COMM375 EXAM 1 (TAMU- Rold)

How does the Shannon & Weaver model describe human Communication?

Sender: information source

Encoder: transmitter

Channel: "noise"

Decoder: reception

Receiver: destination

What are information-based vs. meaning-based audiences?

Information based: "transmission view", a transaction between speaker and audience. Focuses more on the content of whats said.

Meaning based: focused more on audience feedback. The audience may take away a different meaning than what the speaker intended

How does the Constructivist view define audiences as both "situated" and

"contingent"? How do people "temporarily perform" being an audience?

-audiences are "abstractions" and not objective realities.

-audiences are situated and contingent

-people temporarily perform; they perform representations

1. audience as outcome (3 models of audience)

-direct effects (detrimental ones)

-reflects a concern about the power of media to produce detrimental effects on individuals

2. audience as mass (three models of audience)

-large groups of people act independently and have no real knowledge of eachother

-what types of media do people consume?

-what is the demographic of a particular audience?

3. audience as agent (3 models of audience)

-people choose what they want to consume

-uses media to fit needs and desires

-uses and gratification

How were "crowds" defined in the 19th century? Who provided this

definition?

defined by those in "high society":

-often working class folk

-experiencing routinized behavior

-evolved into mobs (carnival crowds)

What did Le Bon say about the "psychology of a crowd"?

"people who converge in large crowds lose their individuality"

-behave in a collective fashion

-not guided by reason

-more instinctual

-gave authorities permission to disperse crowds

What is Structuration Theory?

the dynamic tension between structure and agency

How can structures be both "constraining" and "enabling"?

can encourage relationships and interactions (school) but can also be constraining by maintaining the status quo

agency

-the actions of individuals

-people are reflexive

-can judge future behaviors by past actions

-the capacity to achieve outcomes

hegemony

-political elites generating the popular consensus through social institutions

Why were the "elites" anxious around the time of the American

Industrial Revolution? Why were the "elites" worried about "moving

pictures" as a form of entertainment?

-elites still viewed crowds as dangerous and often viewed immigrants and common folk as an "unruly" crowd

Be able to discuss Cooley's multi-faceted definition of communication.

communication is:

-a mechanism through human relations exist and develop

-symbols of the mind

-the face, attitude, and gesture

-the tone of voice, words, writing

Why did Cooley believe newspapers could ultimately be harmful to the

general public?

worried ab newspapers leading to "superficial understanding" of complex issues

Why did Munsterberg believe motion pictures were dangerous?

-thought humans couldnt separate fiction from reality

-seeing crime, sex, violence, etc. made us more susceptible to the behavior in real life

How did "moral panics" and "media panics" help usher in the Media

Effects Paradigm?

moral panics: occur with societal changes

media panics: occur with major technological changes

Be able to discuss Tonnies' "mass society theory" and his distinction

between the "Gesellschaft" and "Gemeinschaft".

Media are a "malignant force" in a society (Gesellschaft) as opposed to a community(Gemeinschaft)

What did the Payne Studies find out about a possible link between movie

viewing and anti-social behavior?

-no real link

-some scholars found weak links that "proved" media to be harmful to kids

-payne fund was deisnged to encourage kids to read more

How did the "War of the Worlds" broadcast help shape media effects

research?

-more evidence that media had a direct influence on society

-the broadcast vividly described invading Martian armies, mostly through news bulletins that interrupted the program, without informing listeners it was entertainment- causing mass panic

Be able to explain Carl Hovland's research on persuasion as it relates to

source credibility, fear appeals and consistency theory.

Source Credibility: short-term persuasion

• Fear appeals: Weak fear appeals more persuasive than strong fear appeals

• Consistency Theory: Humans strive for consistency (mental agreements; beliefs about an object or event)

What is cognitive dissonance?

Humans will rationalize their own or others' behaviors to relieve inconsistency

- Leads to selective perception and selective exposure selective perception and selective exposure

In which two ways do humans process persuasive messages, according

to the Elaboration Likelihood Model?

central processing route:

-motivated to listen

-message is relevant to audience member

peripheral processing route:

-low motivation to listen

-will use cognitive shortcuts (speakers attractiveness, music etc)

What did The People's Choice study tell us about whether media

affected people's voting choices?

it does not effect voting choices. very few people make up their minds DURING campaigns.

What is the "two-step flow" process of persuasion? Who are the

"opinion leaders"?

opinion leaders tend to be more important than media itself

-messages flow thru opinion leaders to the rest of the population

Is there an irrefutable link between violent video games and violent

behavior? Why are video games and smart phones "addictive"?

-weak evidence in regards to violent video games and behavior

-phones are addictive because they're 'always on", and they create both a sense of comfort and anxiety.

-more intense emotions and less privacy due to "scalability" of social media

. What did the Surgeon General's Report tell us about TV and

violence?

social learning theory: people learn new behaviors by observing and imitating the actions of others.

How might the Social Learning Theory and Cultivation Theory show

that perhaps TV can influence an audience?

people may copy behaviors or perceive the world by what they see on tv/video games

How is an audience like an "artifact of social processes"?

Public Opinion Polls, Commercial Audience Ratings

How do institutions "actively construct notions of the audience"?

Institutions could be governments, universities, businesses, hospitals, etc. they train us to behave and think a certain way

How does Graber define "public opinion"?

Group consensus, Matters of public concern, Developed in the wake of informed discussion

What is the difference between doxa and episteme?

doxa- opinion

episteme- knowledge

What did Habermas' notion of the "representative public sphere" say

about the power of kings and feudal lords and their relation to the

"public"?

citizens had no representation; merely spectators to celebrate the king's glory and honor

What was the "bourgeois public sphere" of the 18th century?

The Late 18th century

-Monarchs losing power

-Rise of a "merchant middle class"

- Public opinions formed in salons, taverns, coffeehouses

-An independent press became the source of information. Not the king or the church

What are some of the pros and cons of straw polls and systematic

surveys? How does random sampling help with the legitimacy of polls?

straw polls- helpful but not scientific

systematic surveys- more scientific (population, sample, probability sampling)

What does the Spiral of Silence Theory say the public wants to avoid?

We don't want to be socially isolated

-We'll adjust our level of debate/discussion based on the popularity of our opinion

Do undecided voters generally "jump on the bandwagon"?

yes, We'll sometimes shift our opinion to agree with the majority

How do "selective attention" and "illusory pattern perception" relate to

belief in conspiracy theories

-Illusory pattern perception (seeing what is not really there)

-selective attention: We want something to be true, so we lookfor evidence