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    Media Effects: Does Media Content Affect Society or Reflect Society?

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    Sherry Malik
    The Payne Fund Studies from the late 1920s and early 1930s were the first rigorous attempt to study the effects of media on children and adolescents. They used methods like content analysis of films and experiments measuring attitudes before and after media exposure. Key findings included that romantic or sexual content in films aroused adolescents physically and that exposure to Birth of a Nation decreased positive attitudes towards black people. The studies helped establish the belief that media could negatively influence attitudes and behavior and influenced the enforcement of censorship codes in Hollywood.

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    Media Effects: Does Media Content Affect Society or Reflect Society?

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    Sherry Malik
    98 views53 pages
    The Payne Fund Studies from the late 1920s and early 1930s were the first rigorous attempt to study the effects of media on children and adolescents. They used methods like content analysis of films and experiments measuring attitudes before and after media exposure. Key findings included that romantic or sexual content in films aroused adolescents physically and that exposure to Birth of a Nation decreased positive attitudes towards black people. The studies helped establish the belief that media could negatively influence attitudes and behavior and influenced the enforcement of censorship codes in Hollywood.

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    151 Media Effects

    Original Title

    151 Media Effects

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    The Payne Fund Studies from the late 1920s and early 1930s were the first rigorous attempt to study the effects of media on children and adolescents. They used methods like content analysis of films and experiments measuring attitudes before and after media exposure. Key findings included that romantic or sexual content in films aroused adolescents physically and that exposure to Birth of a Nation decreased positive attitudes towards black people. The studies helped establish the belief that media could negatively influence attitudes and behavior and influenced the enforcement of censorship codes in Hollywood.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    98 views53 pages

    Media Effects: Does Media Content Affect Society or Reflect Society?

    Uploaded by

    Sherry Malik
    The Payne Fund Studies from the late 1920s and early 1930s were the first rigorous attempt to study the effects of media on children and adolescents. They used methods like content analysis of films and experiments measuring attitudes before and after media exposure. Key findings included that romantic or sexual content in films aroused adolescents physically and that exposure to Birth of a Nation decreased positive attitudes towards black people. The studies helped establish the belief that media could negatively influence attitudes and behavior and influenced the enforcement of censorship codes in Hollywood.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 53

    Media effects

    Does media content affect


    society or reflect society?
    The Payne Fund
    Studies
     A series of studies of the effect of
    movies on children's behavior.
     They were paid for by The Payne
    Fund, a private foundation, and
    performed in the late 1920s and
    early 1930s.
     They have been criticized as
    lacking scientific rigor…but…
    The Payne Fund
    Studies
     …but … were the first attempt to
    rigorously study the media.
     They were politically significant
    and were instrumental in the
    enforcement of the Hays Code.
     MPAA began strictly enforcing it in
    1934
     They are credited with contributing
    to the demise of Pre-Code film-
    making in Hollywood.
    Immense Popularity of
    Film
    The Payne Fund Studies
    (1929-1932)
    n Offshoot of public concern and emergence of social
    science in the 1920s.
    n Designed to find out impact of films on children and
    adolescents, using social scientific methods.
    n Phase One: Content Analysis by Edgar Dale
    u Attempted to categorize movies according to most
    popular themes.
    u What were the most popular themes from 1920 to 30,
    accounting for 75% of 1500 films?
    Dale’s Movie
    Categories
    n Children
    n Comedy
    n Crime
    n History
    n Love
    n Mystery
    n Sex
    n Travel
    n Social Propaganda
    n War
    The Payne Fund Studies
    (1929-1932)
     Dale also had coders content analyze films. . . In
    “real time” in movie theaters!
     Coded for nine types of “social values,” with numerous
    measured variables under each one:
     Nature of American life and characters
     Nature of foreign life and characters

     Motivation of characters

     Emotional appeals to audience

     Crime/delinquency/violence

     Relations of the sexes

     Military situations

     Depictions of underprivileged peoples

     Deportment
    The Payne Fund Studies
    (1929-1932)
     Dale’s diverse findings included
    this “balance sheet” for 1930:
    Emphasized 
    Not emphasized
    Portrayals of life in the upper Life among the middle and lower
    economic strata economic strata
    Problems of the unmarried and young Problems of the married, middle-aged,
    and old
    Problems of love, sex, and crime Everyday problems
    Motifs of escape and entertainment Motifs of education and social
    enlightenment
    Individual and personal goals Social goals
    Physical beauty Beauty of character
    The Payne Fund Studies
    (1929-1932)
     Another Phase: Emotional Responses to
    Romantic or Sexual Content (Dysinger &
    Rucknick)
    Physiological measures used.
    Younger children not affected but
    adolescents were—became more aroused
    by content.
    The Payne Fund Studies
    (1929-1932)
     Another Phase: Effects of Movies on Social
    Attitudes (Peterson & Thurstone)
    Series of experiments involved exposing
    children and adolescents to films with social
    messages and measuring before and after
    attitudes.
    One experiment used D.W. Griffith’s Birth
    of a Nation as stimulus—shown to 434 high
    school children in Illinois.
    Effect of Birth of a Nation
    School children’s attitudes toward Blacks went
    down, from a mean of 7.46 to 5.95 (on a 0-10
    Unfavorable/Favorable scale). . . The effect was
    still apparent 5 months later (Peterson &
    Thurstone, 1933; also studied impact of Four
    Sons on attitudes toward Germans)
    Reaction…
     What inaccurate portrayals of race, gender,
    religion, etc. are on TV or in movies?
     What effect do such portrayals have on
    people?
     What unrealistic ‘living situations,’
    ‘relationships,’ ‘relationships’ are there on
    TV or in movies?
     What effect do such portrayals have on
    people?
    The Payne Fund Studies
    (1929-1932)
    n Another Phase: Behavioral Effects of
    Motion Pictures (Blumer)
    u Used questionnaires and interviews.
    u Asked respondents to recall instances
    when they were affected by media.
    n What are some strengths and weaknesses of
    this technique?
    n How have you been affected by media?
    The Payne Fund Studies
    (1929-1932)
    n Huge role in development of the study
    of media effects.
    n Helped establish legacy of fear, or
    belief that media is powerful and
    dangerous and might pervert and upset
    proper social order.
    n Does this still exist today?
    Laswell’s Model of Mass
    Communication
    n Who
    n Says What
    n In Which Channel
    n To Whom
    n With What Effect
    Effects Theories

    n Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion


    (1922)
    n We see the world as "pictures in
    our heads"
    n Media shape perception of things
    we have not experienced personally
    Powerful Effects Theory

     Media have immediate, direct influence

     Assumes people are passive and absorb


    media content uncritically & unconditionally

     “Hypodermic Needle” model

     “Magic Bullet” model


    Minimalist Effects
    n Paul Lazarsfeld Erie County study (1940)
    n Mass media had hardly any direct effect
    n Personal contact more important than media
    contact
    n Media effects mostly indirect
    Two-step Flow model
    n Media affect individuals through
    opinion leaders

    n Opinion leaders are those who


    influence others
    u Clergy, teachers, neighborhood
    leaders, etc.
    Diffusion of
    Innovations
     Everett Rogers—the main developer
    Adapted ideas from Gabriel Tarde
    and from the Hybrid Seed Corn Study
    (Ryan & Gross)
     This theory has been used and studied
    across many fields: Rural sociology,
    Medical sociology, Anthropology,
    Economics, Marketing
    Innovation
    n Innovation = An idea, practice, or object
    perceived as new by an individual or other
    unit of adoption
    n The Diffusion of Innovations Theory
    attempts to predict adoption of innovations.
    . . Typically, the adoption follows a standard
    pattern:
    The Classic S-Shaped Adoption Curve
    The corresponding Classic Bell-Shaped Adopters Curve
    The corresponding Classic Bell-Shaped Adopters Curve

    Many studies have looked at how these groups differ:


    Innovators are highly cosmopolite and open to new
    things.
    Early adopters tend to be opinion leaders.
    Early majority provide “legitimization” of the
    innovation.
    Individual Differences and Adoption
    n Rogers originally identified key social
    indicators (demographics) as related to
    innovativeness:
    u SES (socio-economic status)
    u Education
    n Atkin, Neuendorf, & Jeffres (1998; 2003),
    studying adoption of audio information
    services and digital TV, identified a trend:
    u Attitudinal and communication variables more
    important than demographics
    Individual Differences and Adoption
     Blake et al. (2004 – 2009) identified
    national or cultural differences in
    factors that seem to affect adoption of
    online shopping; e.g.:
    In Poland, “perceived newness” is a
    positive factor
    In Greece, online shopping is seen as
    highly compatible with past practices
    (catalog shopping)
    The Role of Opinion
    Leaders
     Opinion Leadership was first identified by Lazarsfeld,
    Berelson, and Gaudet in their 1944 book The People’s
    Choice
     Reported on first (1940) in a series of studies of voters
    in Erie County, Ohio
     Unexpectedly found a Two-Step Flow of
    communication about the presidential race. . .
     Mass Media  Opinion Leaders  Opinion
    Followers
     A combination of media and interpersonal channels
    resulted in information and influence re the election
    Status Conferral
     Media coverage can create
    prominence for issues & people

    Agenda Setting
     Maxwell McCombs & Don Shaw

     Media tell people what to think about


    – but not what to think
    Media can:

    n Create awareness

    n Establish priorities

    n Perpetuate issues
    Narcoticizing dysfunction
     Media do not energize people into
    taking action

     Media lull people into passivity by


    overwhelming them with
    information

     People deceive selves into


    believing they’re involved when
    they’re actually only informed
    Cumulative Effects Theory
    n Media influence is gradual over time
    n Effect is often powerful

    Spiral of Silence (Noelle-Neumann)


    n Vocal majority intimidates others
    into silence
    Focus on the audience

    n 1940s challenge to audience


    passivity
    Uses & Gratifications
    n People choose media that meet
    their needs & interests

    Needs such as:


    n Surveillance

    n Diversion

    n Socialization
    Surveillance

     Media provide info about what’s


    going on

     Both news & entertainment


    Diversion
    Media as entertainment
    n Stimulate

    n Relax

    n Release
    Socialization
     Mass media can help initiate
    people into society

     And help them fit in


     Demonstrate dominant behaviors
    and norms
     “Observational learning”
    Role modeling

     Imitative behavior

     Impact can be negative or


    positive ("prosocial”)
    Socialization via
    eavesdropping

    n Children learn about adult topics


    by seeing them depicted in
    media
    Parasocial interaction
    n False sense of participating in
    dialogue
    n Communication is actually one-
    way
    Consistency theory
     Individuals exercise control over
    media’s effects on them
     People choose media & messages
    consistent with their existing views
    & values

    Selective:
     Exposure
     Perception
     Retention & Recall
    Selective Exposure

    n People choose some media


    messages over others

    n People ignore messages that


    contradict their beliefs
    Selective Perception
    n People tend to hear what they want
    or expect to hear
    Selective retention & recall
    n People retain & recollect some media
    messages and not others
    Bottom line:

     Individuals have a large degree of


    control over how the mass media
    affect them … but
     Propaganda Model – do recipients
    know when they’re exposed?
     ‘let the buyer beware’ – but…
    War of the Worlds

    • Why did – OR ‘did’ the Orson


    Welles broadcast have such a
    powerful effect on its audience?
    • War of the World’s, 1938
    Mercury Radio Theatre Radio
    Drama on CBS, Mars invasion,
    panic
    • Newspapers’ role in ‘myth’
    The War of the Worlds
    Broadcast, 1938
     Halloween eve—CBS radio show
    Mercury Theater on the Air
    (narrated by Orson Welles)
    broadcast an adaptation of H. G.
    Wells’ novel War of the Worlds.
     Around 6 million heard the
    broadcast.
     More than 1 million were
    frightened or disturbed.
    Orson Welles on the air
    Aftermath
    The War of the Worlds
    Broadcast
    n Aftermath studied by sociologist Hadley Cantril.
    n Why did it frighten some and not others?
    n 1) Characteristics of the Broadcast
    u Highly realistic
    u Dramatic excellence
    n 2) Characteristics of Affected Listeners
    u Naive, rural, low SES country
    u Had faith in broadcasting
    n 3) Situational Variables (maximized influence)
    u Tuning in late
    u Poor reception from competing stations
    The War of the Worlds
    Broadcast
     BUT...
     Research company that night counted 2% audience
     Many in later years said they heard it that night, but
    is that true
     The War of the Worlds ‘effect’ may be a very
    different kind of study about society than about
    media effects
    Determining Causality
    n Correlation means that 2 or more
    variables coexist

    n Causality means that one variable


    causes another

    n Beware of bad science (studies


    purporting causality)
    X causes Y
     Anecdotal evidence
     ‘measure whether 55 mph gives better MPG than
    75 mph’
     Measure how? Variables?
     Measure effects of violence on kids
     Measure how? Variables?

     ###

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