Updated:  16 September, 2002

Updated: 09/16/02

The primary source for this lecture is from Anderson and Meyer, chapters 3,4,5, and 6.  These notes are meant to provide an outline of the topic. For further examination, be sure to read the chapters on Reserve at Collier Library.

In recent months, there has been much attention placed on the affect of media violence on young people and our culture.  A 14 year old in Florida was convicted of the murder of a 9 year old girl after fatally injuring her while imitating wrestling moves.  This is only one of many, many injuries and deaths associated with media violence in some way.  When you see those news stories, what are the questions which go through your mind?  How do we find out what that relationship is?

The questions about media relationships to violence or other anti-social behavior is nothing new.  Dime novels, penny press, comics, silent films, movies, and even radio were accused destroying our culture.

How do we know? 

In this century, we have taken the idea that science is the way to find  truth.

Therefore, the keys to successful search for knowledge basically boil down to

• knowing how to ask the question

• knowing exactly what you're looking for

• knowing exactly how to go about finding the answer

The fundamental assumption is :  IF WE DON'T HAVE THE ANSWER, IT MUST BE BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT YET DEVELOPED THE RIGHT SCIENTIFIC METHODS. 

This is a very important idea, so hold on to it, because we'll be coming back to it.  Those of you who have already had ethics, should already have some ideas about that statement.

We're going to begin to discuss HOW scientists study media by looking

• types of scientific methods

• the strengths of those methods

• the weaknesses of those methods

Let's start with some basics:

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF SCIENCE?

1. The scientist observes and describes objects and events appearing in the world

2. The scientist tries to discover what processes are going in what is observed

3. The scientist tries to organize what he sees into theories and laws

Non-scientists do those things too.  That's why we have stereotypes and people like Hitler spreading faulty information and doctrine....and people by it, because they don't recognize that the logic is faulty; the process is faulty.  That faulty process was illustrated when, after the World Trade Center bombing, some people blamed all Moslems for the event.

So how is science different?  Science is:

1. Logical:  It follows the laws of logic, among them that no two mutually exclusive qualities can exist at the same time in the same object.  (Water can't be liquid and solid at the same time.)

2. Deterministic:  Things don't just happen with out some catalyst or reason.

3. General:  It is aimed at general understanding.

4. Inter-Subjective: Mass Com researchers and those in education or psychology should find the same results when they do the same experiment.

5. Empirically Verifiable:  No theory can be proved.  It must be disproved. (If you throw the apple in the air and it doesn't come down, the law of gravity doesn't work any more.)

6. Open to modification: If differing results occur, the reasons for them must be explained...there may be an error OR the results are not mutually exclusive.  May adjust understanding to reflect new findings.

THE NATURE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

Social science, as you know is the science which measures people, attitudes, values, motives and lots of intangible things....sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, and mass com.

Social science studies/measures:

• social phenomena

• social regularities

It creates

• social theories

Social science has all of characteristics of science: logic, generality, etc.

In the past, standard scientific methods have been used in our disciplines:

• the controlled experiment

• content analysis

• analysis of existing data

• participant observation

• survey research

In scientific research, including social scientific research, standard steps are taken when research is undertaken and reported.

1. review past research (called the literature review)

2. identify important questions which remain unanswered

3. identify or create the best possible means of finding the answers to those questions

4. gather the required data

5. analyze the data

6. present the results of your objective and systematic investigation

7. discuss what you've learned and the subsequent implications for further research.

Regardless of what type of method you use, this process stays the same.  

In social science, the past philosophy of science which as been emphasized has been called positivism or hypothetico-deductive methodology.  (Before you freak over that word, look at it's parts....)  

Positivism is rooted in the basic qualities of physical science.

• There are universal laws

• Priority is given to data which are directly observable

• Standardized methods of observation are necessary

• Priority is in testing theories to ultimately achieve the determination of a law

  • theories can be tested

  • theories can be proved false

  • this can be achieved if 

    • the observer is objective

    • the methods are standardized

In social science, we have run into problems with positivism.   In over 90 years, we have NO social scientific laws.

In the study of mass communication, we have focused primarily on the topic of effects.  How do media affect the audiences who use them?   To do this, we have relied on two key methods:

• experiments

• surveys

(See Anderson and Meyer, Ch 5 for more in depth discussion)

To understand how this all works, it's important for you to really understand some key terms and categories:

CLASSIFICATIONS OF EFFECTS:

Effect: (def)  A circumstance that would not have happened without the presence of another circumstance.  

• An effect must have an agent and a reactant.

Types of Effects:

1.    Indirect Effects:  A trade off effect which occurs because something else is NOT happening.  (ex. Kids who watch a lot of television get fatter not because TV causes them to gain weight, but because they are sitting there eating instead of going out to play and burn calories.)

2.    Direct Effects:  An immediate and direct reaction that is caused by an agent.

The intensity of the effect is going to depend upon

• Immediacy: Number of exposures + duration of the effect

• Directness: Now important other conditions are for the effect to take place.  The fewer the other conditions exist, the more direct the effect.

Let me give you a couple of examples.  Think about where you were when you first heard of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.  I was in the lobby of the Communications Building just before 8:00 and watched the events with dozens of other students.  We all reacted with shock and horror.  Our heart and breathing accelerated.  We felt nauseated, light headed.  We were grieved and disoriented, trying to figure out what we had seen, what it meant, and then began to understand the tragedy for people inside the buildings, the planes, and for our nation. We were all intensely affected.  We are still affected by what we saw.  The effects of those media messages were extremely intense, possibly the most intense television we have ever seen.  Let's look at it from the perspective of these definitions:

• Immediacy:  We saw the images of the planes striking the buildings, the building collapse and the rescue efforts over and over and over again.  The number of exposures to those media messages were countless in the hours and days following the events.  Do we still remember those images and sounds?  Do they still create a reaction in us?  Certainly.  Those pictures and sounds had an immediate effect on us.

• Directness:  Did it matter how old we were? From what part of the country we came? Our grade point? Our income? Our race? How happy or sad we were before we saw the news video? No.  The only thing that mattered as we reacted to those images was the images themselves.  Now if we had known someone in the building, our reaction might have been even MORE intense, but the effect was powerful and immediate all by itself.

So we can say that the news video of the events of September 11, 2001 had powerful direct effects.

Let's look at a more mundane media message to see a less direct effect:

Example:  How much effect does a Pizza Hut (or Godfather's or Papa John's) commercial have on you, a viewer?  The viewer has to have all of the following in order for the commercial to have effect -- i.e. get you to order a pizza.

• You have to like pizza

• You have to like Pizza Hut Pizza

• You have to have the money to pay for it

• They have to deliver to your neighborhood or...

• You have to be willing to go get it

• You have to have the transportation to go get it

• You need to be hungry (or certain you will be soon)

• The people you're with need to like pizza

• They have to be willing to do all or part of all of the steps above

• Pizza doesn't make you sick

• more.....

So if we're going to understand effects we have to break them into three dimensions:

The Three Dimensions of Direct Effects:

1. Contingency: How necessary is the exposure to the behavior?

2. Immediacy:   How many exposures are necessary for the effect to occur?

3. Duration:   How long does effect last?

Power of the Effect = Contingency + Immediacy

Contingency is different from directness. 

• Contingency means the effect is contingent upon the media message or that the message is necessary for the effect to take place.

• Directness refers to what degree the the media message is the ONLY thing necessary for the effect to happen.

Let me give you another example, but you're probably going to have to think about this one on your own and come up with some others.

I can't use a coupon at Parisian when they have a sale if I don't get the sale advertisement through the mail or buy a newspaper that has the coupon in it.  My savings of 15% on a sale item is contingent upon having that coupon, i.e. getting that media message.  On the other hand, just buying the newspaper or getting the ad isn't enough to make me buy a sale item at the store. I have actually gone in there and come out with the coupon (and my money) still in hand.  Maybe they didn't have anything I thought I needed or really wanted.  Maybe I didn't think it was prudent to spend the money at that time.  Maybe I hoped the item would be marked down even more later.....You get the idea.   Getting the coupon discount was contingent upon having the coupon, but the message itself wasn't direct enough to get me to part with my money.  Now, if the coupon had been worth 50% off, it might might have had a little more direct effect.....

3.    Functional Effects:  These effects are purposes served by television and other institutions in the culture.

Why do we use these things?  What is their use/ purpose/function in society? The achievement or fulfillment of the purpose becomes a type of effect called a function.  (Ex.) I watch TV to become relaxed, informed, entertained.....

4.    Institutional Effects: These are result of one institution having an impact on another.

The world wide web has revolutionized all modern media.  They all now have to have a "web presence" and web sites become supplementary services which reinforce their audiences' attraction to the original medium, but which draw new people and income to them.  When television was introduced, radio took a big hit and movies couldn't do business as usual either.  Along came the spectacular and sex, language and violence....all to draw new audiences.

5. Cultural Effects:  These are the effects which change the way we see our society and our world and the way it works.  There are two major categories of cultural effects.

• Ideological Effects:  (from the root, ideology).  These effects concern the long-term perceptions of how we see our society and the way it works.

  • EX:  Communist vs. Capitalist

  • EX:  Feminist vs. Traditionalist

  • These generally have to do with world view

• Hegemonistic Effects: (from the root hegemony) Hegemony refers to maintaining the social and cultural status quo.

  • (def) The process by which a culture's social structure is preserved. 

  • Hegemony assumes that there are numerous ideologies or world views operating in the culture, but that certain ones are dominant.

  • The dominant ideologies must be supported with consistent messages throughout the culture if they (the ideologies and the culture) are to survive.

Let's look at some examples of hegemonistic effects and messages. 

• Culture wars:  Many in our society say that we are involved in a culture war.  In previous decades, media messages reinforced the messages that parents and religious institutions were trying to teach young people.  Now many parents feel like they are battling the culture for the minds and very lives of their children.  The believe that the media are not only not reinforcing parental values but are actually undermining them.

• The Ellen controversy.  When Ellen DeGeneres announced that she was gay a few years ago and her character on her sitcom made the same declaration, many viewers refused to watch the show.  Others were upset with the networks because DeGeneres said flatly that she was trying to normalize the gay lifestyle.  This position (whether or not you agree with it) was considered contrary to the hegemonistic messages of traditional definitions of family and sexuality, and that's why so many people were upset about it.  Ultimately the ratings dived and the show disappeared.

• Political Revolution: Whenever a revolution takes place, each of the contending parties try to gain and maintain control of media outlets so they can control the messages that come from them.  Each side wants media messages which support its position.

• World Trade Center Crisis: Never before in my memory have I heard network news professionals make so many statements about patriotism, faith, prayer, or support for political leaders.  Media messages have been overwhelmingly hegemonistic -- supportive of the dominant ideologies? Why? Because I think we all realized that our very way of life was being threatened, and we needed to refocus on those ideas and values which stabilize and secure our culture. 

  • Be sure to give this some thought, because it would make an excellent essay on the midterm.

Some Key Ideas Associated with Hegemonistic Effects:

1. They involve processes which keep a culture stable.

2. They involve processes which protect those who are in power.

3. They are based on an assumption that societies are comprised of a number of power structures and power relationships

4. Supportive and consistent messages must support them on a regular basis if those structures and relationships are going to survive.

5. When opposing ideas are presented on media, the existing ideologies are threatened

6. When opposing media messages (which we call oppositional texts) are presented, they may still be hegemonisitic -- if they provide some release of tension which allows dissidents to be satisfied and the status quo to be maintained.

6.   Accommodation Effects: These are the effects which media have because media are a part of our every day life.

Each viewing experience is different because the environment is different.  Example:  Watching a Scream movie with 

• your peers in a darkened movie theater

• by yourself at home

• with your grandma and grandpa

• with your 6 year old brother

Your enjoyment, understanding and involvement in the film will be different in each of those situations.

Remember, we're searching for TRUTH here....What is going on? How do media affect individuals and society?

In the search for truth, there are three major divisions in completing the understanding of what is true.  Each of these comprise classifications of scientific inquiry or study.

THREE MAJOR DIVISIONS OF UNDERSTANDING in the Search for Truth:

1. Ontology:          What is it?

2. Praxiology:       How does it work?

3. Epistemology:   Why does it happen? 

In order to understand an effect, we must answer ALL THREE of those questions!!   However, only recently have scientists begun asking the "what" and "how" questions as well as the "why?" questions.

One of the key tools we use to ask these questions is the model.

Model: (def) a metaphor for the relationships in a process.  

Scientists use models to help clarify their thinking; some see them as maps of sorts.  Frequently the terms "model" and "theory" will be used interchangeably. 

Another way to classify theories is based on WHO is affected by the media message.  This is a very common classification system.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF EFFECTS MODELS based on WHO is Affected: 

• Individual Effects: (Consequences for the individual) Also known as Micro-functional Effects.

• Institutional Effects: (Consequences for the institution) Also known as Macro-functional Effects.

• Cultural Effects: (Consequences for the society) These are also Macro-functional Effects.

Each of these categories has sub-groups, and we're going to look at those in depth at this point.

I.    INDIVIDUAL EFFECTS: 

When we look for individual effects, we are looking at how media affect an individual.  How does media CAUSE a particular effect in a person?

Considering that human beings are extremely complex, isolating a cause is very difficult, if not impossible to do.  That's why Anderson and Meyer call this the "might be--could be--MAYbe--thing."  

There are two sub-classifications of Individual Effects models, and they are classified  based on where the power is in the relationship.  Is it with the audience or the content?  These studies don't really focus on the power itself, but rather on the characteristics of the audience and the content of the text.

• Content Models:  Assumes the power is in the text. (The media message.  A text may be a television program, radio newscast, newspaper, magazine, billboard, etc.)

  • Closed Text:  This text is "closed to interpretation."  Anybody can understand it.  "The rope is six feet long" is a pretty closed text.  There's not much left to interpretation. Anyone can "read" this text and understand what it means.

  • Open Text:  This text is "open to interpretation."  "The rope it pretty long" is not so closed?  How long is long? What does the qualifier "pretty" do to our interpretation of "long?"  Different people may interpret the terms differently based on individual experience.  I might think 6 feet is a long rope, but someone else might think a long rope is 20 feet.

    As I work on this I am anticipating watching the new Star Trek series, Enterprise.  My enjoyment and understanding of that series will be different than someone who has never seen another Star Trek series. (I've seen all of the episodes of all of the series numerous times....).  I will have the whole experience of Original Trek, Next Generation, DS-9 and Voyager.   So when the Enterprise crew makes first contact with Klingons, I'll know all about the Klingon culture and what that holds for the future of the Federation.  Those beginnings will have more significance for me than for the person who has never seen any other of the series, and I will draw different and deeper meaning from the text of the new series because of that. 

    Open Texts are very hard for scientists to study in a causal model.  If you don't know what the content is for the viewer, how can attribute a causal effect to it?

     

• Audience Models of Individual Effects: 

  Here the power is seen to be with the audience, but the focus of the research whether or to what degree the audience is involved with the text by paying attention to it and trying to interpret what it means.

  • Passive Audience:  The audience just absorbs the message.  The assumption here is that audiences just don't think about the texts they see.  If a message is properly constructed, audiences don't really have a chance.  They will just absorb the message as it was designed to be absorbed.  Audiences in this model don't have an option to resist.  The audience is powerless and the power is in the message.

  • Active Audience: This view holds that the audience does have an active role.  Audiences pay attention to media (or decide not do so), they chose whether to continue to pay attention, and they choose whether to accept or reject a message.  The power is not with the message but with the audience is very powerful.

  • Audience as Community:  This model places the individual in a larger group which sets the context or frame through which the individual attends, interprets and understands a media text. The power here is with the group rather than the message or the individual. Ex.  If you are watching a football game and a controversial call is made, that call might be perceived differently by you if you were watching with a group of Auburn fans than if you were watching with die hard Alabama fans.    This model is found with individual effects models, but also in cultural studies models as well.

   

• Relational Models of Individual Effects: These models also look at audience and content, but rather than placing all the power with one or the other, these models assume a relationship between audience and content.  In a sense, this model takes the previous two and adds the relationship factor to them, asking where is the power in the relationship.  

  The more recent individual effect are relational models, though you will see how they grew out of the old audience and content models which preceded them.
  

  • Exposure Model or Direct Effects Model: 

    • This model places the power with the content and examines the effects of particular types of content such as television violence or pornography. 

    • This primarily an epistemological model because it tries to explain "why?"

    • Requirements for this model:

      • The meaning must reside primarily in the content.

      • A conditional or causal relationship exists between using the content and subsequent behavior on the part of the user.

      • Passive audience: Little else is required but the message for the effect to take place.

    • Limitations of the model:

      • It doesn't address how content transcends its meaning

      • It doesn't address how the content is attended

      • It doesn't address whether content is well-produced

      • It doesn't address what impact production quality might have

      • It doesn't ask whether any of those things make a difference.

    • How do we study the Exposure Model?

      • Experimental methods have been the primary way

      • Assumptions of experimental methodology

        • Controlled experiment: scientist can control all variable except the one being studied

        • Standardized procedures: scientist can make sure control group and experimental group are treated exactly the same way except for the variable being studied

        • Control is necessary in both cases to insure that results are not an artifact of anything OTHER than the variable in question (the manipulated/independent variable)

        • Goal is to test an hypothesis which will lead to theory building and ultimately the development of a law

        • Sample selection is representative so results can be generalized to the population at large

      • Problems with experimental methodology

        • Artificiality:  

          • Do people actually behave in experimental situations the way they would in the real world?

          • Do procedures reflect the real world? (Is whacking a bobo doll the same thing as whacking another kid?)

          • Are the agents of cause properly isolated and identified? (Is the kid cranky and aggressive because of the cartoon he just saw or because he had a bad day at school, he got picked on, his stomach hurts, his parents just divorced.....?)

          • Are the responses/effect properly operationalized? (What exactly do we code as aggressive when we watch these things.  If a child laughs when he clobbers another kid, is that same thing as if he does it when he's furious?)

          • Do the participants know what's going on and subsequently alter their behavior? (Oh, this is a study, so I'm going to tell them what they want to hear.....)

        • Representation:

          • Sample selection is usually not random and therefore not generalizable

          • Convenience samples are the ones most often used

  When we examine a research project, we want to look for three key concepts:

  • Reliability: Can the project be replicated? If you did it again, would you get the same results. (Think about it, reliable means that some one can be counted upon to the same thing again and again....)

  • Validity:  Did it measure what it intended to measure?  If the boy in the experiment smacks another kid after watching a violent cartoon and that behavior is coded as TV-related aggress when in fact the other kid had picked on him earlier in the day, we have a problem.  What was measured was the boy's violence in reaction to an earlier event, NOT violence directly caused by the cartoon.  How can we be sure what kind of aggression we're measuring?  We might as well be measuring his frustration from his bad day.....

  • Isomorphism:  Does it apply to the real world? Are the conditions in the study like those of the real world or are they artificial.
    
    

  There are serious questions about experimental research, but in some cases it is the best model of inquiry we have available.  We can't really do a study on a potential Ted Bundy, expose him to all kinds of explicit material and then follow him around if and when he commits violent attacks on innocent victims.  Such research would be implausible as well as unethical. So we have to devise the best methods we can for the questions at hand, and while experimental research may be the best and most valuable tool, we must remember that while its results have value the inherent limitations of the methodology cannot be ignored.
  

  • Uses and Gratifications Model: 

    • This model shifts attention from the content to the needs an purposes of the viewer

    • The basic idea here is that people use media for specific functions in their lives...to get information, to learn about new products, to have topics of discussion the next day.... 

    • Content is then shaped by the people who use it; news gets more entertainment oriented because people are watching more tabloid shows.

    • Media then do not determine culture but rather are tools which help people survive in culture

    • It is a praxiological model which answers HOW the process works.

    • Ex.  Many local stations now put the weather first at the 10:00 p.m. newscast because focus group research showed that busy people wanted it that way. They watched the news at night largely to know how to dress the next day.  They wanted that information and then they wanted to go to bed.

    • Strengths of Uses and Gratifications Model:

      • It helps to explain how institutions are formed and why (Think back about your first tutorial)

      • It helps explain the role consumers have in shaping institutions

      • It does describe some patterns of human behavior

    • Problems with Uses and Gratifications Model:

      • We have to figure out the purpose by looking at the use. (The WHAT isn't answered.)

        • Sometimes the purpose of a program isn't what the viewers use it for.  For example, All in the Family was designed to poke fun at bigotry and show its error.  But many viewers saw Archie Bunker as a hero and used the program and his character to reinforce their bigoted ideas.

        • Situation comedies and dramas are designed to entertain us, but frequently they deal with sensitive or controversial issues, and we learn something while we're entertained.

      • The purpose and the gratification (or use) don't always match.  

      • The the gratification sought is not the gratification gained, as in the kicker at the end of the news program that entertains us and makes us laugh, when we tuned in to be informed.

      • When the above happens, the system breaks down.  (The WHY isn't answered very well.)

    • How do we study the Uses and Gratifications Model?

      • Survey Research  is the  method of choice, because you have know what's going on inside people's decision making process. Why are they watching? What do they want? We have to ASK those questions to get the answers.

      • Assumptions of Survey Research: 

        • Random sampling can and will be done, so results will be generalizable to the whole population

        • That hypotheses can be used to build theory and ultimately law

        • People will take questionnaires seriously and tell the truth when they answer them

        • Scientists are experts who will be able to assess the situation adequately to create a workable instrument

      • Hypothesis Testing:

        • In more than 70 years of hypothesis testing, we have no theories without flaws and no laws

        • Random sampling is attempted but rarely if ever achieved; convenience samples are the norm

        • Inflexible structure

          • Forced response questions: multiple choice questions leave no open-ended options to respondents; what if someone has a response "outside the box?"

          • Valuable information may be missed because it hadn't been considered by the researchers when they constructed the questionnaire.

          • Responses can be lead by tone, order and wording of the questions.

          • While standardization is the goal, it is virtually impossible to achieve and thus the reality is that some responses may be a result of something other than the survey instrument itself.
            
            

  • The Interactive Model: This model holds that the message or the communication actual occurs as a result of an INTERACTION between the content and its user.  

    • This means that the meaning of the message can actually change from individual to individual!

    • Special K example.  If you see that women in the white swimsuit after you've just failed to find one that looks good on you, you may see that commercial and think I need that cereal so I can "Keep the muscle and lose the fat."  If you tried on several suits that looked great on you, you might look at the commercial and never even notice it.  Who you are, and what you've experienced impacts how you process the media message.

    • Nothing in the content can predict a specific effect, because the variation  in the viewer is the determinant of the message's meaning.

    • This model answers the WHAT, WHY, and HOW.

II.    INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS Models of Communication

These models look at how institutions impact each other.  There are some key theories or models that we will be studying through the semester.

• Lipman Effects:

These are models which deal with the effects of political communication.  Lipman effects are those which result from poll being taken, results reported and subsequently politicians and voters are influenced by them.  The next poll is taken and influenced by the previous one.

• Agenda Setting:

Media tell us what to think about.  (Not necessarily what to think.)

• Two Step Flow:

This is another approach which looks at the influence of the group and the opinion leader, as well as institutions to which one belongs on voting behavior.

• The Myth of Public Opinion:  
  
  Since public opinion is only measured by polls and polls are flawed, we really aren't learning much.
  
  
  We're going to talk about each of these in more detail later, but now they provide examples of what institutional effects look like.
  
  

• Inter-Institutional Accommodations: Functionalism:
  
  Because society is so complex, it's hard to tell what's going on.  All the advertising in the world won't sell a product if consumers don't want it for reasons OTHER than advertising..
  So here, scientists look at FUNCTIONS -- not on an individual level, but on a social level. This is the difference between uses and gratifications and functionalism.
  
  The basic premise is that if there is a need in the society, an institution will form to meet the need. So the roles of the institutions in societies are examined from a "structural functional" approach.  In our field, the question is "What functions do media serve in society?"
  
  One of the big questions right now is what role the internet and digital television will have in the culture in the immediate and long-term future.  We have had interactive television and HDTV technology for awhile, but consumers haven't rushed right out and bought the WebTV units, the TIVOs or the DTVs.  Why?  They're not sure why they need it.  What function will it serve for them? Is it worth the money and the trouble?
  
  On the other hand, there is a whole new line of personal communication devices which offer wireless web access, especially instant messenger.  AOL designed a service that young people use in droves, and they wanted that service to be portable, like their phones.  So a device was needed which provided a keypad and wireless web access.
  
  Cell phone use has severely challenged traditional long distance services....Email has hit the U.S. Postal system very hard. 
  
  But there are still people who don't see the use....My Dad uses his computer largely because Carpet One insists upon it.  He likes to get email, but never replies.  He's had a computer at home with a modem for three years, but hasn't hooked it up because the benefit he sees is not as a valuable as the time it would take to hook it up.  Functionalism.
  
  

  • Criticism of Functionalism:

    • It's clear media DO exist, it's clear they DO meet needs for us, but it's practically impossible to figure out exactly WHAT THEY DO.

    • The individual isn't really considered in this model; it focuses entirely on institutions.

    • The influence of the marketplace is not addressed well.

  • Methods of Study:    

    • Usually examination existing data

    • Survey research
      

One of the most serious questions we ask as social scientists studying the impact of media is, "How does all of this -- the messages, the repetition, and the fact that it's all around us all of the time -- How does that change our society?"   Theories which focus on those questions are cultural effects theories.

III.    Cultural Effects Theories:

Cultural Effects theories are divided into two classifications.

• The Traditional Social Scientific Approach:  The roots of this approach are is psychology, focusing on

  • cognitive theory: examines how we process information; the development of attitudes, beliefs and values; studies how those are formed, especially the schemata or maps of how those associations occur.

  • social learning theory: examines how we learn about our society, specifically vicarious learning-- learning by watching others.

  • rules theory: examine how we learn the rules of our culture as

    • media show us what the rules are; inform us. (Facts about drunk driving, etc.)

    • media reinforce the rules by showing how they work and what the consequences of breaking them are (Drama about a family affected by drunk driving accident...)

    • rules theory expands cognitive and social learning theory to the entire culture

  • methods: experiment or survey (mostly survey.)

• Ideological Approach:

  • This approach uses either empiricism or ethnography  (empiricism is the traditional statistical approach; ethnography is an observational, case study approach.)

  • This approach concentrates on "what ought to be."

  • Common critical studies approaches are:

    • Marxist

    • Feminist

    • Hegemonistic

    • Community of Audiences:  This one says that we all belong to a particular community, or many communities which influence how we "read" media texts.  [For example, I'm a woman, married (once, happily), mom (of boys, teenagers), Caucasian, middle class, southerner (transplanted), Titan fan, etc.   This theory questions the concept of mass audience.  

    These scientists rarely use empirical  or quantitative methods.  They rely primarily on qualitative methods.
                                     

    CLASSIFICATIONS OF EFFECTS MODELS based on WHO is Affected:  Individual Effects: (Consequences for the individual) Also known as Micro-functional Effects. Institutional Effects: (Consequences for the institution) Also known as Macro-functional Effects. Cultural Effects: (Consequences for the society) These are also Macro-functional Effects. I.    INDIVIDUAL EFFECTS:  Content Models:   Closed Text:    Open Text: Audience Models of Individual Effects:  Passive Audience:    Active Audience:   Audience as Community:    Relational Models of Individual Effects:  Exposure Model or Direct Effects Model:  Uses and Gratifications Model:  The Interactive Model: II.    INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS Models of Communication Lipman Effects: Agenda Setting: Two Step Flow: The Myth of Public Opinion:   Inter-Institutional Accommodations: Functionalism: III.    Cultural Effects Theories: The Traditional Social Scientific Approach:   cognitive theory:  social learning theory:   rules theory: Ideological Approach: Common critical studies approaches are: Marxist Feminist Hegemonistic Community of Audiences:

    Every Theory will fall somewhere on a continuum based on where the power lies in THREE CATEGORIES:

    Individual-------------------------------------------------------------------Community

    Exposure-------------------------------------------------------------------Interpretation

    Power of Text-------------------------------------------------------------Power of Personal Experience
    
    
    

As we study various theories throughout the semester, place the theories on this scale. It will help you remember them, their attributes, and their relationship to each other.

THREE MASS MEDIA RESEARCH PARADIGMS:

Paradigm: (def)  A way of looking at the world in order to study and understand it.  Paradigms offer a perspective or world view which becomes a foundation on which theory is built.  The goal, of course is to build theories which become laws.

Be sure to read chapter 8 in Baran and Davis for a good discussion of paradigm and how they form.  That discussion focuses on the limited effects paradigm which we will study next week.

Meyer and Anderson identify three key research paradigms in social science. 

As you look these three, you're going to see some similarities to the models and theories we classified above.  There's a reason for that.  Those models and theories have developed out of these paradigms or world views about science and the discovery of truth.

1.     The DETERMINISTIC PARADIGM:  (or the Exposure Model)

• the audience is passive

• meaning is in the content

• power is with the content

• depends upon experimental method to represent the real world in research

• Problems:

  • experiments are artificial representations of the world

    • environment

    • agents and processes hard to identify and isolate

    • participants alter behavior

  • representation is usually not generalizable or random

  (remember not all exposure model studies use experiments but that method is the most popular)

2.    The Functional Perspective (or the Uses and Gratifications and Functional Analysis Model)

• audience is active

• content is NOT where the power is (same content could have different uses)

• audience has GOALS for media use

• relies on SURVEY research as the primary method

• Problem:

  • Media aren't the sole initiators of action in the real world.  (People choose to call talk shows, as an example; they decide whether or not to pay attention to a program that's on.)

  • Survey questions can "lead" respondents to particular answers.

  • Gratifications sought in media use are not always the ones gained

  • Basic methodological problems in research

    • sample selection

    • forced response into inflexible structure

    • difficulties in standardization

    • assumption of mass audience

      • we can't imagine all the variables at work, let alone examine them

      • situational and noise/interference variables are not considered (those are the environmental variables)

Sooooooo.....If we have all these problems with the primary forms of traditional social science research, why do we even bother using these.....

A little background is helpful here...

Positivism began gaining status in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s as a result of a shift in cultural thought.  As traditionalism began to be questions and modern philosophy grew, scientific method was elevated to the way to understand all knowledge.  Earlier, both qualitative and quantitative methods had been used.  By the '40s, science was seen to hold "all the answers" through use of hypothetico-deductive methodology.  "Proof" could be found to appropriate answers to questions if only the proper methods of inquiry could be used.

Unfortunately the position was altered to classify TRUTH as only those things which could reasonably fit the criteria of positivism.

Social scientists didn't want to grapple with the fact that positivist methodologies might be intrinsically inadequate to find truth in our discipline.  But because social scientists where trying to prove themselves to be REAL scientists, validate their work, and be accepted by their peers in the physical sciences, they wanted to associate themselves with what they considered to be legitimate and proven scientific techniques.  Organized observation, rigor, and statistical analysis were seen as being objective, thus legitimizing the process.  But that hasn't  held up over the last 50 years.

What have we proven? In psych?  In mass communication? We have theories, but we have no laws. Why? Because people aren't just a collection of molecules.  Positivism can't handle the complexities of the issues, and neither can the theories on which the positivist work is based.

So Meyer and Anderson and others have suggested a new paradigm:

3.       The Interpretive Paradigm (or Interactive Model)

Those who adhere to this paradigm believe that the subjects of their inquiry are the fields of meaning that make up the projects of human life -- what we do, where we do it, with whom we do those projects.

Assumptions of the Interpretive Paradigm:

• People understand their world in symbolic schemes or structures.

  • We're always thinking about what we're going to do next, what we've done before, or how we could do it all differently

• Things which happen in life (called social phenomena) are always self-referential.

• Empirical methods don't deal with those aspects of life

• Empirical methods CAN'T deal with those aspects of life

• That means that empirical methods can't deal with the effects of mass media on everyday people and their lives.

• Result: QUALITATIVE methods must be developed and used to examine these phenomena

TYPES OF QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGIES:

1.     Ethnomethodology: This is a method which examine why people do or use the things they do in everyday life and how those things relate to specific environmental situations. 

• Such a study is called an ethnography

• In it, the researchers look at "what people do" and try to figure out what is going on and why

• They look at the "cultural sunglasses" through which we perceive the everyday things in our life.

2.     Discourse Analysis:  This method examines the use of symbols, both verbal and non-verbal, in the conveyance of ideas and world view in the society, including such things as social phenomena and cultural values.

3.      Ecological Psychology:  Analysis of how specifics environmental situations impact social behaviors.

4.      Others:

The theoretical foundation of this paradigm is SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONALISM.

Symbolic interaction focuses on the production and negotiation of meaning in our society, and specifically, ways in which 'actors' manage their roles in social interaction.

The emphasis is on how human beings define themselves by controlling access to and even the interpretation of social information. Meaning occurs at the interaction between content and its user! (Remember the Special K example)

Method:  Case study.

However it's done in the interpretive paradigm, human behavior is the topic of investigation when it represents a person's intentional orientation to the world, or when the person observes others, the behavior is significant.  (Why would someone pain his face purple and gold and pain ROAR across his chest?  You'd think he was crazy unless he was attending a national championship game in which the UNA Lions were playing.)

So we ask questions like...

• How do people account for their actions?

• What versions of the world are represented by their communication?

• Under what circumstances do those communications occur?

There are some key kinds of qualitative research, based on the purpose of the work:

• Basic Research:  to contribute to the basic understanding; to explain.  (Do children copy what they see on TV?)

  • Grounded Theory is quantitative methodology's contribution to basic research

• Applied Research: to illuminate societal concerns

  • This type of research works on human problems so people can understand and better approach how to deal with them. (Does violence on TV lead to violent behavior?)

  • Applied research applies the findings of basic research to the real world and its problems.

• Summative Evaluation: determines the effectiveness of programs  (Does this reading program really help kids learn to read well?)

• Formative Evaluation: seeks to improve program performance

• Action Research: finds out how to solve a specific problem

Ethnographic research is valuable for building theory.  Unlike the rigidity of experimental and survey designs, ethnographic research can respond to the information learned in the process of the research and adjust questions and observations accordingly.

The goal is to find representative or key respondents, figure out a shopping list of issues and find out how to categorize them. What questions need to be asked to answer the key research question?  Who do you ask? What do you ask? The questions must be closely linked to the setting, so must the sample.

Sample selection:

• In qualitative research, critical cases are chosen, those which offer broad categories of cases and which will provide as much information as possible, so we can figure out how the categories all work together.

• Minimize the differences:  find out how all the categories are alike

• Maximize the differences: find out how they are all different

• As you continue the research, new categories of information, questions, or characteristics emerge and you add those to the work you're doing.

Sample within the case:

• Survey research is a snapshot of information, but ethnography is conducted over a period of time

• Important to observe subjects in as many different times and situations as possible, so for each case you sample

  Across three dimensions:

  • Time of day:  different days of the week, time of day, month, etc.

  • Who is there: Do different people say or do the same things, behave the same way?

  • Context: What's going on?

    • location

    • activities

    • attitude

    • other events of the day

MEDIATED COMMUNICATION does NOT consist of discrete events that can easily be operationalized at a simple level.

So the methods of research have to be sensitive to the interactive and temporal characteristics of the process.

• It has to be able to deal with lots of variables and lots of indicators of those variables

• It has to allow for those variables to be reworked as the data begins to grow

• So the researcher has to interact with the "social actor" under investigation (the informant, respondent, subject, etc.)

THE METHODS which allow for this flexibility are:

• participant observation: (def) A field strategy which involves the combination of document analysis, the interviewing of informants and respondents, observation and participation in the field and serious thought about all data collected.

• life history interview

• depth interview

• informant interview:  This method can save time and money. It is an in depth interview that can provide information which can direct the rest of the research effort.

Remember, the key component of the qualitative research is the researcher.  The researcher must be a keen observer, must record accurately, must think clearly.  The researcher must also have a clear purpose and focus and continue to observe and work within the goals and objectives of the research.  Because the researcher selects a sample based on the type of information those individuals can provide, the sample is not representative and not generalizable.   Therefore, the researcher MUST be able to justify why those individuals were chosen and discuss those reasons when the data are reported and evaluated.

Those who provide data in research fall into three categories:

• Subjects: those in formal research, experiments

• Respondents:  those in  survey research

• Informants: those in qualitative, more informal research

Replication is not expected, partial replication is all we can hope for.

We need to ask KEY questions:  Does the research claim:

• Does the claim connect to legitimate theory, does it make sense of meaningless facts

• Is there a logical relationship between method and claim?

• Is the method and its resulting data valid?

  • Validity occurs when TRUTH = THEORY + METHOD

  • External Validity: does it measure what you want it to measure?

    • Are the classifications consistent?

    • Does it support the hypothesis

  • Construct Validity: Does it measure what we say it does?

  • External Validity: Do the findings relate to the real world? Is it isomorphic?

Meyer offers some general rules of thumb to use when evaluating effects models and the research which supports them:

• Remember the model/map is NOT the territory

• Good laboratory experiments  show what CAN happen, not always what DOES happen

• Scientists ideally want to gain knowledge (epistemological purpose)

• Reality is

  • research is a business (like just about everything else)

  • research is subject to economic pressures

  • researchers are under pressure to publish so they recognize the necessity of

    • political correctness

    • supporting ideological constructs of society

  • researchers must be part of the "community" to participate

  • researchers must play by the rules

• Ideology in research

  • can provide perspective

  • should ideally be absent, but that rarely happens

• We have found effects, but can't predict effectively what any one person will do in response to a media message

  ---

Resources:

• Anderson, James A. and Timothy P. Meyer.  Mediated Communication: A Social Action Perspective. Sage Publications (Newbury Park: 1988)

• Baran, Stanley J. and Dennis K. Davis.  Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment and Future. Wadsworth (Belmont, CA: 1995)

• Babbie, Earl. The Practice of Social Research. Wadsworth (Belmont, CA: 1979)

• DeFleur, Melvin L. and Sandra Ball-Rokeach. Theories of Mass Communication, 5th Ed. Longman (New York: 1989)

• Hammersly, M. and Atkinson, P.  Ethnography: Principles to Practice. Taverstock (New York: 1983)

• Patton, Michael Quinn. Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. 2nd ed. Sage (Newbury Park: 1990_|)

• Straus, Anselm and Juliet Corbin.  Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. Sage (Newbury Park: 1990)

Copyright, 2002

Dr. Janet McMullen

jmcmulle@unanov.una.edu