Midterm 1

Question 1

Media effects theory

Answer 1

Beginning: media was a deliberate attempt to shape perceptions and direct behavior

Hypodermic needle: media can have an immediate and direct influence on people

• audience is weak and media is powerful
• kind of content matters greatly

Note: discredited and now minimal effects

Question 2

Mass media effect

Answer 2

A change in the outcome within a person or social entity that is due to mass media influence following exposure to a mass media message or series of messages

• can be seen in individuals and groups
• vary as a result of people and tastes
• can be fast or slow and sharp or gradual
• some are measurable and some are not

Question 3

Lazerfeld and Merton “3 fears”

Answer 3

1. Fear of “ubiquity and potential power of the media”
2. Fear the public will lose the ability to critically reason (I.e. people think crime rates are higher than it is.)
3. Fear othat cultural standards will decline

Question 4

Social functions of mass media

Answer 4

1. Status conferral function: media makes people and issue famous just by covering them
2. Enforce social norms
3. Narcoticizing dysfunction: people have more info than ever but they actually don’t do anything about it
4. Ownership and conformity: mass media outlets are businesses and they cater to particular interests
5. Impact on popular taste
6. Monopolization: little to no opposition in the mass media to the diffusion of values and policy (status quo bias))
7. canalization: media reinforces already existing opinions in ppl
8. supplementation: media and interpersonal interactions supplement each other

Question 5

Bandura and social cognitive theory

Answer 5

Bobo doll experiment: children replicate the aggression that they see by copying but also coming up with novel aggression

Social cognitive theory: social rewards and punishments determine whether an act is copied (social conditions shape people’s learning process)

Question 6

Agenda setting

Answer 6

Media tells us what to think about

Due to the selective nature of news

• gatekeepers of info
• news is often sensationalized for the audience

(I.e. trumps tweets)

Question 7

Priming

Answer 7

The tendency for the audience to evaluate their political leaders on the basis of which events and topics were given most attention in recent news reports

Question 8

Framing (with types)

Answer 8

The way stories are produced, what info receives attention, and the ways stories are presented

Types
1. Gain/loss framing: framing something as a loss makes people less likely to take it)

2. Episodic framing: explaining an issue through the lens of an anecdote (a single example or couple stories are used to illustrate a larger trend)
3. Thematic framing: explains an issue through a broader lens, stats are often used to summarize the prevalence of an issue
4. Strategy/horse race focus framing: coverage of the strategic aspects of politics such as popularity of people and ideas
5. Issue focused framing: info about the actions taken by governmental bodies or the positions and characteristics of representives

Question 9

Harold innus “bias of communication”

Answer 9

different strengths and weaknesses associated with different media forms

Papyrus and clay

• papyrus is lightweight and allows for easy spreading but is fragile and susceptible or to water (biased towards space but against time)
• clay: heavy and hard to inscribe, but lasts a while (biased towards time but against space)

Thus: medium is the message (rather than actual words)

Question 10

Marshall McLuhan

Answer 10

Media are extensions of human senses

• writing and TV extends vision, radio extends hearing, etc
• the medium we hear a message in determines how we’ll perceive it

Question 11

Neil postman: typography vs television, print vs visual discourse

Answer 11

Audio and video content privilege visual discourse at the expense of audio and written discourse

News and tv has become a spectacle for entertainment rather than important topics

Question 12

Image size and motion

Answer 12

Image size: larger pictures are more arousing, better remembered and better liked than smaller ones

Motion

• when pictures have a visual surprise, people will orient to the surprise
• when objects or people on pictures move, attention will be higher than non movement segments

Question 13

Mediating factors of media effect

Answer 13

1. Exposure
2. Medium
3. Content
4. Predispositions
5. Interpersonal influence

Question 14

2 step flow of media effect

Answer 14

Ideas go from radio and print-> opinion leaders-> less active sections of the population

-shows that there are direct and indirect media effects

Question 15

Opinion leaders

Answer 15

People who have expertise/are well informed that people trust (friends/family/ community)

Personal relationships provide

1. Information
2. Social support
3. Social pressure

Influencee wants to be as much like the influential as possible

Note: most opinion leaders are primarily affected by other people (not by media)

Question 16

Diffusion (and process steps)

Answer 16

Innovators-> early adopters-> early majority-> late majority-> laggards

Process

1. Knowledge
2. Persuasion
3. Decision
4. Implementation
5. Confirmation

Strong tie relationships: more homophily (people have similar attributes)
Weak tie relationships: less homophily

Note: are usually rich, well informed and have access to more resources (also media is more effective in early stages, interpersonal relations in the later stages)

People’s relationships are more easily seen online
(People become influential by: writing clearly and succinctly, and uses social media a lot)

Due to the internet the bell curve of adopters has a long tail, due to people adopting earlier with fewer laggards

Question 17

Uses and gratifications model

Answer 17

Media content leads to measurable effects

• audience needs drive media content and consumption
• needs-> uses of media-> gratifications

Question 18

Needs (uses and gratifications)

Answer 18

1. Understanding:strengthen knowledge, info, understanding of world
2. Status: strengthen credibility, stability, status with society
3. Contact: weaken contact with self strengthen contact with others (look up on recording)

Related to

• self
• others (friends/family)
• state and society

Question 19

Selective exposure and cognitive dissonance

Answer 19

People attend to media in purposive patterned ways

• explains why there aren’t powerful media effects
• helps understand the effects that do stem from media effects

Due to cog. Dissonance: feeling of discomfort from inconsistency in behavior

Ways to relieve

1. Change beliefs
2. Seek info that confirms beliefs
3. Avoid info that challenges beliefs

Question 20

Polysemy

Answer 20

To be popular, media messages must contain “semiotic excess” that allows for many interpretations

• audience is given an active role in creating meaning in a message
• audience can choose dominant or subordinate readings
• interpretations depend on social context

Question 21

Quantitative content analysis

Answer 21

Define topic, state hypothesis, etc (code texts, define variables)

I.e. why Americans hate welfare, and inequality in 1100 popular films

Question 22

Scientific method terms (quantitative )

Answer 22

Objectivity: measure content features in a way that avoids biases of the investigator

A priori design: decisions on variables, their measurement and coding rules made at start of research

Generalizability

Replicability: being able to repeating a study in different cases and contexts and getting similar results

Measurement reliability: interviewer reliability or the level of agreement among 2 coders

Measurement validity: when we are measuring what we want to measure

Question 23

Textual analysis (qualitative content analysis)

Answer 23

I.e. the kingdom

• film treated as a text
• analyzing the encoding process
• production of dominant meanings
• findings
  1. Dangerous Muslim man
  2. Imperiled Muslim woman
  3. Civilized westerner

Weaknesses

1. Can be biased
2. Are polysemic (have diff interpretations)

Question 24

Survey terms

Answer 24

1. Population
2. Sample
3. Sampling frame: list of people in a pop. Used to draw people out of the population
4. Random selection (not random assignment)
5. Response rate: people who are contacted to participate in a survey who actually participate

Question 25

Problems/biases in surveys

Answer 25

1. Non response bias: people who complete survey are diff from people who were invited but did not 2. Social desirability bias: people answer in ways that conform to how they think they should answer 3. Optimistic self presentation: people distort answers because true answers aren’t consistent with their self image (unconscious)

Question 26

Other survey facts

Answer 26

Good surveys are based on already tested questions Types of survey questions 1. Open ended (what is your favorite show 2. Unordered open ended (which is your favorite show...) 3. Ordered open ended (strongly agree) Problems with surveys - people can’t always give accurate answers - one survey can’t implicate causation

Question 27

Experiment

Answer 27

2 important features 1. Minimum of 2 groups 2. Groups must be equal before the ind. variable is manipulated 3 requirements of a “true” exp. 1. Must have 2 groups 2. Variation in the ins. Variable before assessment of change in the dependent variable 3. Random assignment Internal valid.: the extent to which a causal conclusion can be achieved External valid.: the extent to which the findings can be generalized

Question 28

3 criteria to establish causality

Answer 28

1. Empirical association/ correlation 2. Temporal order: cause precede the effect 3. Non spuriousness: no third variable

Question 29

Quasi experiments

Answer 29

Comparison between 2 or more groups with no random assignment - researcher can not manipulate the ins. Variable - has causal utility but cannot factor out a 3rd variable

Question 30

Challenges for experiments

Answer 30

1. Compensatory rivalry: people know they’re in the control group and try harder (makes differences between groups smaller) 2. Resentful demoralization: people know they’re in the control group and give up. (Makes differences between groups bigger) 3. Treatment diffusion: treatment breaks the barrier between control and treatment and spreads across both 4. Difficult to implement

Question 31

Big data

Answer 31

Advantages 1. Feasibility 2. Accuracy 3. Limits social desirability Challenges 1. Privacy 2. Signal to noise: hard to sort out what’s important in a big dataset 3. Online/ offline behavior

Question 32

Ethnography (qualitative)

Answer 32

Watching people going through their daily activities Covert participant( subjective, sympathetic, deceptive) vs overt observer (objective, unsympathetic, detached, candid) Strengths 1. Depth 2. Specificity 3. Can see process not just outcomes Weaknesses 1: breadth 2. Generalizability 3. Subjectivity 4. Ethical considerations

Question 33

Lasswell’s 4 functions of media

Answer 33

1. Correlation/personal identity 2. Entertainment 3. Surveillance 4. Socialization/ personal relationships

Question 34

4 types of mass media effects

Answer 34

1. Gradual long term change 2. Reinforcement: when a person exposes himself to the same kind of media 3. immediate shift: media alters something during/ right after exposure 4. short term fluctuation: fluctuation during and slightly after

Question 35

Idiographic vs nomothetic

Answer 35

Idiographic model of explanation: looking at the multiple reasons behind a particular behavior Nomothetic: looking at the considerations that are most important in explaining a class of actions or events

Question 36

Necessary and sufficient causes

Answer 36

Necessary causes: a condition that must be present for the effect to follow Sufficient: a condition that, if present, pretty much guarantees the effect (I.e. skipping an exam is sufficient to failing a class but u can do in other ways) Necessary and sufficient: has to be present in order for the effect to exist and always results in the effect