? Neuroscience + psychology?

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Summary

Models have changed Cyclical arguments, claims and counter-claims Identification? Addition? Desensitisation? Morals?

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The biggest problem?

•  The research approach: – Content analysis? – Physical stimuli? – Trend analysis? – Closed question surveys? – Participant observation? – Focus groups? – Ethnography?

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Read this

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Images

The tartanpodcast, 2009, Social Media Outposts M. Mackenzie, 2008, Top Secret Codeword Data $PHPhoto, 2008, Time is Money FrozenCapybara, 2007, Wait, where am I again? Ramkarthikblogger, 2009, Direction Nina Leen (LIFE), 1964, B F Skinner training a rat Holah.co.uk (date unknown), bobo2 Mal Cubed, 2005, MB1NR-3 A. Diez Herrero, 2007, creative commons -Franz Patzig-

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