Media research human brain This strange organ controls our Early worries about media effects Propaganda Propaganda First World War Propaganda

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1 1 2 Media research tries to determine how the brain is influenced by various forms of media content human brain three-pound organ in your skull built of cells called neurons hundreds of billions of them connected to one another in a vast network This strange organ controls our hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, comic instincts, great ideas, fetishes, senses of humor, and desires. and when it changes, so do we Early worries about media effects media consumption replaces family, church, and community connections isolated people are more easily persuaded. growing concerns about powerful direct effects of propaganda heightened fears early in the last century Propaganda the deliberate use of any form of communication designed to affect the minds, emotions, and actions of a given group for a specific purpose Propaganda term has religious roots propagate the faith modern usage acquired derogatory connotations distortion, exaggeration & deception First World War Propaganda n Committee on Public Information 1

2 n Committee on Public Information n four-minute men n surging nationalistic fervor n jingoistic posters and motion pictures 8 9 Heart of Humanity (1918) n made by Universal Pictures n toward the end of World War I Mein Kampf - My Struggle published in two volumes dated 1925 and 1927 stood atop the German bestseller lists by 1933 by 1939 it had 5,200,000 copies.all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan." --Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf Vol. 1 Ch. VI) 10 formed in 1937 by Columbia professor Clyde Miller who was concerned that increased amounts of propaganda were decreasing the public s ability to develop their own critical thoughts Its initial analysis focused on the radio addresses of Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's Shrine of the Little Flower Church Coughlin videos 2

3 11 The IPA s seven basic propaganda devices Name-calling Glittering generalities Transfer Testimonial Plain folks Card stacking Bandwagon 12 The IPA's purpose was to spark rational thinking and provide a guide to help the public have well-informed discussions on current issues. "To teach people how to think rather than what to think." Critics feared its analyses fostered cynicism rather than an intelligent reflectiveness. 13 Say it isn t so... Columbus initiated the trans-atlantic slave trade in February 1494, sending several dozen Taíno people as slaves from the Caribbean to Spain, and later hundreds more. 14 Measuring media effects: social scientific studies public opinion polls social psychology studies marketing research 15 Quantitative Research 3

4 turning the results of surveys and experiments into percentages and making predictions limited in the kinds of questions that can be considered social scientific methodology 1) identify a problem 2) review related research and theories 3) develop a working hypothesis 4) determine appropriate method or research design 5) collect information or relevant data 6) analyze results to see if hypothesis is verified 7) interpret implications to determine if it explains or predicts the problem Scientific Method l Hypothesis l Must be worded so that it is testable l Experimental design l Tests whether hypothesis is true l Survey research l Collecting and measuring data l Content analysis l Studies the messages of print and visual The Scientific Method relies on l (1) objectivity (no researcher bias) l (2) reliability (replication) l (3) validity (study actually measures what it claims to measure) shaky social science findings 4

5 19 Payne Fund Studies studied what movies do to and for youngsters tools of the trade survey methods laboratory experiments aim: quantify and predict Herbert Blumer, Movies and Conduct (1933) Invasion of Mars study 135 people interviewed in depth most had been frightened by the broadcast all came from New Jersey mail and newspaper clippings related to broadcast also analyzed Researchers concluded: critical ability and education level determined how people responded to the broadcast 22 Not a randon sample A sample in which each and every member of the population one is trying to test has an equal chance of being selected The People s Choice Study 1940 presidential election panel of 2400 voters Erie County, Ohio random sampling Two-step flow media influence limited by 5

6 media influence limited by opinion leaders who selectively consume interpret and pass on media messages to opinion followers peers with less media contact and little interest or committment Study also found selective processes at work selective exposure selective interpretation selective retention (917) ex. 315 Studying TV Violence Bobo doll studies Albert Bandura Stanford 1961, 1963 & nursery school children 36 boys & 36 girls imitative behavior aggressive models non-aggressive models control group Behavioral effects of viewing television violence for some children under some circumstances some television is harmful same for video games like Grand Theft Auto and its progeny Doom 1 st person shooter video game Eric Harris/Dylan Klebold Columbine High School shooting 6

7 Columbine High School shooting Agenda-setting media suggest what to think about by amount of attention given to a matter affects the level of importance people give to it Benghazi agenda setting Various pressures help set the agenda Critical/Cultural Approaches Culture is a process by which we produce meaning It make life meaningful full of potential meaning and delivers the values of a society through products or other meaning-making forms 33 meaning: A person s inner response to a message, the experiences it evokes, including images, interpretations, and feelings The meanings generated by something differ depending on one s cultural orientation brain/culture connection Our brains are deeply affected by the cultures into which we are born To prepare cows for consumption feed them a diet of corn, unsold candy, their pulverized brothers and sisters and a pharmacy's worth of antibiotics 7

8 and a pharmacy's worth of antibiotics Meanings are affected by both personal and collective (shared by all members of a group) aspects of experience Irony the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect Multiple levels of potential meaning explicit available on the surface, obvious implicit lies below the surface more interpretive than explicit based on experience Richard III, Act 1 scene 1 Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. 40 Cultural studies focuses on how people make meaning, articulate values, comprehend reality a key concern is on representations of gender, race, and social class and on how they shape our perceptions and sterotypes 41 Walter Lipmann: the world outside vs. the pictures in our heads 8

9 the world outside vs. the pictures in our heads coined modern use of the term stereotype 42 Because the actual environment is so complex and fleeting we have to reconstruct it in our minds on a simpler model before we can manage with it Lipmann called that simpler model the stereotype Stereotyping is based in the way we perceive the world perception is the mental activity by which input from one s senses is classified into recognizable categories of meaning Categorization is the strategy our brains use to more efficiently process data from our senses Assigning something to category expedites our reactions shapes our judgments and allows us to function effectively but results in stereotyping people and places we see the category not the person Subliminal categorizing from the Latin words sub, meaning under or below and limen, meaning threshold social scientists use the word to mean below the threshold of consciousness Our subliminal brain is invisible to us yet it influences our conscious experience 9

10 yet it influences our conscious experience in fundamental ways see Leonard Mlodinow (ma-lah-di-nov), Subliminal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and nerve cell activation are coupled. When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases. Freud s unconscious: hot and wet seething with lust and anger hallucinatory, primitive, irrational replete with innate drives such as a boy s desire to kill his father and marry his mother such a conception is roundly rejected by modern social science the new view of the unconscious: portions of mind are inaccessible to consciousness because of the architecture of the mind rather than because they have been subject to motivational forces such as repression Stereotyping is based in the way we perceive the world perception is the mental activity by which input from one s senses is classified into recognizable categories of meaning In stereotyping, people or social situations are mentally arranged on the basis of a small number of similar 10

11 on the basis of a small number of similar superficial traits or distinctive identifying features Characters in entertainment fare often reflect dominant cultural stereotypes we categorize and polarize in terms of such factors as age social class race ethnicity gender religion vocation nationality men and women typically categorized as polar opposites male public productive active strong assertive masculine 2 female private consumptive passive weak acquiescent feminine 11