MC 431 Final

The top three most used social platforms

Facebook, Youtube, Instagram

Social media apps that have the most time spent on them per session.

TikTok, Youtube, and Twitter

What is widely regarded as the most important social media platform in 2024 for content creation?

Tiktok

The German Zeitungswissenschaft (or newspaper science)…

Took the study of newspapers and their world to be scientific in nature.

The development of survey methods in the early 20th century…

Provided a tool that seemed promising for developing a scientific measure of entire societies.

Beginning in WWI and up until the end of the 1930s, many assumed that some (if not all) media outlets had almost unlimited power to change their users’ attitudes, habits, and behavior. This phase of…

Strong or all-powerful media effects (often associated with the hypodermic needle theory)

The media was considered to be almighty for two main reasons:

First, society was then understood as an entity of fragmented individuals whose only source of information was the media

Second, the individual was then seen as weak, receptive of influences from outside, and inherently susceptible to manipulation.

Primary belief of media effects

It happens to a generally passive receiver who is defenseless against messages (or messengers) that usually achieve their intended goal—to change attitude or behavior. The War of the Worlds broadcast seemed to validate this theory.

Klapper’s limited effects theory (1960)

Stated media can merely confirm prior beliefs but not cause an attitude change.

Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow model of communication (1944)

States individuals interact within groups, which suggests a weaker direct effect of media messages

By the end of the 1970s (after a long period of assuming weak effects), strong media effects were rediscovered by focusing on cognitive (instead of behavioral) and long-term effects

Cultivation research, agenda-setting research, and the spiral of silence theory are prominent theories that originated in this time period

Often referred to as the moderate effect phase

The fourth phase in media effects…

Began in the late 1970s and remains today.

Media effects can be described as

Media presents an image of social reality but compete with other opinion-forming sources such as personal experiences or the social environment

In the last 20 years, media use has become progressively individualized, and with

Web 2.0 and 3.0, and decidedly more personalized.

What is a media effects theory?

One that attempts to explain the uses and effects of media on individuals, groups, or societies as a whole

To be labeled a media effects theory, a theory at least needs to…

Conceptualize media use (or exposure to mediated messages) and the potential changes that this media use can bring about in individuals, groups, or societies (i.e., the media effect)

Media effects models are often…

Accompanied by a pictorial model to explain the processes or relationships between media use, media outcomes, and other relevant concepts

Framing theory

Bundles key concepts, phrases, and iconic images to reinforce common ways of interpreting a news concept.

Framing was originally proposed by…

Erving Goffman (1974), who’s book Frame Analysis theorized that people evaluate the world around them via specific frameworks rather than some universally held truth.

Framing in media occurs when

Coverage of an event, a group, or a person is placed within a certain context. In traditional media, issues are often framed as positive or negative.

Framing occurs in sports media coverage as..

Journalists provide fields of context and meaning to place events and people in a larger narrative.

Episodic framing

Frames present stories as individual events without putting what happened into a more general perspective. Puts it as an individual event.

Thematic framing

Frames provide some type of broader context and link the event to something more general.

Agenda Setting Theory

The media can't tell us what to think but can tell us what to think about. The media set the agenda for public debate, telling us what issues are important

Media organizations make decisions about newsworthiness through various factors:

Perceptions of how compelling or interesting a team or person appears to be.

The perceived levels of popularity of teams.

The perceived importance of what is being covered within the context of society at large.

Agenda setting can…

Often lead to entire leagues and groups of people feeling left out of coverage. Ex: lack of women’s sporting coverage.

Obtrusive

One with which people have experience. (ex. Price of gas. People dont need the media to tell us prices are going up/down)

Unobstrusive

No personal experience (ex. polar bear extinction as a result of climate change) These topics are likely to become a priority only if emphasized by the news media

Social medias impact on agenda setting

Followers pay attention to messages and what creators deem as important.

Priming

Takes the idea of agenda setting one step further. When the news media tell us what to think about, they are also indirectly telling us what to think

Priming consequences

Agenda setting relates to the correlation between the media agenda and the public agenda

Priming takes the process further and asks about the consequences of the changing public agenda

Agenda setting brings up the importance of the issue

Priming offers explanations on how mediated information is stored in the human mind and its influence in how we make decisions

Sports priming example

If you don’t pay attention to ESPN’s coverage of college football, you aren’t being primed to its coverage of who the top teams are, who the player of the year candidates are, or who the best pro prospects are

Social Cognitive theory

Originally called social learning theory. Theory states that when people observe a model performing a behavior and the consequences of that behavior, they remember the sequence of events and use this information to guide subsequent behaviors. Suggests a link between mass media and behaviors.

Four step process of social cognitive theory

Attention – the subject must attend to the media and witness the aggressive behavior

Retention – the subject must retain the memory for later retrieval

Motor reproduction – the subject must be able to physically imitate the behavior

Motivation – there must be a social reward or reinforcement to encourage modeling of the behavior

Social cognitive theory and social media

Acts of violence don’t always have to come from this theory. Other examples are TikTok trends, and media challenges like the cinnamon challenge.

Cultivation theory

Attempts to predict that media viewing influences people’s values and beliefs and influence their "reality”

Mean World syndrome

Viewers with heavy, long-term exposure to television violence are more likely to believe that the external world is a mean and dangerous place.

Cultivation theory and sports

Hypothesized that the level of agreement with sports-related values (i.e., being physically fit, athletic, and active) is positively related to participation in sports-related media and leisure activities.

Selectivity Paradigm

Individuals predominantly select media messages that serve their needs, goals, and beliefs. You chose what you see on your media, creating your own reality.

Diffusion of innovations theory

A theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread.

Third person effect theory

States that people believe others are more effected by media messages then themselves.

Theory of planned behavior

A person’s intention of doing something can be predicted by looking at their attitudes toward that behavior or action, the “subjective norms” of their community or peer group, and the person’s perceived level of behavioral control.

Data visualization and why its important

Filters the flow of data. Theres an abundance of data and someone needs to process the information.

Two levels are analysis and presentation.

Disadvantages of data visualization

Misinterpretation of visuals, overlooking of context and details, and selection bias and distortion.

Core Tennates

Drive attendance, generate revenue, and tell our story.