Mass Communications final exam review

Mass Media

Any medium used to transmit mass communication to a mass audience.

the corporations that produce and distributes cultural messages through novels, music, movies, etc.

Mass Communication

A message created by one person or a group of people that is sent through a transmitting device (a medium) to a large audience

The Linear Communication Process

sender, message, channel, receiver

Media Literacy

the ability to analyze all types of media messages and understand...

- What type of message you are receiving

- The forces that shape those messages

- The ideology behind those messages

- The effect those messages have on you

Journalism

timely reporting of events at the local, state, national, and international levels

Public Relations

Using various publicity techniques to persuade the public and to manufacture support for a particular cause, movement, organization, or institution

Advertising

A written or spoken media message designed to interest consumers in purchasing a product or service

Advertising vs PR

- Advertiser has complete control over how its message is transmitted to the public

- Advertising messages are visible to the public

- PR has traditionally had limited control over how its message is transmitted to the public

- PR messages are invisible to the public

Media Convergence

the increasing interconnection of media content and communication technology

Synergy

When a company uses multiple media platforms to cross promote its products

Native advertising (sponsored content)

An advertisement designed to look like a news story

example of a social, political, cultural and/or economic ideology that is embedded in media messages

Capitalism, consumerism, democracy, gender roles

Mass Communications Theory

A statement that tries to explain or interpret some phenomenon that occurs within the field of mass media

Social Scientific Theory

A statement or hypothesis that can be tested by using social scientific research methods to determine if it is supported by evidence

Normative Theory

a statement that expresses a value system or a set of standards regarding a society's media system

explains how the media should operate in an ideal world

Practical Theory

A statement that explains how the mass media can practically operate given the circumstances under which a society's media system functions

Everyday Theory

These are the general ideas you have about the mass media based on your everyday use of and experience with the mass media

Mass Society Theory

- Mass media have powerful, direct, and immediate effects on the individual

- Media acts like a magic bullet—penetrating the minds of people and directly effecting how they see the world

- The mass media is a negative force in the world

- Mass media corrupts public thinking, debases high culture and leads to social chaos

- If mass media is not properly controlled, it will lead to the collapse of democracy and the establishment of totalitarian rule

What does Mass Society Theory say about the directness and immediacy of media effects?

- Mass media have powerful, direct, and immediate effects on the individual

What are the consequences of this powerful media?

If mass media is not properly controlled, it will lead to the collapse of democracy and the establishment of totalitarian rule

Limited Effects Theory

- media have little influence over people

- This theory states that media effects are canceled out by other factors

The theory says that media rarely changes public opinion

Two-Step Flow of Media Influence

Opinion leaders—opinion followers

Opinion leaders are opened up to mass media and analyze what it means, filters its meaning

Cognitive dissonance

The notion that people avoid, reject or reinterpret message that are inconsistent or challenge their value system

Selective retention

Reject messages with which you disagree or that make you uncomfortable

Selective exposure

Avoid messages with which you disagree or that make you uncomfortable

Selective perception

Reinterpret messages with which you disagree or make you uncomfortable

Cognitive consistency

- The notion that people seek out media messages that are consistent with their values and beliefs

- The notion that people accept media messages that reinforce their interests and values

Agenda Setting Theory

- The media sets the agenda for the American public

- The media does not tell the public what to think, it tells the public what to think about

- News stories with the highest profile will be discussed by the American public

Social Learning Theory

- People learn through observation

- People observe others in their environment and in the media

- Viewers then mimic the behavior they see on TV and other media (Imitation, identification)

- We use what we observe to create rules about how the world works

- We put these rules into practice to regulate our own behavior and predict the behavior of others

Spiral of Silence Theory

- The notion that people with be afraid to express their opinions if they believe they are in the minority

- People fall silent because they are afraid of being isolated or ridiculed

- Television exasperates the spiral of silence because it created false majorities

Solomon Asch test

an experiment to investigate the extent to which social press from a majority group could affect a person to conform. test that gets everyone to conform to same answer (even if its the wrong answer).

Bobo Doll Experiment

nursery school students observed an adult play aggressively (yelling & hitting) with an inflatable clown (Bobo); when children were later allowed to play with the Bobo, those children who witnesses the Bobo doll performed the same aggressive actions and improvised new ways of playing aggressively

Cultivation Effect

the theory that people who watch lots of television will perceive reality in a way that is consistent with television portrayals

What was the War of the Worlds broadcast in October 1938? Did the War of the Worlds broadcast provide evidence to support or undermine Mass Society Theory?

did a drama of the story over radio, people thought it was real, people went into chaos

At the start it seemed that most people thought it was real but later analysis showed that it was only a small number of people how felt that way

The five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment

religion, speech, press, petition, assembly

The five goals of the First Amendment

- Give society a mechanism for learning "truth"

- Help people govern themselves

- Check the power of government

- Provide for a stable and flexible society

- Provide self-fulfillment though artistic expression

What type of speech is protected by the First Amendment?

political speech, advertising, pornography, offensive speech

What type of speech is NOT protected under the First Amendment

- Obscene material (child porn)

- Information that damages US national security

- Speech that presents a "clear and present danger"

- Speech that invades someone's privacy

- Libel—speech that destroys a person's reputation with falsehoods

The hierarchy of speech protection

top

- Political and social expression; Content neutral

- Advertising

- Pornography

- Offensive speech

bottom

The four elements of the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics

- Seek truth and report it

- Minimize harm

- Act independently

- Be accountable and transparent

The four types of ethical dilemmas that journalists face

- Taste (seek truth and report it and minimize harm)

- Conflict of Interest (Act Independently)

- Morality (Be accountable and transparent)

- Privacy vs. public's right to know (seek truth and report it, minimize harm, and be accountable and transparent)

Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw (Agenda Setting)

first people to use the words agenda-setting

Walter Lippmann (Agenda Setting)

wrote book called Public Opinion "Pictures in our heads"

Carl Hovland (Limited Effects Theory)

worked for the military to see if an information film was educating and impacting opinions on war, but it did not impact how people viewed things like fascists, or nazis

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (Spiral of Silence)

- Studied public opinion in 1970s

- Conducted the "stranger on a train" experiment

- Those who had a minority view were afraid to express their opinions

Paul Lazarsfeld (Limited Effects Theory)

looked at voting behavior for presidential election and if the media influences how people vote but most people vote based on social class, religion, family loyalties, job relations, local pressure groups, party loyalty

What did Walter Lippmann mean when he said the media creates "pictures in our heads"?

our understanding of the complex world outside our direct experience is not based on reality itself, but on simplified, often biased, mental images that the media constructs

John Dewey's solution for protecting the public against a powerful media

Implementing media literacy courses in schools and having a strong education system

Walter Lippmann's solution for protecting the public against a powerful media

he believed that public cannot govern itself. believed public is vulnerable to propaganda. Allow elites to run society

Factors that predict how people will vote

social class, religion, family loyalties, job relations, local pressure groups, party loyalty

The impact of political campaigns on election results (Do campaigns have great effects or limited effects?)

political campaigns have a limited effect on how voters vote or election results. Due to limited effects model, because millions of voters typically have their minds already made up long before candidates can persuade.

identify what kind of ethical conflicts journalists face under certain circumstances

Public interest vs privacy (using medical information)

Taste (presenting pictures that may be disturbing to the public)

Conflict of Interest (journalist dating a cop who covers stories on police department)

Morality (did the journalist obtain information in a good way)