Rise of Mass Society:Rise of the Industrial Revolution – we see massive migration from rural areas into the cities from various countries to the US.Industrialization – people from small close knit communities where they knew everyone went to a mass society where they learned about the world from mass media sources (newspaper, magazines)Propaganda and the Direct Effects Model:Critics worried that mass media messages would overwhelm peopleFear that the media would become the most powerful source in societyArgument viewed audience members as passive targets who would be hit or injected with the message.Most scholars focus on media’s indirect effects on society rather than their direct effects on individuals.Indirect Effects Approach: Still looks at the effects that messages have on individuals, but it accounts for the fact that audience members perceive and interpret these messages selectively according to individuals differences.Voter Studies and Limited Effects Model:The People’s Choice: One of the first large scale social scientific studies of campaign influences of the 1940 U.S presidential election contest between Roosevelt and Willkie.Team of researchers led by Lazarsfeld looked at how voters in Erie County, Ohio decided which candidate to vote for.Found that people who were highly interested in the campaign and paid the most attention to media coverage were least likely to be influenced by the campaign.Contrast: Voters who decided at last minute usually turn to friends or neighbors rather than the media.Opinion Leaders: influential community members, friends, family, and coworkers – who spend significant time with the media – Lazarsfeld suggested that information flows from media to opinion leaders and from these leaders to the rest of the public.End Result of the study: The people’s choice study as well as other early voters studies found that campaigns typically reinforce existing political predispositions and few people changed there minds about who they were going to support.The importance of meaning and the critical/cultural model:School of thought looks at how people use media to construct their view of the world rather than how media changes people’s behaviors.The critical/cultural approach: takes more of a qualitative examination of the social structure in which communication takes place.It considers how meaning is created within society, who controls the media systems, and the roles the media play in our lives.Looks at how people use and construct messages.Ordinary people are seen as moving from being information providers, to information receiver’s, with only limited opportunities to answer back.Mass media became a tool for controlling the flow of info and the topics that can be discussed.Example of the critical/cultural approach: the crime stories that deal with the attractive, wealthy, white women and girls attract much more attention than do disappearances of women of color or of those who are poor.Example two: The Casey Anthony Trial (p. 33)Effects of the Media in Our lives:Message Effects: How messages might change people’s behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs.Cognitive effects: The most common and observable message effect is the short-term learning of information.The amount of learning that takes place from media content depend largely on the motivation level of the person consuming the media.Doris Graber found that people who want to be able to talk intelligently with others about media content learn much more from the media than people who just seek entertainment.Research also shows that people learn more from people they identify with and pay more attention to political commentators they agree with than ones they dislike.Attitudinal effects: People can develop feelings about a product, individual, or an idea on the basis of media content.Typically it is easier to get people to form new opinions than to get them to change existing ones.Example: Obama campaign frequently targeted young voters who had less established political loyalties with ads found on Comedy central, VH1, or Xbox.Behavioral Effects: Include actions such as clipping a coupon from a newspaper, buying a product, making a phone call, or voting for a candidate.The most difficult to achieve because people are reluctant to change their behaviors.Example of behavioral effect: when a teenager watches a movie to learn how to behave on a date.Psychological Effects: Media content can inspire fear, joy, revulsion, happiness, or amusement among other feelings.Major effect = arousal. Symptoms can include a rise in heart rate, adrenaline levels, or sexual response.Seeking a psychological response is a common reason for spending time with the media (relaxation, excitement, or emotional release)Example = music videosChapter 2: Mass Communication Effects 02/17/2014Rise of Mass Society:-Rise of the Industrial Revolution – we see massive migration from rural areas into the cities from various countries to the US.-Industrialization – people from small close knit communities where they knew everyone went to a mass society where they learned about the world from mass media sources (newspaper, magazines)Propaganda and the Direct Effects Model:-Critics worried that mass media messages would overwhelm people-Fear that the media would become the most powerful source in society-Argument viewed audience members as passive targets who would be hit or injected with the message.-Most scholars focus on media’s indirect effects on society rather than their direct effects on individuals.-Indirect Effects Approach: Still looks at the effects that messages have on individuals, but it accounts for the fact that audience members perceive and interpret these messages selectively according to individuals differences. Voter Studies and Limited Effects Model:-The People’s Choice: One of the first large scale social scientific studies of campaign influences of the 1940 U.S presidential election contest between Roosevelt and Willkie.oTeam of researchers led by Lazarsfeld looked at how voters in Erie County, Ohio decided which candidate to vote for. oFound that people who were highly interested in the campaignand paid the most attention to media coverage were least likely to be influenced by the campaign. oContrast: Voters who decided at last minute usually turn to friends or neighbors rather than the media. oOpinion Leaders: influential community members, friends, family, and coworkers – who