Media Effects and
Cultural Approaches
to Research
Chapter 15
“Since the emergence of popular music,
movies, television, and video games as
influential mass media, the relationship
between make-believe stories and real-life
imitation has drawn a great deal of
attention.”
Cause and Effect?
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Media effects
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Attempting to understand, explain, and
predict the effects of mass media on
individuals and society
Has a long history of research
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Does television make you do things?
Does it make you not do things?
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Natural Born Killers
Columbine, Colo.
Virginia Tech
History of Effects Research
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De Tocqueville and Lippmann
 Lippmann created “the founding book in American
media studies.”
Propaganda studies
 Harold Lasswell: defined propaganda as “the control
of opinion by significant symbols, . . . by stories,
rumors, reports, pictures and other forms of social
communication.”
Public opinion research
 Is the media too “poll-happy”?
Social psychology
 Payne Fund
Marketing research
 Advertisers and product companies used it to track
consumer preference.
Public Opinion Research

Public opinion research is especially
influential during political elections.
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It can also adversely affect active political
involvement.
Journalism is increasingly dependent on
political polls.
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Unreliability of pseudo-polls
Research on Media Effects

Hypodermic-needle model
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Minimal-effects model
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Media shoots effects directly into unsuspecting victims.
Rise of empirical research techniques
Selective exposure leads to reinforcement of existing
beliefs.
Uses and gratifications model
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Contests notion of audience passivity
Why do people use media?
Scientific Method
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Hypothesis
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Experimental design
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Tests whether hypothesis is true
Survey research
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Must be worded so that it is testable
Collecting and measuring data
Content analysis
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Studies the messages of print and visual
media
Explaining Media Effects
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Social learning theory
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Agenda-setting
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Media set the agenda for major topics of discussion.
Cultivation effect
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Attention
Retention
Motor reproduction
Motivation
Heavy viewing of television leads individuals to
perceive reality in ways consistent with portrayals on
television.
Spiral of silence
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Those whose views are in the minority will keep their
views to themselves for fear of social isolation.
Qualitative Approaches
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Cultural Studies
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Textual Analysis
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Highlights the close reading and interpretation of cultural
messages
Audience Studies
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Challenged mainstream media effects theory
Attempted to make everyday culture the centerpiece of media
studies
Differs from textual analysis because the subject being
researched is the audience for the text
Political Economy

Examine’s interconnections among economic interests,political
power, and how that power is used
Cultural Approaches
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James Carey:
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Offers ability to interpret broadly
Doesn’t just study the serious, but the entertaining
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Understand, not explain, human behavior
Diagnose meanings, not predict
Horace Newcomb
Both empirical and cultural studies have
weaknesses.
Media Research and
Democracy

Academics in media studies charged with
increased specialization, use of jargon
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Alienates public
Public intellectuals based on campuses must
work to help carry on the conversations of
society and culture, serving as models for
how to participate in public life.