m The first phase covered the early 20th century through

the 1930s.

ñ The stimulus-response model drawn from psychology & grounded

in mass society theory drawn from sociology
d {owerful stimuli, such as effective media messages, could induce people to
respond mechanically, immediately, & relatively uniformly, consistent with the
intentions of the creators of the messages.
m The second phase of media effects research
ñ The era of limited effects
d Úegard media as having only minimal influence on the audience.

d Úeasons: 1) selective exposure (control over what they watched, listened to, or
read in the media); 2) Selective attention (control over which elements of media
messages people would pay attention to); 3) Selective perception (control over
how messages were interpreted); 4)Selective recall (control over how and what
was learned from the media).

d Social & personal characteristics of people influenced their selective approach

to mass communication so much that media¶s main and most common impact
was believed to be reinforcement.

d Lasted until the 1960s«.

m The return to the concept of powerful mass media
ñ The introduction & widespread adoption of TV
ñ Television-saturated media environment
ñ TV---the possibility to overcome some selectivity processes.

ñ Other Strong Media Effects

d genda setting²marked the ability of the mass media to tell people ³what to
think about´
d Cultivation---the heaviest viewers of TV were the most likely to be ³cultivated´ by
its patterns of images and accept the television world view as their vision of
reality.

ñ This era of media effects focused on media¶s power to bring about

subtle, yet direct media effects.
ñ 2ocuses on media content as the most important explanation for
media influence.
ñ Effects as immediate , relatively uniform, & consistent with the
goals of the media producer. Effects-observable
ñ The emphasis of this model is on effects that represent Y
,
not reinforcement.
ñ Effects are either behavioral, cognitive, or affective effects that
lead directly to noticeable actions.
ñ Ignores the role of the audience in the media effects process
m Structural and Content 2eatures.
ñ Commercial breaks, cuts and edits, and camera and lens
movement---orienting response
ñ The orienting response is involuntary & automatic attention that is
unrelated to the meaning of the media stimulus
m rousal.
ñ rousal is an automatic, non-specific physiological response that is
conceptualized as an activator or energizer. It is stimulated by the
environment. Violence and erotica
m Úealism.
ñ More realistic media content is more likely to activate mental
images
m Most direct effects are relatively short term
m Œrawn from the limited effects model
m Emphasis on the audience & based on notions of selectivity
and social influence
m Úecognizes that media effects can occur and offers
explanations for those effects (unlike the limited effects model)
m The conditional model---media effects are conditional on the
audience member.
m ll media exposure is not bound to result in media effects
ñ The audience has the power to avoid exposure and reject influence
ñ Œifferent people may be affected quite differently by the same media
content
ñ Cognitive, affective, or behavioral
m Three classes of audience variables that can intervene
in the process of media effects:  Y
Y

 Y



   





 
Y
m These classes either as barrier to media effects or as a
lens to enhance the likelihood of media effects
m spects of people that are fairly easy to observe
ñ Œemographic characteristics of people such as gender, age, SES,
ethnicity, educational level«
ñ Common self-designations such as religion, political party
membership, and occupation.
ñ Ways to separate people into broad groups
ñ {rovide explanations for media effects b/c the categories
represent the common frames of reference of different groups of
people.
m Úepresent the social connections and interpersonal
interactions among people that mediate media effects.
m The social facilitation hypothesis suggests that people
should enjoy media content more in groups setting than
when alone.
ñ Droup viewing is a powerful mediator of TV¶s effects on children.
m Those aspects that differentiate one person from another.
Unique to an individual
m {ersonality, prior attitudes, preexisting attitudes, physical
and mental states, attitudes toward the media, and
gratifications sought from the media.
m Œrawn from the ³return of powerful effects´ era of the received view
of media effects history.
m The ubiquitous nature of certain media content that overrides any
potential of the audience to limit exposure to certain messages.
m Media content is so pervasive that selective exposure is impossible.
m This model explains that media effects are a result of cumulative
exposure, not due to a single event.
ñ genda setting ---the power of the news media to direct our concerns
toward certain issues. Over time, people accept those issues on the
media agenda as important issues.
ñ Cultivation research
m Œrawn from cognitive psychology.
m It applies the notion of schematic processing to the
media context.
m 6 Y 

ñ  mental structure that represent knowledge about a concept.
ñ Contain the attributes of the concept and the connections among
those attributes
d {at sajack ---- wheel of fourtune
ñ 2unctions of schemas
d Œirect selective exposure, perception, attention, & recall
d Control how new information is integrated with prior knowledge
d llow people to make inferences about new situations and help reduce
uncertainty about what to think or how to act.
m Two ways that schemas operate: through controlled or
through automatic processing.
ñ Controlled processing is individual-controlled mental activity. It
involves goal-directed thoughtful mental action. It involves a good
deal of selectivity.
ñ utomatic processing is an effortless, low-involved mental
processing of environmental stimuli. Environmental stimuli (media
content) may prime or activate schemas.
d {riming effects
d Once primed, schemas are more readily accessible, so primed
schema can also influence the interpretation of and reaction to
subsequent stimuli.
m Media content
ñ Salience of visual cues
ñ spects of content that attract involuntary attention are
more likely to prime
ñ Sexual and violence content ±potent primes. Úealistic
depictions. Character identification.
m udience variables