Media Effects:

Theory and Research

Media Effects: A case of Chandler and Joey
Key components
• Trends in theories of media effects (since 1920s till recent years)
• Five features of media effects theories
• Media effects in newer media environment
• Theories of computer-mediated communication: transactional
feature of communication
Dissemination of information within a culture
• Reach large audiences via mass media • Reach large audiences via
mass media
• Uniform consumption and impacts
• Self-selected and
• Focus on media reception and individualized
generation processes
• Focus on effects of media
generation on senders
Meta-analyses on media effects
• Most important media effects theories?
• Research on media effects start from 1920s and become most
prominent around 1980s.
• Many meta-analyses have been conducted on media effects
• The article listed 20 meta-analyses in the past 20 years.
• Criteria of selection: broad plenitude of media effects that were
investigated
Meta-analyses on media effects
• Founding of meta-analyses:

Small to moderate effect Severe effect sizes in small

sizes in group-level subgroup or certain individuals
Five features of media effects
• Strong individual differences when it comes to analyses of media
effects
• Due to 5 features of media effects theories:
• Selectivity of media use
• Media properties as predictors
• Indirectivity
• Conditional
• Transactional
• Micro-level media effects theory (need definition) (11 most well-cited theories):

 Two-step flow
Unidirectional linear relationship
 Agenda setting
between media and certain
 Priming
outcomes
 Framing
 Cultivation
 Knowledge gap Interaction between media factors
 Limited Capacity Model and non-media factors
 Social Cognitive
 Uses-and-Gratification
 Reinforcing Spiral
 Elaboration Likelihood Model

• Macro-level media effects theory (need definition) (ask class if anyone know?)
 Micro-level media effects theory
• “Microlevel media-effects theories base their inferences on observations of the
individual media user”
• (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013)
• Looks at the effects on certain individual consumer of mass communication
• Some well cited individual-level media-effects theories are:

• Social Cognitive Theory

• Neoassociationist Model and other accounts of Media Priming
• Selective Exposure Theory
• Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing
• Orientations-Stimulus Orientations-Response (O-S-O-R) Model
• Elaboration Likelihood Model
• Uses-and-Gratifications Theory
• Microlevel variants of Cultivation Theory
 Macro-level media effects theory
• Effects from the media on entire communities. Functionalism, like the
mass society theories, examines impact on large groups and on
people who make up those large groups.
 Valkenburg & Peter (2013a)

Conditional Transactional Selectivity of Media effects

Indirect
media effects media effects Media as mediators
• Social Cognitive Theory • Social Cognitive Theory • Social Cognitive Theory • Social Cognitive Theory • Social Cognitive Theory
• Uses‐and‐Gratifications • Reinforcing Spiral • Reinforcing Spiral • Reinforcing Spiral • Elaboration Likelihood
• Reinforcing Spiral Model Model Model Model
Model • Two‐Step Flow • Elaboration Likelihood • Cultivation Theory
• Elaboration Likelihood • Elaboration Likelihood Model
Model Model • Uses-and-Gratification
Feature 1: Selectivity of
Media Use
Feature 1: Selectivity of Media Use
• People select media as a result of certain social needs or beliefs (Katz &
Lazarsfeld 1955)
• 2 propositions:
• (a): People only attend to messages that can potentially attract their attention
• (b): Only those selected messages has the potential to influence them
(Klapper 1960, Lazarsfled et al 1948)

Power of media to change attitudes and behaviors are

limited

Media users Select media Media effects

“Don’t like Iphone”
“Don’t like Iphone”
Feature 1: Selectivity of Media Use
Theoretical perspectives
Methodological
Similarities Differences
Consequences
- Individuals select Media users AWARE of Use self-reports to
Uses-and- media their selection motives observe media use
Gratifications - Satisfy their needs behavior
- Psychological and
Media users are NOT Use unconstructive
Selective social factors as
AWARE (fully) of their observational methods
guidelines
Exposure - Media use = precursor selection motives

There’s also:
Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura 2009), Conditional Model of Political Communication Effects
(McLeod et al 2009), Reinforcing Spiral Model (Slater 2007), Differential Susceptibility to Media
Effects Model (Valkenburg & Peter 2013)
Feature 1: Selectivity of Media Use
Three factors influence selective media use
• Dispositional
• Developmental
• Social Context
Dispositional
• Disposition ranges from distal & stable to proximal & transient factors
Distal Proximal

Temperament, personality, gender Beliefs, motivations, moods

Stable Transient
• Proximal factors are more complex, and under specific conditions,
people might seek content that is inconsistent with their beliefs,
moods or attitudes
Developmental
• People choose media content that is MODERATELY discrepant to their
age-related experience
 Social context
• Influence of social context on micro, meso and macro level
• Social influence can occur:
• Deliberately and overtly: e.g limited choices of channel, parents restriction
• Covertly: stems from the needs to identify with certain values/norms of specific
social groups. People might select media content to develop their social
identities
Feature 2: Media Properties
as Predictors
Feature 2: Media Properties as Predictors
• 3 types of media properties that can predict media effects:
• Modality (visual, audiovisual, text)
• Content (type of character, argument, violence)
• Structural properties (pace, special effects)
Modality
• “Media affect individuals and society not by the content delivered,
but primarily by their modalities” (Marshall McLuhan, 1964)

But

• Media comparison studies failed to produce results to support the

importance of modalities when it comes to learning
• Content and structural properties are proved to be more important
Content properties
• Little studies and NO one overarching theory of content properties
that both trigger selective exposure or predict media affects
• No comprehensive theory on how content properties guide selective
exposure
• Some theories explained how content properties may enhance media
effects:
• Social Cognitive Theory
• Priming Theory
• Transportation Theory
• Extended Elaboration Likelihood Model
• Elaboration Likelihood Model
Content properties
• Social Cognitive Theory:
• “…Media depiction of rewarded behavior and attractive media characters
enhance the likelihood of media effects”
• Let’s watch these gangs of mean girls! So mean yet so cool?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dxk-lNkwjk
Structural properties
• Special effects, visual practices etc. can trigger our
immediate and automatic response Goals & experiences

Transient attention Sustained attention

Feature 3: Media Effects are
Indirect
• Media effects are INDIRECT

Media use Intervening Variables Media outcomes

• Three types:
Pre-media use variables Media use Media outcomes

Cognitive,emotional,physiological processes
 Media use Media outcomes

Post-exposure
variables

 Media use Post-exposure

variables
 Pre-media use variables Media use Media outcomes

• Pre-media use variables include: development, dispositions, social-

context factors
Gender Media outcome:
Identity-related: Naming her
child after one of the main
character

Watch Soap Opera

 Cognitive,emotional,physiological processes
Media use Media outcomes

•Elaboration Likelihood Model: if message is of high level of attention

(central route), then the media effects will be more enduring
•Example: Dove Men+ Care Reaction of real life fathers-to-be in the
first moment they find out they are going to be a dad
Central Root: Dove Men+ Care
In this interactive ad, the message producer identified a high need for love
& connection as a trait of their customers, and used it for their messaging
The Receiver will:
• Get the sense of connection as the ads show a caring side is a big
part of masculanity
• Feel more related to the product (since it breaks the stereotype and
highlights the way that care makes a man stronger)
• Align with the brand’s grooming products specifically designed for men
(Men+ Care)
 Post-exposure
variables

 Media use Post-exposure

variables

• Political & Health Communication Campaigns

• Agenda Setting Theory (McComb & Shaw 1972): the Media selectively
chooses what public focuses on based on subsequent political beliefs
and attitudes
Media’s
Reality
Agenda

Public
Perception of
Reality
China-US Trade
Deficit
Feature 4: Media Effects are
Conditional
Media Effects are Conditional
• Individual-differences and social-context can enhance or reduce
media effects
• Conditional media effects theories:
• Uses and Gratifications
• Reinforcing Spiral Model
• Conditional Model of Political Communication Effects
• Elaboration Likelihood Model
• Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model
3 Factors
• Three factors influence selective media use ALSO influence how the
media content is processed

• Dispositional
• Developmental
• Social context
Disposition
• Interpretation of media content depends partly on dispositional
factors (gender, class, race, emotion) (e.g: brand name lost-in-
translation: Darlie, Blue Bird)
• Much studies were conducted focus on cognitive processing but not
on emotional processing
Development
Young children Young Adult Middle & Older Adult

• Lack knowledge and • Invest more cognitive • Invest more cognitive

experience to process effort in processing effort in processing
new information negative stimuli positive stimuli
• Invest less cognitive
effort during media
use
Social Context
• Audience will be more susceptible to media message if these
message converge with the values and norms in their social
environment setting
• Cultivation Theory & Resonance: if audience experience something in
the media that is similar to their social environment, it will enhance
their likelihood of media effects
• Let’s look at another example on cars….
Feature 5: Media Effects are
Transactional
Media Effects are Transactional
• Media users can only be influenced by the media they:
• Selectively use
• Selectively interpret
• Transactional theories elaborate that by selectively exposing
themselves to media, they also shape their own media effects
• Transactional models explain how & why this occurs
Transactional theories are based on…

First assumption Second assumption Third assumption

• Producers and • Producers and • The transactions are

receivers of media receivers of media both
content exchange info content can change as • Interpersonal
via communication a result of media (producers vs.
technologies (radio, TV, content they receivers)
Internet) produce/receive • Intrapersonal (within
(feature 1,4) the cognitive and
affective systems of
producers &
receivers)
Transactional model
 “A process in which human data
interaction occurs through one or more
networked telecommunication systems.”

Computer
CMC interaction occurs through various types
Mediated of networking technology and software:
Communication
(CMC)
Theories

CMC technology saves time and money in IT organizations by

facilitating the use of all communication formats.
 Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)
Theories

Social Presence Theory (Short et al., 1976)

● Where focuses are heavily injected on the amount

of cues that are expressed via a social platform

Media Richness Theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986)

● Where focuses on its ability to reproduce

information sent, and to evaluate communications
medium

Lack of Social Context Cues Hypothesis (Sproull &

Kiesler, 1986)

● Where it affects the human behaviours in media

context, resulting to unclear interactions
Some thoughts…
• All theories are all linked together
• Uses and gratifications + cultivation: a person watches TV to be informed,
especially if the program might get their opinions reinforced
• Uses and gratifications + hypodermic needle model: We are learning from a
program and they are effecting us (e.g: makes us more violent)
• Uses and gratifications + Two-step flow / Reception theory: Social interaction
while watching a movie together at a cinema/ attend a book launch

Combine these theories Understand how the media affecting us

How we react to mass media
Reference
• Valkenburg, P. M. and Peter, J. (2013), The Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model. J
Commun, 63: 221-243
• Michael, C. and Gregory S. M. (Writer), & Michael, C. (Director). (1996). The One Where Ross and
Rachel...You Know [Episode 15, Season 2]. In Michael, L. (Executive Producer), FRIENDS, NBC.
• [McDonaldsMalaysia]. (2017, Mar 19). Ayam Goreng McD™ – There's Nothing Like It [Video File].
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjrXt-jvWaw
• [Pinkfong! Kids' Songs & Stories]. (2016, Jun 17). Bé Shark Khiêu vũ | Hát và nhảy! | Songs động
vật | PINKFONG Songs for Children [Video File]. Retrieved
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqZsoesa55w
• [HighHeelsandHockey]. (2012, Sep 30). Mean Girls Syndrome and Social Cognitive Theory [Video
File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dxk-lNkwjk
• [dovemencareus]. (2015, Jun 15). Dove Men+Care shares your first fatherhood moments this
Father’s Day [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0-5HORRXU0
• [IISuperwomanII]. (2013, Dec 16). Emotions I Go Through When I See My Crush Online [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52DzkowPIk