1. Chapter 14
Media Effects and Cultural
Approaches to Research

2. Should Life Imitate Culture?
“Since the emergence of popular music,
movies, television, and video games as
influential mass media, the relationship
between make-believe stories and real-life
imitation has drawn a great deal of
attention.”

3. Media Effects Research
• Attempts to understand, explain, and predict the
effects of mass media on individuals and society
• Cultural studies focuses on how people make
meaning, comprehend reality, articulate values, and
arrange experiences through cultural symbols.

4. Early Media Research
Methods
• Propaganda analysis
• Public opinion research
• Social psychology
• Marketing research

5. Research on Media Effects
• Hypodermic-needle model aka magic bullet theory
• Media shoots effects directly into unsuspecting victims.
1938/40

6. Research on Media Effects
• Minimal-effects model
• Rise of empirical research techniques
• Selective exposure leads to reinforcement of existing beliefs.

7. Research on Media Effects
• Uses and gratifications model
• Contests notion of audience passivity
• Why do people use media?

8. Conducting Media Effects
Research
1. identifying the research problem
2. reviewing existing research and theories related to
the problem
3. developing working hypotheses or predictions about
what the study might find
4. determining an appropriate method or research
design
5. collecting information or relevant data
6. analyzing results to see if the hypotheses have been
verified
7. interpreting the implications of the study to determine
whether they explain or predict the problem

9. Conducting Media Effects
Research
• The Scientific Method - steps
• Must be worded so that they are testable
• Experimental design
• Tests whether hypothesis is true
• Survey research
• Collecting and measuring data
• Content analysis
• Studies the messages of print and visual media

10. Contemporary Media Effects
Theories
• Social learning theory
• Attention
• Retention
• Motor reproduction
• Motivation
Bobo Doll - Sock him in the nose,
throw him in the air, Pow

11. Contemporary Media Effects
Theories
• Agenda-setting
• Media set the agenda for major topics of discussion,
neglecting other important topics.

12. Contemporary Media Effects
Theories
• Cultivation effect
• Heavy viewing of television leads individuals to perceive reality in
ways consistent with portrayals on television.

13. Contemporary Media Effects
Theories
• Spiral of silence
• Those who believe their views are in the minority will keep their
views to themselves for fear of social isolation.

14. Cultural Approaches
to Media Research
• Cultural Studies
• Challenged mainstream media effects theory
• Attempted to make everyday culture the centerpiece of
media studies
• Textual analysis
• Close reading and interpretation of cultural messages
• Audience studies
• Subject being researched is the audience for the text
• Political economy studies
• Examines interconnections among economic interests,
political power, and how that power is used

15. Cultural Studies’ Theoretical
Perspectives
• The public sphere
• A space for critical public debate
• Advanced by German philosopher Jürgen Habermas
• Society in England and France in late seventeenth century and
eighteenth century created spaces (coffeehouses, pubs) for
public discourse.

16. Media Research and Democracy
• Academics in media studies charged with increased
specialization, use of jargon, have little practical
application
• Public intellectuals based on campuses must work to
help carry on the conversations of society and culture,
serving as models for how to participate in public life.