JMC 1100 1st Edition Lecture 21 Media Uses and Effects Media and Our Emotions Media Today I Google attacks Spoilers a Wants to remove unwanted spoilers from your surfing Greatest Show on TV a Harkens back to Battle of Network Stars b L L Cool J II Today I How do media influence our emotions II Then how do our emotions influence our media choices What is an Emotion I A state of arousal an instinctive or intuitive feeling positive or negative a Physiological arousal responsible for the intensity of the emotion b Feeling our cognitive processing of that arousal Why are emotions important 1 Survival a They are instinctual so they help us evaluate situations quickly 2 Decision Making a Help us understand what is right and wrong 3 Communication a They help us navigate social situations 5 basic emotions II We have five types of emotions a Happiness Fear Anger Sadness Disgust b These emotions represent our physiological response to situations Secondary emotions III We also experience Secondary Emotions a Appear after primary emotions and may come from blending emotions i Ex Shame guilt nervousness embarrassment giddiness Emotions in Society IV Primary and Secondary emotions help us organize ourselves within our social groups a We learn how to behave and gain approval based on our interactions These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute How we learn Emotions I First we focus on non verbal cues from our social groups II Second we rely on tone of voice III Finally the actual words said to us Media Influence our Emotion I Much like violent media content can influence our perceptions of the world different types of content can influence our Emotional State II Throughout our lives our media a Trigger Emotional Reactions b Alter Emotions c Reinforce Emotions Media and Emotions I Mass media provide a continual flow of stories used by audiences to feel emotions II Media give us information about how different emotions should be expressed Starts an Early Age I Perceptual Stage a Years 2 7 b Frightened of cartoons fantasy characters and situations II Conceptual Stage a Years 7 b Developing logic and processing skills c Frightened of things that are really possible How Media Plays to our Emotions 1 Fear Appeals a A message that uses fear as a tactic to inform or entertain people b Common method in political persuasion and social marketing 2 Empathy Appeals a Messages try to connect you to another person or situation b Empathy is likely to occur if you have a positive view of the person Interpreting these Messages I II Law of Apparent Reality Frijda 1988 Emotions are elicited by events appraised as real and their intensity corresponds to the degree which this is the case a As we consume media we evaluate the level of threat vs level of reality Emotions affecting media choice I Again Mood Management Theory Zillman 1988 a We choose media based on our feelings b Semantic Affinity i We choose media to help our current mood c Hedonic Valence i We choose media purely of pleasure d Excitatory Potential i We choose media that arouses or calms us e Absorption Potential i We choose media based on our wish to lose ourselves What about social media II As offline social interactions become less frequent how do we learn to behave 3 Effects of New Media on Emotions I II III Problem 1 Emotional Atrophy a We no longer have to react to emotions in real time b We get lazy at reacting to emotions c This changes our social groups and methods of interacting with one another Problem 2 Harder to learn emotional cues a Given that face and voices are the most descriptive forms of emotion i Social media users don t learn to be as good at being emotional ii Heavy online media users are less able to assess others emotions successfully b We miss the subtle non verbal cues through online and digital interaction Problem 3 Social Media is too happy a The majority of comments photos and content on Facebook and Snapchat are positive i Positive content is also like more b If you look at a world that is mostly happy you don t learn negative emotions c Facebook is the happiest place on earth i If we don t learn about these emotions it makes it more difficult to manage these emotions