Mass Communication Chapter 2

opinion leaders

influential leaders who invest substantial amounts of time learning about their own area of expertise, such as politics. Less well-informed friends and family members frequently turn to them for advice about the topic.

geographic

study of where people live; a method typically used to analyze potential markets for products and programs.

demographic

study of audience members' gender, race, ethnic background, income, education, age, educational attainment, and the like; a method typically used to analyze potential markets for products and programs

Psychographics

combination of demographics, lifestyle characteristics, and product usage; a method typically used to analyze potential markets for products and programs.

surveillance

how the media help us extend our senses to perceive more of the world surrounding us.

Status Conferral

process by which media coverage makes an individual gain prominence in the eyes of the public.

Correlation

the process of selecting, evaluating, and interpreting events to give structure to the news. The media assist the process of correlation by persuasive communication through editorals, commentary, advertising, and propaganda and by providing cues that indicate the importance of each news item.

socialization

process of educating young people and new members about the values, social norms, and knowledge of a group or society.

Entertainment

Media Communication intended primarily to amuse the audience.

agenda-setting theory

theory of media effects that says that the media don't tell the public what to think but rather what to think about- thus the terms of public discourse are set by what is covered in the media

uses and gratification theory

an approach to studying mass communication that looks at the reasons why audience members choose to spend time with the media in terms of the wants and needs of the audience members that are being fulfilled.

social learning theory

the process by which individuals learn by observing the behaviors

symbolic interactionism

process by which individuals produce meaning through interaction based on socially agreed-upon symbols.

Spiral of Silence

theory that suggests that people want to see themselves as holding a majority opinion and will therefore remain silent if they perceive that they a hold a minority opinion. This tends to make the minority opinion appear to be less prevalent than it is.

media logic

approach to studying the mass media that says the forms the media use to present the world become the forms we use to perceive the world and to create media messages.

Cultivation analysis

approach to analyzing the effects of television viewing that argues that watching significant amounts of television alters the way an individual views that nature of the surrounding world.

Mean World Syndrome

perception of many heavy television watchers of violent programs that the world is a more dangerous and violent place than facts and statistics bear out.

Resonance Model

a model of political campaign effects that attributes a candidate's success to how well his or her basic message resonates with an reinforces voters' preexisting political feelings.

Competitive model

a model of the effects of a political campaign that looks at the campaign as a competition for the hearts and minds of voters.

How is the only way to prove something in communication?

Experiment

Hypodermic Needle

Suggests that media do not always have direct powerful effects.

How can we measure?

Survey

Cultivation Effects

Crime threats

What is the Nazi example, "Chains of screaming", and example of?

Spiral of Science

Para social Interaction

Tweeting a celeb

6 Media Giants

Time Warner

Disney

Viacom

Bertelsmann

News corporation

General Electric