Limited-Effects Theory

Lecture 3
Learning Outcomes

– At the end of the lecture, you should be able to

– Define limited-effects theory
– Explain the rising of limited-effects theory
– Identify theories of communication in the era of limited-effects theory
The Limited-Effects Theory

The limited effects theory gave more credit to a person’s ability to

control what he saw, learnt or opined, while consuming the media. It
also posited the media’s influence was not direct but rather
functioned through an interconnected web of mediating factors.

(McQuail)
Limited-Effects Theory

– The guiding idea that media have minimal or limited effects

– Two wars, one imaginary and one real helped move mass communication
theory away from notions of powerful mass media to a more moderate and
benign view.
Alien Invasion Radio Broadcast
Rising of Limited-Effects Theory

– At Princeton University, a group of social researchers set out to determine why the Welles
broadcast had been so influential (Cantril, Gaudet, and Herzog, 1940).
– The work (surveys) of researchers led by Paul Lazarsfeld, Cantril’s colleague at Princeton University
provide definitive evidence that media rarely had a powerful direct influence on individuals.
– Later research showed similar findings and led to development of a perspective on media that was
referred to as the limited-effects perspective.
– Carl Hovland was a methodological innovator who introduced new standards for evaluating media
influence. He too found that media lacked the power to instantly convert average people away
from strongly held beliefs.
– The people who developed limited-effects theory during the 1940s and 1950s were primarily
methodologists
Rising of the Limited
Effects Theory

1938 - 1960
 Rising of the Limited-Effects Theory

– Scientists determined that there are different factors which led some people to be
influenced and others not (Lowery & DeFleur, 1995).
– War of The Worlds: 1 million frightened, but another 5 million were not.
– Paul Lazarsfeld (1941) argued that mere speculations about media impact can’t explain
the complex interactions that mass communication comprised.
– He said, a well-designed and sophisticated study of media and audiences would
produce more valuable knowledge.
– Lazarsfeld preferred a highly inductive approach, an approach to theory
construction that sees research beginning with empirical observation rather than
speculation.
Rising of the Limited-Effects
Theory
– Using Lazarsfeld’s work, researchers identified individual and social
characteristics that determines whether or not audiences are
influenced (or not) by media.
– Media Influence was limited by:
– Individual Differences: Intelligence, Education, etc.
– Personal Relationships: Friends and Family
– Social Categories: Religious and Political Affiliations
Two-Step Flow Approach
– During presidential election campaign of 1940, Lazarsfeld conducted
the most elaborate mass communication field experiment.
– The results of his research contradicted directly wit propaganda
theory. Lazarsfeld could find little evidence that media played an
important role in influencing the voters. In stead, these voters were
much more likely to say that they had been influenced by other
people.
– But if media weren’t directly influencing voting decisions, what was
their role?
 Two-Step Flow Approach
– In his research, he noticed that some of the hard-core early deciders were also the
heaviest users of media. They even made a point of seeking out and listening to
opposition speeches.
– On the other hand, the people who made the least use of media were most likely to
report that they relied on others for help in making a voting decision.
– Lazarsfeld reasoned that the “heavy user/early deciders” might be the same people
whose advice was being sought by more apathetic voters.
– These “heavy user/early deciders” might be sophisticated media users who held well-
developed political views and used media wisely and critically.
– Thus, these heavy users might act as gatekeepers—screening information and only
passing on items that would help others share their views.
Two-Step Flow Approach

– A well-known product by Lazarsfeld, and an example of a limited effects theory.

– Links closely to the hypodermic needle theory.
– The mass media gives out information, but instead of this information being
aimed and taken in by the general population it is first taken in by opinion
leaders.
– Opinion Leaders: Form their own opinions on matters. It is this opinion that is
then taken in by the forever opinion followers (passive audience), not thinking
for themselves, they just take what the opinion leaders tell them as a set truth.
Two-Step Flow Approach

– Opinion Leaders: People who initially consumed media content

on topics of particular interest to them, interpreted by their own
belief and values.

– Opinion Followers: People who has less frequent contact with

media.
 Two-Step Flow Theory
= Opinion Leaders
MASS MEDIA
= individuals with
contact to OL.
2
 Two-Step Flow Theory
 Movement of ideas/info was in 2 key stages: from media to well-informed people &
from well-informed people to less-informed people.
 Opinion Leader exists in realms of fashion, marketing, public opinion & movie
attendance.
 3 factors someone can be judged as an Opinion Leader:
 Life cycle – age, married/has children etc. which age influences which age etc?
 Social & economic status – how much info is passed up/down the social ladder?
 Sociability/Gregariousness – how much contact an individual has with others?
Two-Step Flow Theory

Strengths Weaknesses

1. Focuses attention on the environment in 1. Is limited to its time (1940s) and media

which effects can and can’t occur environment (no television)

2. Stresses importance of opinion leaders in 2. Uses reported behavior (voting) as only test of

formation of public opinion media effects

3. Is based on inductive rather than deductive 3. Downplays reinforcement as an important

reasoning media effect

 Factors of development of Limited-
effects theory:
– The refinement and broad acceptance of empirical social research methods.
– Empirical social researchers successfully branded people who advocated mass society and
propaganda notions as “unscientific.”
– Social researchers exploited the commercial potential of the new research methods and gained the
support of private industry.
– The development of empirical social research was strongly backed by various private and government
foundations, most notably the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
– As empirical research demonstrated its usefulness, media companies began to sponsor and
eventually conduct their own empirical research on media.
– Empirical social researchers successfully established their approach within the various social research
disciplines—political science, history, social psychology, sociology, and economics.
Limited-Effects Theory

– Two popular labels for the perspective on media that developed out of
Lazarsfeld’s work are indirect-effects theory and limited-effects theory.
– Indirect-effects theory. When media do seem to have an effect, that effect is
“filtered” through other parts of the society, for example, through friends or
social groups.
– Limited-effects theory .The theory that media have minimal or limited effects
because those effects are mitigated by a variety of mediating or intervening
variables.
 Attitude Change Theory

Carl Hovland’s research

– The researchers discovered that although the movies were successful in increasing
knowledge about the subjects in the films, they were not highly effective in influencing
attitudes and motivations
– The fact that the films produced little attitude change and that what change did occur was
influenced by people’s individual differences directly contradicted mass society theory and its
assumption that media could radically change even strongly held beliefs and attitudes.
 Attitude Change Theory

– Attitude sometimes change, but over longer period of time than

expected.
– Another discovery – effectiveness of 1-sided/2-sided msgs.
– (1 sided messages: work well with people who agree with
message already, increase attitude)
– (2-sided messages: work best with people hold opposing views
from the one presented as desirable, & to those who need their
“yes, but..” answered).
Attitude Change Theory

– Among the most important attitude change theories is related

ideas of dissonance and selective processes.
– Dissonance Theory: when confronted with new or conflicting
information, people experience a kind of mental discomfort, a
dissonance.
– Because of this, we consciously and subconsciously work to limit
or reduce that discomfort through 3 interrelated selective
processes.
 Attitude Change Theory: The
Selective Process
– One central tenet of attitude-change theory that was adopted (in one way or another or
under one name or another) by influential mass communication theorists from Lazarsfeld to
Klapper to DeFleur is the idea of cognitive consistency.
– Cognitive consistency. The idea that people consciously and unconsciously work to preserve
their existing views.
– Cognitive dissonance : information that is inconsistent with a person’s already-held attitudes
creates psychological discomfort, or dissonance. Developed by Leon Festinger.
– People generally work to keep their knowledge of themselves and their knowledge of the
world somewhat consistent (Festinger, 1957).
– Collectively, these “ways” have become known as the selective processes- Exposure
(attention), retention, and perception; psychological processes designed to reduce
dissonance.
Attitude Change Theory: The Selective
Process

– These processes helps us “Select” what information we consume,

remember and interpret.
– 3 Selective Processes:
– Selective Exposure/Attention
– Selective Perception
– Selective Retention
 Attitude Change Theory: The Selective
Process
– Selective exposure - choose messages that are consistent with what we
want/believe etc.
– Selective perception – select those things that agree with the way you
think/view the world, influence of group membership is important, we
select messages that are useful to us, things that don’t threaten our
cognitive balance.
– Selective retention – remember the things that agree with the way you
think/view the world, definitely influenced by group membership,
influences how we attribute meaning, can’t retain something you hv not
been exposed to.
Bottom-line – media don’t influence us that much but rather reinforce what we already
think/believe because mediating factors that have already influenced what we believe.
Media only have strong direct effects when things like church, family, school, regional
identification is not operative.
Attitude Change Theory: The
Selective Process
– These processes were seen as limiting media impact because
content is selectively filtered to produce as little attitude change as
possible.
– Example: A program on TV spouting racial discrimination.
 Moving Beyond Limited-Effects: Focus on
Functionalism and Children
– Mass communication theories needed to be developed to explain media’s role in the operation
of our society. As such, functionalism “became dominant in American [social] theory in the
1950s and 1960s.
– Functionalism: Theoretical approach that conceives of social systems as living organisms whose
various parts work, or function, together to maintain essential processes
– But some researchers thought that functionalism could also be applied to the study of mass
communication itself and not just to the social system it helped support. The resulting
communication systems theory offered hope to those who were beginning to reject limited-
effects notions.
– communication systems theory examines the mass communication process as composed of
interrelated parts that work together to meet some goal
The Limited Effects Theory

"Mass-media ordinarily does not serve as a necessary and sufficient

cause of audience effect, but rather functions through a nexus of
mediating factors and influences. These mediating factors render
mass-communication as a contributory agent in a process of
reinforcing the existing conditions."

(Klapper,1960)
Quiz
1) Which theory states that opinion leaders influence how audiences accept
ideas from the media?
2) .Which theory states that people tend to reject information which is
inconsistent with their existing view/belief.
END