Research is formalized curiosity.
It is poking and prying with a purpose.
--Zora Neale Hurston, writer
Media Effects
& Cultural Approaches to
Research
Media Research
• Studying the impact of messages
transmitted by various mass media
Copycat Incidents
• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight
Copycat Incidents
• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight
• 1985 - Judas Priest court case
Copycat Incidents
• 1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight
• 1985 - Judas Priest court case
• 1993 - Disney movie The Program
Copycat Incidents
•
•
•
•
1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight
1985 - Judas Priest court case
1993 - Disney movie The Program
1995 - Oliver Stone’s Natural Born
Killers
Copycat Incidents
•
•
•
•
1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight
1985 - Judas Priest court case
1993 - Disney movie The Program
1995 - Oliver Stone’s Natural Born
Killers
• 1999 - Columbine High School
Shootings
Copycat Incidents
•
•
•
•
1966 - NBC, The Doomsday Flight
1985 - Judas Priest court case
1993 - Disney movie The Program
1995 - Oliver Stone’s Natural Born
Killers
• 1999 - Columbine High School
Shootings
• 2000 - MTV’s Jackass
Key Theories in Media
Research
• Hypodermic Needle Model
– Leni Riefenstahl films for Hitler:
• Triumph of the Will
• Olympiad
– Orson Welles Oct. 30, 1938 radio
broadcast of War of the Worlds
Key Phases in Media
Research
• Minimal Effects Model – Selective exposure
– Selective retention
• For some children, under some
conditions, some television is harmful. For
other children under the same conditions,
or for the same children under other
conditions, it may be beneficial. For most
children, under most conditions, most
television is probably neither particularly
harmful nor particularly beneficial.
Key Phases in Media
Research
• Uses and Gratifications Model
– Why do we use the media?
Three Main Scientific
Approaches
1. Experimental Research
– Experimental Group
– Control Group
– Random Assignment
Payne Research studies:
1927-1930
• 13 studies, conducted over a 3-yr. period
• In one study, the researchers divided the
children into various control groups
• Some children drank 2 cups of coffee at 8:30
• Some children were kept up until midnight and then
awakened really early in the morning
• Another group was made to watch movies before
bedtime
• The study concluded that watching movies
caused just as much sleep disturbance as
did drinking two cups of coffee at 8:30 p.m.
• Bobo doll experiment
SOCKO!!!!
Three Main Scientific
Approaches
2. Survey Research
– Does not control variables
– Shows correlations, not causality
– But, generalizable to larger population
– Problems of validity of questions
Three Main Scientific
Approaches
3. Content Analysis
– Systematically code and measure media
content
What counts as
“violence” on television?
• Is driving a sport-utility vehicle through a
stream violent?
• Is shooting a man before he sets off a bomb
that’s about to kill 100 people violent (or is
that a good deed)?
• Is a parent screaming at a child violent?
• Is it violence if the child screams back?
• Is an accidental shooting by a police officer
violent?
• Is an image of a gun violent?
• Is an act of nature violent?
What counts as
“violence” on television?
• Is the context of violence important?
• If there’s remorse after a violent act, or “real”
consequences to violence in a certain
program, does that mitigate the conception of
violence? Is it possible to count acts of
violence?
• Can the context of violent acts on television
be objectively understood, or is context
more a matter of personal interpretation?
• If there can be many definitions of violence,
how can we decide how much violence is on
our screens?
Theories of Media Effects
• The Cultivation Effect: Heavy TV viewing
leads individuals to perceive reality in ways
that are more consistent with TV’s version of
reality.
– “mean world syndrome”
– Italian TV: Berlusconi
Theories of Media Effects
• The Cultivation Effect: Heavy TV viewing
leads individuals to perceive reality in ways
that are more consistent with TV’s version of
reality.
– “mean world syndrome”
– Italian TV: Berlusconi
Theories of Media Effects
• Agenda-Setting: The more the news
media covers a subject, the more
importance audiences attach to that
subject.
e.g., Earth Day, Jaws, child abduction
Theories of Media Effects
• Spiral of Silence: People are generally
scared to voice their opinions if they
differ greatly from the opinions
presented in the media as “majority”
opinions
Cultural Approaches to Media
Research
• Cultural Studies
– Textual Analysis: close reading of texts
Cultural Approaches to Media
Research
• Cultural Studies
– Textual Analysis: close reading of texts
– Audience Studies: focuses on people who
use the text
Cultural Approaches to Media
Research
• Cultural Studies
– Textual Analysis: close reading of texts
– Audience Studies: focuses on people who
use the text
– How do teenage boys watch WWF wrestling and
why?
– How do midwestern women read romance novels
and why
Cultural Approaches to Media
Research
• Cultural Studies
– Textual Analysis: close reading of texts
– Audience Studies: focuses on people who use
the text
– Political Economy: focuses on economic and
political forces that control media content
– Chris Martin
– Bettina Fabos
Cultural Approaches to Media
Research
• Cultural Studies
the cultural approach, unlike media effects
research, which is grounded in the social
sciences, “does not seek to explain human
behavior, but to understand it….It does not
attempt to predict human behavior, but to
diagnose human meanings.”
– James Carey: