CHAPTER ESSENTIALS

• Scientific approaches to mass media research did not emerge until the late 1920s and 1930s (p. 501).

• Four trends that contributed to the rise of modern media research include propaganda analysis (the study of propaganda’s effectiveness in influencing and mobilizing public opinion), public opinion research (which uses social scientific methods to conduct surveys and polls to examine how the mass media filter and shape public attitudes), social psychology studies (which measure the behavior and thinking processes of individuals), and marketing research (which conducts surveys on consumer buying habits and other behaviors) (pp. 502–503).

• Professional public opinion researchers object to the use of pseudo-polls—typically call-in, online, or person-in-the-street polls—which do not represent the population as a whole (p. 502).

• Between the 1930s and the 1970s, media researchers developed several models about how media affect individuals’ behavior. These models include the hypodermic-needle or magic bullet (whose model suggests that powerful media adversely affect weak audiences), minimal-effects or limited effects (whose model attempts to understand, explain, and predict the impact—or effects—of the mass media on individuals in society and argues that people generally engage in selective exposure and selective retention, exposing themselves to media messages most familiar to them), and uses and gratifications (which holds that people actively engage in using media to satisfy various emotional or intellectual needs) (pp. 507–508).

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• At the same time, researchers developed different approaches to conducting their research. Most media research today focuses on media’s impact and employs the scientific method, whose key step includes posing one or more hypotheses (general statements that predict the influence of an independent variable on a dependent variable). Researchers using the scientific method may conduct experiments (which isolate some aspect of content by using a control group picked through random assignment) or survey research (which is a method of collecting and measuring data taken from a group of respondents) (pp. 508–511).

• Researchers can use extensive government and academic survey databases now widely available to conduct longitudinal studies, in which they compare new studies with those conducted years earlier. Surveys can show only correlations—or associations—between two variables, not demonstrable causes and effects. Another method researchers can use is content analysis (which describes media content and its elements by systematically categorizing and coding it) (pp. 510–512).

• By the 1960s, researchers began developing new theories about how media affect people, such as social learning theory (which suggests a link between mass media and subjects who learn and then model media behavior), agenda-setting theory (which states that when the mass media pay attention to particular events or issues, they determine the major topics of interest for individuals and society), the cultivation effect theory (which suggests that heavy television viewing leads individuals to perceive reality in ways that are consistent with the portrayals they see on television), the spiral of silence theory (which links the mass media, social psychology, and the suppression of public opinion), and the third-person effect theory (which suggests that people believe others are more affected by media messages than they are themselves) (pp. 512–515).

• In the 1960s, cultural studies approaches to media research emerged to challenge mainstream media effects theories. Early cultural studies research was built on the writings of political philosophers such as Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci and the criticisms of media effects research from the Frankfurt School (pp. 515–516).

• Contemporary cultural studies approaches focus on textual analysis (a close reading and interpretation of cultural messages), audience studies (which differ from textual analysis in that the subject being researched is the audience for the text, not the text itself), and political economy studies (which examine interconnections among economic interests, political power, and ways in which that power is used) (pp. 516–517, 520).

• Although media research has advanced what we know about mass media’s effect on individuals and society, most people do not have access to the actual research process, which makes it hard to connect scholarship to the daily experience of the groups such research examines (pp. 520–521).

• We rely on public intellectuals to help advance the conversations taking place in larger society and culture. These individuals encourage discussion of the new challenges posed by media (p. 521).

1. Question 15.1

   What are ways in which the mass media might be implicated in social problems like bullying, gun violence, and vitriolic political speech, and how might the social scientific and cultural studies research traditions respond differently to them?

2. Question 15.2

   What are pseudo-polls, and what about them makes them less reliable than social scientific polls and surveys?

3. Question 15.3

   What are the main ideas behind social learning theory, agenda-setting theory, the cultivation effect theory, the spiral of silence theory, and the third-person effect theory?

4. Question 15.4

   Why did cultural studies develop in opposition to social scientific media research?

5. Question 15.5

   What role do media researchers play in public debates about the mass media?

• DESCRIBE the nature of the problem, and define coding categories for identifying content (e.g., accounts of homophobic or other bullying, stories associated with gunplay, or images glorifying unhealthy bodies) in certain types of media (e.g., the teen blogosphere, social media sites, action movies, or fashion advertisements). Then, have the other two members of your group individually apply your coding scheme to the same media content. (If this is an effective coding scheme, their answers should agree at least 80 percent of the time. If not, rethink your definitions and coding scheme.)

• ANALYZE the patterns in the data.

• INTERPRET what these patterns mean. For example, do social media posts and blogs describing behaviors hurtful to oneself or others make those behaviors seem more acceptable? Do action movies suggest that surviving deadly gun battles makes one a hero? Do images of fashion models represent a limited range of body types?

• EVALUATE the effectiveness of content analysis as a method. Do your original definitions affect the outcome of the analysis? How far does the content data go in proving any kind of media effects or impact?

• ENGAGE with the community by presenting your conclusions to your class for feedback. If your research is strong enough, consult with your instructor and consider presenting your paper at an academic conference.