UA COMM 309 - Mass Media and Media Effects: History and Overview

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Comm 309- Week 1 Notes Mass Media and Media Effects: History and Overview What is Communication?- The exchange of info and messages which have some meaning- There is some context in which this takes place: dyads, groups, media- There is some medium for this activity (the mass media) - Some basic characteristics:o Comm is the exchange of meaningful symbols (cannot directly exchange meaning)o Use of symbol (speech, writing, print, film): unique human characteristics - Comm is a process; its ongoing o Encoding: turning meaning into symbolso Decoding: turning symbols into meaning o Transmitting: sending and receiving messages - A simple process model (on slides) - There needs to be a medium for all this to occur (for this class its mass media)Why Communicate?- Communication can satisfy human needs - Human contact: not feeling alone - Surveillance: watching for things to happen - Outright pleasure and escape: mass media exposure Four Functions of Communication1. Informationo All comm contains some info2. Entertainmento Arousing and immediately gratifying o Satisfy needs to escape, release, and pleasure3. Instructiono Messages that teach skills, understanding 4. Persuasion o Most complex function o Usually involves other functionso Attempt to affect the beliefs and behaviors of others - Can do all four functions at the same time - Functions are often mixed Comm Can Occur at Various Levels - Intrapersonal: think and talk to self ↓- Interpersonal↓- Small group: 25-30 people ↓- Organizational: more of a rigid structure ↓- Public↓- Mass o Comm episodes can occur at multiple levels One Major Principal- We cannot NOT communicate- 75% of waking hours are in active comm- A lot of this is with some form of media- No communication is communication Popular Media platforms (on slides)Mass Communication - It’s a process- Message is formulated by professional and sometimes nonprofessional communicators - Message is sent in a rapid and continuous way via the media - Message reaches large and diverse audiences (mass)- Audience is influenced in some way-there is an effect Mass Comm vs. Face to Face Comm - Consequences of using a medium:o Reduces feedback and incongruence in meaning o Largely one-way activity o New technologies change thisSociety’s Influence on the Media- Mass media do not exist in a vacuum- Cultural and political context shapes its nature and function - Mass media systems differ greatly from society to society American Society and Screen Media - 1953: I Love Lucy (couldn’t sleep in same bed; couldn’t use the word pregnant) - 1965: I Dream of Jeannie (couldn’t show belly button) - 1968: Star Trek (have first interracial kiss) - 1991: Murphy Brown (the single mother) - 1997: Ellen (first character to be homosexual) - 2011: Glee (gay teens; kissing) Do We Believe that Society is Influenced by the Media?- The answer is yes - Parents are concerned (65%)- Most parents believe there should be regulations The Debate over the Media’s Influence - The view of three groups:1. Industry: they say that there are no antisocial effects2. Critics: they say the effect is direct and powerful o Depend upon and trust media o Content is trivial and meaningless3. Researchers: they say that there are some effects on some people some of the time under some conditions Effects Can Be - Conditional Effects Model : effects some of the people, some of the time, under some conditions o individual differences-children vs. adults; those predisposed to violence vs. those who are not - Cumulative Effects Model: not due to a single exposure; additive effect for “many exposures” - Caveat-One Other Effect: think person effect o other more effected than ourselves o we underestimate the effect on ourselves - Types of effects we can measure:o Behavioral o Attitudinal (our feelings and beliefs about something) o Cognitive (what we think and know about something)o Physiological (new research on brain activity during media violence exposure)Exploring Third Person Differences Dimensions of Media Effects- micro and macro level: effects on the individual and or society - intended or unintended effects (commercials vs. violence) - content dependent vs. content irrelevant o violence/sexo heavy media use distracts from sleep - short vs. long term effects - reinforcement vs. change (political ads) Strength of Effects - statistical measure which can be used (meta-analysis) - most studies show small to modest effect sizes - many factors determine an effect (risk factors) Major Research Methods - survey: what do people think o written questionnaires o phone interviews o face to face interviews  advantages: generalizability  use of an appropriate sample  random digit dialing  Small margin of error (+ or -3%) disadvantages: need a representative sample  cannot talk of causality - content analysiso describes in a systematic manner the content of the communication o you have to have representative samples o there is no info about effects - correlation study: relationship between variable o cannot determine casual connectiono correlation does not imply causation (why?-directionality) o these studies help us determine the existence of a relationship between variables o this relationship helps us design more precise experimental studies - experiment: does one cause the other o allows for casual statements o what is the impact of a certain input variable (independent) on certain outcomes o independent variable: researcher manipulates or control o dependent variable: value is presumed to depend on the individual variable  disadvantages: external validity-generalization  artificial  subject population Triangulation - three methodologies are used - combined results are more compelling than any single methodology Meta-Analysis - a means of systematically integrating the findings from many empirical studies - used to provide a big picture - magnitude of effect - direction of


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UA COMM 309 - Mass Media and Media Effects: History and Overview

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