CMC & Media Effects – Essential Study Notes

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)

• Definition: Any communicative transaction via $2$+ electronic devices.
• Core Channel Features
  • Synchronicity vs. Asynchronicity: real-time vs. lag-time.
  • Persistence vs. Transience: message can be stored or quickly disappear.
  • Editability: sender can revise before posting.
  • Anonymity: degree of user identifiability.
  • Multimodality: combines text, audio, video, etc.

Self-Presentation & Impression Management

• Hyperpersonal Model (Walther, $1996$)
  • CMC can heighten self-disclosure & idealization through selective presentation.
• Key Terms
  • Self-Presentation: packaging identity to send desired cues.
  • Motivation: drive to control perceptions.
  • Construction: strategic planning of the desired impression.
• Self-Monitoring Styles
  • High Self Monitors: flex behavior to context.
  • Low Self Monitors: act consistently across contexts.
• Face (Goffman, $1956$)
  • Image built on socially approved attributes (honor, likeability).
  • Face Work: actions that protect/restore this image.

Media Determinism & Channel Effects

• Technological Determinism: media form shapes thought, feeling, action, social order.
• "The Medium is the Message": channel alters meaning beyond content.
• Hot Media: info-rich, low participation (e.g., radio, print).
• Cool Media: info-lean, high participation (e.g., texting, video games).

Media Effects Processes

• Priming: exposure activates related thoughts.
• Framing: presentation angle guides interpretation.
• Agenda-Setting: media decide which issues audience thinks about.

Cultivation Theory (Gerbner, $1969$)

• Heavy TV viewers adopt TV-like worldview.
• Mainstreaming: television homogenizes perspectives.
• Resonance: effect intensifies when content mirrors personal experience.