Media Effects & Theories: Communication Models, Framing, Agenda-Setting, and Perception Biases

Mass communication

Communication that reaches large, dispersed audiences through mediated channels (print, radio, TV, internet, games, mobiles) rather than direct interpersonal exchange.

Optimistic bias

Tendency to interpret information so it is consistent with pre-existing beliefs; people believe negative events are less likely to happen to them (e.g., thinking 'that won't happen to me').

Mediation

Mediation becomes part of our experience of 'real' things, and powerful forces (industry, culture) shape perceptions; technologies appear to 'personalize' what remains mass communication.

Cognitive effects

Knowledge effects that media messages can have.

Affective effects

Emotional effects that media messages can have.

Physiological effects

Physical effects that media messages can have.

Attitudinal effects

Opinions effects that media messages can have.

Behavioral effects

Actions effects that media messages can have.

Shannon-Weaver model

A linear transmission process: information source → transmitter → channel (with noise) → receiver → destination; focuses on signal transmission and potential noise.

Schramm's interactive interpersonal communication model

Encoders/decoders on both sides interpret and re-encode messages; communication is interactive with feedback and shared interpretation processes.

Interpersonal communication

Mediated communication involves technology (phone, IM) between parties, while interpersonal is direct face-to-face exchange; mass communication broadcasts to many via media.

Payne Fund Studies

Effects of movies on children in the early 1930s, examining impacts of content like violence, sex, and romance.

Causal media effect

Demonstrate a cause→effect relationship, ruling out third variables that could explain the association.

Historical forces of media influence

Urbanization, industrialization, and wartime propaganda experiences (e.g., WWI) led scholars to assume strong media influence.

Magic bullet/hypodermic needle theory

Early 20th-century idea that media messages are injected directly into passive audiences, producing powerful, uniform effects.

Cultivation theory

Theory that long-term, aggregated exposure to television shapes viewers' perceptions of social reality to match the TV world (e.g., perceptions of violence).

War of the Worlds radio broadcast findings

Some listeners believed the broadcast was real; an estimated one-sixth acted on fear, and reactions varied by checking other news sources and religiosity.

Hovland's 'Why We Fight' film studies

Viewers acquired knowledge from films, showed limited opinion change, and saw no significant changes in motivation.

The People's Choice findings

Media mostly reinforced existing political predispositions and had limited role in converting voters; selective exposure and interpersonal influence were important.

Mean-world syndrome

The belief that the world is a more dangerous place than it actually is, shaped by heavy television viewing.

Cultivation theory's main points

heavy and prolonged television viewing gradually shapes a person's perception of reality to align with the world portrayed on TV, leading to a "cultivated" worldview

Agenda setting in journalism

The process by which media influences the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda.

McCombs and Shaw (1972) Chapel Hill study

Key result showing that media agenda influences public agenda.

Agenda building

The process by which media and public influence each other in shaping the agenda.

Knowledge Gap Hypothesis

The idea that as information about a topic increases, people with higher socioeconomic status acquire it faster than lower-status groups, widening knowledge disparities.

Challenges to Agenda-Setting

Social media, blogs, news aggregators, issue publics, and growing partisanship can decentralize agenda-setting and challenge mainstream media influence.

Uses and Gratifications Approach

A perspective focusing on what people do with media (audience-centered) rather than what media do to people; emphasizes active audience choice based on needs and motives.

Theoretical Assumptions of Uses and Gratifications

Communication is goal-directed; social and psychological factors mediate media use; people select media to satisfy needs; media compete with other alternatives.

Factors in Knowledge Gap Hypothesis

Communication skills, stored information/background knowledge, relevant social contacts, and selective exposure/acceptance/retention.

Categories of Needs Media Can Satisfy

Cognitive (info/knowledge), affective (emotion/pleasure), personal integrative (credibility/status), social integrative (relationships), and tension release (escape/diversion).

Media Representation of Characters

Characters are young and appealing; elderly are rare; women often underrepresented; violent crime frequent; villains often male, lower-class, and foreign.

Types of Media Analysis

Institutional analysis (how messages are produced), message system analysis (recurring content), and cultivation analysis (how TV exposure shapes perceptions of reality).

Cultivation Effect

A cultivation effect where heavy TV viewers perceive the world as more dangerous and threatening than it is, due to frequent televised violence.

Transfer of Salience

Voters' issue agendas closely matched the news media's issue agendas before the 1968 election, indicating transfer of salience from media to public.

Mean-World Beliefs

Media cultivate viewers' interpretations of reality to align with TV; heavy exposure to televised violence creates mean-world beliefs; political attitudes among heavy viewers can converge.

Limits on Agenda-Setting Effects

Issue obtrusiveness, political conversation among citizens, personal goals and motivations, and declining trust in news limit agenda-setting effects.

Framing Theory

Define a 'frame' in framing theory.

Influence of Frames

How do frames influence public judgment?

Effective Frame

What makes an effective frame?

Priming in Media Effects

What is priming in media effects?

Episodic vs. Thematic Framing

Differentiate episodic and thematic news framing (Iyengar).

Common Framing Types

Give examples of common framing types used in persuasion campaigns.

Priming and Decision Making

How does priming affect decision making?

Third-Person Perception

What is the third-person perception?

Durability of Priming

Why is priming often short-lived and what can make it more durable?

Explicit vs. Implicit Measures

What is the difference between explicit and implicit measures in priming studies?

Factors Strengthening Third-Person Perceptions

What factors strengthen third-person perceptions?

Hostile Media Phenomenon

What is the hostile media phenomenon?

Third-person perceptions

They can lead to support for media censorship, corrective actions (online/offline political activism), or accommodation behaviors (compliance or withdrawal).

Biased processing (assimilation bias)

People interpret, favor, and remember information that confirms their beliefs, leading them to see balanced coverage as unfair to their side.

Frames

A central organizing idea or story line that gives meaning to events by selecting, emphasizing, and excluding certain elements; a cognitive schema used to interpret information.

Message features and audience orientations

Effects depend on message features and audience orientations; gratifications sought and involvement determine attention; effects vary with individual predispositions and intentions.

Gains vs. losses frames

Gains vs. losses frames, episodic vs. thematic, societal benefits vs. personal benefits, and strategy vs. issue framing.

Episodic framing

Episodic framing focuses on specific events or cases.

Thematic framing

Thematic framing situates issues in broader context, trends, or social forces.

Frame construction constraints

Societal norms and culture, prevailing elite-produced frames (journalism), and one's ideology constrains frame construction.

Network activation

Network activation decays quickly, so repeated exposure or chronic activation is needed to create longer-lasting associations.

Explicit measures

Explicit measures assess conscious recall and judgment.

Implicit measures

Implicit measures assess unconscious associations, attitudes, or automatic behavior.

Accessible information

People rely on accessible information rather than weighing all info; activated concepts influence evaluations and choices until activation dissipates.

Perceived negativity of content

Perceived negativity of content, social distance (perceiving 'others' as more susceptible), and perceptions of others' lower expertise.

Spiral of silence theory

What is the spiral of silence theory?

Fear of isolation

Fear of social isolation discourages people from expressing dissenting opinions publicly, reinforcing the perceived majority view.

Liberal model of Hallin & Mancini

What characterizes the Liberal model of Hallin & Mancini?

Four dimensions of a media system

What are the four dimensions of a media system in Hallin & Mancini's typology?

Polarized Pluralist model

What characterizes the Polarized Pluralist model?

Democratic Corporatist model

What characterizes the Democratic Corporatist model?

Counter-tendencies in global media

What counter-tendencies challenge homogenization of global media systems?

Trends in liberal/commercial media model

What trends contributed to the global 'triumph' of the liberal/commercial media model?

Dimensions of press freedom

List dimensions used to assess press freedom.

'LA', 'Taliban', and 'Bangalore' effects

What are the 'LA', 'Taliban', and 'Bangalore' effects in global media?

'Calibrated authoritarianism'

What is meant by 'calibrated authoritarianism' in media governance?

Singapore's media system

How does Singapore's media system combine authoritarian elements with market mechanisms?

Media literacy

Media literacy and critical evaluation skills can mitigate biased interpretations and reduce perceptions of hostility.

Climate of opinion

Theory that people monitor the climate of opinion and may remain silent about minority views to avoid social isolation, leading to a spiral where dominant views become more visible.

Social control vs. rational expression

Whether public opinion is social control vs. rational expression, why effects are small, accuracy of climate-of-opinion perceptions, and media's role in shaping those perceptions.

State intervention

State intervention supports media independence, mass circulation, neutral journalism, and strong professionalism (examples: Nordic countries).

Advocacy journalism

Persistent advocacy journalism in some regions, erosion of journalistic autonomy by commercial pressures, and varied national political-economic contexts.

American cultural influence

American cultural influence, shared technologies, modernization/professionalization, secularization, and commercialization shifting focus to private life and infotainment.

Governance style

A governance style that blends market-driven media with controls and incentives to shape press behavior without overt Western-style censorship—tailored, often subtle constraints.

Journalism calibration

Journalism is calibrated: overt censorship replaced by self-censorship, economic incentives, public ownership, emphasis on group interests and national harmony, and constraints justified by external threats.

LA effect

Westernization/convergence.

Taliban effect

Nationalistic rejection of Western ideas.

Bangalore effect

Hybrid fusion creating localized new forms.

Public sphere

A domain where citizens and government discuss issues affecting them and make collective decisions—space for public deliberation and opinion formation.

Key societal functions of journalism

List the key societal functions of journalism.

Key journalistic standards

What are key journalistic standards?

Curran's traditional functions of journalism

Summarize Curran's traditional functions of journalism.

Media categories

How do different media categories vary in commitment to journalistic values and target audiences?

Roles within a news organization

What roles exist within a news organization?

Advocacy documentaries

How do advocacy documentaries perform news functions?

Prototypical messages

Give prototypical messages and news-function performance for traditional journalism.

Religious and Colonial Press era

What defines the Religious and Colonial Press era (1630s-1760s) in American journalism?

Party Press era

What was the Party Press era (1760s-1860s)?

Commercial news models

Contrast the two models of commercial news by the 1890s.

New York Sun significance

Why was the New York Sun (1833) significant in journalism history?

Commercialized Press changes

What major changes ushered in the Commercialized Press (1830s-1900s)?

Power, market, common understanding

Power (authority), market (economic coordination), and common understanding (shared information/meaning).

Authoritarian regimes

Regimes that rely more on power-based coordination.

Democratic regimes

Regimes that emphasize common understanding and market mechanisms alongside public deliberation.