Adnan Munawar

 We will take a “historical” look at the evolution of mass

communication theory.
 New theories respond to old ones, the change
between different eras is often jerky and can seem to
be taking a leap.
 Convergence is a buzzword for the modern mass
Rapid and remarkable change has
communication revolution. always existed in the media.
 However, convergence also entails “reorganization” - Jennings Bryant and Donna Miron.
and “profound change” in society, culture,
economics, politics and even cognition.
 Technology evolves in a continuum.
 New media and AI have expanded our consumer
choices, but also reshaped our social and cognitive
landscape.
 Era of mass society theory (1850-1940)

 Era of scientific perspective on mass media (1940-1950)

 Era of limited effects (1950-60s)

 Era of cultural criticism (1960s-1980s)

 The earliest Mass Communication theories were initially
developed in the later half of the 19th century as new media
technologies were invented and popularized.
 These theories reflect the view of these theorists, most of
whom were extremely pessimistic about the new technology
(Brantlinger, 1983).
 These theorists blamed new industrial technology for BACKGROUND
disrupting peaceful, rural communities.
 These social thinkers were fearful of cities because of their
crime, cultural diversity, and unstable political systems. For
them, mass media symbolized everything that was wrong with
the 19th century urban life.
 The dominant perspective that emerged during this period is
referred to as mass society theory. It began as a collection of
contradictory notions – some quite radical, others quite
reactionary.
 The ideas expressed in mass society theory held strong appeal
for any social elites whose power was threatened by change.
This lead to media industries such as ‘penny press’ becoming a
convenient for the elites’ criticism.
 To the critics, the mass media symbolized a sick society – a
society that needed to either return to old values or be forced to
BACKGROUND(CONTINUED)
adopt a set of totally new values.
 This situation changed as leaders of the Industrial Revolution
gained greater social influence. These leaders strongly favored
all forms of technological development, including mass media.
 In their view technology was inherently good as it facilitated
control over the physical environment, expanded human
productivity and generated new forms of material wealth.
 The new view proved to be correct in the long-term as it lead to a
more equal social world. Although in the short term,
industrialization created problems like exploitation of workers,
pollution and social unrest.
Bullet Theory
 Also called as hypodermic needle theory.
 It holds that an intend message is directly received and
completely accepted by listener. Like a bullet fired from
the “media gun” into the viewer’s head.
 A strength of this theory was that it did draw attention to the IMPORTANT THEORIES
issues of ethics and media ownerships.
 Viewers/Receivers are regarded as completely passive
and defenseless.
 Media is regarded as having direct, immediate and
powerful effect on those who pay attention.

Propaganda Theory
 First systematic theory of mass communication.
 Focuses on the media’s ability to have a direct impact on
the mass society.
 Audience’s role here was also passive and defenseless.
 Overestimates the speed and range of the mass media’s
influence.
 Mass society theories greatly exaggerated the ability of media
to quickly undermine social order.
 This notion was mainly propagated by the powerful social and
cultural elites, who saw the traditional social order that was
serving them so well undermined by popular media content. LIMITATIONS

 These ideas failed to consider that media’s power ultimately

resides in the freely chosen uses that audiences make of it.
 Technology advocates were also misguided and failed to
acknowledge the many unnecessary, damaging consequences
that resulted from applying technology without adequately
considering the impact.
 During the 1930’s, world events seemed to continually
confirm the truth of mass society ideas. In Europe, reactionary
and revolutionary political movements used media in their
struggles for political power.
 German Nazis introduced propaganda techniques that
ruthlessly exploited the power of new media technology like
motion pictures and radio. BACKGROUND
 All across Europe, totalitarian leaders like Hitler, Stalin and
Mussolini rose to political power and were able to exercise
seemingly total control over vast populations.
 Private ownership of media, especially broadcast media, was
replaced by direct government control in most European
nations. The purpose was to use media for the service of the
society. But the unintended outcome in most cases was to
place enormous power in the hands of ruthless leaders who
were convinced that they personally embodied what was best
for all their citizens. The sole exception was BBC, which
remained an independent public corporation.
 Lazarsfeld (1941), an Austrian researcher and scientist criticized mass
society theories fro their lack of scientific depth and roposed conducting
carefully designed, elaborate field experiments to observe media’s
influence and measure its magnitude.
 It was not enough to assume that political propaganda is powerful – hard
evidence was needed to prove the existence of such effects (Lazarsfeld,
Berelson, and Gaudet, 1944). Lazersfeld’s most famous efforts, the “Voter
Studies”, actually began as an attempt to demonstrate the media’s power, BACKGROUND(CONTINUED)
yet they proved, at least to him and his colleagues, just the opposite.
 By the early 1950s, Lazerfeld’s work had generated an enormous amount
of data based on which he concluded that media were not nearly as
powerful as had been previously imagined.
 He found that people resisted media’s influence and were influenced by
many competing factors. Rather than serving as a disruptive social force,
media seemed to reinforce existing social trends and strengthen the status
quo.
 Although Lazarsfeld never labeled his theory, it is now referred to as the
Limited-effects perspective, which regards media as having a limited role
in the lives of individuals and larger society.
Two-Step Flow Theory
 Flow of information takes place in two steps. First from
Mass Media to opinion leaders and then from opinion
leaders to the mass society.
 Media are not so powerful because there are resistance to
their messages. Resistance is based on psychological
individual traits & crucial role is played by IMPORTANT THEORIES
 Opinion Leaders
 Social Context

Persuasion Theory
 Subtle change in the attitude of the receiver.
 Any form of persuasive communication changes the
attitude of the receiver. Attitude on the other hand
changes the behavior .
Lasswell’s Model
 It is a five step process.
 Who says (Source)
 What (Message)
 In which channel (Media)
 To Whom (Receiver)
 With What effect (Feedback) IMPORTANT THEORIES

Limited Effects Theory

 Basically, Paul Lazersfeld experiment on Voting Behaviour. He
explained that the role of media in deciding the voting
behavior is limited.
 3 steps followed by him are:
1. Activate floating voters to take a decision
2. Reinforce the preference in convinced voters.
3. Convert convinced voters to switch their preference.
Conclusion- He concluded that media had some kind of influence
only at step 2.
 During the 1950s, limited-effects notions about media
continued to gain acceptance within academia. Several
important clashes occurred between their adherents and those
who supported mass society ideas (Bauer and Bauer, 1960). In
1960, several classic studies of media effects provided
apparently definitive support for the limited-effects notions.
BACKGROUND
 By 1961, V.O. Key had published Public Opinion and
American Democracy, a theoretical and methodological tour
de force that integrated limited-effects notions with social and
political theory to create a perspective that is now known as
elite pluralism. This theory views society as a number of
interlocking pluralistic groups led by opinion leaders who rely
on media for information about politics and social world.
 The body of empirical research findings continued to grow,
and almost all these findings were consistent with the limited-
effects’ view.
Play Theory
 Put forward by William Stephenson (1964)
 First function of media is to provide entertainment.
 He said that one should be subjective and psychological rather
than being objective and sociological.
IMPORTANT THEORIES
 According to the theory, masses use the media for a step-up or
for fulfilling their own desires.
Uses & Gratification Theory
 “What the media do to the people, to what the people do with
the media.”
 USES- It assumes that audiences are active and willingly
expose themselves to the media
 GRATIFICATION- It refers to the rewards & satisfaction by
audience after the use of media.
Agenda Setting Theory
 Agenda-setting theory was formally developed by Max McCombs and Donald Shaw in a
study on the 1968 American presidential election.

 It states that media have the ability to advise or tell audiences what issues are major &
relevant, thus setting the agenda. They can achieve this by choosing what stories to
consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space they give them.

 Key Features: IMPORTANT THEORIES

1. The role of mass media, particularly news media is to provide filtered information in
order to create a distorted view of reality.

2. Media focus on certain issues depicting them as more important than others because
they want the public opinion to perceive them as more important.

Dependency Theory
 Integral relationship between audience, media & larger social system

 Learning from experiences in real life is limited

 Audience depend largely on media to gather information they need

 Prolonged use of media triggers a dependence

Dissonance Theory
 Adopted from social psychology.

 The theory holds that when confronted by new/conflicting

information, people experience a kind of mental discomfort.
 The level of dissonance is decided by 3 factors… IMPORTANT THEORIES

A. Selective Exposure
B. Selective Perception
C. Selective Retention
 Though most mass communication researchers in the United
States found limited-effects notions and empirical research
findings on which they were based persuasive, researchers in
other parts of the world were less convinced.
 Mass society notions continued to flourish in Europe, where
both left-wing and right-wing concerns about the power of
BACKGROUND
media were deeply rooted in World War II experiences with
propaganda. Europeans were also skeptical about the power
of scientific, quantitative social research methods to verify
and develop social theory (they saw them as reductionist –
reducing complex communication processes and social
phenomena to little more than narrow
 Some European academics were resentful of the influence
enjoyed by American after World War II. They argued that
American empiricism was both simplistic and intellectually
sterile.
 One group of European social theorists who vehemently resisted
postwar U.S. influence was the neo-Marxists (Hall,1982).
 These left-wing social theorists believe that media enable
dominant social elites to maintain their power. Media provide the
elite with a convenient, subtle, yet highly effective means of
promoting worldviews favorable to their interests.
 During the 1970s, questions about the possibility of powerful BACKGROUND (CONTINUED)
media effects were again raised within U.S. universities. These
arguments were routinely ignored and marginalized by social
scientists because they were unsupported by “scientific evidence.”
 Some of these scholars were attracted to European-style cultural
criticism. Others attempted to create an “authentic” American
school of cultural studies – though they drew heavily on Canadian
scholars like Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan (Carey, 1977).
 This cultural criticism, although initially greeted with
considerable skepticism by “mainstream” effects researchers,
gradually established itself as a credible and valuable
alternative to limited-effects notions.
Cultivation Theory
 The Cultivation Theory is a mass communication theory that suggests a shaping -
cultivating - cumulative long-term effect of TV media on the social reality of
viewers.
Origin of Cultivation Theory

 The Cultivation Theory has been developed by professor George

Gerbner from Annenberg School of Communications of IMPORTANT THEORY
Philadelphia, US, in 1967-1974. He was conducting research called
“Cultural Indicators Program” about the impact of violence
broadcasted in TV programs on individuals.
 His early hypothesis aimed to demonstrate that a massive use of
media leads to an increase in acceptance of violence and in the
engagement of cruel behaviors. Gerbner started considering TV as a
new social agent competing with traditional ones such as family,
school, church and peer groups. Analyzing TV programs, especially
fictions, he divided audiences in 3 groups:
 Low Users, those who watch TV less than 2 hours a day.
 Normal Users, those who watch TV from 2 to 6 hours a day.
 Heavy Users, those who watch TV for more than 6 hours a day.
 The concept of framing is related to the agenda-setting tradition but expands the
research by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a
particular topic.
 The meaning making theory recognizes that mass communication can indeed be
powerful, or somewhat powerful, or not powerful at all, because active audience
members can (and often do) use media content to create meaningful experiences
for themselves.
 The theory was first put forth by Goffman, under the title of Frame Analysis.
MEANING MAKING THEORY
 According to the theory, people interpret what is going on around their world
through their primary framework. This framework is regarded as primary as it
is taken for granted by the user. Its usefulness as a framework does not depend
on other frameworks.
 Media also presents information to its audience through a frame.

 These frames are abstractions that work to organize or structure message

meaning. Both play the role of helping individuals interpret data.
 Framing Theory suggests that how something is presented to the audience
influences the choices people make about how to process that information.
 Another meaning making theory is the media literacy movement, which calls
for improvement in people’s ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and
communicate media messages.