Instructor Resource
Dainton, Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Lecture Notes
Chapter 11: Mass Communication
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will be able to . . .
1. Discuss the five characteristics of mass communication/mass media
3. Explain the process of cultivation via mainstreaming, resonance, and symbolic
double jeopardy
5. Differentiate between three ways of reading messages, using preferred,
negotiated, or oppositional codes
7. Provide systematic understanding of a professional situation by applying theories
of mass communication
Summary
Chapter 11 covers four theories of mass media—specifically, theories about how to understand
the power and influence of the mass media. First, agenda-setting theory states that the news
Instructor Resource
Dainton, Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
I. Characteristics of Mass Media
A. Mass communication and mass media are decidedly different from mediated
communication and social media
1. Mediated communication refers to any communication in which something
exists between the source and the receiver
3. Mass media include organizations responsible for using technology to send
mass messages to the public
B. McQuail (2010) identified five key characteristics of the mass media
1. Mass media can instantly, or almost instantly, reach an audience, but the
feedback from receivers to the media is much slower
3. Mass media can rouse hope and fear in audiences in equal measure
5. Mass media is a source of enormous power and influence
II. Agenda-Setting Theory
A. McCombs and Shaw (1972) conceived the news media present audiences with
an agenda for what events the public should consider as important
1. An agenda for what events the public should consider as important is known
as first level (or primary) agenda setting
a. News media have an agenda
i. The news media tell audiences what “news” to consider as important
2. Two central criteria for measuring the media’s agenda
a. Length—space on newspaper, television slot, etc.
b. Position—place in publications
B. “Framing” the news and second-level agenda setting
1. The news media’s success in telling viewers and readers “what to think
about” stems from how the media frame issues
2. News media gatekeepers—the handful of news editors who set the agenda—
4. Framing also brings us to the theory’s growth by extension and addition of
second level agenda-setting, or attribute agenda setting
5. Certain issues are more likely to influence audience thought, and certain
individuals are more likely to be influenced by these issues
a. Media are particularly effective in creating public interest in political
issues, such as stories about the candidates and their campaign strategies
b. Social issues such as human rights violations, chronic disease, and teen
violence also seem to create a high need for orientation
III. Cultivation Theory
A. George Gerbner’s (1998) cultivation theory emphasizes media effects and
1. Cultivation theory assumes that television has become central to American
life and culture
2. Cultivation theory assumes that TV influences audience perceptions of
3. Cultivation theory assumes that television’s effects are limited. TV is not the
only factor—or necessarily the greatest factor—that affects an individual’s
view of social reality
C. Starting with violence
1. Gerbner (1980) defines violence as the “overt expression of physical force
2. Violence index is an objective research instrument that uses content
3. Cultivation research illustrates an imbalance about who is victimized
a. The victims of TV violence are disproportionately of minority
backgrounds
b. Media portrayals of these groups were stereotypical putting them in
symbolic double jeopardy which minority persons are significantly less
visible on TV than in real life, but these TV characters are much more
likely to be portrayed as victims of violence
D. What effects? For whom?
2. The more TV you watch, the more likely you are to view the world in a way
consistent with TV reality
3. The mean-world syndrome is when heavy viewers significantly
overestimate real-life danger
4. Televised reality doesn’t match actual reality, and heavy viewers are
partially influenced by TV reality, whereas light viewers are not
E. How else is reality distorted?
2. Other researchers have looked successfully at other media forms for
cultivation effects
F. How does cultivation take place and with what effect?
1. Viewers’ attitudes are cultivated in two ways
a. Mainstreaming implies that viewers, heavy viewers in particular,
2. Cultivation theory assumes the power of TV is ubiquitous and that its
primary message (violence) doesn’t reflect reality in any consistent way
IV. Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication
A. Bandura’s (1977, 1986, 1994, 2001) social cognitive theory of mass
communication, originally developed as an extension of social learning theory
1. Bandura’s development of social cognitive theory demonstrates specific
concern with mass media’s influence on cultural ideology
2. Assumptions
a. Mass media (TV in particular) are tremendously influential in shaping
our view of what is normal
b. Humans are not only actors, but also self-examiners of their behavior.
Instructor Resource
Dainton, Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
B. Four processes of observational learning
2. Retention process—we don’t have to experience something to learn it, but
3. Reproduction process—skills necessary to enact the behavior. We must
also be able to assess and adjust the behaviors based on the circumstance
4. Motivation process—the desire to enact the behavior. The motivation
process is inspired by three types of incentives
a. Direct motivation—based upon offer of reward, or threat of punishment.
C. Dual paths of influence
1. In the direct path of influence, the media influence viewers directly, from
2. The second route is socially mediated path of influence
a. Bandura (2001) defines the socially mediated path as “media influences
are used to link participants to social networks and community settings”
(p. 285)
D. Modeling and media violence
1. Modeling is not inherently good or bad, but violent television programming
complicates the outcome because it follows so many of the learning stages
3. It is not simply the observation of violence that leads one to engage in
4. Social cognitive theory predicts the mass media have significant influence
because humans learn observationally through a four-step process: attention,
retention, motor reproduction, and motivation
V. Encoding/Decoding Theory
A. Assumptions of encoding/decoding theory
1. A critical perspective theory that seeks to uncover differences in power
2. The theory is also called cultural studies, preferred reading theory, and
reception theory
B. Four assumptions
1. Cultural studies—the media is just one mechanism for the dissemination of
cultural ideologies
2. The meaning of a message is not fixed or determined entirely by the sender
4. Active audiences can challenge ideologies
C. “Reading” a message
1. The central idea of encoding/decoding theory is that even though the media
2. Three ways to interpret a message:
Instructor Resource
Dainton, Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
a. Preferred reading—using the dominant code (ideology) to interpret the
D. Decoding is the central process
2. Most theories ignore the decoding process because it occurs at a low level of
consciousness
3. Decoding is difficult because we have trouble interpreting different
4. Audience members who use the dominant code to read the messages over
and over again eventually come to believe the dominant ideology
E. Oppositional does not mean against
1. Oppositional simply means the individual doing an oppositional reading of a