Chapter Communications 22 Communication Theory How We Understand Media's Processes and Effects Introduction -Self-monitoring vs. parental monitoring -Links between media use and undesirable behavior -Role of media in terms of how it is used -Theory of Mass Communication -Proposition or argument about the role of media in producing meaning and constructing one's reality -Explanation of the relationship between media and human behavior -Definition of theory: set of reasoned speculations derived from empirical evidence through systematic testing of a phenomenon Theoretical Paradigms -Thomas Kuhn -Science historian -Paradigms -Generally accepted ways of thinking about scientific phenomena -Orientations that nurture and guide particular types of theoretical development and discourage others 1. Passive-audience theories -Emphasize ability to predict effects of media based on analysis of message content 2. Active-audience theories -Focus on how media are used by the audience, rather than specific effects of messages 3. Technological theories -Medium itself rather than specific messages that changes patterns of behavior in society 4. Cultural studies -Process of mass communication must be studied in social, cultural, and political context -Anomaly -Exceptions to the rule -Situations/events that run contrary to the stated theory Questions to Ponder: 1. Which perspective is most like my own? 2. What are the major strengths and weaknesses of each approach? 3. What are the anomalies that confront each theoretical paradigm? 4. Do these ideas alter my way of thinking about the media? Why or why not? Theories of the Passive Audience -Believe in manipulative nature of messages communicated -Messages have psychological and behavioral effects
-Media content can be used to make general predictions about effects on larger society Examples of Passive-Audience Theories -Modeling Theory -"Social learning theory" media create images, characters, and events that serve as models for behavior of audience members -Content Analysis -Types of models available to children and teenagers -Counting of incidents of predetermined set of categories in media content such as number of acts of violence in prime-time television programs or number of ethnic minorities in popular movies -Women Against Pornography, National Organization of Women critical of advertising -Agenda Setting -Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw -Correlation between news media coverage of certain topics and relative importance of those issues in the minds of the public -Powerful effects of media: ability to determine what the public thinks about as it participates in political, social, and economic issues of the day -Cultivation Theory -George Gerbner -Television has homogenizing effect on audience over time -Television = centralized system of story telling in otherwise heterogeneous population -Cultivates view of world that is consistent with reality conveyed by patterns of information in programs and commercials -"Mediated-Reality" -"Mainstreaming" -Homogenization of citizen's values, norms, and beliefs Theories of Active Audience -Challenge notion of one-way casualty between media and behavior -Audience, not that message is more revealing about effects of mass media -Rise of Active audience -Sociology -Questions notion of causality in social sciences is compatible with concept of causation in physical sciences -Research of Political information -Paul Lazarsfeld -Personal communication with opinion leaders just as important as mass media in forming public opinion twostep flow Examples of Active-Audience Theories -Use and Gratifications
-Social and psychological origin of needs and how those needs lead to particular uses of media -Diffusion of Innovations -Process by which new innovations and practices spread through society -Everett Rogers -Diffusion complex process and audience holds key to understanding how ideas become adopted -Innovators (immediately understand how to use innovation) -Early Adopters -Early Majority -Late Majority -Laggards -Interpersonal factors taken into account at each stage in order to understand media's role Theories of Communication Technology -Technological School or Medium Theorists -How media affect changes regarding lifestyle, education, culture, rather than analyzing specific television programs or movies -Lewis Mumford -Clock theory -Way of looking at the world that stresses efficiency, industry, and task-orientation, while de-emphasizing spontaneity and informality Examples of Technological Theories -Harold Innis -Seminal contributor; wrote about how various information technologies in history encourage certain approaches to law, government, and economics -Marshal McLuhan -Printing press created literate culture that differs from earlier cultures -Emergence of broadcast technologies replaced some elements of oral culture -Neil Postman -Types of public discourse encouraged by various media -Joshua Meyrowitz -Television = instrumental in explaining how social roles are changing in society -Wrote book No Sense of Place -Electronic media have helped blur the lines between childhood and adulthood, masculinity and femininity, and political leader and private citizens -Prior to electronic media, both younger and older audience members were able to keep their backstage behaviors hidden from each other Cultural Theories of Mass Communication
-Number of theories conceptualize mass communication as linear chain of sendermessage-receiver -Culturalists say doesn't account for social contexts in which individuals watch movies, read magazines, and experience variety of media -Cultural theorists rarely try to predict media effects; strive for understanding of culture itself and how mass communication plays role in these processes -Critical Theory -Emphasizes role of social power in study of mass communication -Marxist studies of mass communication focus on issue of social power -Symbolic Meaning -Communication not important primarily for its content but as a ritual in a culture Pragmatics: Developing Critical Skills -How theories are actually used in evaluating, enjoying, and making choices about media use -Critical skills begin with knowledge of theoretical perspectives Developing and Testing Theory You Already Know More About Theory Than You Know You Know Applying Theory Today: How Four Paradigms Might Be Used To Analyze The Impact Of The Internet