Sociology

Media 18
 Media
Effects- Dif
theories of ferent
the effects
of the Medi and uses
a (3/3)
  Limited Effects
 Audio Centric or Diffusion Approaches

• They focus on how audience use the Media to satisfy

particular needs

• Media has very few, if any, measurable effects

Bereleson et al “some kinds of communication on
some kinds of issues brought to the attention of
some kinds of people under some kinds of
conditions have some kinds of effects”

• Diffusion theories focus on how media msgs spread

across an audience through a trickle down effect.
• Although msgs originate with Media producers,
they are received by an audience in 2 ways:

1. Directly such as personally viewing a news

broadcast

2. Indirectly Through interaction with those who

directly received the msg, other media sources
reporting the original msg and so forth

• An original msg is continually relayed (passed on)

throughout an audience and each stage of the
retelling, the msg maybe subtly changed or
reinterpreted.
  Two Step Flow Model
• Def A normative model of media effects that argues that msgs flow
from the media to opinion formers, who then interpret such msgs
for people in their social networks

• Katz & Lazzarsfeld Personal relationships and conversations with

significant others such as family members, friends, teachers, work
colleagues etc, result in people modifying or rejecting media msgs.

• “Opinion Leaders”- People of influence whom others in the network

look up to and listen to- usually dominate social networks.

• These people mostly have strong ideas abt different matters, they
expose themselves to different types of media (e.g. newspapers, tv news,
soap operas etc) and form an opinion on their content these
interpretations are then passed onto other members of the social
circle
• Katz & Lazarfield Suggested a Two Step Flow Model, in
which msgs flow in 2 distinct steps :

1. From the Media to Opinion Formers (the opinion leader

is exposed to the media content)  People who directly
receive a msg, such as a news report, are interested enough
to want to relay it to others and influential enough for
them to take note of the msg

2. From Opinion formers to people in their social

network those who receive the original msg in a
mediated form- edited, condense, embellished (to make
something appear better than reality)- from people like
family and friends (primary groups) those who
respect the opinion leader internalize their
interpretation of that content.
• Normative Model Def Model of media effects that
argues that the key to understanding how mass
audiences respond to media msgs is through a
knowledge of how msgs are filtered through
informal, interpersonal relationships.

• In this normative model of media effects i.e. Two step

Flow model, Katz & Lazarfield argue that “informal,
interpersonal relations” are the key to understanding
how mass audiences responded to media msgs.

• Any behavioral changes result from how msgs are

interpreted, discussed and reinterpreted within
primary groups, rather from any direct media influence
• This idea is supported by Shannon & Weaver’s concept
of Noise; the original msg easily becomes lost, over-
simplified and misrepresented through social
interactions.

• Klapper Mass Communication doesn’t serve as a

necessary sufficient cause of audience effects. Rather it
functions in highly selective ways, in terms of :

① Perception People notice some msgs but not others

② Exposure People choose media msgs consistent with
their beliefs
③ Retention People remember things that fit with their
beliefs & forget abt those that don’t
④ Selection some msgs are never relayed
• The Media owners don’t directly influence media
audiences, rather they choose to adopt a particular
opinion, attitude and way of behaving after
negotiation and discussion with an opinion
leader The audience isn’t passive, but Active.

 Criticisms

• Critics of this model point out 2 problems :

① There is no guarantee that this opinion leader

hasn’t been subjected to an imitative or dissenting
effect
• E.g. A leader of a peer group such as a street gang
might convince other members that violence is
acceptable because he has been exposed to computer
games that strongly transmit the msg that violence is
an acceptable problem solving strategy.

② People who may be most at risk of being

influenced by the media may be socially isolated
individuals who are not members of any social
network and so do not have access to an opinion
leader who might help interpret media content in a
healthy way
  Reinforcement Theory
• Reinforcement Theory is related to Flow/Diffusion
models in that it focuses on the social context of
media use.

• How the media affects people depends on the social

groups to which they belong.

• Klapper People’s beliefs are related to their social

groups (primary groups being the most significant).

• One imp role of the media was to reinforce, either

positively or negatively, the beliefs already formed
this suggests a very limited type of “Media effect”
  Uses And Gratification Model
• Def Normative model of media effects takes the
separation b/w media and audience a step further by
arguing that consumers pick and choose both media and
msgs. The Media are used by audiences to gratify their own
particular uses and needs.

• Blumler & McQuail Media Audiences are active their

uses and gratification model suggests that people use the
media in order to satisfy particular needs that they have
these needs may be biological, psychological or social

• These needs are relative- the way the audience use the
media to gratify their needs will depend on influences
such as social positions, age , gender etc
• McQual et al 4 primary Uses and Gratifications :

① Entertainment/Diversion  A diversion from everyday life

② Social solidarity Talking abt a shared experience, such as

seeing the same film or TV program or playing the same
online game, serves an integrating function by making people
feel they have things in common

③ Identity To create or maintain a sense of “who we are”. It’s

a resource, from reading lifestyle magazines to maintaining a
FB presence, used to construct and maintain and project a
sense of self

④ Surveillance Providing news and information abt an

increasingly complex world
• Severin & Tankard they suggest another use
which is Companionship- when they found out the
heaviest media users were those who were lonely
or socially isolated.

• Lull Participant Observation study of families use

of TV agreed with McQuail et al that the audience
actively use the media in a social way  he noted 5
uses of the media :

1. Relational Media is used as a currency of

communication, it gives people something to talk to
each other abt
2. Affiliation
3. Avoidance
4. Social Learning
5. Competence Dominance E.g. Father may
demonstrate their power by controlling the family’s
access to TV

• Watson However, children now posses their own

new media technologies with the confines of their
bedrooms this trend means less communication
and interaction b/w family members young
people feel as if they don’t really need to interact
much face to face because everything can be done
online e.g. via social media
• Marxists are critical of this model because they
suggest that needs may be socially manufactured by
the media.

• Marxists Mass Media in Capitalist societies esp the

advertising industry promotes the ideology that
materialism is a positive goal to pursue and
acquisition of consumer goods (esp designer goods)
is vital to social being

• However, Marxists argue that consumer goods are

false needs because their ideological function is to
distract people, esp those from lower backgrounds
from exploitation and economic inequalities
• Overall the uses and gratification model suggests the
media is :

① Powerless in terms of it’s ability to directly

influence or change behavior
② Neutral in the sense of not having any direct effect
on attitudes
③ Unimportant as far as researchers are concerned,
since the object of study is the active audience rather
than the Media.

• Although the idea of active audiences is imp in

understanding media effects, particularly as they relate
to old media, it’s significance may be overstated in 2
respects :
1. Stam claims that limited effects models
“essentialise the audience” by giving them an
unwarranted and unsupported primary
significance in terms of how media msgs are
interpreted.

2. Diffusion models suggest the media has few, if any,

effects, yet advertisers spend billions each year
precisely because they believe that media has clear
and direct effects that can be measured in terms of
sales.
  Postmodernism
• Strinati PM societies are Media Saturated
Media has an imp impact on people’s identity

• People in PM societies have more choice and

diversity in shaping their identities as compared to
that in the past when structural forces such as class
used to shape identities.

• Media is one of the main shapers of identity today

and gives people various consumption choices
various media like magazines, social networking sites
etc encourage people to to follow the ideals of the
society e.g. altering their bodies, relationships etc
• PM society Media transmits the idea that the
consumption of signs and symbols for their own
sake is more imp than the goods they represent.

• Media encourages the consumption of logos,

designer labels and brands etc and these become
more imp to people’s sense of identity than the
physical clothes and goods themselves.

• People are no longer judged on the basis of ability,

skill or personality but on how “cool” they look or
behave.
 Media and Globalization

• PM examine the effects of Media on Globalization

and how this affected local cultures.

• Thompson Globalization of communication has

now become more intensive and extensive and this
has a lot of imp for local cultures all consumers of
the Global Media are both citizens of the world and
of their locality.

• Global communication is domesticated by local

cultures to create a Hybridised media culture that
makes sense within our local communities.
• Lull Study Impact of TV in China TV opened up
localized ways of thinking and seeing the world
and made new perspectives, lifestyles and ways of
thinking and responding to the world available
seeing other global experience allows people to
critically think abt their own place in the world

• Thompson Interaction b/w Global Media and

Local Cultures can also create tensions E.g.
Chinese authorities tried to control and limit the
contact Chinese people have with Global Media
some Islamic commentators used Global Media to
convince their local populations that Western
Culture is corrupt.
 PM and Reception Analysis

• PM Media content is an extension of reception analysis.

• Reception Analysis Model Focuses on how there are

subcultural differences in how audiences respond to
media msgs

• PM model focuses on how audiences create their own

meanings from a media text

• Phillo PM see media content as having the same degree

of imp as any other definition of reality interpretations
of media reality are constantly changing and hence
aren’t fixed
• PM Generalizations abt media effects and
audiences are impossible since the same person
may react to the same media msg in different ways
in different situations many different meanings
exist

• Baudrillard People today can’t distinguish b/w

reality and the word/image that portrays it.

• He calls this condition “Hyperreality” imp feature

of PM Words, images and the info they convey
become open to many interpretations, mirroring
the breakdown of “objectivity”.
• Turkle TV is a part of PM “culture of simulation”
where we identify more with the simulated world
than with the reality.

• Internet and the virtual world that it provides are

adding a new dimension to the mediated
experience of reality.

• E.g. Virtual Reality websites like Second Life allows

uses to create their own characters, using avatars
there is a crossover b/w virtual world and real life
where users can for instance advertise companies or
lease properties etc
• Baurdrillard Effect of all this? Blurred distinction
b/w image and reality

• Watson Identities on the internet are

malleable/interchangeable e.g. Age and Gender can
easily be concealed Net users can move in and out of
cyber community without any consequences for anyone

• These processes lead to a lot of superficiality and a loss

of authentic community.

• Now there is a superficial playfulness when it comes it

identity Identity is experimental, expressed &
invested through different choices of lifestyles offered
through the media
  Criticisms of PM
• Webster there hasn’t been any explosive change in
society due to the “info explosion”.

• He questions the PM accounts of info rich society

claiming that PM didn’t back their arguments will
sufficient evidence.

• Lerner PM have failed to answer a lot of questions

and in doing so they have concealed/obscured
issues like inequality and poverty while attempting
to make the world appear more equal and better.
  Conclusion
• All Active Media Approaches (the two step flow model, Uses
and gratification Model, Reception analysis model & cultural
effects model) see the media as not being very influential

• They believe that people have a choice in the way they use
and interpret the media.

• Since the audience interpret media msgs for themselves,

this makes it difficult to generalize abt the effects of the
Media.

• Media has the power to influence public belief and debate,

but the role of audiences in interpreting and modifying
media msgs shouldn’t be underestimated