Media Influence: a Comparison of Communication Theories Significant Power

Media Influence: A comparison of Communication Theories significant power

hypodermic needle theory Agenda setting function theory CULTIVATION THEORY SPIRAL OF SILENCE PROPAGANDA MODEL

year 1920s-1940s 1972 1970s-1980s 1974 1989

Theorists Various Maxwell McCombs George Gerbner Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann Noam Chomsky Donald Shaw Edward S Herman

overview A linear communication theory This theory suggests that the The media, particularly television, The mass media play a significant The mass media is owned and which suggests that the media has media can’t tell you what to think contributes to the audience’s role in defining dominant opinions, controlled by powerful organisa- a direct and powerful influence on but it can tell you what to think perception of social reality. people with opposing views are tions which serve their own audiences, like being injected with about. Through a process of Because it is so pervasive, it afraid to express these ideas commercial interests. News is a hypodermic needle. selection, omission and framing, dominates our view of reality, because they fear social isolation. shaped by five ‘filters’: ownership, the media focuses public discus- cultivating attitudes which were advertising, sourcing, flak, sion on particular issues. once acquired elsewhere. anti-Communism and fear.

audience Audiences are passive and Audiences are active but, when it Cultivation Theorists don’t deny Audiences are active but they will Media institutions encourage a homogenous, this theory does not comes to making important that audiences can be active but not express views other than preferred reading of media texts account for individual differences. decisions like who to vote for, they are susceptible to the gravitational those that are dominant or rising which is shaped by commercial, draw on information that is pull of mainstream television. for fear of isolation. right wing interests. Audiences are particularly salient at the time. not passive, capable of dissent.

evidence This theory is often supported by Typically, evidence supporting this Gerbner and other researches Looking at attitudes to contro- According to Dr Jeffery Klaehn, early moral panics, including the theory shows a correlation have conducted numerous studies versial topics, there are numerous studies which Orson Welles War of the Worlds between the number of news to determine whether people who Noelle-Neumann’s research support the logic of the Propa- broadcast in 1938. Presented in stories on an issue and how watch more television perceive showed the closer someone’s ganda Model. His own research the form of a news bulletin, this important people think the issue is. reality differently to those who found that Canadian government opinion is to dominant beliefs, broadcast led some to believe that McCombs cites a study that don’t and whether this reflects a and corporate interests in Papua the world was being invaded by revealed in the early 1980s there “television” view of the world. the more likely they are to New Guinea influenced the martians. The belief that the media was a correlation between the rise Gerbner’s research found that express these views. Likewise, reporting of the near-genocide in has a direct and powerful effect on in 'ailing economy' headlines and crime on television is ten times the further these beliefs are the country after Indonesia’s audiences was also supported by poor consumer sentiment. more than in real life, resulting in a from public opinion, the more invasion, resulting in fewer articles the Payne Fund studies. more dangerous view of reality. likely they are to remain silent. about the atrocities. strengths & Although many people still talk The way people receive media is Cultivation analysis considers the The Spiral of Silence has a narrow Some have suggested that the rise weaknesses about the media in this way, this changing, instead of mainstream total exposure to television over focus, looking specifically at public of the internet means that large theory is disregarded as an media like newspapers and time. It considers the contribution opinion and how the mass media commercial organisations no outdated way of thinking about television, people now get that television makes to our culture influences our willingness to longer have absolute control of the media influence. Audiences are information from the internet. Does and social reality. Critics say that become involved in public debate. media. Herman argues that this is more active than this theory this affect the media’s ability to set people are also likely to be “exacerbating the problem”. suggests. agendas? influenced by other factors.

www.lessonbucket.com © Brett Lamb Media Influence: A comparison of COMMUNICATION Theories LITTLE POWER

reinforcement theory two-step flow theory Uses and gratification theory Semiotics encoding/decoding

year 1960 1948 1974 1970s 1980

Theorists Joseph Klapper Paul F Lazarsfeld Jay Blumler Ferdinand de Saussure Stuart Hall Elihu Katz

overview Klapper argued that the media has A diffusion model of influence, The Uses and Gratification Theory A theory of communication which Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding little power to influence people and suggesting that people are more looks at how people use the suggests that media texts are Theory suggests that audience it just reinforces our preexisting likely to be influenced by ‘opinion media to gratify a range of needs – constructed using a shared code derive their own meaning from attitudes and beliefs which have leaders’ - people who are more including the need for information, which is encoded by the sender media texts. These meanings can been developed by more powerful connected to the media than their personal identity, integration, social and read by the receiver. be dominant, negotiated or social institutions like families, peers and pass on media interaction and entertainment. oppositional. schools and religion organisations. messages.

audience Audiences are active and exist in a Audiences are active, particularly Audiences are active and can Audiences are active because they Audiences are active in decoding society where they are influenced opinion leaders, who exist have power over the media. If construct meaning from texts by media messages. They can by important social institutions. throughout society in all different people don’t watch a television ‘reading’ signs. Meaning varies as accept or reject parts of the text This theory considers the total classes and socioeconomic program, it won’t rate and it will be signs can have both shared and based on their personal beliefs or situation. groups. taken off the air. individual connotations. attitudes.

evidence In ‘The Effects of Mass Communi- Lazarsfeld’s book ‘The People’s Uses and Gratification theorists The theory of semiotics is not The idea of encoding/decoding is cation’, Klapper cites hundreds of Choice’, which examined the 1940 examine what people do with the supported by empirical evidence. not supported by evidence. It is a studies that support his theory, presidential election found that media and maintain that the best There is also no agreed way of way of thinking about the commu- including a 1948 study which people are more likely to be way to find out is by asking conducting research. Semioticians nication process which prioritises revealed that voters were predis- influenced by ‘opinion leaders’ audiences. A recent study of how do not seek to prove this way of audience and culture. This theory posed to opinions and beliefs held than campaign advertising. In the young people use social network- thinking about communication, shifts our attention to the reception by their families, including one paper ‘Who says what to whom ing - ‘Hanging out, messing rather, they use it as a way of of media texts and how meaning young man who said he was going on Twitter’, researchers found that around and geeking out’ - took thinking about the communication is created. to vote Democratic because his the flow of information on Twitter, this approach, asking young process, putting the emphasis on grandfather would skin him if he supports the two-step flow of people how and why they use the meaning that the audience didn’t. information. social networking sites. creates from media texts. strengths & The strength of this theory is that it This theory acknowledges that Uses and Gratification is an A strength of semiotics is that it Only three decoding positions. weaknesses moves the discussion about media audiences are part of a society approach to studying the media, focuses on the role of the reader These three categories are not influence away from the assump- which affects the flow of informa- rather than a theory of influence. It and links our reading of texts with supported by empirical evidence. tion that the media has a direct tion. One weakness is that there has been criticised for its vague culture and values. Criticised for The theory does consider the and powerful influence on may, in fact, be more than two definition of important concepts. being a loosely defined critical importance of culture in determin- audiences, considering the total steps in the flow of communica- approach. ing dominant messages. situation. tion.

The way we think about communication and media influence is underpinned by different academic approaches.

The effects tradition Cultural Studies Political Economy

Overview The effects tradition is an approach to the study of Rather than focusing simply on the effect of the media, The political economy approach to communication has media influence which focuses on the effect that media the cultural studies approach sees the act of communi- its origins in Marxism and concerns itself with who texts have on audiences. This way of thinking about the cation and the issue of media influence within the owns the media. It suggests that the mass media is media developed in the early days of the mass media context of society and culture. It acknowledges that the part of a capitalist system which incorporates advertis- and has become a dominant way of thinking about media are part of society, aiming to look at the ‘whole ers, corporations and government. communication. picture’ by examining media consumption in our everyday lives

focus Media effects Individual media consumption and the construction Political and economic systems, e.g. organisations, of meaning ownership, advertisers, government and regulation.

RESEARCH Experimental studies Surveys and interviews Using models, such as Chomsky’s Propaganda model, Quantitative evidence Qualitative evidence to explain the operation of the mass media.

Strengths & The real weakness of the effects tradition is its narrow The cultural effects tradition approaches the idea of The political economy approach to media and commu- weaknesses focus on media effects. As noted by David Gauntlett in media influence by conducting qualitative research. nication looks at how the mass media operates. It ‘10 Things Wrong with the Effects Model’, it tackles Researchers ask people how they use the media. This is focuses on concepts like media ownership, the the problem backwards, starting with the assumption considered superior to the effects tradition because it importance of the advertising dollar, media regulation that the media has an effect on audiences, then doesn’t make the assumption that the media influences and the power relationships between these. It asks attempting to prove it. The effects tradition is also audience. Instead, cultural studies researchers ask questions like: Who owns the media? Who does the criticised for treating audiences, particularly children, people to talk about their experience with the media in media benefit? Who has power and why? The political as inadequate and susceptible to influence. Experi- an attempt to gain greater insight into the process of economy approach has been criticised for not focusing mental studies conducted to prove media effects communication. This allows researchers to deal with on the culture in which media production and consump- usually occur in an artificial, laboratory setting which ideas too complex for traditional, quantitative surveys. tion occurs. takes media consumption out of the real world. Some Cultural studies has been criticised by those who adopt research into media effects has also been criticised for the political economy approach as ignoring the impor- being driven by highly conservative lobby groups. tance of capitalism and economic power structures in the mass media.