CHAPTER ESSENTIALS

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REVIEW

Explain Early Media Research Methods

Evaluate Social Scientific Research

Discuss Cultural Studies Approaches to Media Research

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Assess the Role of Media Research in Our Democratic Society

STUDY QUESTIONS

  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?

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MEDIA LITERACY PRACTICE

In the beginning of this chapter, three stories suggested relationships between the media and (a) antigay bullying, (b) gun violence, and (c) “self-harm” behaviors. Working in groups of three, investigate one of these topics through a content analysis.