Chapter 13

Question 1

Argument #1 Media content has limited impact on audiences because people know it isnt real

Answer 1

1. New is not make believe
2. Most films are made to seem real
3. Some are expressively real (reality TV)
4. Advertising is supposed to tell the truth
5. Early window (media gives a window to the world to children before they can judge it
6. We enjoy shows by willingly suspending disbelief

Question 2

Argument #2 Media content has limited impact on audiences because it is only play or entertainment

Answer 2

1. New is not play or entertainment
2. Play is important to the way we develop our knowledge

Question 3

Argument #3 Media holds a mirror to society and reflects our world as it is

Answer 3

1. Media is a very selective mirror. Some are over or under represented or not even visible.

Question 4

Argument #4 Media reinforces preexisting values and beliefs

Answer 4

1. Traditional socializing agents have lost most influence
2. Reinforcement is not the same as having no effects

Question 5

Argument #5 Media may affect unimportant things in our lives (fashion or fads)

Answer 5

1. Fads and fashion are not unimportant
2. Billions of money is spent on media efforts to sway social issue opinions

Question 6

Micro-Level Effects vs
Macro-Level Effects

Answer 6

Micro: Asking you to do something very specific, effects of media on individuals

vs

Macro: media’s widescale social and cultural impact

Question 7

Transmissional Perspective vs Ritual Perspective

Answer 7

Transmissional: Sees media as the sender of information for the purpose of control

vs

Ritual: Sees mass communication as the representation of shared beliefs

Question 8

Cultivation analysis

Answer 8

Peoples ideas of themselves and their world are shaped through media

Question 9

Attitude change theory

Answer 9

how people shape and change attitudes which influence behavior

Question 10

Mass Society theory

Answer 10

media are corrupting social order and “average” people are defenseless against their influence

Question 11

Hypodermic needle/magic bullet theory

Answer 11

people need to be told what to think

Question 12

Limited effects theory

Answer 12

effects of media are filtered through other influences (Example War of the Worlds)

Question 13

Two step flow theory

Answer 13

Peoples voting behavior was influenced by opinion leaders (people who interpret media and pass it on to opinion followers)

Question 14

Dissonance Theory

Answer 14

people, when confronted by new information, experience a kind of mental discomfort. Selective exposure, selective retention, and selective perception

Question 15

Reinforcement theory

Answer 15

media reinforces previous beliefs; many people seek information that reinforces their position

Question 16

Uses and gratification theory

Answer 16

Looks at how people use the media (entertainment and information)

Question 17

Agenda setting

Answer 17

media dont tell you WHAT to think but what to think ABOUT

Question 18

Social cognitive theory

Answer 18

The idea that people learn through observation. Modeling, imitation, and identification

Question 19

Critical-cultural theory

Answer 19

Media operates primarily to justify and support the status quo at the expense of ordinary people

Question 20

Neo-Marxist theory

Answer 20

people are oppressed by those who control the culture

Question 21

Frankfurt School

Answer 21

that valued serious art, viewing its consumption as a means to elevate all people toward a better life

Question 22

British Cultural Theory

Answer 22

elites’ domination over culture and its influence on bounded cultures

Question 23

News production research

Answer 23

the study of how economic and other influences on the way news is produced distort and bias news coverage toward those in power

Question 24

Mediatization Theory

Answer 24

societal structures and their routine social practices are continually altered to accommodate media

Question 25

Social Construction of reality theory

Answer 25

cultures construct and maintain their realities using signs and symbols

Question 26

Meaning-making perspective

Answer 26

active audience members use media content to create meaning, and meaningful experiences

Question 27

Mass communication theory is particularly open to evolving for what three reasons?

Answer 27

1. Advances in technology 2. Calls for control or regulation 3. Democracy and cultural pluralism

Question 28

Observational learning

Answer 28

Observers can learn new behaviors simply by seeing those behaviors performed

Question 29

Inhibitory effects

Answer 29

Seeing a model, a movie character, for example, punished for a behavior reduces the likelihood that the observer will perform that behavior

Question 30

Disinhibitory effects

Answer 30

Seeing a model rewarded for prohibited or threatening behavior increases the likelihood that the observer will perform that behavior

Question 31

What are the four common news production conventions used by US media that bolster the position of those in power?

Answer 31

Personalized, dramatized, fragmented, and normalized news.

Question 32

Imitation

Answer 32

the direct replication of an observed behavior

Question 33

Identification

Answer 33

a special form of imitation by which observers do not exactly copy what they have seen but make a more generalized but related response

Question 34

Modeling

Answer 34

learning through imitation and identification

Question 35

The Stimulation Model

Answer 35

a direct causal relationship between violent content and aggressive behavior

Question 36

The Aggressive Model

Answer 36

the idea that media portrayals can suggest that certain classes of people are acceptable targets for real-world aggression

Question 37

Catharsis

Answer 37

the theory that watching mediated violence reduces people’s inclination to behave aggressively

Question 38

What are two characteristics of critical cultural studies?

Answer 38

1. They tend to be macroscopic in scope. 2. They are openly political.

Question 39

What are two assumptions of cultivation analysis?

Answer 39

1. Television is the “central cultural arm” of US society. 2. Television is essentially and fundamentally different from other mass media.

Question 40

Symbolic interaction

Answer 40

people give meaning to symbols, and then those symbols control people’s behavior in their presence

Question 41

What are the four eras of mass communication theory?

Answer 41

1. Mass society theory era 2. Cultural theory era 3. Limited effects perspective era 4. Meaning-making perspective era