COMM 2300 - Effects of Mass Media - Final Exam Notes

Uses and Gratifications Theory Overview

  • Emerged as a response to earlier "effects paradigms", where audiences were seen as passive receivers of media.

  • Key thinker: Rubin.

  • Criticizes the "magic bullet" and mechanistic models that viewed media effects as uniform and automatic.

  • Audiences are active users of media who select media purposefully based on personal needs and desires.

Psychological Perspective

  • Shift from: "What effects does media have on audiences?" to: "How and why are audiences using media?"

  • Media use is:

    • Goal-directed and purposive.

    • Influenced by social and psychological factors.

    • Functional: media satisfies certain needs.

    • Competitive: media competes with other activities and alternative sources for satisfaction.

Main Assumptions

  • Audiences actively choose media based on their needs.

  • Social and psychological factors filter and mediate media effects.

  • People select media that compete with other sources of gratification.

  • Media messages are not sufficient by themselves to cause effects.

  • Audience initiative: linking needs to media choices comes from individuals.

  • Self-awareness: individuals can self-report on their media motives.

  • Value judgments of media are subjective and rest with audiences.

  • Highly motivated audiences are heavier and more active media users.

Types of Media Use

  • Instrumental Use:

    • Goal-oriented and purposeful.

    • E.g., Seeking information or specific content.

  • Ritualized Use:

    • Habitual, passive media use.

    • E.g., Escapism, passing time, entertainment.

Key Motivations for Media Use

  • Entertainment:

    • Pleasure, escapism, emotional release.

  • Social Interaction:

    • Topics for conversation, maintaining social connections.

  • Personal Identity:

    • Reinforcement or exploration of identity.

    • Role models, sense of belonging.

  • Information:

    • Learning about the world, staying informed.

Key Findings from Research

  • People often use media to alleviate loneliness but may feel lonelier afterward.

  • Internet chat users show higher communication apprehension and lower agreeableness.

  • Adolescents with high disinhibition enjoy violent/graphic media.

  • True sensation seekers may actually avoid media and seek real-world thrills.

  • Instrumental viewers (goal-directed) are more engaged and less easily influenced than ritualized viewers (habitual).

Problems in Traditional Media Effects Research

  • Focused too much on communicators' goals (e.g., persuasion).

  • Treated media effects as a one-way process.

  • Ignored the audience's active role.

  • Often neglected audience choices among multiple media options.

  • Methodological issues: reliance on self-reported motives, vagueness in defining terms like "uses," gratifications," motives."

Modern Perspectives

  • Media content can be experienced as:

    • Exciting but not good.

    • Technically impressive but emotionally unsatisfying.

  • We actively choose:

    • Activities

    • Media

    • Specific content based on diverse needs and desires.

Why We Enjoy Certain Content

  • Violence as entertainment:

    • Bliss is in the fleeting moment before the end (death/end of pleasure).

    • Violence provides an intense emotional experience that reminds us of life's limits.

  • Mood Management:

    • People select media to maintain or improve their mood.

    • Bored people choose exciting/adventurous content.

    • Stressed people choose soothing, calming content.

    • Sad movies may celebrate empathy or provide emotional catharsis, even without happy endings.

  • Excitation Theory:

    • Arousal (excitement) itself can be pleasurable.

    • Action and violent media trigger physiological responses (endorphins).

  • Social Reinforcement:

    • Media facilitates group discussion and provides topics for conversation.

    • Parasocial relationships (one-sided relationships with media figures).

Gratifications (More Complex Motivations)

  • Biological (Nature):

    • Sensation seeking, arousal, survival instincts.

  • Learned (Nurture):

    • Social reinforcement, cultural aesthetics, norms.

Criticisms of Uses and Gratifications Theory

  • Difficult to generalize findings across different audiences and contexts.

  • Overemphasis on audience activity: not all media use is highly active or rational.

  • Reliance on self-report: people might not accurately describe their own motives.

  • Conceptual confusion: lack of clear definitions for "uses," "gratifications," motives."

Quick Recap

  • Audiences: Active, goal-driven media users

  • Media Use: Functional, motivated by needs

  • Key Motivations: Entertainment, social interaction, identity, information

  • Mood Management: Choosing media to regulate emotions

  • Problems: Traditional models underestimated audience agency

  • Criticisms: Generalizability, self-report issues, conceptual vagueness

Adoption and Uses of Emerging Digital Media

  • Early Computer Use (Historical Data):

    • 1984:

      • 27% of students (pre-K to college) used computers at school.

      • 12% used computers at home.

    • 2001:

      • 90% of children aged 5-17 used computers.

      • School use was still more common (National Center for Education Statistics, 2004).

    • 2014-2015:

      • 84% of households had a computer.

      • 73% had broadband internet.

      • 80% had a gaming device.

Children's Early Computer Use

  • Toddlers (2.5 years): Use computers on a parent’s lap.

  • Children (3.5 years): Use computer and mouse independently (Calvert et al., 2004).

  • By age 6:

    • 48% have used a computer.

    • 70% of 4–7-year-olds have used a computer (Rideout, Vandewater, Wartella, 2003).

Internet Usage by Age

  • Internet at Home (ChildTrends, 2018):

    • 41% of 3–5-year-olds.

    • 57% of 6–11-year-olds.

    • 71% of 12–17-year-olds.

  • High-Speed Access:

    • 15% of Grades 9-12 students do not have high-speed internet (Pew, 2020).

Media Preferences

  • Choice of Media:

    • 1/3 of children aged 8-17 would choose the Internet over TV, phone, or radio (BBC, 2002).

  • Daily Media Use:

    • Children aged 2–18 spend 6 hours 32 minutes daily using media.

    • 8 hours when counting simultaneous use of multiple media (e.g., phone + TV).

Internet Activities

  • Children and adolescents use the internet for:

    • Communicating with others

    • Finding information

    • Entertainment (67%)

    • Playing games (most popular activity at home and school)

    • Doing homework

    • Listening to music

    • Making pictures, cards, music, or movies

Sociodemographic Influences

  • Media use varies based on:

    • Family income

    • Parents' education

    • Ethnic background

    • Physical ability

Video Game Playing Trends

  • Early Research (1993 - Funk):

    • 7th & 8th Grade Boys:

      • 36% played 1–2 hours/week at home.

      • 29% played 3–6 hours/week.

      • 12% did not play video games.

    • 7th & 8th Grade Girls:

      • 42% played 1–2 hours/week.

      • 15% played 3–6 hours/week.

      • 37% did not play.

  • A Decade Later (2003 - Rideout et al.)

    • 8th Graders: Averaged 17 hours/week of gaming.

    • Daily Play Rates:

      • 44% of boys played video games daily.

      • 17% of girls played daily.

Demographic Differences

  • 8–13-year-olds play more than any other age group.

  • Higher video game use among:

    • African American children

    • Hispanic children

    • Lower-middle-class children (compared to White children and children from high-income homes).

Effects of Violence, priming, social learning etc

  • Violent Pornography and Aggression

    • Men watched a violent rape myth film where the female character either:

      • Enjoyed the violence

      • Did NOT enjoy the violence

    • Afterward, participants could administer electric shocks to a confederate who had previously angered them:

      • Those who saw the "enjoy" film administered stronger shocks, but only when the confederate was female (not male).

      • Effect intensified if the woman shared the same name as the character in the film.

    • Longer-term exposure (6 weeks) to violent pornography:

      • Participants recommended shorter prison sentences for convicted rapists.

Effects of Music Videos

  • Short-term and long-term desensitization to violence and sexual violence.

  • Music videos with antisocial content:

    • Increase acceptance of antisocial behaviour.

  • Music videos featuring violence:

    • Increase acceptance of violence (shown through experimental studies → support for causality).

  • Negative effects on attitudes toward women were observed.

Slasher Films

  • Slasher films = Horror films where a killer stalks and murders victims, often using bladed tools.

  • Over time, participants exposed to slasher films showed desensitization.

  • Using a method similar to the "convicted rapist" study:

    • Similar effects were found: reduced empathy, harsher attitudes.

  • Recent findings:

    • Even non-pornographic films about rape produced desensitization effects, but only among males.

  • Summary:

    • Effects are consistent, especially for men.

    • Gender difference: Men are more susceptible to these desensitization effects.

Summary: Media and Antisocial Behavior

  • Violence in Media:

    • 60% of prime-time TV shows contain violence.

    • Average: 4.5 violent acts per programme.

  • Effects on Behavior

    • Viewing violence is related to engaging in violent behaviour.

    • Children are especially vulnerable:

      • Struggle to distinguish media violence from reality.

      • Tend to imitate what they see.

      • Those predisposed to aggression may learn violence as a solution.

Industry Response

  • Media executives often reject experimental studies:

    • Argue they involve "unrealistic conditions".

  • However:

    • "Real-life" studies (naturalistic research) also show similar harmful effects.

Conclusion

  • Media violence promotes violent behaviour:

    • Short-term: Immediate effects are clear.

    • Long-term: Likely cumulative effect over time.

Contextual Factors Influencing Learning and Aggression

  • Factors that Increase Learning/Aggression:

    • Attractive perpetrator.

    • Violence appears justified.

    • Presence of weapons.

    • Rewards for violent behaviour.

  • Factors that Decrease Learning/Aggression:

    • Violence appears unjustified.

    • Punishment of violent behaviour is shown.

    • Visible pain and harm cues in the victim.

Effects of violent videogames

  • Consensus on Video Game Violence:

    • Most scientists and academics agree that video game violence can be harmful, especially to children.

    • Children may be more susceptible due to developmental differences.

    • Theory provides explanations for why this could happen, even though there is limited empirical evidence linking violent video games to aggression

Theoretical Perspectives:

  • Catharsis Theory: Predicts that violent video games reduce aggression. No empirical support.

  • Social Learning Theory: Violence in video games can lead to children imitating violent behaviors.

  • Excitation Transfer: Arousal caused by media violence increases emotional responses, such as anger, after exposure.

  • Priming Theory: Exposure to violent media triggers related thoughts, which can lead to real-world aggression later.

Commonly Associated Negative Effects

  • Aggression is often seen as the most concerning effect of violent video games, but it might be less likely than other outcomes.

  • Humans typically have an innate negative reaction to violence. Repeated exposure to media violence reduces this distress, making individuals less sensitive to violence over time.

  • Prolonged exposure to violent media can distort perceptions of reality, leading to a "mean world view", where individuals believe the world is more violent and dangerous than it actually is.

Violent Video Game Effects – Two Views

  • Proponents of Harmful Effects: Violent video games are a public health threat and can lead to aggression in children and adults

  • Opposing View: Research linking violent video games to aggression is limited and flawed. There is little reason for concern about violent video games

Sex roles in Film

  • 73% male v 27% Female

  • Females: Shown more traditionally, Younger, More discriminating appearance, More likely to be shown scantily clad, top heavy and thin, Roles depict young, domestic or sexual

Sex Roles in Prime Time TV

  • Females: Similar to film depictions, Greater victims of sexual harassment

  • Males: Underrepresented between 34% - 40% of speaking roles, More likely to have determinable job/shown working, Hold positions of leadership and power, More likely to initiate interruptions disruptively

Theoretical Mechanisms: Gender-Schema Theory

  • Schema: “a cognitive structure that represents knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus, including its attributes”

  • Direct cognitive processing of real world and mediation information about gender

  • After formation, children seek content to confirm this template

Sex Roles: Sex Typing

  • Sex typing: psychological characteristics or social behaviors associated with societal roles for males and females

  • Heavy viewers hold more sex-typed personality characteristics

  • Exposure can affect sexism (primarily boys)

Sex Roles: Occupations

  • Attitudes towards occupations affected by exposure

  • Viewing may affect estimations of real-world jobs

Sex Roles: Romantic Relationships

  • May develop idealized beliefs about romance

  • More cynical views of marriage

Sex Roles: Physical Appearance

  • Media exposure effects drive for thinness

  • Younger children may be more susceptible

Effects of Pornography

  • Explicit Material

    • When females are consumers, more likely that exposure was introduced by male

    • The average age of first exposure to magazines is 11 for males, 13 for females

    • For X-rated movies, the average age of first exposure was 14 years, 8 months

The Rape-Myth Story

  • Certain false beliefs or stereotypes about sexual assault are perpetuated in media.

  • More frequent in R-Rated than X rated

  • Victim blaming, Normalization, Etc

Graphic and Violent Pornography

  • Consumer mainly by older men, Consumers almost exclusively male

  • Most dramatic theme includes death of female

Experimental Effects

  • Arousal

    • Men more aroused than women in response to pornography

    • Differences between men and women in response to dehumanizing pornography

  • “Traditional” men exposed to pornography who were later interviewed by a female confederate remembered less about the content of the interview and more about her appearance than control males

Review-Music video Content Effects

  • Music videos are self-reinforcing: if viewers hear a song after having seen the video version, they immediately “flash back” to the visual imagery in the video

  • Music videos emphasize sexual innuendo and suggestiveness, gender stereotypes, and implicit aggression.

  • experimental studies indicate that music videos may have a significant behavioral impact by desensitizing viewers to violence and by making teenagers more likely to approve of premarital sex.

Recommendations

  • The American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) recommends Pediatricians should counsel parents to monitor television viewing and to recognize that television is a potent teacher of children and adolescents

  • Parental Mediation of digital adult fare Applied Bronfenbrenner’s theory of niche to craft a unified field theory of media access, use, and influence

Summarizing Key Influences of Sexual Portrayals

  • Normalizes acts, practices that are relatively uncommon, unsafe, Exposure linked to some men ‘dehumanizing’ women

  • Teenage pregnancy rate in the US is two times to five times higher than in other developed countries because: Lack of comprehensive sex education

Conclusion

  • Impact of pornography seems to depend in part on the way it is shown—for example the difference between dehumanizing pornography and erotica- the latter is less problematic

The Political Economy of Mass Communication Theory

  • Media Ownership: Monopoly, Oligopoly

  • Concentration leads to abuse of market power: Restraint of trade, Barriers to entry, Lack of diversity

  • Microeconomics

    • Market structure -> conduct -> performance

    • Most legacy media in the U.S. are monopolies or Oligopolies

Media Performance

  • Direct pay (ex. Buying HP books), Indirect pay (advertising pays), Economies of scale

  • 1996 Telecommunication Act: Deregulated conglomeration rules, allowing mergers, Permits widespread cross-ownership, Allowed telecommunications companies and content companies to merge

Oligopolies The Norm for Media

  • Oligopolies typically occur in industries with high barriers to entry, where only a handful of firms can afford to participate. Likened to "shared monopolies," where cooperative behavior among firms can help maximize profits.

  • Horizontal Integration: A business that owns or controls companies in the same industry- Many outlets of same type of medium

  • Vertical Integration

    • Companies control several/all aspects of one media industry

    • Reduces diversity of producers because smaller ones can't compete

Media Substation and the proportion of relative constancy

  • New media may displace existing media at a societal level because they are able to deliver services, content and entertainment more effectively

  • Political Economy and Role of Digital Media in Promoting Polarization SNS algorithms are designed to provide increasingly extreme political content to increase time spent on platform; Due to confirmation bias, social media algorithms present us with political sources that support their viewpoints, which further fuels political polarization

Mainstreaming Hate: Alt-Right Strategies

  • The internet allows for decentralized recruitment into hate groups instead of requiring one to join a local hate group in person

  • This allows hate groups to spread their reach much further and be held less responsible for individual acts of violence

  • Are digital media a socio-political panacea, or a danger for democracy

Symbolic Interaction Theory

  • Narrative Structure in TV Shows:

    • Pollution: A situation arises that disrupts the status quo or normal flow of events.

    • Guilt: The characters attempt to resolve the conflict or disequilibrium caused by the pollution.

    • Purification: The characters take action to resolve the pollution or conflict.

    • Redemption: The conflict is resolved, restoring equilibrium and returning to the status quo.

External Reality: Societal Norms

  • TV shows often reflect contemporary beliefs about gender, sex, race, and societal norms. Audience relatability is key, as viewers need to connect with characters.

  • Examples of Social Justice Issues on TV: Homosexual Couples, Interracial Couples, Transgender Characters

Stage 5: Genre-Bending in TV Shows

  • Genre Hybridity: Combining two or more recognized genres into one show. Westworld, The Office

  • Trope Appropriation: Inserting recognized genre tropes to ascribe meaning to a show. 9 to 5, WandaVision

  • Research on Digital Media Literacy

Digital Platforms and Media Literacy

  • Focuses on developing critical skills to interact with and understand media content effectively.

  • The Seven Skills of Media Literacy

    • Understanding media processes and impacts.

    • Interpreting media content as "text" to be analyzed.

    • Accessing media from multiple points of entry.

    • Recognizing ethical and moral responsibilities of media producers.

    • Critical thinking about media messages.

    • Understanding the internal language and production values of media.

    • Managing emotional vs. reasoned responses to media content.

Emerging Digital Platforms – User-Generated Media

  • Online platforms for personal profiles, communication, and information sharing. Facebook

  • Televised Content Access Points

    • Digital Video Recorders: TiVo, On-Demand services.

    • Internet Streaming: Hulu, iTunes, network websites.

    • Portable Devices: Laptops, smartphones, tablets.

    • Online Interaction: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter.

Time-Shifting

  • Definition: Recording and watching TV at a more convenient time.

  • Popular TV Programs

    • Glee: Positive portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters (e.g., Kurt Hummel).

    • Jersey Shore: High cable ratings; exposure to stereotypes and hypersexual behavior.

    • Toddlers and Tiaras: Reality show on child pageantry. Criticised for promoting hypersexualisation of young children.

Girls, Media, and Sexuality

  • Hypersexualisation: Overemphasis on sexual attributes in media portrayals. Impacts on Girls: Lower self-esteem, Distorted beliefs about sexual behaviour and beauty standards.

  • Media Literacy Tips: Analyze how women and girls are portrayed.

Digital Media Literacy: Multimedia and Moving Forward

  • John Oliver’s Campaign generated over 150,000 responses to the FCC. Bonus Concept: Media and the Flynn Effect TV and digital media are making society "smarter" through complex narratives and cognitive engagement.

Diffusion and Uses of Computers and Videogames

  • Characteristics of Communication Media Social Presence and Media Richness

  • Adoption of media is shaped by Group and organisational norms Technology champions (early adopters)

Advances in Digital Media

  • As business reliance on communication technology grows, so does the need for: Robust, reliable, secure, and capable infrastructures

  • Computers & the Internet Computer production mainly limited to developed countries. High cost barriers, so access is limited to the wealthiest social groups in many nations

  • Decline of U.S. Dominance: Internet power is diversifying globally Authoritarian Government Control Nations like China monitor, filter, and censor online political content

Covid-19 and the Rise of Telework

  • Pandemic as a “take-off” event for telework (work from home)

  • Artificial Intelligence, Content Moderation, and Digital Regulation Key Debates:

Conclusion: Challenges of Living with Mediated Communication Technologies

  • Key Challenge: Regulating cyberspace while balancing Innovation, Privacy, Freedom of expression, Equity of access

Digital Divide Has Narrowed

  • device ownership is widespread mobile devices are now a primary way many Americans access the Internet, particularly among younger, lower-income, and minority populations

  • Progress is undeniable, but gaps persist especially for certain groups

  • COVID-19 accelerated the need for home internet