Mass Media
an Impact on the Economy
Meredith M. Price
The University of Southern Mississippi
BA Mass Communication and Journalism
BA Political Science/International Relation
Media Functions
• Print, radio, television, Internet, and social
networks are common types of media.
• Media extends out to large masses of people and
provides information to the public on various
subjects, entertain, and to gratify people’s
curiosities.
• Since 2000 mass media has expanded and
become more obtainable—cell phones, iTouch,
and laptops.
• Consumers often consult mass media and base
daily decisions from the information received.
Westley-MacLean Model (1955)
X (Objects of Orientation)
A (Advocacy)
C (communicator)
B (Receiver)
F (Feedback)
Source: Westley, B., and M. MacLean. 1957. “A conseptual Model for
Communication Research.” Journalism Quarterly, 34:31-38
Media Effects
• McGuire noted several of the most commonly
mentioned intended media effects are; (a) the effects
of advertising on purchasing, (b) the effects of political
campaigns on voting, (c) the effects of public service
announcements (PSAs) on personal behavior and social
improvement, (d) the effects of media ritual on social
control (McGuire, 1989). McGuire also pointed out the
most commonly mentioned unintended media effects;
(a) emotional behavior, (b) the impact of media images
on the social construction of reality, (c) the effects of
media bias on stereotyping, and (d) how media forms
affect cognitive activity and style (McGuire, 1989).
Key Concepts
• Agenda Setting- The agenda-setting function of the
media refers to the media’s capability, through
repeated news coverage, of raising the importance of
an issue in the public’s mind (Severin, Tankard pg. 219).
• Priming-Media agenda setting determines the criteria
by which an issue will be evaluated (Iyengar, Kinder,
Peters, 1982). This concept is known as priming.
Priming is the process in which media attends to
particular issues and not others and thereby alter the
standards by which people evaluate and act on an issue
(Chapel Hill Study McCombs Shaw 1972 election and
issue highlights)
Good news vs BAD news
• Cultivation theory, used in mass media studies, is
a concept that explains how people’s
perceptions, attitudes, and values change from
consumption of media.
• Psychological literature supplements the
cultivation theory by suggesting that unfavorable
information has a greater impact on impression
than does favorable information, across a wide
variety of situations (e.g., Ronis and Lipinski 1985;
Singh and Teoh 2000; Van der Pligt and Eiser
1980; Vonk 1993, 1996).
• Research in economics posits a prospect theory
(Kahneman and Tversky 1979). Prospect theory is
a choice under uncertainty, which contains a
feature called loss aversion. People react more
fervently towards a loss in utility than they do
towards a gain of equal magnitude (Soroka,
2006). This individual-level loss adverse behavior
is evident in macroeconomic dynamics:
consumption tends to drop more when the
economy contracts than rise when the economy
expands (Bowman, Minehart, and Rabin 1999).
Surveillance
• Surveillance of the media includes economy facts,
stock market reports and the overall well being of
a nation (Severin and Tankard, p. 321, 2006).
Surveillance function can cause several
dysfunctions such as panic due to the
overemphasis of issues facing a society.
Lazarsfeld and Merton (1948/1960) noted that
“narcotizing” dysfunction when individuals fall
into a state of apathy or passivity as a result of
too much information to assimilate may leave
many audience members with little perspective
of what is normal.
Negative reports on the national economy led to a fall in consumer
confidence ?
The 1990 slowdown
• Findings conducted by Chauvet and Guo (2003) pointed out that
consumption growth did switch to a low-growth state at the
beginning of the 1989 slowing of the economy (Figure 2).
Consumer confidence also fell during the slowing, as observed in all
the previous low-growth phases and recessions (f1) (Chauvet and
Guo, 2003). However, the probabilities of consumer pessimism
based on non-fundamentals rose only in July 1990, which coincided
with the onset of this recession (Figure2). The same pattern was
observed for growth in personal income, manufacturing trade and
sales, and employment, whose falls coincided with the beginning of
this recession. Therefore, consumers’ pessimism did not seem to
be a source of this recession (Chauvet and Guo, 2003).
More on Chauvet and Guo findings
• However Chauvet and Guo (2003) notes that
consumers’ pessimism may have been an
important factor in intensifying and extending the
1989-1992 economic slowdown. The figures
created by Chauvet and Guo (2003) reveal that
low consumption growth phase lagged
consumers’ pessimism, and lasted until the end
of the sample in 1995. Thus, the unprecedented
extended slowdown could have been a reflection
of consumers’ attitudes toward the economy
after the official end of the 1990 economic
recession (Chauvet and Guo, 2003).
News Refraction Hypthesis
• Self-fulfilling pessimism is the result from
news refraction hypothesis suggested by
McLeod and associates (1995). Their
hypothesis suggests that local content of news
media exposure could have a strong influence
on perceptions of issues and the “closeness of
home”. Therefore, viewer’s doubts suppress
the urge for action, and a reclusive approach
is taken towards issues (McLeod et al., 1995).
THE RESEARCH
A work in progress…..please
put up with my airheaded
rambling for a little longer
thanks.
Case study: Media coverage of
Deepwater Horizon Spill and its impact
on the Economy
Why and Who Cares?
Public opinion of greatest threat from the
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Mississippi Gulf Coast
No Threat
residents
only; October 21, 2010
Mental Health
5%
4%
Economic
Ecological
Ecological
33%
Economic
58%
Mental Health
No Threat
Public Opinion: Possible Factors of Mississippi Gulf
Coast economic decline (200 persons) October 25,
2010
Hurricane none
Katrina
16%
5%
Mass Media
38%
Mass Media
National Recession
Hurricane Katrina
National
Recession
41%
none
Insight of how the media reacted
Unlike most catastrophes, which tend to
break quickly and subside almost as fast, the
spill was a slow-motion disaster that
demanded constant vigilance and sustained
reporting (journalism.org).
Combined data: Word/Article Count of the Sun Herald, Times-Picayune,
Mobile Press-Register, Retail Sales, Unemployment of the three costal
counties of Hancock, Harrison, Jackson.
As the surge of media reports on the oil spill
flooded the mass media, economic impact
along the Mississippi Gulf Coast experienced
little significant growth. Overall, the oil spill
created job losses and also crushed the fishing
industry
BP created temporary jobs along the gulf
states and also occupied hundreds of hotel
rooms. These factors are significant in
contributing towards the economic data
researched
It is still too premature to know if media
significantly impacted, but people’s
perceptions have been shaped to an
extent of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and
tourism could suffer in the future.
Source: Mississippi Gross Retail Sales:
Mississippi Department of Revenue:
Unemployment Rate by County
Mississippi Department of Employment
Security
Adam Sacks, managing director of Oxford
Economics USA mentioned that “History and
current trends indicate a potential $22.7 billion
economic loss to the travel economics of the
Gulf Coast states over the next three years
could be possible” (Sun Herald 07/24/2010).
Sacks continues, “One of the most costeffective ways to mitigate these damages is to
immediately fund strategic marketing to
counter misperceptions and encourage travel
to the region” (Sun Herald 07/24/2010).
Misperception created by the media is a factor
that Sacks mentions in his consulting towards
the Gulf Coast tourism sector.
I am still awaiting further comment from Mr. Sacks and
how he formed his theory.