A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication
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A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication is the go-to text for any course that adopts a cognitive and psychological approach to the study of mass com- munication. In its sixth edition, it continues its examination of how our expe- riences with media affect the way we acquire knowledge about the world, and how this knowledge infl uences our attitudes and behavior. Using theories from psychology and communication along with reviews of the most up-to- date research, this text covers a diversity of media and media issues ranging from commonly discussed topics, such as politics, sex, and violence, to lesser- studied topics, such as sports, music, emotion, and prosocial media. This sixth edition offers chapter outlines and recommended reading lists to further assist readability and accessibility of concepts, and a new companion website that includes recommended readings, even more real-world examples and activities, PowerPoint presentations, sample syllabi, and an instructor guide. Richard Jackson Harris is Professor of Psychology at Kansas State University in Manhattan KS, where he has taught since 1974. Fred W. Sanborn is Associate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina Wesleyan College, where he teaches a wide range of psychology courses. He is also the founding director of the NCWC’s Teaching and Learning Center. Routledge Communication Series Jennings Bryant & Dolf Zillmann, Series Editors Selected titles in the series include: • Bryant/Oliver: Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research , Third Edition • Perse: Media Effects and Society • Riffe/Lacy/Fico: Analyzing Media Messages: Using Quantitative Content Analysis in Research , Second Edition • Stacks/Salwen: An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research , Second Edition A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication Sixth Edition Richard Jackson Harris and Fred W. Sanborn Sixth edition published 2014 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Taylor & Francis The right of Richard Jackson Harris and Fred W. Sanborn to be identifi ed as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. First edition published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc 1989 Fifth edition published by Routledge 2009 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harris, Richard Jackson. A cognitive psychology of mass communication / by Richard Jackson Harris, Fred Sanborn. – Sixth edition. pages cm Includes index. 1. Mass media–Psychological aspects. I. Sanborn, Fred W. II. Title. P96.P75H37 2013 302.2301’9–dc23 2013001614 ISBN: 978-0-415-53704-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-53705-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-11090-4 (ebk) Typeset in Goudy by Cenveo Publisher Services Richard To my wife Caprice Becker, and children Clint (born 1989), Natalie (born 1991), and Grady (born 1991), who have taught me so much about what is really important in life. Watching them grow up in a world of rapidly changing media has provided much food for thought, which has affected the words on these pages in so many ways. Fred To my partner, Tony Hefner, who is also my favorite media con- sumption partner, and to my parents John and Lyna Sanborn, who taught me to be a savvy media consumer at an early age. This page intentionally left blank Contents About the Authors ix Preface x A Note from Richard Jackson Harris xiii A Note from Fred W. Sanborn xv 1 Mass Communication in Our Wired Society: The Changing Media Landscape 1 2 Research and Theory in Mass Communication: How Are Media Studied Scientifi cally? 26 3 The Psychology of Media Use: Tapping into Our Deepest Selves 51 4 Media Portrayals of Groups: Distorted Social Mirrors 73 5 Advertising: Baiting, Catching, and Reeling Us In 122 6 Sports, Music, and Religion: Emotion to the Forefront 166 7 News: Setting an Agenda about the World 207 8 Politics: Using News and Advertising to Win Elections 252 9 Violence: Watching All That Mayhem Really Matters 288 10 Sex: Is Tuning In Turning Us On? Sexuality through a Media Lens 326 viii Contents 11 Socially Positive Media: Teaching Good Things to Children (and the Rest of Us) 363 12 Responding to Media: Getting Our Two Cents In 398 References 419 Author Index 502 Subject Index 527 About the Authors Richard Jackson Harris is Professor of Psychology at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS, where he has taught since 1974. Growing up in subur- ban Pittsburgh, PA, he earned a B.A. at the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. He is the author of over 100 published research articles on memory and comprehension of verbal material in media and elsewhere, as well as a textbook, Learning and Cognition (with Thomas Leahey), and some edited volumes of research papers. Fred W. Sanborn is Associate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina Wesleyan College, where he teaches a wide range of psychology courses. He is also the founding Director of the NCWC’s Teaching and Learning Center. Fred received his B.A. in Psychology and Psychological Services at Kansas Wesleyan University in 1996. He also earned an M.S. (2000), and a Ph.D. (2004) in Social and Developmental Psychology from Kansas State University. Preface Today’s college-age students, born in the 1990s, have no memory of life before the Internet. In their minds it has always been possible to post videos online or edit an Internet encyclopedia. Photographs or videos have always been instantly downloadable to a computer. They can’t remember arranging social gatherings without Facebook. E-mail is so last year, and calling on a phone tethered by a cord when you can’t even text is almost unimaginable. They are as likely to watch a TV show on their computer, phone, or tablet as on a TV set. The world of media, and by extension entertainment and popular culture, has changed immensely in the last generation. Yet, from a broader perspective, such a communications revolution is not entirely unprecedented. Still photography and telegraphy were transformative in the 1840s, telephones a few decades later, and cinema, starting around 1896, radically transformed the way people saw the world and communicated with each other. In the twentieth century, radio in the 1920s, television in the 1950s, video technology in the 1980s, and the Internet in the 1990s also transformed our lives within a mere decade in each case. In the new millen- nium, the explosion of social media and the opportunities for anyone to create and share media have been unprecedented. A popular movie some years ago, The Truman Show , featured Jim Carrey as a man whose entire life had been a television show, fi lmed nonstop under a huge bubble that was his whole world. His eventual discovery of this situation is personally devastating, and Truman knows he can never be the same again. In a sense he is an exaggerated but apt metaphor for this entire book. Our lives, and all that we know, are far more heavily infl uenced by the media than most of us realize, even if our whole lives are not completely reducible to a reality TV show. Although by reading this book you will not, like Truman, fi nd out that you have no identity except as an entertainment fi gure, you may discover that a surprising amount of what you know and how you behave is a direct product of your interaction with television, radio, print, and computer- mediated communications. In any event, you will probably never look at media the same way again! At least that is our hope. Preface xi Some real people are almost as much media creations as Carrey’s Truman. In recent years there have been certain individuals who have received exten- sive media coverage more because they were celebrities than because of any artistic, athletic, or other accomplishments. Think of Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, or the Kardashian sisters. People around the world cried over the deaths of Britain’s Princess Diana in 1997, Michael Jackson in 2009, and Whitney Houston in 2012. These were not fake tears; the loss was real. The deaths were a true personal loss for millions of people who had only known them as friends through the media. Sometimes the media and reality become intertwined in odd ways. A few years back the Westport Dry Cleaners in Manhattan, Kansas, was suddenly inundated with calls asking for “God” and delivering prayer requests. Why? The business happened to have the same phone number as the “God” charac- ter in the recently released movie Bruce Almighty . Didn’t those callers know that it wasn’t really God’s telephone number? Maybe, but if they only meant to harass or play a joke, why not call any number and ask for God? Why this particular number? And why leave prayer requests? This is the sixth edition of this text and much has necessarily changed since its inception. Seldom does the content of a textbook become obsolete so fast as when it deals with the media.