A History of Media Research

Early Media Research

  • Focuses on how media works, its effects, and how to harness its potential.
  • Emerged with broadcast media in the 1930s-1950s.
  • Utilizes the scientific method:
    • Question
    • Hypothesis
    • Collect Data
    • Analyze Data
    • Draw Conclusions
    • Observation
    • Repeat

Social Scientific Approaches

  • Employs measurable data and statistics.
  • Relies on surveys and large data sets.
  • Aims to measure and explain the relationship between media and audience behavior.
  • 1,2,3,5,6,7,81, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8
  • ∑\sum

Media Effects Model

  • Explores "who says what to whom with what effect."
  • Examines the relationship between media and behavioral response of audiences.

Trends in Social Scientific Research (1930-1960)

  • Propaganda Analysis: Studies how governments used media to advance war efforts.
  • Public Opinion Research: Examines how different groups view major national events.
  • Social Psychology Studies: Measures behavior, attitudes, and cognition of individuals.
  • Marketing Research: Research on consumer habits and behaviors conducted by advertisers and product companies.

Media Effects Theories

  • Hypodermic-Needle Model: Argues media are powerful, audiences are weak, and media controls and manipulate audiences.
  • Minimal/Limited Effects Model: Counters that media don’t necessarily change people’s attitudes.
  • Uses and Gratifications Model: Suggests people engage with media to satisfy emotional and/or intellectual needs.

Modern Research Paradigms

Gaps in Social Scientific Research

  • Gap #1: Limited focus on how media entities work, decision-makers, governance, relationship with the market (capitalism), and power dynamics.
  • Gap #2: Limited focus on media's role in creating community, social bonds, identity, and its place in everyday life.

Political Economy Studies

  • Explores the relationship between economic interests, political power, and how that power is used.
  • Focuses on the political economy of media industries.
  • Considers the tension between profit and democracy in the media landscape.
  • Examines who owns and controls the media.

Cultural Studies

  • Interprets media content as “texts”, artifacts, and symbols that communicate cultural, historical, and political meanings.
  • Textual Analysis: Close readings and interpretation of messages, rituals, narratives, and meaning.
  • Audience Studies: Focuses on the audience rather than the text in media analysis.

Thoughts on Communication Research

  • Social Scientific/Administrative vs. Critical Media Research.
    *Critical media research considers ideology, power, and context.
  • Rooted in concepts like democracy, justice, and equality.

Critical Media Research

  • IDEOLOGY
  • POWER CONTEXT

Canadian Tradition of Communication Research

  • Examines the relationship between power and communication.
  • Draws from political economy and cultural studies.

COMS 1002 Approach

  • Political Economy of Communication
  • Cultural Approaches: Media, Culture, and Identity
  • Popular Culture: Combining Paradigms

COMS 1002 This Semester Part 2: Application

  • Gaming: New Media in Communication Studies
  • Participatory Culture: Online Communities + Networks
  • Cancel Culture: The Erasure of Individuals from Digital (Public?) Life
  • Environmental Communication: An Emerging Subfield in COMS Studies
  • AI + Machine Learning: Algorithms and Data Studies

Wrapping Up

  • Early media studies research relied heavily on numerical analysis.
  • Contemporary media research is guided by critical perspectives.
  • The course will explore topics using both paradigms: political economy + cultural studies.