Mass Comm Perspectives Exam

What is the Agenda Setting Theory?

Concludes that mass media influences public perception by selecting, prioritizing, and framing specific topics, determining what the public considers important. The media does not tell people what to think, but rather what to think about.

The Agenda Setting Theory

Started as a study that researched media coverage to look at what issues were featured most often (frequency) and where the stories about the issues were placed in newspapers and TV news broadcasts (prominence)/

What Was Sometimes Described as the First Mass Communication Theory?

Agenda Setting Theory

Max McCombs and Donald Shaw created the?

Agenda Setting Theory

What is the Cultivation Theory

Concludes that long-term, heavy exposure to television cultivates a perception of reality that mirrors the skewed, violent, or stereotypical world presented on screen

George Gerbner created the?

Cultivation Theory

The Cultivation Theory

Started as a study of the cultural norms on television

and morphed into a study of the effects of violent TV

content

What Theory was Debunked?

The Magic Bullet Theory

What is the Framing Theory?

Refers to the ways the media and professional communicators package and present Information to the public.

What is Frame Building?

Refers to the creation of a new frame or the modification of an existing frame?

How Can Framing Effect Audiences?

Presenting new beliefs about an issue.

Tapping into existing beliefs in memory.

Making existing beliefs applicable or stronger in people's evaluations.

Sociologist Erving Goffman Created the?

Framing Theory

Psychology is the Basis For?

Modeling & Social Cognitive Theory

Sociology is the Basis For?

Social Expectations Theory

Modeling/Social Cognitive Theory

Started as “Social Learning” Theory

Albert Bandura Created the?

Social Learning (Modeling/Social Cognitive) Theory

What is the Modeling/Social Cognitive Theory?

Concludes that people learn new behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions by observing others within a social context, influenced by cognitive processes and environmental factors. Self-efficacy is a part of this.

What Were the Bobo Doll Experiments?

Tested whether children learned to imitate violence from exposure to video portrayals of violence. (Social Learning Theory)

What is the Social Expectations Theory?

Concludes that there are unwritten, shared norms, and beliefs about how people should behave in specific contexts—often based on reciprocity, fairness, and trust—drive social behavior and interactions.

What Are the Four Parts of the Social Expectations Theory?

Norms, Ranks, Roles, and Social Controls.

The Social Expectations Theory

Says that the media will teach us about how to act and interact within our social groups. We also acquire through media information about social groups and patterns for groups we may not have encountered or may never encounter.

What is the Diffusion of Innovations Theory?

Concludes that new ideas, products, or technologies spread through a social system over time.

Everett Rogers Created the

Diffusion of Innovation Theory

The Diffusion of Innovation Theory

Started as a study of hybrid seed corn adoption by Midwest farmers in the 1940s. by Sociologists Bryce Ryan and Neal Gross.

What are the Perceived Characteristics of Innovations?

Relative Advantage, Compatibility, Complexity, Trialability, and Observability.

What is the Two-Step Flow Theory?

Concludes that mass media information does not directly reach the public, but rather flows first to "opinion leaders" and then from them to a less active public.

The Two-Step Flow Theory

Started as a study of voting behaviors.

The Two-Step Flow Theory Flows

1. (Influences on Media)

2. MEDIA

3. OPINION LEADERS

4. VOTERS & CONSUMERS

What is the Role of Media Messaging in Voting?

Activation, Reinforcement, Conversion

What is the Media Priming Theory?

Concludes that media coverage influences the standards people use to evaluate people, issues, or events by making certain information more accessible in their minds. Essentially, media "primes" the audience to focus on specific topics, influencing how they judge politicians, make decisions, or behave.

Iyengar, Peters, and Kinder Created the

Media Priming Theory

What is the Social Comparison Theory?

Concludes that people have a natural instinct to compare themselves to others. We engage in this process as a way to make “accurate” evaluations of ourselves

Psychologist Leon Festinger Created the

Social Comparison Theory

Upward Comparison

Suggests that we compare ourselves with those who we believe are better than us. Can be based on the level of someone’s attractiveness, success, or popularity.

Downward Comparison

Suggests that we compare ourselves to others who we believe are worse off than us

What is the Looking Glass Theory?

Concludes that people form their self-image based on how they believe others perceive them, effectively using society as a "mirror". In media, this means individuals (or users) construct their identities and self-esteem based on imagined judgments from audience reactions, such as likes, comments, and followers

The Looking Glass Theory

Comes out of psychology but is a sociology theory

Charles Cooley Created the

Looking Glass Theory