JMC 1100 1st Edition Exam 2 Study Guide Lectures 7 13 Lecture 7 February 17 What is public opinion General publics attitude towards an issue or subject that is used to understand other thoughts and compare them to our own public opinion comes from interpersonal contact and news media Conformity has the power Stanford prison experiment o Reinforce authority Solomon Asch s line experiment o Line test people conformed to saying what everyone else said even if wrong Stanley Milgrim s Shock Experiment o Responded to authority and obedience 2 3 people put someone to death because an authority figure said they would take blame Spiral of Silence Noelle Nueman We fear isolation and rejection For example those with political views not in the majority will not speak on the topic because they fear rejection however it doesn t apply to everyone We use public opinion to and interpersonal communication to evaluate our opinions Conclusion I II III Public opinion matters more than we think Conformity and obedience are necessary at times damaging in others Spiral of Silence behaviors limits our society growth Lecture 8 February 19 Julius Caesar created the first newspaper called Acta Diurna Media as the 4th Estates influences public opinion The other three are the three branches of Government Judicial Executive and Federal Media has the same level of power to influence us Satisfies our need for cognition Helps us understand and create meaning of the information and events in our society High like to think strong desire for news about politics Low less personal opinion likely to take populist views on issues Gatekeeping Media determine what we read and discuss Gate 1 Should we cover Gate 2 How much time and space Gate 3 Audience response can cause more coverage to be given Gate three can influence Gate 2 Lippmann argued that the press has a large impact on public life but failed the Marketplace Ideas Open forum of ideas for us to make an opinion Claimed people are irrational and uneducated actors Hostile Media Effect People with strong beliefs see bias against their views in neutral media coverage Stanford Student Study result both pro Israel and pro Palestine students felt media was biased against them Dual Coding Theory Images are processed differently than verbal messages and we recall verbal information better without visuals People choose their media through four different ways 1 Selective Exposure choosing media channels that agree with your views and ignoring those that don t 2 Selective Perception perceiving information through your own desires and attitudes 3 Selective Attention viewing messages that fit your worldview and ignoring those that doesn t 4 Selective Retention remembering information that fits your worldview and forgetting what doesn t Lecture 9 February 24 Agenda Setting More coverage of an issue increased importance to audience Chapel Hill confirmed this by views of civil rights Based on the idea that public doesn t have ability to know all must rely heavily on the media We are cognitive misers we consume just enough information to get through our daily life News media doesn t tell us what to think but what to think about Pew Center for the People and Press Zucker confirms agenda setting but found personal experience filters could override media emphasis Second Gate Nature of the Issue Unobtrusive those with little to no direct experience climate change o More reliant on media information Obtrusive those the experience daily unemployment o AGENDA SETTING DOES NOT OCCUR Framing A frame is a central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests what the issues are o This happens through the use of selection emphasis exclusion and elaboration of words phrases or visual images Frames help us understand or focus on certain parts of a story Gain vs Loss frames there are more frames than this o Frames come from 1 Journalists and editors 2 Lobbyists PR professionals Lecture 10 February 26 Two types of messages marketers use 1 New messages focus on objectives information to inform the public 2 Marketing Messages focus on persuasive information to influence public decisions and behaviors have it based on emotions Demographics age gender education income ethnicity etc census information Date variable about who we are based on life characteristics Pyschographics what we do think believe etc likes on facebooks Better way to target than demographics Lecture 11 March 3 Persuasion is the act of using rational and or emotional arguments to convince others to change their attitudes beliefs and behaviors however it doesn t force people to change Persuasion tries to alter attitude general and enduring positive or negative feeling about a person object or issue belief a description of what an individual assumes to be ture or false can be confused with facts and behavior how a person acts in response to a particular situation or stimulus 3 Behavioral Responses to Persuasion 1 Response shaping persuader attempts to shape the response of an audience by teaching individuals how to behave persuader is the teacher and the audience is the student 2 Response Reinforcing Currently held convictions are strengthened to be more resistant to change makes people feel more strongly by demonstrating their attitudes toward specific behaviors 3 Response Change Creates new behaviors to replace the old ones this is the most difficult kind of persuasion because we are reluctant to change Viral marketing commercial advertising new persuasion battleground does not drive product band popularity Two Routes Route 1 Central Persuasion occurs when the audience is interested attentive and intellectually involved This route is especially likely if we know that message is counterattitudinal goes against our current attitudes Route 2 Peripheral Persuasion that occurs when people are influenced by secondary cues like attractiveness sex status and humor More likely designed when we are watching programs that designed to entertain us Lecture 12 March 5 6 principles of persuasion Robert Cialdini did decades of research on why people comply with requests he eventually came up with the 6 principles of persuasion 1 Reciprocity obligation to give when you receive 2 Scarcity people want more of things they have less of and give the benefits of what s unique and what they will lose 3 Authority People will follow the lead of credible experts 4 Consistency Looking for asking commitments that can be made 5 Liking