TOPIC 4 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEDIA AND POLITICS IN MALAYSIA: ?
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the concepts of society, mass society, mass media and politics;
2. Describe the relationship between media and politics;
3. Describe the characteristics of mass society;
4. Elaborate on how outside influence controls editorial decisions; and
5. Explain the three assumptions of the media hegemony theory.
? INTRODUCTION
The relationship between media and politics is very important in the working of a country. Often times, the masses perceive politics as controlling the media, especially in less democratic countries. However, in democratic countries, the media has the upper hand. Some still see the relationship as complementary in nature, where media and the political system work hand in hand. To further understand the political environment or the space in which the media operates, and the relationship between media and politics, especially the power relationship, we need to be familiar with several important theoretical underpinnings.
MASS SOCIETY, POLITICS AND THE MEDIA
Looking at society as a concept, scholars have provided different views. Society can be viewed as a social organism possessing a harmony of structure and function and involving a total complex of human relationships, insofar as they grow out of the action in terms of means-end relationships, either intrinsic or symbolic (Coser, 1977; Parsons, 1975).
A society consists of a system of usages and procedures of authority and mutual aid of many groupings and divisions, of controls of human behaviour and liberties. This ever changing complex system which is called society is a web of social relationship (Ginsberg, 2011; MacIver & Page, 1937).
In sociology, the term society is the most central. The term is derived from the Latin word „socius‰, which means companionship or friendship. Aristotle said that „Man is a social animal.‰ Man cannot live alone, that is, he always lives in and needs the company of other people.
In sociology, the term „society‰ has been used to mean a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. Essentially, society is a population of humans characterised by forms of relationships between individuals that share a unique culture and/or institutions.
Generally, a society is an economic, social and industrial infrastructure, of which a diverse mass of people or peoples are a part. The word „society‰ may also refer to an organised voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. It is within the society that the arms of politics and the media play their various roles, which are by and large complementary. Without society, there would not exist politics, let alone the media.
The role of politics and media is that of creating a balance and harmony. Politics is responsible for the running of the day-to-day affairs of the country. Media, on the other hand, serve to provide the needed information in the system in helping relay and convey information for the smooth running of the operation of the government and the society at large.
4.1.1 The Concept of Mass and Mass Society
The word „mass‰ as used in social sciences is taken to mean a group of people with common characteristics. In other words, mass means a body or group of people with more similarities than differences. Mass society is any society of the modern era that possesses a mass culture and large-scale, impersonal, social institutions. A mass society is a society dominated by a small number of interconnected elites who control the conditions of life of the many, often by means of persuasion and manipulation (McQuail, 2005). In the late 19th century work of Émile Durkheim, the term was connected with society to denote a mass of identical, atomistic individuals.
In a mass society, power is vested in bureaucracies, thereby leaving people in local communities with little control over their lives. For example, state officials dictate that local schools must meet educational standards, local products must be government-certified, and every citizen must maintain extensive tax records.
Although such rules may protect and improve social equality, they also force us to deal more and more with nameless officials in distant and often indifferent bureaucracies, and they weaken the independence of families and local communities (Macionis, 2009).
Sociologist, Mills (1956) outlines the following characteristics of a mass society:
(a) Far fewer people express opinions than receive them; for the community of public becomes an abstract collection of individuals who receive impressions from the mass media.
(b) The communications that prevail are so organised that it is difficult or impossible for the individual to answer back immediately or with any effect.
(c) The realisation of opinion in action is controlled by authorities who organise and control the channels of such action.
(d) The mass has no autonomy from institutions; on the contrary, agents of authorised institutions penetrate this mass, reducing any autonomy it may have in the formation of opinion by discussion.
4.1.2 The Concept of Politics and Mass Society
The term politics is taken from the Greek word politika. This term originated from the book of Aristotle on governing and governments as modelled on his view, „affairs of the city.‰ The meaning of the root term relates to the citizens, civic, civil and belonging to the state. It is this relation that brings politics closer to the masses.
Generally the common definition of politics is the ability to persuade and influence the electorate to provide political power and authority in the governmental affairs of the state. Politics is also the science of governance in the control of the external and internal affairs of the state. The management of the political, economic, social and administrative affairs in the public sector has been the concept of governance of the state. On the basis of the definition of politics, the sovereign power of the government is to control the various state affairs.
The art of governance provides internal affairs to the administrative and sovereign rights to carry on political agenda that would best suit the interest of the political party and development thrusts for the generation of common welfare to the society. This validates the electoral promises of public officials on the ability to influence and persuade the electorate or the masses to pursue the political platforms. This serves as the basis to gauge the political performance of those who are elected as government officials of the state, by the masses.
4.1.3 The Concept of Mass Media
Mass media is the mechanism used to communicate to the general public. Mass media means technology that is aimed at reaching a mass and wide audience (viewers, listeners). It is the primary means of communication used to reach the vast majority of the general public. The most common platforms for mass media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. The general public usually depend on the mass media to provide information regarding various issues in the society ranging from politics, social, entertainment, and trending news in popular culture.
The mass media has evolved significantly over time. The newspaper was the original platform for mass media. For a long period of time, the public relied on writers and journalists for the local newspapers to provide them with the latest news in current events. This was followed years later in the 1890s by the invention of the radio. The radio became very popular then, whereby families would gather around the radio and listen to their favourite radio station to hear the latest news regarding politics, social issues, and entertainment. Later on came the invention of television. The television, which projected pictures in addition to sound, became more attractive and quickly replaced the radio as the most effective platform to reach the audience or viewers.
Since the advancement of the Internet, the general public is now able to access
those same news outlets in an instant, with just a click of a mouse, instead of having
to wait for scheduled programmes. Today, the Internet has become the most
relevant form of mass media and has become one of the main transmission tools
for news outlets.
4.1.4 Mass Media and Mass Society
The concept „mass society‰ views modern society in terms of an abstract, often
vague definition of „society‰ as a whole, within which modern society is viewed
as a „mass society‰. The mass society consists of components which are divided
between the elites (economic, cultural, political, intellectual), and the remainder of
the 'mass society'. Some argue that this approach is a response to the perceived
decline in social standards, moral values and cultural integrity that come about
with a 'mass society'.
Media on the other hand has been viewed with pessimism as a major agent of
standardisation, alienation and cause of widespread cultural uniformity. Scholars
like Leavis and Eliot perceive the media as a major threat to an established and
elite cultural heritage, civilisation, and purveyors of forms of 'massification' and
inferior culture and standardisation (Brookeman, 1984).
In the US, for example, 'mass communications' research is deployed in order to show how the media are responsible for creating a new society of conformity, alienation, standardisation, and declining intellectual and cultural standards, a civilisation of game-shows and soap operas. The mass media are blamed for societal problems. The mass media practitioners argue that they operate within a societal framework and they only report what they see and hear.
4.1.5 Mass Media as Mass Communication.
Mass communication is a process in which a person, group of people, or an organisation sends a message through a channel of communication to a large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people and organisations. You can think of the large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people as either the general public or a segment of the general public. Channels of mass communication are the agents of mass media such as print, radio, television, and social media including Internet-abled media. The sender of the message is usually a professional communicator who often represents an organisation. Mass communication is an expensive process. Unlike interpersonal communication, feedback for mass communication is usually slow and indirect. However, social media has changed people's outlook on the mass media.
The following are some types of mass communication:
(a) Advertising, which consists of communication attempting to induce purchasing behaviour.
(b) Journalism, such as news.
(c) Public relations, which is communication intended to influence public opinion on a product or organisation.
(d) Politics, for example, campaigning.
1. Explain the main characteristics of mass society.
2. What do you understand by the concept of mass media?
SELF-CHECK 4.1
Citing current examples, explain the relationship between media and
politics.
ACTIVITY 4.1
MEDIA THEORIES
We will now explore the media theories that describe the relationships and
inter dependency of media, audience and politics. Political economy, where the
elites control economic institutions, which in turn affect other social institutions
including the mass media, is discussed. Let us focus on the different media theories
in the following subtopics.
4.2.1 Media Dependency Theory
Society and the media coexist and influence each other. In this relationship, society
is said to depend on the media. People use the media for many reasons including
information, entertainment, and para-social relationships. The media dependency
theory says the more a person becomes dependent on the media to fullfil these
needs, the more important the media will become to that individual. In other
words, individuals depend on the media for their daily dosage of news and other
information. The media will also have much more influence and power over that
individual.
Media dependency theory was originally proposed by Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur
(1976). They used the theory „to investigate people's dependency on mass media
to satisfy clusters of needs arising from social roles to individual dispositions‰. The
more people use media, the more they become dependent on it and the more
influence the media will have in their lives. The theory as shown in Figure 4.1, is
combined with several perspectives like psychoanalytics and social system theory,
systematic and casual approach and base elements from uses and gratification
theory but less focus on effects.
Figure 4.1: A model of media dependency relationships
Source: Adapted from Ball-Rokeach (1985)
There are three types of media dependency:
(a) Information gathering and creating;
(b) Information processing; and
(c) Information dissemination.
According to scholars and researchers, crisis communication is one of the areas
where there is dependence on the media. Media has a tendency to shape and form
the 'reality' of the public during and after the crisis situation. The public's
dependence on the media in crisis situations is more intense than in non-crisis
situations.
Media dependency theory is one of the first theories which regard the audience as
an active part of the communication process. The media dependency theory is
expanded from the theory of uses and gratification.
Dependence on the media also varies in degree, according to the following aspects:
(a) Individual: The media has the ability to satisfy audience needs. An
individual will become more dependent on media, if the medium satisfies
his/her needs. Otherwise the media dependence will become less.
(b) Social stability: The audience reconsiders his/her beliefs, practices and
behaviours when there are strong social changes, conflicts, riots or election,
whereby he/she will be forced to re-evaluate and make new decisions.
During this period, media dependency is dramatically increased because
there is a strong need for information, support and advice.
(c) Active audience: In the communication process, the active audience chooses
the media depending on his/her individual needs and other factors such as
economic conditions, society and culture. If there are alternative sources
of information, support and advice that fulfil the audience needs, media
dependency will decrease.
4.2.2 The Effects of Media Message
Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976; 1989) suggest that the cognitive, behavioural and
affective consequences of media use are premised upon characteristics of both
individuals and their social environment.
(a) Cognitive
There are five types of cognitive effects that affect audience.
(i) The first is the creation and resolution of ambiguity. Ambiguity occurs
when audiences receive inadequate or incomplete information about
their social world. When there is high ambiguity, stress is created, and
audiences are more likely to turn to mass media to resolve ambiguity.
Ambiguity might be especially widespread during times of social
change or conflict.
(ii) The second effect is agenda-setting. Like any other effect, media
agenda-setting effects should be heightened during times when the
audience's needs and therefore dependency on media are high. So, for
instance, if our informational needs and dependency on the media was
high during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we would have been more
susceptible to agenda-setting effects, and we would have therefore
perceived that the Iraq War was the most important problem.
(iii) Third is attitude formation. Media exposes us to completely new
people, such as political figures and celebrities, not to mention physical
objects like birth control pills or car safety mechanisms that we come to
form attitudes about. Dependency does not suggest media is uniform
in its ability to influence attitudes, but the theory does suggest that
media plays a role in selecting objects and people for which people
form attitudes about. If a person is experiencing greater media
dependency, we would therefore expect that the person will form more
complex attitudes about these attitude-objects than people with low
media dependency.
(iv) Media also has the potential cognitive effect of expanding people's
belief systems. Media can create a kind of „enlargement‰ of citizen's
beliefs by disseminating information about other people, places, and
things. Expansion of people's belief systems refers to a broadening or
enlarging of beliefs in a certain category. For example, a constant flow
of information about global warming will expand people's beliefs
about pollution affecting the earth's atmosphere, about cap and trade
and other policies, and about personal contributions to global
warming. These beliefs meet with and are incorporated into an existing
value system regarding religion, free enterprise, work, ecology,
patriotism, recreation, and the family.
(v) Last is value clarification and conflict. Media helps citizens clarify
values (equality, freedom, honesty, forgiveness) often by precipitating
information about value conflicts. For instance, during the 1960s the
mass media regularly reported on the activities of the Civil Rights
movement, presenting conflicts between individual freedoms (e.g., a
businessman's property rights to deny black's entrance) and equality
(e.g., human rights). When such conflicts play out in the mass media,
the value conflicts are identified, resulting in audiences forming their
own value positions. Such a position can be painful to articulate
because it can force a choice between mutually incompatible goals and
the means for obtaining them. However, in the process of trying to
decide which is more important in a particular case, general value
priorities can become clarified.
(b) Affective
Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976) mentioned several possible affective effects of media that are more likely to occur during times of heightened dependency.
(i) First is desensitisation, which states that prolonged exposure to violent content can have a 'numbing' effect on audiences, promoting insensitivity or the lack of desire toward helping others when violent encounters happen in real life.
(ii) Second, exposure to news messages or TV dramas that portray crime-ridden cities can increase peopleÊs fear or anxiety about living in or even travelling to a city.
(iii) Media can also have effects on morale and feelings of alienation. The degree of positive or negative mass media depictions of social groups can cause fluctuations in people's sense of morale in belonging to that group or in their sense of alienation from that group.
(c) Behavioural
There are two broad categories of behavioural effects that Ball-Rokeach and
DeFleur identify.
(i) The first broad category is called „activation‰ effects, which refer to
instances in which media audiences do something they would not
otherwise have done as a consequence of receiving media messages.
Behavioural effects are largely thought to work through cognitive and
affective effects. For instance, a woman reading a news story about
sexism in the workplace might form an attitude toward sexism that
creates a negative emotional state, the culmination of which is joining
a womenÊs rights march in her local community.
(ii) The second broad category of behavioural effects is called
„deactivation,‰ and refers to instances in which audiences would have
otherwise done something, but do not do as a consequence of media
messages. For example, primary presidential campaigns have become
longer and increasingly use more media to target audiences. As such,
primary campaigns might elicit negative attitudes toward the electoral
process and negative affective states such as boredom or disgust that
in turn might make a person not turn
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the concepts of society, mass society, mass media and politics;
2. Describe the relationship between media and politics;
3. Describe the characteristics of mass society;
4. Elaborate on how outside influence controls editorial decisions; and
5. Explain the three assumptions of the media hegemony theory.
? INTRODUCTION
The relationship between media and politics is very important in the working of a country. Often times, the masses perceive politics as controlling the media, especially in less democratic countries. However, in democratic countries, the media has the upper hand. Some still see the relationship as complementary in nature, where media and the political system work hand in hand. To further understand the political environment or the space in which the media operates, and the relationship between media and politics, especially the power relationship, we need to be familiar with several important theoretical underpinnings.
MASS SOCIETY, POLITICS AND THE MEDIA
Looking at society as a concept, scholars have provided different views. Society can be viewed as a social organism possessing a harmony of structure and function and involving a total complex of human relationships, insofar as they grow out of the action in terms of means-end relationships, either intrinsic or symbolic (Coser, 1977; Parsons, 1975).
A society consists of a system of usages and procedures of authority and mutual aid of many groupings and divisions, of controls of human behaviour and liberties. This ever changing complex system which is called society is a web of social relationship (Ginsberg, 2011; MacIver & Page, 1937).
In sociology, the term society is the most central. The term is derived from the Latin word „socius‰, which means companionship or friendship. Aristotle said that „Man is a social animal.‰ Man cannot live alone, that is, he always lives in and needs the company of other people.
In sociology, the term „society‰ has been used to mean a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. Essentially, society is a population of humans characterised by forms of relationships between individuals that share a unique culture and/or institutions.
Generally, a society is an economic, social and industrial infrastructure, of which a diverse mass of people or peoples are a part. The word „society‰ may also refer to an organised voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. It is within the society that the arms of politics and the media play their various roles, which are by and large complementary. Without society, there would not exist politics, let alone the media.
The role of politics and media is that of creating a balance and harmony. Politics is responsible for the running of the day-to-day affairs of the country. Media, on the other hand, serve to provide the needed information in the system in helping relay and convey information for the smooth running of the operation of the government and the society at large.
4.1.1 The Concept of Mass and Mass Society
The word „mass‰ as used in social sciences is taken to mean a group of people with common characteristics. In other words, mass means a body or group of people with more similarities than differences. Mass society is any society of the modern era that possesses a mass culture and large-scale, impersonal, social institutions. A mass society is a society dominated by a small number of interconnected elites who control the conditions of life of the many, often by means of persuasion and manipulation (McQuail, 2005). In the late 19th century work of Émile Durkheim, the term was connected with society to denote a mass of identical, atomistic individuals.
In a mass society, power is vested in bureaucracies, thereby leaving people in local communities with little control over their lives. For example, state officials dictate that local schools must meet educational standards, local products must be government-certified, and every citizen must maintain extensive tax records.
Although such rules may protect and improve social equality, they also force us to deal more and more with nameless officials in distant and often indifferent bureaucracies, and they weaken the independence of families and local communities (Macionis, 2009).
Sociologist, Mills (1956) outlines the following characteristics of a mass society:
(a) Far fewer people express opinions than receive them; for the community of public becomes an abstract collection of individuals who receive impressions from the mass media.
(b) The communications that prevail are so organised that it is difficult or impossible for the individual to answer back immediately or with any effect.
(c) The realisation of opinion in action is controlled by authorities who organise and control the channels of such action.
(d) The mass has no autonomy from institutions; on the contrary, agents of authorised institutions penetrate this mass, reducing any autonomy it may have in the formation of opinion by discussion.
4.1.2 The Concept of Politics and Mass Society
The term politics is taken from the Greek word politika. This term originated from the book of Aristotle on governing and governments as modelled on his view, „affairs of the city.‰ The meaning of the root term relates to the citizens, civic, civil and belonging to the state. It is this relation that brings politics closer to the masses.
Generally the common definition of politics is the ability to persuade and influence the electorate to provide political power and authority in the governmental affairs of the state. Politics is also the science of governance in the control of the external and internal affairs of the state. The management of the political, economic, social and administrative affairs in the public sector has been the concept of governance of the state. On the basis of the definition of politics, the sovereign power of the government is to control the various state affairs.
The art of governance provides internal affairs to the administrative and sovereign rights to carry on political agenda that would best suit the interest of the political party and development thrusts for the generation of common welfare to the society. This validates the electoral promises of public officials on the ability to influence and persuade the electorate or the masses to pursue the political platforms. This serves as the basis to gauge the political performance of those who are elected as government officials of the state, by the masses.
4.1.3 The Concept of Mass Media
Mass media is the mechanism used to communicate to the general public. Mass media means technology that is aimed at reaching a mass and wide audience (viewers, listeners). It is the primary means of communication used to reach the vast majority of the general public. The most common platforms for mass media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet. The general public usually depend on the mass media to provide information regarding various issues in the society ranging from politics, social, entertainment, and trending news in popular culture.
The mass media has evolved significantly over time. The newspaper was the original platform for mass media. For a long period of time, the public relied on writers and journalists for the local newspapers to provide them with the latest news in current events. This was followed years later in the 1890s by the invention of the radio. The radio became very popular then, whereby families would gather around the radio and listen to their favourite radio station to hear the latest news regarding politics, social issues, and entertainment. Later on came the invention of television. The television, which projected pictures in addition to sound, became more attractive and quickly replaced the radio as the most effective platform to reach the audience or viewers.
Since the advancement of the Internet, the general public is now able to access
those same news outlets in an instant, with just a click of a mouse, instead of having
to wait for scheduled programmes. Today, the Internet has become the most
relevant form of mass media and has become one of the main transmission tools
for news outlets.
4.1.4 Mass Media and Mass Society
The concept „mass society‰ views modern society in terms of an abstract, often
vague definition of „society‰ as a whole, within which modern society is viewed
as a „mass society‰. The mass society consists of components which are divided
between the elites (economic, cultural, political, intellectual), and the remainder of
the 'mass society'. Some argue that this approach is a response to the perceived
decline in social standards, moral values and cultural integrity that come about
with a 'mass society'.
Media on the other hand has been viewed with pessimism as a major agent of
standardisation, alienation and cause of widespread cultural uniformity. Scholars
like Leavis and Eliot perceive the media as a major threat to an established and
elite cultural heritage, civilisation, and purveyors of forms of 'massification' and
inferior culture and standardisation (Brookeman, 1984).
In the US, for example, 'mass communications' research is deployed in order to show how the media are responsible for creating a new society of conformity, alienation, standardisation, and declining intellectual and cultural standards, a civilisation of game-shows and soap operas. The mass media are blamed for societal problems. The mass media practitioners argue that they operate within a societal framework and they only report what they see and hear.
4.1.5 Mass Media as Mass Communication.
Mass communication is a process in which a person, group of people, or an organisation sends a message through a channel of communication to a large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people and organisations. You can think of the large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people as either the general public or a segment of the general public. Channels of mass communication are the agents of mass media such as print, radio, television, and social media including Internet-abled media. The sender of the message is usually a professional communicator who often represents an organisation. Mass communication is an expensive process. Unlike interpersonal communication, feedback for mass communication is usually slow and indirect. However, social media has changed people's outlook on the mass media.
The following are some types of mass communication:
(a) Advertising, which consists of communication attempting to induce purchasing behaviour.
(b) Journalism, such as news.
(c) Public relations, which is communication intended to influence public opinion on a product or organisation.
(d) Politics, for example, campaigning.
1. Explain the main characteristics of mass society.
2. What do you understand by the concept of mass media?
SELF-CHECK 4.1
Citing current examples, explain the relationship between media and
politics.
ACTIVITY 4.1
MEDIA THEORIES
We will now explore the media theories that describe the relationships and
inter dependency of media, audience and politics. Political economy, where the
elites control economic institutions, which in turn affect other social institutions
including the mass media, is discussed. Let us focus on the different media theories
in the following subtopics.
4.2.1 Media Dependency Theory
Society and the media coexist and influence each other. In this relationship, society
is said to depend on the media. People use the media for many reasons including
information, entertainment, and para-social relationships. The media dependency
theory says the more a person becomes dependent on the media to fullfil these
needs, the more important the media will become to that individual. In other
words, individuals depend on the media for their daily dosage of news and other
information. The media will also have much more influence and power over that
individual.
Media dependency theory was originally proposed by Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur
(1976). They used the theory „to investigate people's dependency on mass media
to satisfy clusters of needs arising from social roles to individual dispositions‰. The
more people use media, the more they become dependent on it and the more
influence the media will have in their lives. The theory as shown in Figure 4.1, is
combined with several perspectives like psychoanalytics and social system theory,
systematic and casual approach and base elements from uses and gratification
theory but less focus on effects.
Figure 4.1: A model of media dependency relationships
Source: Adapted from Ball-Rokeach (1985)
There are three types of media dependency:
(a) Information gathering and creating;
(b) Information processing; and
(c) Information dissemination.
According to scholars and researchers, crisis communication is one of the areas
where there is dependence on the media. Media has a tendency to shape and form
the 'reality' of the public during and after the crisis situation. The public's
dependence on the media in crisis situations is more intense than in non-crisis
situations.
Media dependency theory is one of the first theories which regard the audience as
an active part of the communication process. The media dependency theory is
expanded from the theory of uses and gratification.
Dependence on the media also varies in degree, according to the following aspects:
(a) Individual: The media has the ability to satisfy audience needs. An
individual will become more dependent on media, if the medium satisfies
his/her needs. Otherwise the media dependence will become less.
(b) Social stability: The audience reconsiders his/her beliefs, practices and
behaviours when there are strong social changes, conflicts, riots or election,
whereby he/she will be forced to re-evaluate and make new decisions.
During this period, media dependency is dramatically increased because
there is a strong need for information, support and advice.
(c) Active audience: In the communication process, the active audience chooses
the media depending on his/her individual needs and other factors such as
economic conditions, society and culture. If there are alternative sources
of information, support and advice that fulfil the audience needs, media
dependency will decrease.
4.2.2 The Effects of Media Message
Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976; 1989) suggest that the cognitive, behavioural and
affective consequences of media use are premised upon characteristics of both
individuals and their social environment.
(a) Cognitive
There are five types of cognitive effects that affect audience.
(i) The first is the creation and resolution of ambiguity. Ambiguity occurs
when audiences receive inadequate or incomplete information about
their social world. When there is high ambiguity, stress is created, and
audiences are more likely to turn to mass media to resolve ambiguity.
Ambiguity might be especially widespread during times of social
change or conflict.
(ii) The second effect is agenda-setting. Like any other effect, media
agenda-setting effects should be heightened during times when the
audience's needs and therefore dependency on media are high. So, for
instance, if our informational needs and dependency on the media was
high during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we would have been more
susceptible to agenda-setting effects, and we would have therefore
perceived that the Iraq War was the most important problem.
(iii) Third is attitude formation. Media exposes us to completely new
people, such as political figures and celebrities, not to mention physical
objects like birth control pills or car safety mechanisms that we come to
form attitudes about. Dependency does not suggest media is uniform
in its ability to influence attitudes, but the theory does suggest that
media plays a role in selecting objects and people for which people
form attitudes about. If a person is experiencing greater media
dependency, we would therefore expect that the person will form more
complex attitudes about these attitude-objects than people with low
media dependency.
(iv) Media also has the potential cognitive effect of expanding people's
belief systems. Media can create a kind of „enlargement‰ of citizen's
beliefs by disseminating information about other people, places, and
things. Expansion of people's belief systems refers to a broadening or
enlarging of beliefs in a certain category. For example, a constant flow
of information about global warming will expand people's beliefs
about pollution affecting the earth's atmosphere, about cap and trade
and other policies, and about personal contributions to global
warming. These beliefs meet with and are incorporated into an existing
value system regarding religion, free enterprise, work, ecology,
patriotism, recreation, and the family.
(v) Last is value clarification and conflict. Media helps citizens clarify
values (equality, freedom, honesty, forgiveness) often by precipitating
information about value conflicts. For instance, during the 1960s the
mass media regularly reported on the activities of the Civil Rights
movement, presenting conflicts between individual freedoms (e.g., a
businessman's property rights to deny black's entrance) and equality
(e.g., human rights). When such conflicts play out in the mass media,
the value conflicts are identified, resulting in audiences forming their
own value positions. Such a position can be painful to articulate
because it can force a choice between mutually incompatible goals and
the means for obtaining them. However, in the process of trying to
decide which is more important in a particular case, general value
priorities can become clarified.
(b) Affective
Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur (1976) mentioned several possible affective effects of media that are more likely to occur during times of heightened dependency.
(i) First is desensitisation, which states that prolonged exposure to violent content can have a 'numbing' effect on audiences, promoting insensitivity or the lack of desire toward helping others when violent encounters happen in real life.
(ii) Second, exposure to news messages or TV dramas that portray crime-ridden cities can increase peopleÊs fear or anxiety about living in or even travelling to a city.
(iii) Media can also have effects on morale and feelings of alienation. The degree of positive or negative mass media depictions of social groups can cause fluctuations in people's sense of morale in belonging to that group or in their sense of alienation from that group.
(c) Behavioural
There are two broad categories of behavioural effects that Ball-Rokeach and
DeFleur identify.
(i) The first broad category is called „activation‰ effects, which refer to
instances in which media audiences do something they would not
otherwise have done as a consequence of receiving media messages.
Behavioural effects are largely thought to work through cognitive and
affective effects. For instance, a woman reading a news story about
sexism in the workplace might form an attitude toward sexism that
creates a negative emotional state, the culmination of which is joining
a womenÊs rights march in her local community.
(ii) The second broad category of behavioural effects is called
„deactivation,‰ and refers to instances in which audiences would have
otherwise done something, but do not do as a consequence of media
messages. For example, primary presidential campaigns have become
longer and increasingly use more media to target audiences. As such,
primary campaigns might elicit negative attitudes toward the electoral
process and negative affective states such as boredom or disgust that
in turn might make a person not turn
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