978-1319058517 Chapter 15

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Chapter 15

Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research

In this chapter, we will:

• Examine the evolution of media research over time

• Focus on the two major strains of media research, investigating the strengths and limitations of each

• Conclude with a discussion of how media research interacts with democratic ideals

Preview Story:

Every day media culture helps to make sense of our world, and it both shapes and is shaped by our

history, politics, and economics. Fears of nuclear war in the 1950s and 1960s were expressed in films like

Godzilla (1954), Them (1954), Mothra (1961), and Night of the Living Dead (1968). Twenty-first century

fears, particularly since 9/11, have led to terrorism-themed media content like 24, which has been cited in

political, ethical, and legal debates, and even by late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Media

content sometimes reflects cultural developments in ways that can foster useful discussion and insight.

I. Early Media Research Methods

A. Propaganda Analysis.

B. Public Opinion Research.

C. Social Psychology Studies.

D. Marketing Research.

II. Research on Media Effects

A. Early Theories of Media Effects.

1. The Hypodermic-Needle Model.

2. The Minimal-Effects Model.

3. The Uses and Gratifications Model.

B. Conducting Media Effects Research.

1. Experiments.

2. Survey Research.

3. Content Analysis.

C. Contemporary Media Effects Theories.

1. Social Learning Theory.

2. Agenda-Setting.

3. The Cultivation Effect.

4. The Spiral of Silence.

5. The Third-Person Effect.

D. Evaluating Research on Media Effects.

III. Cultural Approaches to Media Research

A. Early Developments in Cultural Studies Research.

B. Conducting Cultural Studies Research.

1. Textual Analysis.

2. Audience Studies.

3. Political Economy Studies.

C. Cultural Studies’ Theoretical Perspectives.

1. The Public Sphere.

2. Communication as Culture.

D. Evaluating Cultural Studies Research.

IV. Media Research and Democracy

Case Study: The Effects of TV in a Post-TV World

Media Literacy and the Critical Process: Wedding Media and the Meaning of the Perfect Wedding Day

Examining Ethics: Our Masculinity Problem

LECTURE IDEAS

I. Early Media Research Methods

• Detail the four influential areas of media effects research: propaganda analysis, public opinion

research, social psychology studies, and marketing research.

• Discuss the benefits and hazards of various types of public opinion research. Explain why

journalists depend on polls, and explore the purpose of pseudo-polls. Even as polling has become

more sophisticated and accurate over time, polls always report estimates within a particular margin

of error. The imperfection of polling was clear in the 2016 presidential election.

• Educational psychologist Jane Healy wrote

Endangered Minds

(1990), which posited that the rapid

pace of television and other image-oriented media can impede brain growth and make children less

able

to concentrate and analyze

information, and less able to think. Her book quotes Jennings

Bryant, a researcher at the University of Alabama:

One thing we do know is that [television]

reduces what we call vigilance [the ability to

remain actively focused on a task]. If they watch lots of fast-paced programs and then we

give them things to do afterward such as reading or solving complex puzzles, their stick-to-

itiveness is diminished; they’re not as willing to stay

with the task. Over time, with lots of

viewing, you’re going to have less vigilant children. This is especially critical with relatively

young children—about three to five years seem to be particularly

vulnerable. (p. 201)

Healy also notes the following:

Studies show attention tends to wander when the material is seen either as “boring” or not

readily understandable; then, when something salient happens, attention is drawn back. This

conditioned pattern of sporadic, externally directed attention corresponds precisely with what

teachers are reporting. In class or when doing homework, one can’t just let the mind change

channels or wander away when things become a bit difficult or boring (p. 202).

• Steven Johnson, author of the best-selling book Everything Bad Is Good for You (2005), discusses

the impact of popular culture on young people and argues the following:

• Popular culture has grown more engaging and intellectually demanding in recent years.

• Young people are increasingly engaging with (or “exercising their minds” with) more and more

sophisticated media content and are in turn becoming smarter, not dumber. Johnson refers to this

“upward trend” as the sleeper curve, taken from Woody Allen’s movie Sleeper, where in the year

2173 hot fudge is good for you. Johnson points to the cognitive advantages of increasingly complex

video games, television narratives, and film narratives. Johnson explains:

There may indeed be more “negative messages” in the mediasphere today, as the Parents

Television Council believes. But that’s not the only way to evaluate whether our television

shows or video games are having a positive impact. Just as important—if not more

important—is the kind of thinking that you have to do to make sense of a cultural experience.

. . . Today’s popular culture may not be showing us the righteous path. But it is making us

smarter. (p. 14)

II. Research on Media Effects

• Cover the three historical models used to explain or predict human behavior relating to mass media:

the hypodermic-needle model, the minimal-effects model, and the uses and gratifications model.

Discuss why these models aren’t considered especially useful today in the evaluation of media effects

on audiences.

• Conducting media effects research is important. Such research, especially early media effects studies,

must be examined carefully to see if there are any methodological issues with the research or to see if

there are any problems with the conclusions drawn (e.g., claiming causation when research only

supports correlation). Explain the strengths and limitations—with examples—of experimental

research, survey research, and content analysis.

• Collecting relevant data can sometimes be tricky. In 1996, Governor Pete Wilson of California

announced that there was an “epidemic” of unwed mothers in his state. He based his statements

on a study conducted by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which had

gathered data on unwed mothers. The study’s flaw was classifying a mother’s marital status

according to the name she signed on her baby’s birth certificate. If the mother signed her birth

name but the baby was given the father’s last name, it was automatically assumed that the mother

was unwed. The result was the misclassifying of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women who

had retained their birth name after they were married.

• One of the earliest studies of television aggression was conducted in the 1960s by psychologist

criticism of this experiment is that the unusual setting doesn’t reflect real life. Moreover, Bobo

dolls are designed to be punched, which makes aggressive play permissible. (Show students a clip

of the Bobo doll experiment, with narration by Albert Bandura, at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmBqwWlJg8U.)

• Interpreting dated survey information and poorly written survey questions resulted in the Roper

poll’s most embarrassing moment. In 1948, Roper polls indicated that Thomas E. Dewey would

beat President Harry Truman for the nation’s highest office. Unfortunately, Roper’s election

day forecast was based on polls conducted in August, many weeks before the November vote.

Republicans, who presumed that their candidate, Dewey, would win, were complacent, whereas

Truman’s campaign worked vigorously until the end, with the result that Truman was reelected.

• In 1975, researchers at the University of Cincinnati conducted a famous polling experiment in

which they asked a random sample of Cincinnati residents if the “1975 Public Affairs Act”

should be repealed. Half of those polled said either yes or no. Because the 1975 Public Affairs

Act did not exist but was fabricated by the researchers, the experiment was important because it

showed that many people are willing to express opinions on things they know nothing about.

• In his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000), Robert

D. Putnam concludes, based on survey data, that Americans have become increasingly

disconnected from family, friends, social organizations, neighbors, and democratic structures.

Some trends that he identifies are that attending club meetings is down 58 percent since the

1950s, family dinners down 33 percent, and having friends over for a visit is down 45 percent.

messaging.) The organization explores the impact of the Internet on families, communities,

work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. One report from a

few years back found that most artists and musicians have embraced the Internet as a place to

sell their creative works, and that two-thirds consider file-sharing to be a minor threat or no

threat at all. Pew relies on phone surveys as well as online surveys to gather data. The nonprofit

organization makes all data available online at http://www.pewinternet.org.

• A famous study published in 1992 in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical

Association found a correlation between the number of murders in the United States and Canada

between 1945 and 1974 (beginning with the introduction of television) and the number of

murders in white South Africa, which introduced television after 1975. The study concluded that

homicides doubled in both cases after the introduction of television, and it held television

• Shortly after the Columbine High School massacre, Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner blamed lax

gun laws, not media, for violence in American culture, writing:

In Japan, Canada, Australia and, indeed, most Western industrialized nations, violent

movies, music and video games are the norm but access to firearms is not. In 1996,

handguns were used to murder two people in New Zealand, 15 in Japan, 30 in Great Britain,

106 in Canada, 213 in Germany and 9,390 in the United States.

(Jann S. Wenner, “If You’re Looking for a Scapegoat, Try NRA,” Commentary, Los Angeles

Times, May 21, 1999, p. B7, http://articles.latimes.com/1999/may/21/local/me-39429.)

• Singer Marilyn Manson wrote an impassioned piece in Rolling Stone about the rush to blame

media, and his own music in particular, for violence in society. The piece reads like an excellent

upper-level undergraduate or graduate student reflection.

(Marilyn Manson, “Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?,” Rolling Stone, June 24, 1999,

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/columbine-whose-fault-is-it-19990624.)

• Michael Moore investigates the connection between handgun access and social violence in

Bowling for Columbine. Guns are as accessible in Canada as they are in the United States, but

the culture is not as violent. Why?

• Concerns over the impact of violent messages on the public are not limited to movies and video

games. Following the January 2011 shooting of Democratic Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle

Giffords and eighteen others, critics quickly latched on to what they described as “hate-filled” and

“violent” political rhetoric and images put forward largely by conservative political figures;

speech that uses violent rhetoric and imagery?

• In 2000, Richard Rhodes wrote a comprehensive study called “The Media Violence Myth” that

persuasively discredited media violence scholarship that has been part of effects research for

decades. Here are some of his observations:

• There haven’t been thousands of studies on media violence; there have been about two

hundred.

• None of the studies is conclusive. For example, researchers claiming that kids are

“desensitized” after watching violent television may have misunderstood that kids were just more

relaxed.

• The studies don’t account for “researcher expectation” whereby the subject guesses what the

hovering researcher is looking for. (Rhodes noted that in one study, watching Mister Rogers’

Neighborhood and Sesame Street supposedly tripled the aggressiveness of preschool kids.)

• In 2007, the FCC finally released a report on TV violence and its impact on children, three years

after it was commissioned. To many observers, the report was a disappointment in that it was

extremely vague. For example, the report offered little direction on what the FCC counted as

“excessively violent programming.” There was also little evidence to support how “violent” TV

programming influences or hurts children. The report cited research on TV viewing that seemed to

point to short-term aggressive behavior among children, but no research was mentioned that

suggested long-term effects. As media critic John Nichols summed it up, “They basically boil down

to saying: ‘Well, you can do something if you want to, and it’s maybe a good idea.’” (See Frazier

Moore, “Violence on TV? The FCC Lacks Answers,” SFGate.com, May 3, 2007.)

III. Cultural Approaches to Media Research

• Discuss the ways in which political economy theory provides a lens through which to view and

understand the implications of concentration of corporate ownership, and go over some critiques of

that view.

IV. Media Research and Democracy

• Discuss the usefulness of academic media research to the culture at large. Also note why some

media research seems inaccessible to the general public.

• Harvard philosophy professor Cornel West is very much a public intellectual. He has recorded a rap

album, makes regular appearances on television shows, and writes for magazines like Spin. Moreover,

he appeared in Matrix Reloaded as a wise counselor of Zion, delivering the line, “Comprehension is

not requisite for cooperation.” West calls himself an “intellectual freedom fighter.”

• Some other public intellectuals:

• Kembrew McLeod (University of Iowa) has done such public pranks as claiming the copyright to

Project for Excellence in Journalism.

• Melissa Harris-Perry (Wake Forest University) writes about race, class, and politics for the

Nation and also hosted a news and opinion show for MSNBC.

MEDIA LITERACY DISCUSSIONS AND EXERCISES

SOLVING NEGATIVE MEDIA EFFECTS

This think-pair-share exercise focuses on negative media effects and how modifications in the college

education of future mass media professionals might help change things.

1. Think: On your own, write down two or three ways in which mass media may contribute to or cause

negative social effects.

2. Pair: Turn to your neighbor and discuss your lists. Do you agree that mass media contribute to the

effects that you have listed? Can people working in media do something to lessen the negative

effects?

3. Share: As a class, consider what interventions could be made in the education of media

professionals to solve these problems. What factors work against your proposed solutions? In other

words, what are competing influences in media industries that might stymie reforms? Do people

working within mass media have a responsibility to try to lessen negative media effects?

CODING VIOLENCE

What counts as “violence” on television? Is driving a sport-utility vehicle through a stream violent? Is

shooting a man before he sets off a bomb that’s about to kill one hundred people violent, or is it a good

deed? Is a parent screaming at a child violent? Is it violence if the child screams back? Is an accidental

shooting by a police officer violent? Is an image of a gun violent? Is an act of nature violent? Is the

context of violence important? Does remorse after a violent act, or “real” consequences to violence in a

certain program, mitigate the conception of violence? Is it possible to count acts of violence? Can the

context of violent acts on television be objectively understood, or is context more a matter of personal

interpretation? If there can be many definitions of violence, what are the implications for TV ratings

systems?

(Note: The researchers of the National Television Violence Study, vol. 1 [1997], recognized nine

contextual factors that can influence audience responses to television violence: [1] the nature of the

perpetrator, [2] the nature of the target, [3] the reason for the violence, [4] the presence of weapons, [5]

America: Violence Profile No. 11,” Journal of Communication 30 no. 3 [1980]: 10–29.)

HOW TO APPROACH MEDIA RESEARCH

The purpose of this project is to extend your critical approach to media research. For the following

Critical Process exercise, comparatively analyze methodological approaches introduced in this chapter:

a more social scientific method (e.g., experiments, surveys, content analysis, or a creative combination

thereof) and a cultural approach (e.g., textual analysis, audience study, political economy study, or a

creative combination thereof). Investigate the following argument (you can investigate other arguments

as well): College students are less informed about current news events than their parents are.

1. Description. Describe how you could best investigate this argument using first a social scientific

method and then a cultural approach. Explain fully how each study would be developed, step by

step.

2. Analysis. Look at completed plans of study using each of the two methodological approaches,

noting similarities and differences. Also, consider each methodology in terms of the potential

breadth and depth of findings.

3. Interpretation. What kinds of questions are certain to be answered by each or both studies? How

much does the phrasing of the research question or argument determine the best methodological

approach? What kind of approach seems to offer more definite, conclusive answers? Which

approach offers more of a broad, big-picture point of view?

4. Evaluation. Based on the comparative analysis, if you had to do this study using only one

methodological approach—social scientific or cultural—which would you use? Why? Would it

ever be helpful or even possible to combine both approaches?

5. Engagement. Of course, actually completing one or both of the proposed studies would best answer

the original question and direct you toward a plan of engagement. But for now, assume that college

students should be even better informed, and consider some feasible activities: How could campus

news sources—including newspapers, radio stations, television or cable stations, Web sites, blogs,

and bulletin boards—be better distributed to students? How can students be creatively engaged to

care more about current events? How can students find more time in their day to learn about current

events?

SCIENCE MEETS THE MUSIC REVIEWS

Pre-Exercise Question: Have you ever disagreed with a music-recording review, thinking that the

reviewer was too “subjective”?

This exercise is designed to illustrate the differences between scientific and interpretive methods.

1. Choose a recent music review from Rolling Stone, Spin, or another popular music magazine. Scan

the review for statements that seem to be debatable or subjective (e.g., “This is the best recording

since the artist’s debut album,” “The tone of this recording is melancholy,” “The lyrics are silly and

pretentious”).

2. Decide on a scientific method—experiment, survey, or content analysis—to test the reviewer’s

interpretations. Explain in detail how you would carry out this study, incorporating the ideas of

objectivity, reliability, and validity. For example, say you were doing a content analysis that

intended to show that Lady Gaga’s lyrics embrace feminist ideals. First the researcher would need

to develop a fair and logical system for coding the lyrics (objectivity). The coding system should

also yield similar results when different people are coding the same lyrics (reliability). Perhaps the

most difficult part is demonstrating that the content analysis study actually measures what it claims

to measure (validity).

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the scientific-method alternative. Does this approach produce a better

record review than the interpretive approach? Would a different scientific method have worked

better, or would it simply have raised other difficult questions?

Options: This exercise can work both as a classroom discussion and as an individual writing assignment.

For an advanced Critical Process exercise, students may actually carry out their scientific research method

and document the results in a short paper.

CLASSROOM MEDIA RESOURCES

LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/mediaculture11e

Media Effects Research (2009, 5:40 minutes). Scholars and industry insiders discuss how media effects

research informs media development and distribution. Featuring Richard Campbell, Terry Curtis, Jeff

Goodby, and Liz Perle.

TV Effects: 2 Broke Girls (2015, 1:12 minutes). A brief clip from season 4 of 2 Broke Girls shows an

example of a TV show that pushes the limits of sexual humor.

VIDEOS/DVDS/CDS

Bowling for Columbine (2002, 120 minutes). Michael Moore’s documentary film investigates the

Columbine High School shooting and the connection between handgun access and violence in the

United States.

Game Over: Gender, Race, and Violence in Video Games (2000, 41 minutes). This video offers a

dialogue about the complex and controversial topic of video game violence, and it is designed to

illustrates how media images present lessons in what makes boys become “real men.” Good when

discussing media effects. Contains quite a bit of violence. Distributed by the Media Education

Foundation, 800-897-0089; http://www.mediaed.org.

WEB SITES

American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication: http://www.aejmc.org

Broadcast Education Association (BEA): http://www.beaweb.org

Common Sense Research: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research

Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media: http://seejane.org

International Communication Association (ICA): http://www.icahdq.org

National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE): http://www.namle.net

National Communication Association (NCA): http://www.natcom.org

Roper Center for Public Opinion and Research: http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu