College 1 Flashcards
(119 cards)
1
Q
Name the steps of research paradigm of media
A
- powerful media (1900-1930)
- (a little bit less) powerful media (1940-1950)
- limited effects
- return to (moderately) powerful effects (1970-1980)
- return to powerful effects
2
Q
I Powerful media (1900-1930)
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- observation of enormous popularity of media
- principles of propaganda: media as manipulators
- psychological and biological theories
> hypodermic needle model
e.g. war of the worlds
3
Q
Hypodermic needle model/ magic bullet
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suggests that an intended message is dirctly received and wholly accepted by the receiver
4
Q
II (A little bit less) powerful media (1940-1950)
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- discovering individual differences in the black box
- intervening factors: existing attitudes, opinions etc.
- isolated individuals, but connected members of smallnetworks
> filling out the black box
5
Q
III Limted effects
A
uses and gratifications theory
6
Q
Uses and gratifications
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individuals select media in response to their needs or desires and that a variety of psychological and social factors guide and filter this selection
7
Q
IV Return to (moderately) powerful effects (1970-1980)
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> > moderate effects era: effects on society
1. shift to long-term effects of media; effects on social change
2. increasing knowledge gap: cultivation of fear through media
We go from individual effects to societal effects
8
Q
V Return to powerful effects
A
- agenda setting theory
- framing
- not everyone is equally affected - who (=moderators)
- underlying effect mechanisms - how are people affected (=mediators)
9
Q
Agenda-setting=
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telling its readers what to think about
10
Q
Framing=
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focuses on the particular ways those issues are presented. Observation that media can portray one and the same topic in very different ways
11
Q
Difference between agenda-setting and framing is
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wheter we think about an issue (agenda-setting) and how we think about an issue (framing)
12
Q
Frames are a
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partial representation of reality
13
Q
Most generic news frames
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- Morality frame
- Economic consequences frame
- Human interest frame
- Responsibility frame
- Conflict frame
14
Q
Responsibility frame=
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governmental or individual responsibility; suggested problem solution; call for action
15
Q
Conflict frame=
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disagreement; two or more sides; blame/conflict; winners/losers
16
Q
Human interest frame=
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human face; personal impact on lives; sympathy or pity; personal or private aspects
17
Q
Economic consequences frame=
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financial gains and losses; cost/expenses; future consequences
18
Q
Morality frame=
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moral message; social prescriptions how to behave
19
Q
Thematic framing is…
A
- stats and figures
- more factual
- broader context
- persuading
- affects opinions
20
Q
Episodic framing is…
A
- individual story
- more emotional
- mobilizing
- affects emotions
21
Q
Why does framing work?
A
Because framing affects cognition and emotions. E.g. being scared or angry has a different effect in complying to the rules during COVID19
22
Q
Lost twin and polar opposite of ‘‘anger’’:
A
anger and ethusiasm have more in common
and anger and fear are polar opposites
23
Q
Different emotions
A
are characterized by stable patterns of triggers, behavioral expression and associated distinct subjective experience (basic emotions)
Valence (pos/neg)
Arousal (high/low)
Action tendencey (approach/avoidence)
24
Q
You could state that different emotions..
A
play a different role in affecting subsequent opinions, attitudes and behavior
25
Episodic frames may be less persuasive than thematic frames;
episodic frames produced individual attributions for political problems and thematic frames produced societal attributions for political problems
26
What determines voting behavior?
- social environment (Lazarsfeld et al.)
- political cleavages - permanent political divisions; we all belong to certain groups in society which can have an influence on what we vote, workers will vote for social democracy e.g. (Lipset & Rokkan)
- party identification; refers to the political party with which an individual identifies, for some people this will never change (Campbell)
- rational choicel what is best for me and what are the benefits for me (Downs)
27
Today...
dealignment, non alignment, electorate is more volatile, less party loyalty, more vote-switching, weaker role of cleavages
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Less pre determined voters means that there is
more space for short term media campaign effects
29
News coverage campaign advertising can...
- increase voter turnout
- decrease voter turnout
- increase support for a specific party
- influence vote choice in referendums
- increase political knowledge
- make citizens more cynical
- spark emotional responses
30
high-cost vs low-cost action
low-cost is liking something on FB while eating ice cream on the couch or wearing a sticker to make people aware of global warming/ high-cost is going to the rain to a protest, donating money
31
Brader (2005)
- the use of images and music in campagin ads affects voters
- cueing enthusiams motivates campaign engagement and electoral participation and activities existing loyalties; cueing fear makes people more alert and facilitates persuasion
= campagins appeal to emotions and these emotions can promote democratically desirable behavior
- negative with scary music = more recall and people seek more additional information and more likely to be persuaded
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Interesting role of fear:
1. people pay more attention and are more alert - but might shrink from action
2. at the same time fear has strong persuasive power (in terms of opinion change or formation)
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Anxiety stimulates
attention and political learning
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Ethusiasm affects
candidates preferences and stimulates interest engagement
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Study Marcus and MacKuen (1993)
> anxiety had a significant impact on learning in this study
> enthusiasm had a significant impact on involvement
> no effect the other way around
36
Affective Intelligence Theory (AIT)
- designed specifically around the topic of election campaigns
- assumes the existence of two basic cognitive systems
1. the dispositional system
2. the surveillance system
both driven by emotions (1) enthusiasm and (2) anxiety
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Affective Intelligence Theory (AIT)
- designed specifically around the topic of election campaigns
- assumes the existence of two basic cognitive systems
1. the dispositional system
2. the surveillance system
both driven by emotions (1) enthusiasm and (2) anxiety
38
Political geography=
the political environment
e.g. climate change
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Enthusiasm fules the ... system
dispositional system, which is inclined to habitual behavior and reinforces current attitudes (=no change)
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Anxiety triggers the ... system
surveillance, which monitors novel threats and reconsiders current behavioral intentions and attitudes (= open to change)
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Dispositional system
familiair and rewarding context > enthusiasm (re-affirming) > habituated choice > resulting action as usual...:
1. interest in the subject
2. strength of worldview
3. fear appeal attacking the current behavior of individual
42
Surveillance system
unfamiliair and uncertain context > anxiety (emotion it triggers) > re-considering: credible or not credible >
not credible = re-affirming
credible = can i cope with the threat? yes is danger control and behavior change
no is fear controle and no change
43
Anger according to Nabi
purpose of defending oneself an attack
44
Emotions are
internal mental states, representing evaluative, valenced reactions to events, agents or obejcts that vary in intensity (Nabi) - they are short-term, motivational focres (Valentino)
Generally emotions are short-lived, and directed at some external stimuli
45
Five components (Nabi) of emotions
1. cognitive appraisal or evaluation of the situation
2. the physiological component of arousal (high or low)
3. motor expression (e.g. laugh, frown, cry)
4. motivational component e.g. behavioral intentions
5. subjective feeling state
46
Summary in four statements
1. emotions have inherent adaptive functions
2. they are based on events that are personally relevant
3. each emotion has a motivation connected to it, represented by its associated action tendency, which is meant to arouse, sustain or direct cognitive and/or physical resources
4. emotions are organizers and motivators of behavior
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Emotion and rationality are NO contrast
cognitive appraisal theory is based on the premise that emotions are the result of an evaluative thought process or assessments of a situation - thus, there is a direct connection between emotion and reason
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Cognitive appraisal =
the personal interpretation of a situation: it is how an individual views a situation. Appraisals refer to direct, immediate, and intuitive evaluations made on the environment in reference to personal well-being, they are evaluative frameworks that people utilize to make sense of events
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4 steps cognitive appraisal
1a. Perceiving an object/event in the environment and judging (‘’appraising’’) its relevance for personal well-being (also called ‘’primary appraisal’’) e.g. is the object/event harmful, threatening, challenging?
1b. Evaluation of one’s ability to control or cope with the object or event (also called ‘’secondary appraisal’’) e.g. do I have sufficient resources to cope with the object/event and how am I going to respond?
2. These judgements (‘’appraisals’’) then lead to certain states of action readiness, the awareness of which is the subjective emotional experience (e.g. I am afraid/angry/sad)
3. These action tendencies are associated with physiological changes (e.g. increased heart-beat, sweating, tiredness)
4. These action tendencies and physiological changes affect future perceptions, cognitions and behaviors in line with the goal set by the action tendency (i.e. cognitive re-appraisal)
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Different appraisal dimensions
e.g. novelty, certainty, agency/responsibility, coping potential/control, urgency, pleasantness, perceived obstacles, legitimacy, norm compatibility, anticipated effort, foal relevance, goal congruence etc
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Importantly, an emotion occurs - following a cognitive appraisal - only when
only when a stimulus is appraised as goal relevant and when the goal is sufficiently high in the person’s goal hierarchy and/or appraised as urgent. (you care when you feel an emotion)
52
mediation=
explains the underlying mechanism or process behind an effect, what causes or explains the effect
change in respone to a frame or message and then cause or explain an effect on e.g. opinions, attitudes, behavior
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outgroup empathy=
a predisposition that can trigger the vicarious experience of perspectives and emotions across ethnic groups
race/ethnicity conditions life experiences that socialize outgroup empathy
54
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empathy for outgroups is rather rare, but can alter reactions to threats and boost support for egalitarian policies even when group interests in conflict
outgroup empathy significantly among all partisan, ideological, and racial groups, though between group variation is also substantial
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Moderated effects
can depend on third variables that are unaffected by the frame and that pre-exist as stable individual characteristics
a variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the relation between an independent or predictor variable and a dependent variable
56
Is every concept always clearly either moderator or mediator?
= no, it can depend, consider these examples
interest →
a frame can increase interest in a topic which can affect engagement (=here interest would be a mediator) [first affected by the message]
BUT
pre-existing interest in a topic can condition that a frame only has an effect on people if they are interested enough to pay attention to the frame (=here interest would be a moderator) [pre-existing interest and then expose to a message]
57
So, again, the difference between moderators and mediators…
‘’ persuasive appeal of a campaign message is strengthened by positive prior attitudes towards the issue in question’’ = moderation
‘’ election campaign coverage focusing on the economy primes citizens to consider economic considerations and see them as more important,which in turn affects how citizens rate the competence of political candidates’’ = mediator
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The (central) role of fear - the ‘’Dilemma’’
→ fearful representations of climate change foster attention but are ineffective to motivate genuine personal engagement in the topic
-
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Gain-positive frammes
achieving positive consequences of engaging in climate protection
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gain-negative frames
avoiding negative consequencces when engaging in climate protection
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loss frames
negative consequences of not engaging in climate protection
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gain-negative frames affect...
threat perception and willingness to sacrifice;
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loss frames affect...
via the emotions fear and guilt
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Scannell & Gifford (2011); three significant predictors of climate change engagement emerged:
1. receiving locally-relevant news
2. feeling attached to ones' local area
3. and being female
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Hoijer (2015)
verbal and visual representations of climate change often attached to emotions of fear, hope, guilt, and compassion. Emotional reporting can enhance public engagement in the issue, but also draws attention away from it as abstract, long-term, statistical topic
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Leiserovitz et al. (2014)
found that the term global warming is associated with greater public understanding, emotional engagement, and support for personal and national action than the term climate change
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effects on emotions and behavior
effects on emotions: more intense worry and greater sense of personal threat
effects on behavior: higher issue priority and greater willingness to join a campaign
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Why is climate change a good topic for media effect research?
we can all agree that it is relevant
everybody has heard about it
the fact shown knowledge is rather low (=what do you really know)
69
Theory
threat versus no threat - effects in political mobilization
discrete emotions: ‘fear’, ‘anger’, ‘hope’, ‘empathy’
the role of ‘need for affect’ and ‘political self-efficacy’ (are the moderators)
political opinions vs. behavior (outcome variables/ dependent variables)
-
70
Threat framing
severity of problem
likelihood of negative future consequences
this has an impacy on interpretations and mobilizes preventive behavior (so that you want to protect yourself from the threat)
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what can framing depend upon?
e.g. an individuals ‘Need for affect’
individual motivation of people to approach or avoid situations which can cause emotions (Appel et al., 2012; Maio & Esses, 2001)
e.g. and individuals level of ‘self-efficacy’
certain discrete emotions (e.g. anger) are only mobilizing if people also have the feeling that it is in their power to change the situation or solve the problem (Rimal & Real, 2003; Valentino et al., 2009)
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the dilemma
fearful representations of climate change foster attention but are ineffective to motivate genuine personal engagement in the topic
results in lack of perceived salience, personal relevance and efficacy because of feeling helpless and overwhelmed
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Fear is
generally aroused when a situation is perceived as threatening to one's physical or physiological self and out of one's control
Fear's tendency is to escape from the threat and if realized avoidance behavior results
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Anger is...
elicited by situations in which either obstacles are perceived to interfere with goal-oriented behavior, or demeaning offenses against oneself or one's loved ones have occured
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Anger is believed to...
mobilize and sustain high levels of energy for the purpose of defending oneself, there is a desire to attack the source of anger
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Another form of anger; outrage
strong moral emotion, in reaction to a perceived injustrice, characterized by a combination of surprise, disgust, anger, usually in reaction to a personal offense and involving moral judgement
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Discrete emotions according to Nabi
1. anger
2. fright
3. guilt/shame
4. sadness
5. happiness/joy
6. pride
78
Anger=
demeaning offense against me and mine (blame)
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Fright
concrete and sudden danger of imminent pysical harm (no blame; uncertainty)
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Guilt/shame
having transgressed a moral imperative (internal blame)
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Sadness
irrevocable loss (no blame)
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Disgust
taking in or being too close to an indigestible object or idea (none)
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Happiness/joy
making reasonable progress toward the realization of our goals (positive future expectation)
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Pride
enhancement of one's ego-identity by taking credit for a valued object or achievement, either our own or that of someone or group with whom we identify (credit)
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Episodic frames present...
Thematic frames place...
an issue by offering a specific example
issues into a broader context
86
Framing refers to...
the observation that the media can portray one and the same topic in very different ways, emphasizing certain evaluations of only parts of an issue at the expense of possible others
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Generic frames
frames that are commonly applied to a wide range of different topics e.g. economic consequences frames
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Issue specific frames
are bound to a particular issue
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What can threat frames lead to?
To possible more negative outcome and carries the potential to affect subsequent beliefs and behavior accordingly
- negative outcome
- affect beliefs and behavior
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Why did the research look at different emotions?
Because different emotions can have different effects on information processing and that is why it is necessary to distinguish between different discrete emotions
91
Fear =
a strongly unpleasant emotion which is aroused in response to a threatening situation and often linked to risk-averse behavior and retreat on avoidance tendencies
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However, fear also showed to
shrink from action. Because of perceived uncertainty and a lack of control and being unable to attribute blame but alsp facilitates persuasion > changes in beliefs and opinions
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Threat framing increases levels of fear
> lead to more negative beliefs about climate change > no effect on actual pro enivornment behavior
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Anger leads to more
attention and careful message processing and has the potential to mobilize
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Exposure to realistic policy threats >
potential to trigger anger, can result in more negative political attitudes
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Need for affect=
general motivation of people to approach or avoid situations and activities that are emotion inducing for themselves or others
1. people differ in the extent to which they persue a variety of affective experiences and
2. subsumes both a motivation to approach emotions and a motivation to avoid them
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political efficacy =
feeling that individual political action does have (or can have) an impact upon the political process
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Exposure to threat framing (regarding the issue of climate change) and global warming express
stronger negative affective responses than respondents exposed to a non threat frame
but it depends on level of need for affect and political self efficacy
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The effect on beliefs is stronger for people high in need for affect and the affect on behavior is stronger for people in high need of affect and political self efficacy
-
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Corona pandemic: the role of media; what happend?
- high media use by citizens who normally do not consume news or very little (because; risk to your well-being > fear and anxiety > more information seeking)
- e.g. affective intelligence theory;
new, unfamiliar situation, lack of control and threat can lead to fear and anxiety > lead to information seeking > more persuasion and information seeking
e.g. complying to government rules
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Positive and negative side of the pandemic
pos; lot of empathy and helping others
neg; hamsteren, protest, not wanting to be limited
102
Model met anger
Frame corona > government evaluation (-)
with anger (+) as mediator
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During the corona crisis there was little peer review and
the pre-print publications were fast, but not formally reviewed, which is a quality check
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Quandt et al. (2020)
facebook posts vs traditional media vs alternative media > no signs of systematic dysfunctionality
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Aslam et al. (2020)
looked at different discrete emotions during corona
news headlines had high emotion scores with negative polarity (52%)
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The US news coverage was ... during corona with the most common topic ... and you saw the use of ,.. frames
- us news coverage during pandemic higly polarized
- most common topic; death (rate) > prevention got little attention
- political leaders used war frames during pandemic to define it
107
Hameleers (2021)
- gain vs loss frames
- loss: results in for example powerlessness, frustation or risk-seeking behavior
- gains: (in terms of saving lives) enhances support for risk-aversive programs and interventions to fight the pandemic
108
Physical distancing motivation pfattheicher
info + empathy = the best willingness to follow the rules
a. empathy as prosocial emotio is linked to adhere to physical distancing and to wearing face masks
b. inducing empathy for people most vulnerable to the virus promotes the motivation to adhere to these measures (merely providing information about the importance of the measures does not)
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solutions journalism is
an approach to news reporting that focuses on the responses to social issues and the problems - explain how and why responses are working or not working
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How to measure emotions?
- physiological
- self - report (visual or verbal) = subjective perceptions
- behavior
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Self-reports most common, examples are
verbal measurements:
- open ended questions
- likert scales
- rating and rankings (top 3 emotions)
- semantic differentials (happy un happy)
visuel measurements
impliciet measurements
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Framing involves two things
salience and selection
113
Frames define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgements and suggest remedies
-
114
Frames have at least 4 locations in the communication process:
1. the communicator
2. the text
3. the receiver
4. the culture
115
Communicators
make consicious or unconscious framing judgements in deciding what to say, guided by frames that organize their belief systems
116
Text contains
frames, which are manifested by the prescence or abscence of certain key-words, stock phrases, stereotyped images, sources of information and sentences that provide thematically reinforcing clusters of facts or judgements
117
The frames that guide the receiver's thinking and conclusion
may or may not reflect the frames and the framing intention of the communicator
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The culture is
the stick of commonly invoked frames, in fact, culture might be defined as the empirically demonstrable set of common frames exhibited in the discourse and thinking of most people in a social grouping
119
salience is
means making a piece of information more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to audiences. An increase in salience enhances the probability that receivers will perceive the information, discern meaning and thus process it, and store it in memory
