Historical trends in the study of media effects: Theory and method

Historical change

• Late 19th Century till 1940s saw a fear of powerful media effects

• 1940s through early 1970s was the era of ‘limited effects’

• From 1980s media studies splinter into a wide variety of approaches, with the mainstream view moving toward partial and mediated effects

Early 20th century

• Professionalization of advertising• Development and growth of new mass

media technologies• The Great War

– England and the U.S. develop propaganda on a large scale

– After the war, Bernays and others claim to be able to ‘engineer consent’

Popular fears of mass manipulation

• Sudden and rapid growth of mass media– Newspapers– Periodicals– Movies– Radio

Social fears

• Growth and increasing sophistication of persuasion ‘professions’– Advertising– Public relations/propaganda

• Massive WWI propaganda output– Exorbitant post-warclaims of efficacy post-war

by Creel Committee members• Creel• Bernays

Committee on Public Information• Woodrow Wilson re-elected President

in 1916– Ran on a platform emphasizing “He kept

us out of war”• Within a year, was leading the country

into war with Germany• Created the Committee on Public

Information (CPI) on April 13, 1917

• "Lead this people into war, and they'll forget there was ever such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of national life, infecting the Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street."

Edward L. Bernays

• Freud’s nephew– Attempted to apply psychoanalysis to

propaganda• Used psychological research methods,

advertising methods to “manufacture consent”

• Tireless promoter of PR as way to control public opinion

Lasswell’s study of propaganda• Interested in the application of symbol

manipulation to influence psychological unconscious– Nationalism and ego-involvement– Manipulation of emotions via propaganda– Tried to take a distanced, ‘uninterested’ position toward

propaganda• Identified goals and methods of propaganda • Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the

World War (New York: Knopf, 1927).

Creel Committee Emphases in their propaganda

• Emotional Appeals• Demonization• The War to End All Wars • Dishonesty

• "Propaganda in the broadest sense is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations. These representations may take spoken, written, pictorial or musical form."

• "Some of those [persons who participated in World War I] who trusted so much and hated so passionately have put their hands to the killing of man, they have mutilated others and perhaps been mutilated in return, they have encouraged others to draw the sword, and they have derided and besmirched those who refused to rage as they did. Fooled by propaganda? If so, they writhe in the knowledge that they were the blind pawns in plans which they did not incubate, and which they neither devised nor comprehended nor approved."{2}

• 2. Harold D. Lasswell. Propaganda Technique in the World War. First edition, 1927. Reprint. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1972. Page 8.

Payne Fund Studies: The effects of movies on children

Conducted in the late 20's and early 30's• this series of studies occurred in two categories: 1. assess content of films and audience size and

composition (Dale) 2. audience effects of themes and messages

a. acquisition of information (Holaday and Stoddard) b. attitude change (R.C. Peterson and Thurstone) c. stimulating emotions (Dysinger and Ruckmick)d. harming health (Renshaw, Miller and Marquis)e. eroding moral standards (C.C. Peters)f. influencing conduct (Shuttleworth and May, Blumer and

Hauser)

Payne Fund

• Conclusions:– Movies affected the way children dressed, their

expectations with regard to sex, led to fear and lost sleep.

– Movies also provided some positive role models, innocent entertainment, etc.

– Some disconfirmation of the worst fears found in popular culture

The War of the Worlds

• An accidental occurrence seemed to validate some of the worst fears about mass society and the power of the newest mass medium, the radio

• Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater of the Air’s broadcast of an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds on Halloween eve, 1938

Research on the broadcast

• The invasion from Mars: A study in the psychology of panic (1940: Princeton University) – Cantril, Gaudet, Herzog

The establishment of the ‘limited effects’ paradigm

End of the ‘powerful effects’ model of media influence

Columbia School

• Paul Felix Lazarsfeld emigrated from Austria to the U.S. in the 1930s. – A mathematician– Interested in the application of mathematics, especially the new statistics, to

study of social problems• Sets up research programs at Princeton (Radio Research Bureau)

and at Columbia (Bureau of Applied Social Research) that combine study of practical problems with academic methods of research– Model that would be followed by the field from then on.

• First studies focus on audience size, reactions to and use of radio programming– As well as a wide array of social concerns that were not communication-

oriented

The People’s Choice• Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet• Study of the 1940 presidential election in Erie

county, Ohio • 20th Century--strong, commercially successful

newspapers, radio, magazines, that had the ability to say what they wanted to in Western European countries

• The research comes from vague ideas of what is worth studying

Research Questions1. How do people decide to vote as they

do?2. What were the major influences on

them?• "Social characteristics determine political

preference."

Results• Lazarsfeld could predict with 76% accuracy which

candidate someone would vote for based on his demographics. That was better than the people themselves could predict.– Prediction is taken as the criterion of validity– "Cross-Pressures"

• Opinion Leaders (21%) – ("Have you tried to influence someone on a political issue

recently?"; "Has anyone asked your advice recently on a political issue?")

– opinion leaders were thought to be a relatively small group of influential people

• Lacked evidence of actual influence

Media influence

Whenever a person in the sample changed his/her vote intention, the interviewer asked why:

• Democrats mentioned radio most often (30% vs. 20% for newspapers)

• Republicans mentioned newspapers (31% vs. 17% for radio).

• Over half the voters said the media had the most important impact, 2/3 said news media were “helpful”

• “Two-step flow”• Conclusion--interpersonal communication

most important

• Those most likely to be predisposed to vote Democratic were exposed to more pro-Democratic propaganda – the analogous situation was true for Republicans

• Lazarsfeld decided this showed ‘selective exposure’--those who were predisposed to vote one way or another chose to expose themselves to propaganda that was positive toward the preferred party

When did they make up their minds?

• 1/2 made up their minds before May• Once they knew who won the nomination,

another 1/4 made up their mind• 1/4 made up their mind between the

nomination and the election• Columbia did another campaign study in 1948,

then turned to other concerns– Voting, by Berelson, Lazarsfeld and McPhee

Impact of the studies

• The studies set the parameters of political communication research for over a decade and still influence the field now

• Major studies of elections did not even ask about media for several election cycles

Hovland

• Experiments on mass communication: Persuading the American soldier in World War II– Hovland, Lumsdaine and Sheffield (1949)

• Studied the impact of showing Frank Capra’s propaganda films in “Why We Fight” series to American soldiers in a training camp– Many were draftees and did not want to fight

• Attempted to measure the effects of movies on information acquisition and modification of soldiers' interpretations and opinions, attitudes toward allies, and motivation

Why We Fight

• Films from the series included in the study: Prelude to War, The Nazis Strike, Divide and Conquer, The Battle of Britain

Battle of Britain

• Men in two camps--some were exposed to a film, some not– 2100 in one camp (before/after control group)– 900 in another camp (before/after control

group)– 1200 (after-only control group)– Sampling by company units

• Units were matched on several demographic variables

The Battle of Britain• Before and after questionnaires were

slightly different– Tried to distract men from wondering why they

were answering twice by writing “revised” on the questionnaire

• One week between exposure and the second measure

• Anonymity was assured

Results

• The movies had a significant impact on factual knowledge

• Ex. Why weren’t the Germans “successful at bombing British planes on the ground”?

• Ans. “because the British kept their planes scattered at the edge of the field”

• Experimental group: 78% correct• Control group: 21% correct

Results: Learning from films dependent upon education

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Grade School High School College

Test Score

Results

• Opinions and interpretations– Effects were not as great– “the heavy bombing attacks on Britain

were an attempt by the Nazis to . . .”– Answer: “invade and conquer England”

• Experimental group: 58%• Control group: 43%

Results

• General attitudes– Effect was slight– “Do you feel that the British are doing all

they can to help win the war?”• Experimental group 7% greater than control• In many cases, only 2-3% positive difference

was found

Results• Morale

– Almost no impact at all– Preference to serve overseas rather than in the

United States• Experimental group 42%• Control group 39%

– Unconditional surrender by Nazis is an important war aim

• Experimental group 62%• Control group 60%

“Sleeper effect”

• 9 weeks after exposure– Factual material was forgotten

• Retained only about 50% of factual items that 1-week groups remembered

– On 1/3 of opinion issues, the long-term group showed less change

– However, on more than half of the fifteen issues under study, the long term group showed greater change than the short-term group

One-sided v. two-sided argument

• Radio presentation saying war would be lengthy– Presented either as one-sided argument or with

additional 4 minutes discussing view that it would be short

– Before/after with control group

Results

• One-sided argument more effective with soldiers who:– Initially supported the idea that it would be a lengthy

war– Had not completed high school

• Two-sided arguments more effective with soldiers who:– initially felt the war would be short – had a high school degree education or greater

Yale School

• Hovland et al. set up Yale School of research on persuasion

• Studied the effect of:– Source characteristics– Message characteristics– Order of presentation– Psychological characteristics of audience

Source characteristics

• Credibility– Topic: Atomic submarines

• Sources: J. Robert Oppenheimer/Pravda– Topic: Future of Movie Theaters

• Sources: Fortune magazine/A woman movie gossip columnist

– Greater persuasion with more credible source• However, after 4 weeks differences had disappeared

Content

• Fear appeals – The more fearful the message, the greater the

effect on interest, tension– Less fearful message had a greater effect on

intension to change behavior– Fear was thought to invoke some sort of

interference

Channel

• The main study here tends to indicate that interpersonal channels are more effective at changing attitudes than are mass media channels.

Audience factors

• Scouts who valued group membership highly were least influenced by speaker who criticized wood craft learning

Personality

Personality variables such as self-esteem, anxiety and depression have an influence on persuadability. Janis's research suggests that people with low self-esteem are likely to be relatively easily persuaded.

Katz and Lazarsfeld

• Personal influence: The two-step flow of communication– Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955)

• Based on ideas originating in the "People's Choice"

• Concerned with the movement of information from media through interpersonal networks

• Decatur study of opinion leaders conducted by the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia

• Assessed opinion leaders’ role in four areas of influence: – 1. marketing – 2. fashion – 3. public affairs – 4. film choice

• Delineated the characteristics of opinion leaders – position in the life cycle, SES, social contacts

• Marketing—middle-aged women, especially with families• Fashion—younger and single women• Public affairs—older and more educated• Film choice—younger and single

Research on information campaigns

• Cincinnati United Nations campaign– Star & Hughes (1950)

• Large-scale information campaign to generate knowledge of and support for UN

• Very little effect on knowledge or support• Effects that did occur were concentrated among the

already informed rather than those targeted by the campaign

Some reasons why information campaigns fail

• Hyman and Sheatsley’s (1947) review of findings from several surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center

• Psychological barriers to information dissemination– The Chronic “Know-Nothing’s” in relation to information

campaigns– The role of interest in increasing exposure– Selective exposure produced by prior attitudes– Selective interpretation following exposure– Differential changes in attitudes after exposure

• 1. Mass communication ordinarily does not serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, but rather functions among and through a nexus of mediating factors and influences.

Klapper’s (1960) The Effects of Mass Communication

• 2. These mediating factors are such that they typically render mass communication a contributory agent, but not the sole cause, in a process of reinforcing the existing conditions.

• 3. On such occasions as mass communication does function in the service of change, one of two conditions is likely to exist. Either:– a. the mediating factors will be found to be

inoperative and the effect of the media will be found to be direct; or

– b. the mediating factors, which normally favor reinforcement, will be found to be themselves impelling toward change.

• 4. There are certain residual situations in which mass communication seems to produce direct effects, or directly and of itself to serve certain psycho-physical functions.

• 5. The efficacy of mass communication, either as a contributory agent or as an agent of direct effect, is affected by various aspects of the media and communications themselves or of the communication situation (including, for example, aspects of textual organization, the nature of the source and medium, the existing climate of public opinion, and the like).

• People just don’t change their minds all that easily– They have stable attitudes that flow from their

socialization and experience • Can predict attitudes from demographics

• An excellent example of this is provided by Kendall and Woolf's analysis of reactions to anti-racist cartoons. The cartoons featured Mr Biggott whose absurdly racist ideas were intended to discredit bigotry. In fact 31% failed to recognise that Mr Biggott was racially prejudiced or that the cartoons were intended to be anti-racist (Kendall & Wolff (1949) in Curran (1990)).

Selectivity• Selective exposure• Selective attention• Selective perception• Selective interpretation• Selective recall• Usually tied to ‘balance models’ of cognitive

psychology– Especially ‘cognitive dissonance’

Modern effects study

• In the 1970s and 1980s effects study came under powerful attack from more critical approaches, many developed in Europe

• British cultural studies (neo-Marxist) and popular culture studies, postmodernist philosophy, etc. criticized many of the underlying assumptions of effects research

• Followed the lead within psychology away from social psychology to cognitive information processing– Move away from a narrow focus on persuasion

to learning, beliefs, etc.

Renewed belief in media power

• Move toward a belief in stronger effects– Agenda setting effect– Spiral of silence– Social construction of reality– Cognitive effects/learning– Mediation

• Lowered expectations for the ‘effects’

Contemporary media effects

• Search for multiple types of effects and the impact of medium and context as well as content

• Interactions with multiple concepts– For example, what types of appeals are most effective

with elderly men with regard to influencing exercise behavior?

– What forms of humor are the most enjoyable for teen girls?

– What are the relative influences of fantasy violence on television, movie and videogame audiences?

Common methods

• Laboratory experiments• Surveys• Becoming more common:

– Focus groups– Depth interviews– Content analyses tied to social statistics

Cognitive information processing

• Contemporary models of learning/thinking present a series of steps in these processes– Modeled after computers, information theory

• Patterns of stability and change have been identified that need explanation– When do similar stimuli elicit similar

behaviors, different behaviors or simple inattention?

CIP

• Steps:– Stimulation of sense organs– Maintenance in sensory registers– Short-term memory– Working memory– Stimulation of content in long-term storage– Evaluation and encoding– Storage– Behavioral response

Stimulation of sense organs

• Limited perception of light spectrum, sound waves, touch, etc.

• Registers react to environmental change by generating variable electrical impulses that are carried by the nerve system

• Sensory registers maintain patterns of electrical stimulation for a short time– Separate registers for visual, auditory,

olfactory, tactile information• Pattern recognition

– Letters, etc. are ‘recognized’ and sent along to the short-term memory or lost/discarded/ignored

Short-term memory

• The small minority of information that passes through the sensory registers and reaches short-term memory is evaluated for the allocation of attention– Limited processing capacity– Practically limited information in the

environment

What draws attention

• Physical characteristics of the signal– Contrast– Movement– Intensity

• Survival value

What draws attention• Transitory physical needs

– Hunger– Emotion

• General human tendencies– Human faces

• Generalized learned interests– Politics– Chick flicks

What draws attention

• Transitory intellectual demands– Decision making– Need to write an essay