Theories of Mass
Communication
Chapter 11
Marshall McLuhan
• The Mechanical Bride (1951)
• The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of
Typographic Man (1960)
• Understanding Media: The Extensions of
Man (1964)
• The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory
of Effects (1967)
Technological Determinism
• “The theory Marshall McLuhan advanced
has been called technological determinism.
As with any deterministic theory, the basic
claim is that some single cause or
phenomenon determines other aspects of
life” (237).
Technological Determinism
• “The theory of technological determinism
states that technology – specifically, media
– decisively shapes how individuals think,
feel, and act and how societies organize
themselves and operate” (238).
Media History
•
•
•
•
The Tribal Epoch
The Literate Epoch
The Print Epoch
The Electronic Epoch
Media History
• Some characteristics of the tribal epoch:
– Speech developed by homo-sapiens 20,00040,000 years ago.
– Orality, Aurality, and tactility
– Narrative Storytelling
– Immersion and Simultaneity
– Cohesive Communities
Media History
• Some characteristics of the literate epoch:
– The invention of the alphabet in Greece, 1000
B.C.
– Vision
– Linearity
– Logic
– Solitary Learning
Media History
• Some characteristics of the print epoch:
– The invention of the printing press in Germany,
1450 AD.
– Everything that was mentioned for the literate
epoch, but on a larger scale.
– Fragmented communities.
– The emergence of the middle-class.
Media History
• Some characteristics of the electronic
epoch:
– Revival of Oralality/Aurality and Tactility.
– The “global village.”
The Medium is the…
• The medium is the message.
– The medium determines the content of communication.
• The medium is the massage.
– The medium has the power to manipulate our
perceptions of the world.
• The medium is the mass-age.
– Mass communication has become the dominant form of
interaction.
The Medium is the Message
• Some examples of how messages are
crafted to conform to the medium.
–
–
–
–
Film and TV action/violence.
Windows interface and “multitasking.”
The hypertext book.
TOOL audio recording: “Die Eier Von Satan”
Media: Hot and Cool
• Hot Media “are those that include relatively
complete sensory data. Thus, a person
doesn’t need to fill in a lot of information to
understand the message” (242).
• Cool Media, on the other hand, demand
involvement from individuals” (242).
Cultivation Theory
• “Cultivation theory claims that television
cultivates, or promotes, a view of social
reality that is inaccurate but that viewers
nonetheless assume reflects real life” (244).
Cultivation Theory
• “Cultivation is the cumulative process by
which television fosters beliefs about social
reality. According to this theory, television
portrays the world as more violent and
dangerous than it really is” (245).
– Cumulative impact as opposed to a “magic
bullet.”
Violence
• The National Commission on the Causes
and Prevention of Violence (1967 and
1968).
• The Surgeon General’s Scientific Advisory
Committee on Television and Social
Behavior (1972).
Violence
• Content Analyses of television demonstrate
high incidence of violence.
– Cultivation theory infers from the high rate of
televised violence that viewers will come to
expect and tolerate violence in their real lives.
In other words, they will come to see the world
as a violent place.
Cultivation of…
• Attitudes toward sex roles.
• Development of racial/ethnic stereotypes.
• Expectations concerning physical appearance and
sexuality.
– “If we believe that all relationship problems can be
fixed, that sex can always be sublime, and that couples
live happily ever after, then we’re likely to be
dissatisfied with real relationships that can’t
consistently live up to these synthesized images” (248).
2 Mechanisms of Cultivation
• Mainstreaming: “television’s ability to
stabilize and homogenize views within a
society” (248).
• Resonance: “the extent to which something
is congruent with personal experience”
(249).
Assumptions of Cultivation
Theory
• Television is unique because it is pervasive.
• The pervasiveness of television gives it the power
to establish the cultural mainstream.
• Television cultivates broad assumptions as
opposed to specific attitudes.
• Television is a medium of conservative
socialization (it reinforces cultural norms and
practices).
Assumptions of Cultivation
Theory
• The observable effects of television on
culture are relatively small.
• New technologies extend television’s
influence.
Criticisms of Cultivation
• Causation Vs. Correlation
– Television viewing causes fear.
– Fear causes television viewing.
– A third factor causes both television viewing
and fear.