Mass Communication Theories &

Approaches
Inception of Mass Communication Theories
History of Mass Communication Theories

1st Mass Society Theory Era from 1830 to

1930
2nd Limited Effect Era from 1930 to 1970
3rd Cultural perspective Era from 1970 to
1990
4th Moderate Effect Model Era
 1st Mass Society Theory Era from 1830 to
1930

 Mass Society & Industrialization

 Yellow journalism 1893
 Media theories in the age of Propaganda
Lasswell 1934
 Magic Bullet theory/ Hypodermic Needle
Theory
 Mass Society Assumptions
 Mass Society & Industrialization

 Associated with industrialization and urbanization,

standardization of production, mass consumption, the
bureaucratization of public life, and the spread of the mass
media and mass culture.
 These ideas were developed in the latter half of the nineteenth
century in Europe and America, at that time when rapid
development of large factories in urban areas was drawing more
and more people from rural area to urban areas.
 At the same time more powerful printing presses allowed the
creation of news paper that could be sold at declining prices to
rapidly growing populations of readers.
 Some theorists were affirmative about the future that would be
created by industrialization, urban increase, and the rise of print
media, many were extremely negative. (Barantlinger, 1983)
 Yellow journalism
William Randolph Hearst 1893

Yellow journalism is exaggerated or biased writing that is disguised as fact. It

involves taking a factual story and writing it in a sensational or distorted way.
It
may be used to invoke fear, loathing, uncertainty, or even sympathy in
readers.

According to Frank Luther Mott (1941) five things made up yellow

journalism:
 headlines in huge print that were meant to scare people, often of news
that wasn't very important
 using many pictures or drawings
 using fake interviews, headlines that didn't tell the whole truth and false
information from people who said they were experts
 full-color parts of the newspaper on Sundays, usually with comic strips.
 taking the side of the "underdog" against the system.
 Magic Bullet theory/ Hypodermic Needle Theory

 ”Magic Bullet theory" originating in the 1920s, implied

mass media had a direct, instant and controlling effect on
its audiences on behavior change.
 They express the view that the media is a dangerous
means of communicating an idea because the receiver or
audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message.
 There is no escape from the effect of the message in
these models.
 People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot
media material "shot" at them.
 People end up thinking what they are told because there is
no other source of information.
 Magic Bullet theory/ Hypodermic Needle Theory

 Hypodermic Needle theory was not based on empirical

findings. It rather, employed assumptions of the time
about human nature. People were assumed to be
uniformly controlled by their biological instincts and
that they react more or less uniformly to whatever
‘stimuli’ came along (Lowerg and Delfleur,1995.p.400).
  Propaganda theory
Lasswell

 Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at

influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause
or position.
 Communication for the purpose of persuasion.
 Manipulation of public opinion. 
 People accept radically different ideas and actions.
 Combined behaviorism and Freudianism.
 Rejected the magic bullet theory.
 Propaganda Technique in the World War(1927) is
considered a leading study on Communication Theories.
 Symbols must be created and people must be gradually
taught to associate specific emotions with these symbols.
 Mass Society Assumptions

 Media subvert essential norms & values &

threaten the social order.
 Direct influence the mind of average people.
 Transforming people thinking has long term &
scale vast consequences.
 Average people are vulnerable to media
because they cut of traditional social institution
 Totalitarian social order can resolve social
chaos.
 Debase higher form of culture , bringing about
general decline in civilization.
 Strengths

 Speculates about important effects.

 Highlights important structure changes and
conflicts in modern cultures.
 Draw attention to issues of media owner-ship &
ethics.
 Weaknesses
 Unscientific
 Unsystematic
 Promulgated by elites interested in preserving
power
 Underestimates intelligence & competence of
average people
 Underestimates personal, social & cultural
barriers to direct media influence .
 2nd Limited Effect Era from 1930 to 1970

 Limited- effect Theory/ Indirect- effect Theory by

Lazarsfeld
 Corl Havland Experimental section
 Two step flow theory
Cont….
 Systematicobservation not the wild
speculation.
 Empirical social researchers
 Scientific
method provided the
essential means to understand the
social world and control media power.
Limited- effect Theory & Indirect- effect Theory by Lazarsfeld
(1940 to 1950)

 According to limited –effect theory media have

minimal or limited effects because those effects are
mitigated by a variety or inventing variables.

 When media do seem to have an effect, that effect is

filtered through other parts of society, for example,
through friends or social groups.
Cont…..
 According to Indirect -effect theory media
do seem to have an effect , that effect is
filtered through other parts of society, for
instance, through friends or social groups.

 Media have limited effects because those

effects are mitigated by a variety of
mediating or intervening variables.
 The refinement & broad acceptance of
empirical social research methods was an
essential factor in emergence of the
limited-effect perspective.
 Empirical social researchers successfully
branded people who advocated mass
society and propaganda notions a
“unscientific”.
 Corl Havland Experimental section

 Hovland’s group found that the military’s propaganda was

as powerful as had been assumed. They were shown
“Why We Fight” series of seven documentary films
commissioned by the United States government
during World War II whose purpose was to show American
soldiers the reason for U.S. involvement in the war. Later
on they were also shown to the general U.S. public to
persuade them to support American involvement in the
war. The researchers discover although the movies were
successful in increasing knowledge about the subjects in
the film, they were not highly effective in influencing
attitude and motivations.(1949)
 Two step flow theory
by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet
in The People's Choice, a 1944

 Firstly, individuals the opinion leaders, who take into

account the media and the message and receives the
information it is outputting.

 These opinion leader will then pass their own

interpretations of the information as well as the
actual content the media put out, to opinion
receivers/seekers.

 Audiences are active participants in the

communication process.
3rd Cultural Perspective Era from 1970 to
1990
 Limited-effect researchers believed that cultural theories were to
speculative and the empirical research generated from these theories
was too loosely structured.
 Researchers who adopt post positivist approach find cultural theories
hard to accept. They are skeptical of theories evaluated more through
discourse then empirical research .
 Grand social theories highly ambitious, macroscopic, speculative
theories that attempt to understand and predict important trend in
culture and society.
 Marxist theory arguing that the hierarchical class system is at the
root of all social problems and must be ended by a revolution by the
proletariat
 American researches in the 1950s and 1960 saw European theory as
heavily biased by neo-Marxist but considered their own work to be
objective because it was grounded in empirical research.
 3rd Cultural Perspective Era from 1970 to
1990

Macroscopic theory:
 Attempt to explain effects at the cultural or
societal level.

Microscopic theory:
 Attempt to explain effects at the personal or
individual level.
Critical theories:

 Theories openly supporting certain values and

using these values to evaluate and criticize the
status quo, providing alternate ways interpreting
the social role of mass media.
 Cultural Hegemony

 Cultural hegemony seems to mean cultural

domination.
 Domination of the culturally diverse society by
ruling class, who manipulate the culture of
society. Like beliefs, explanation, perceptions
& values etc.
 A section of society has authority over the
rest through consent , not force.
 Political Economy theory

 Focus on social elites, use of economic power to

exploit media institutions.
 The political economy in mass media theory
argues that “the structure of the industry
influences content by a combination of the media
owners (individuals or corporations), advertisers,
competitors/other media, government regulations
and viewers or readers. In the case of media
ownership.” (Andrejevic M, 2007)
 Marxist Theory
 Marxist theorist tend to emphasize the role of the mass media
in the reproduction of the status quo, in contrast to liberal
pluralists who emphasize the role of media in promoting
freedom of speech.
 According to theory hierarchical class system is at the root of
all social problems and must be ended by a revolution of the
proletariat/workers.
 Elites direct control on means of production is Base/
Substructure of society.
 Elites manipulate to average people to act against their own
interest is called Ideology to refer these type of Culture.
 In Marx’s theory, media are one of many modern technologies
that must be controlled and used to advance Communication.
 Neo-Marxism

 Assert that media enable dominant social elites to

maintain their power.
 Perspective focus on mass media and their role in
promoting a hegemonic worldview and a
dominant culture among various subgroup in a
society.
 4th Moderate Effect Model Era

 According to 4th era the effects of Mass Media may

be significant and may not be, with certain
conditions.

Main feature of this era

 Communication Science
 Communication Technology
 Framing Theory
 Communication Science

 Integration of previous models including limited

effect & cultural perspective.
 Mandate of the communication sciences is to
combine the finding of these to type of theories.
 Macroscopic & Microscopic level
 Comprehensive answer of all problems.
 One perspective will give answer all the answers.
Communication Technology
 Framing Theory
 The framing theory in regards to communication is seen
by many scholars as an extension of the agenda setting
theory, which states that the media doesn’t tell us what
to think, but rather what to think about. (Lane, 2001)
  Framing theory and the concept of framing bias
suggests that how something is presented (the “frame”)
influences the choices people make. This idea is
important because it is contrary to the central concept
of rational choice theory.  According to this theory,
people always strive to make the most rational choices
possible. Thus, rational choosers should always make
the same decision when given the same data. Tversky
and Kahneman (1981)
Cont….
 Framing is a quality of communication that leads
others to accept one meaning over another or
communicating an idea in such a way that an
audience is influenced by the way it is
expressed.

 The way in which the news is brought, the frame

in which the news is presented, is also a choice
made by journalists.
The End