Communication Theory

and Social Effects

COM30805 DISCOVERING MASS COMMUNICATION
LECTURE WEEK 4
 Today’s lecture

Exploring communication theories that exist to explain social phenomenon

relating to the effects of media.
Magical Bullet theory
Social Cognitive theory (Bandura)
Cultivation theory (Gerbner)
Agenda Setting theory
Framing
 Social Effects of Mass Communication

How do minors
differentiate between
what is real and what is
not? Are parents to be
blamed… or the media
content producers?
Sentenced to life in prison for killing a http://www.nydailynews.com/ne
6-year-old using wrestling moves he ws/crime/boy-13-allegedly-kills-h
copied from watching professional alf-sister-5-moves-learned-tv-wr
wrestlers! estling-article-1.1376818
Is violence caused by violent video games &
movies?

Columbine High School (1999);

Virginia Tech (2007);
Christchurch (2019) shootings
Fox News coverage –
Are violent video games
and media content the
cause for Sandy Hook
Elementary School
shootings?
Video 1
 Virginia Tech tragedy (2007)

• Cho Seung Hui copies

Oldboy (2003 South Korean
revenge thriller) ?
 Movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado
(2012)

James E. Holmes
emulates “The Joker.”
Prevalence of Malaysian gangster-themed movies:
What does this tell us about how the Malaysian film
industry portray Malaysian youths?
 Investigating Mass Communication Effects
Scientific approaches to studying media effects
1. Surveys (quantitative)
• Large groups of people answer questions (questionnaires)
• But, do not prove direct cause-and-effect relationships
• Just suggest associations, assumptions, connections
2. Panel studies & Interviews (qualitative)
• Same study groups or individuals interviewed over long time periods
• More reliable, more expensive, time consuming
3. Experiments (quantitative/qualitative)
• In a laboratory or in the field
• Manipulate a factor to determine impact (effect) on another factor
Social Effects of Mass Communication -
on Knowledge & Attitudes
 Research on Impact of Media Exposure on
Attitudes & Behaviour

• Many studies measure the impact of media on our attitude

(perception) and behaviour (action).
• Most research interest are generated in the areas of:
The role of media and socialisation
Cultivation analysis
Agenda setting
 Role of Media and Socialisation

• Socialisation: ways people come to

adopt behaviour & values of a group.
• A complex process that involves years &
various agencies of socialisation (people
& organisations).
• For certain situations or topics, mass
media is a more influential agency.
• Eg. Health campaigns
 The Media as Primary Source of Information

• Learning is important in socialisation - learn from media/

parents/ peers.
• The mass media serve as important sources of information
• Often the prime source
• Wide range of topics: politics, crime, health, the environment
• 90% of Americans learned about 9/11 from TV; 85% of US
population tuned in to live media coverage of the 2016 US
Presidential elections.
The Hypodermic Needle Theory (also known as
the Magic Bullet Theory)

• Mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were

perceived as a powerful influence on
behaviour change.
• The first generation of mass communication
scholars thought the mass media had a
profound, direct effect on people.
• Their idea, called powerful effects theory,
drew heavily on social commentator Walter
Lippmann’s influential 1922 book Public
Opinion.
We see the world not as
it really is but as “pictures
in our heads”. The
“pictures” of things we
have not experienced
personally are shaped by
the mass media.
Harold Lasswell – his communication model
assumed powerful effect
The Hypodermic Needle Theory (also known as
the Magic Bullet Theory)

• Assumed that the media could inject information, ideas and even
propaganda into the public consciousness.
• Too simplistic – wrongly assumes individuals as passive, unthinking
and gullible who believes everything that the media spews forth.
• People are exposed to many media – hardly a single monolithic voice
• Scholar W.P. Davison devised third-person effect theory – about
how a person can overestimate/underestimate the effect of media
messages on other people, but not on themselves.
 When people are the more influential
socialisation agency

• Also known as the minimalist effects theory – media effects are

mostly indirect.
• Based on Paul Lazarsfeld’s research in the 1940s on media effects
on elections – found people are more influenced by their
neighbours, colleagues & friends rather than media
 Minimalist Effects Theory

• Individuals (opinion
leaders) use and interpret
the media content , then
pass their “personal
influence” to their
audiences to change their
attitudes and behaviors.
• Personal contact is more
important than media
contact
• Status Conferral – media create prominence for issues and
people by giving them coverage; while media neglect relegates
issues and personalities to obscurity.
• More attention = more importance = greater
credibility/legitimacy = greater influence on people
• Also, the more important/prominent a person is in the media, the
higher the chances for individuals to be swayed or believe in that
person. E.g. The US President issuing hate statements against
illegal immigrants, an expert on healthcare commenting about
public healthcare issues, or Hollywood celebrities supporting a
cause.
• Narcoticising dysfunction - media rarely energises people into
action, rather it lulls them into passivity – through an
overwhelming volume of news and information.
• E.g. Arm-chair activists; people who ‘like’ or ‘share’ a about a
cause on Facebook/Twitter but rarely does anything else to show
support.
These people deceive themselves into believing they are
involved when actually they are only informed – it’s good enough
to know, rather than taking action.
Cumulative Effects Theory
• Argues that media influence is gradual over
time
• Nobody can escape the media, which are
pervasive and ubiquitous (everywhere), and the
media’s messages, which are driven home with
redundancy (repetitious).
• Troubling effect – media gives more attention to
viewpoints perceived as dominant over time,
shelving / ignoring minority viewpoints
• Dominant viewpoints snowballed through the
media, becoming consensus without being
sufficiently challenged – disaffection of white,
male, working-class voters was not sufficiently
addressed in the media
Cumulative Effects Theory

• Spiral of Silence:
• minority views are thus condemned
into silence or obscurity by the media
• media no longer a free marketplace of
ideas where all conflicting ideas are
given fair hearing
 Media in Shaping Attitudes, Perceptions
and Beliefs
Conditions required:
Media successfully shapes our attitudes, perceptions and beliefs
when…
Repetitious ideas, behaviours or stereotypes are presented.
Heavy exposure to TV (or media).
Individual has limited interaction with other socialising agents
and lacks an alternative set of belief to counter media portrayals.
Individuals seeking for an identity of their own (role-modeling)
 1. Stereotypes
• Researchers see repetitious themes/ stereotypes have effects on audience
(people believe TV versions!).
• Stereotypes can be at odds with Real Life (RL)
• Law enforcers are very efficient
About 30% of TV programmes are about crime and law enforcement and 90%
of TV crimes are solved
On TV, 60% of crimes are violent (vs. 10% in real-life)
So, are our law enforcement agencies really that effective?
• Gender characteristics/roles
Females (on TV) are weak; housewives, sex appeal sells
• Portrayal of Middle Easterners/Arabs/Muslims
Most often portrayed as anti-American, terrorists and antagonists
 2. Effects of heavy TV viewing
• Young children’s brains still developing; often have trouble differentiating
truth/reality from fiction/fantasy
• Even so, young people are among the heaviest TV viewers; their perceptions
resonate with media portrayals.
• Heavy viewers of violent TV programmes are likely to favour use of violence
in real-life.
• Heavy viewers of police shows believe police are more successful than in
real-life.
• Heavy viewing linked to attitudes that favour traditional sex roles:
• =men are successful doctors; women are better nurses.
• =women are good housewives; men are hopeless at home.
• Research assumes cause & effect, but does not prove it.
 3. Absence of alternative information

• Under some circumstances, TV affects young people’s attitudes if

there is no relevant alternative input.
• Examples: dating behaviour, sex education, how one should
dress, how a male should treat a female with respect, how black
people behave
• Can you think of any others?
 4. Role-modeling

• Young people who are in search of self identity tend to conform/

imitate mannerisms or trends of famous figures.
• Eg: Kate Middleton & Lady Gaga’s fashion sense; K-Pop artistes
physical beauty
• Media content producers acknowledge their responsibilities:
• Negative effect: promotes violence
• Positive effect: promotes accepted social behaviour/ values; eg.
Ellen DeGeneres highlights many social issues and attitudes in
her show Ellen.
 Cultivation Theory
• George Gerbner and colleagues at University of Pennsylvania
investigates long term exposure of heavy TV viewing and its effects
on perception of reality.
• Thesis: Heavy TV viewing “cultivates” perceptions of reality
consistent with the view of the world presented in TV programmes.
• Methodology
• Step 1: Identify predominant themes and messages in television
content.
• Step 2: Examine what viewers absorb from heavy exposure to TV.
Compare viewers’ responses to questionnaires with “real world” or
“TV world” answers.
 Cultivation Theory
Two phenomenon of cultivation success :
1. Mainstreaming
• means that television viewing may absorb or override differences in
perspective and behaviour that stem from real life.
• Eg, portrayal of dentists in children’s shows make them think dentists are evil;
portrayal of politicians make one thinks they’re in it for selfish ambitions and
are corrupt; portrayal of evil clowns makes children think clowns are evil
2. Resonance
• the effects of television viewing (or media consumption) will be particularly
pronounced for individuals who have had related experience in real life.
• Eg, for victims of brutal attacks, The Brave One will resonate and be particularly
influential; survivors of the 2004 tsunami – The Impossible.
 Cultivation Theory

Results are clouded by three complications:

1. Cause and effect hard to determine (eg: heavy viewing of
violence = scared going out at night/ watch more violent tv).
2. Other controlling factors (gender, age, education) weakens the
association of watching tv & its effects.
3. Technical issues such as method of counting viewing hours and
wording of questions can affect findings significantly
Agenda-Setting Theory
 Agenda-Setting Theory

• BUT…research suggests cause and effect relationships are still

unclear because results hinge on:
• medium being studied (newspapers shape people’s agendas,
while TV is less powerful).
• Eg. Newspaper more credible than TV news
• individual’s experience with topic influences results.
• Eg. Integrity of police force – maximum restraint on rioters.
Agenda Setting vs.
Experience

Would the witnesses

believe the news reports?
 Agenda setting studies
• Agenda research has two general fields of study:
• Framing – how topics are treated by the media and how that
leads us to think about them.
• Eg. crime rates rising…. toughening laws
.... police inefficiency
…. public awareness
• Agenda building – examines how (the ways) media build their
agenda of newsworthy items (defining the importance).
• Eg. analysing factors that contribute: journalists’ own agenda, PR
efforts or government sources.
Example of Framing in media
Example of
Framing in
media
Example of
Framing in
media
Social Effects of Mass Communication –
on Behaviour
 Catalytic Theory

• Media does have a role in real-life violence, but NOT necessarily triggering it
• Articulated by media researchers such as Wilbur Schramm, Jack Lyle and
Edwin Parker (their research concluded that TV has minimal effects on
children)
• Evidence suggests that TV and movie violence, even in cartoons, can arouse
& excite some children to violence, especially in hyperactive and easily
excitable children – but this only happens when other influences are also
present:
Whether violence portrayed in media is rewarded
Whether media exposure is heavy
Whether a violent person fits other profiles such as level of education,
income level, parental childrearing habits, IQ, EQ
 Catalytic Theory

• Most researchers also noted that screen-triggered violence is

increased if the aggression:
Is realistic and exciting, like a chase sequence or wrestling move
that sends adrenaline levels surging
Succeeds in righting a wrong – revenge/vigilante-themed films
and TV series such as Dexter, Batman, Revenge, Sleepers
 includes situations or characters similar to those in the viewer’s
own experience
 Rival Theories
Catharsis Theory (Aristotle)
• Watching violence purges the urge to be violent

Stimulation Theory
• Watching violence stimulates you to be more violent

Desensitising Theory
• Tolerance of real-life violence grows because of frequent exposure to media-
depicted violence; normalization of violence/mainstreaming of behaviour

• Albert Bandura’s Experiment (1960)

• Reactions of children seeing a model interact violently with a Bobo doll
• Factors that complicate research on the impact of televised
violence
Age, sex
Length and type of violent (reality) media content
People with whom the subject watches the media
Social class, family history, economic background
• What Can We Conclude?
• Watching television violence does increase aggressive tendencies.
The effects are small but not trivial.
 Communication in the Future: Social Impact
1. Threats to privacy
• Emails, social media accounts hacked
• Databases stolen/ hacked
• SONY Online Entertainment system hacked-25 million users’ info stolen.
• Centralised access to personal data
• Other online criminal activities - Identity theft, online scams
• Tracking online activities-cookies
2. Fragmentation and Isolation
• Selective content exposure (iPod, FB)
• Cocooning-people surrounding themselves with information they choose
increases isolation, isolation also happens when you can do all things online –
shop, work, play, socialise.
 Communication in the Future: Social Impact
3. Escape
• Video games
• HDTV
• Second-Life – creating one’s own fantasy world
• William Gibson’s Neuromancer-alternate realities (from new media) replace our
social life?
4. Communication overload
• Difficult to keep up with the flood of messages received/ sent.
• Facebook Addiction Disorder (100 friends = 2 statuses a day = 200 items on the
FB news feed, not inclusive of ads)
• Spam (80% emails)
• Productivity down (FB & Youtube access during work/ classes)
 Key takeaways and summary
• Surveys and experiments are the two main quantitative techniques used to study
the effects of mass communication.
• Media can serve as socialisation forces when they are the primary sources of
information about a topic and that information is presented in a consistent
manner.
• Media can cultivate false perceptions of certain issues of the public.
• TV violence shows a small but persistent correlation with antisocial behavior
among heavy viewers.
• Experiments have shown that TV can produce prosocial behaviour, and some
evidence of this effect has been found in surveys.
• The main topics of research concerning the Internet are its effects on the usage of
other media and the relationship between social isolation and online media use.
• Other concerns about the effects of mass communications focus on the area of
privacy, isolation, communication overload, and escape.
 Announcements

• Reading:
Hanson, R.E. (2016) – Chapter 2
Vivian (2013) – Chapter 13
 Assignment 1 Brief - TIMeS
• Assignment 1 – Pair Work (20%)
• Mass Communication Poster(s)
• Due Date: Friday, 17 May 2019, 12 noon
• You are required to:
 Form into partnership of two (preferably from the same tutorial group)
Research
Analyse
Write
Design
•  so as to ultimately produce one to two pieces of mass communication poster
(infographics) on one of the questions stated in the assignment brief:
 Assignment 1 Brief - TIMeS
1. Communication: mass and other forms
a) Compare and contrast interpersonal communication with machine-assisted interpersonal
communication. Elaborate with real-life examples.
b) Discuss with real-life examples how the internet has changed the characteristics of the
sources of mass communication.

2. Communication: verbal/non-verbal messages

a) Compare and contrast verbal communication and non-verbal communication.
b) Discuss with real-life examples the principles and functions of non-verbal communication.

3. The mass media: roles and functions

a) Compare and contrast the functional and the critical/cultural approaches. How does each
view the audience? How does each view the media?
b) Select a print advertisement and analyse the advertisement using the critical/cultural
approach. – note: please include a visual of the print advertisement in your poster
 Assignment 1 Brief - TIMeS
4. Communication theory and social effects
a) How does mass communication wield power through status conferral and
agenda-setting on some issues and neglect others? Discuss with examples.
b) Considering an issue that is highlighted in the media and another issue
that is neglected by the media, why was one covered more extensively than
the other?

5. Communication theory and social effects

a) What is cultivation theory and why has it remained so popular over the
years? Discuss with examples.
b) How has the media world changed since Gerbner developed cultivation
theory?
 Assignment 1 Brief - TIMeS

• Your poster should prepared in A3 paper size. The poster content should fit
onto one or two pieces of A3 paper. – note: Not more than two pieces of A3
paper
• A reference list in Harvard Referencing Style should be included at the end
of your poster. – note: You may refer to the Taylor’s Student Handbook for the
Harvard Referencing Style Guide
• All pictures or visuals used in the posters should be credited to their original
sources, unless you or your partner have designed the graphics or visuals on
your own.
• Provide a creative and catchy title for your posters.
• The design and layout of the poster is up to you, and it need not be overly
complex.
 Assignment 1 Brief - TIMeS

• You would need to submit the following items in Microsoft Word Document /
PDF formats:
Assignment Coversheet (complete with all the necessary details and signatures
of both partners)
Posters
• Submit the text only version of your assignment through TurnItIn on TIMeS.
Every piece of writing that makes up the poster content needs to be ORIGINAL
and non-plagiarised from any existing resource. PLAGIARISM is an extremely
serious issue, and plagiarised work will lead to an F grade. Note: Failure to
submit your work through TurnItIn will result in your assignment would not be
marked.
• LATE ASSIGNMENTS will be penalised at 1 mark per day for the first week, and
will not be accepted if handed in more than one week past due date.
 Graded Online Quiz #1 (10%)

• WHEN: 30 April – 2 May2019 (Tuesday - Thursday)

• WHERE: TIMeS
• NUMBER OF QUESTIONS: 10
• TYPE OF QUESTIONS: Multiple Choice and Short Answer Questions
• DURATION: 10mins
• NUMBER OF ATTEMPT: ONE only

No physical tutorial classes next week!

 Graded Online Quiz #1 (10%)

• Please email me at yuenching.siow@taylors.edu.my if you have

clarifications or technical glitches while attempting the quiz.
• A gentle reminder that all emails must reach me before 7am on 3
May (Friday).
• Second attempt for the quiz, if granted, will be held at 12noon
on 3 May (Friday). So, kindly make yourself available on Friday
morning for the second attempt, if you were eligible for a second
attempt.