Mass Media Research: An Introduction - 9th Edition Roger D. Wimmer & Joseph R. Dominick Research in Advertising A version of this article appeared in Marketing Research: State-of-the-Art Perspectives by Chuck Chakrapani (Ed.), American Marketing Association, 2000. Do not use in any form without permission from the publisher. Roger Wimmer, Ph.D.
You can refer to these theories as you research and consider the media’s effect on culture. Widespread fear that mass-media messages could outweigh other stabilizing cultural influences, such as family and community, led to what is known as the direct effects model of media studies.
Broadcast television was the dominant form of mass media, and the three major networks controlled more than 90 percent of the news programs, live events, and sitcoms viewed by Americans. Some social critics argued that television was fostering a homogenous, conformist culture by reinforcing ideas about what “normal” American life looked like.
Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press enabled the mass production of media, which was then industrialized by Friedrich Koenig in the early 1800s. These innovations led to the daily newspaper, which united the urbanized, industrialized populations of the 19th century.
Mass media means technology that is intended to reach a mass audience. 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.Aug 24, 2015
Research is an essential tool to gather facts, opinion and information pertaining to a specified problem, situation or opportunity. Research in media focuses on the communication process and examines the relationships among the media organizations and the target audience.
Introduction to Mass Media - 1st year Enables students to identify and analyze messages and images to which they are exposed as consumers of goods and services and as recipients of information from various sources, including print and electronic.
Research is the foundation of knowledge for the purpose of knowledge and an important source for providing guidelines or norms for solving different social, business, or governmental problems. It is a variety of formal training which enables us to understand the new developments in one's field in an efficient way.May 20, 2019
Media Research is the study of the effects of the different mass media on social, psychological and physical aspects. Research segments the people based on what television programs they watch, radio they listen, media they access and magazines they read.Sep 8, 2021
Mass media research is the study of information related to any form of mass communication. Mass media research is important for businesses as it helps them decide which types and forms of social media are most beneficial to use for business purposes, as well as considering public health concerns.Jan 24, 2022
Mass communication helps you to connect to the masses: Your emotions would be put into action. You are already living with people and should have a good knowledge and understanding of what is happening around so as to employ your emotions effectively to affect your audience.Oct 27, 2021
Mass communication is a process in which a person, group of people, or an organization sends a message through a channel of communication to a large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people and organizations.
Early media studies focused on the use of mass media in propaganda and persuasion. However, journalists and researchers soon looked to behavioral sciences to help figure out the effect of mass media and communications on society. Scholars have developed many different approaches and theories to figure this out.
In contrast to the extreme views of the direct effects model, the agenda-setting theory of media stated that mass media determine the issues that concern the public rather than the public’s views. Under this theory, the issues that receive the most attention from media become the issues that the public discusses, debates, and demands action on.
Published in 1962 and 1964, respectively, the Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media both traced the history of media technology and illustrated the ways these innovations had changed both individual behavior and the wider culture. Understanding Media introduced a phrase that McLuhan has become known for: “The medium is the message.”.
The spiral of silence theory, which states that those who hold a minority opinion silence themselves to prevent social isolation, explains the role of mass media in the formation and maintenance of dominant opinions. As minority opinions are silenced, the illusion of consensus grows, and so does social pressure to adopt the dominant position. This creates a self-propagating loop in which minority voices are reduced to a minimum and perceived popular opinion sides wholly with the majority opinion. For example, prior to and during World War II, many Germans opposed Adolf Hitler and his policies; however, they kept their opposition silent out of fear of isolation and stigma.
This notion represented a novel take on attitudes toward media— that the media themselves are instrumental in shaping human and cultural experience.
The media logic theory states that common media formats and styles serve as a means of perceiving the world. Today, the deep rooting of media in the cultural consciousness means that media consumers need engage for only a few moments with a particular television program to understand that it is a news show, a comedy, or a reality show. The pervasiveness of these formats means that our culture uses the style and content of these shows as ways to interpret reality. For example, think about a TV news program that frequently shows heated debates between opposing sides on public policy issues. This style of debate has become a template for handling disagreement to those who consistently watch this type of program.
The cultivation analysis theory states that heavy exposure to media causes individuals to develop an illusory perception of reality based on the most repetitive and consistent messages of a particular medium. This theory most commonly applies to analyses of television because of that medium’s uniquely pervasive, repetitive nature. Under this theory, someone who watches a great deal of television may form a picture of reality that does not correspond to actual life. Televised violent acts, whether those reported on news programs or portrayed on television dramas, for example, greatly outnumber violent acts that most people encounter in their daily lives. Thus, an individual who watches a great deal of television may come to view the world as more violent and dangerous than it actually is.
Through bringing us stories of all kinds, media has the power to take us away from ourselves. Media can also provide information and education . Information can come in many forms, and it may sometimes be difficult to separate from entertainment.
Media fulfills several roles in society, including the following:#N#entertaining and providing an outlet for the imagination,#N#educating and informing,#N#serving as a public forum for the discussion of important issues, and#N#acting as a watchdog for government, business, and other institutions. 1 entertaining and providing an outlet for the imagination, 2 educating and informing, 3 serving as a public forum for the discussion of important issues, and 4 acting as a watchdog for government, business, and other institutions.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has posted free lecture notes, exams, and audio and video recordings of classes on its OpenCourseWare website, allowing anyone with an Internet connection access to world-class professors.
The contemporary media age can trace its origins back to the electrical telegraph, patented in the United States by Samuel Morse in 1837. Thanks to the telegraph, communication was no longer linked to the physical transportation of messages; it didn’t matter whether a message needed to travel 5 or 500 miles.
Users may have to wade through thousands of inane comments or misinformed amateur opinions to find quality information. The 1960s media theorist Marshall McLuhan took these ideas one step further, famously coining the phrase “ the medium is the message (McLuhan, 1964).”.
In addition to the breakthroughs in audio broadcasting, inventors in the 1800s made significant advances in visual media. The 19th-century development of photographic technologies would lead to the later innovations of cinema and television.
In newspapers or other periodicals, letters to the editor allow readers to respond to journalists or to voice their opinions on the issues of the day. These letters were an important part of U.S. newspapers even when the nation was a British colony, and they have served as a means of public discourse ever since.
In short, research in this area helps media managers to know who is using a particular media channel and how they are using it .
The medium is the carrier for the message being transmitted. Newspapers, radio and television are typically grouped under the rubric of "traditional media," but each channel operates differently. In the digital age, new or emerging technologies are dramatically changing the overall media landscape. Research into the medium thus seeks to gain a better understanding of what defines each medium. Researchers focusing on this aspect of mass media need to ask -- and answer -- many questions: 1 What are the conditions and who are the parties contributing to the creation of this medium? 2 What are the medium's core functionalities? 3 What services does it provide? 4 What differentiates this medium from other media? 5 What are the medium's access points?
Further research is necessary, but Leslie Wood, the chief research officer on this Nielsen report, believes that individual listeners are very loyal to their preferred radio stations, a fact that many media buyers were not taking into account.
Media managers, whether working in traditional or emerging media, design their content and build their campaigns for specific channels. To do so successfully, managers need to take each channel or medium's unique characteristics into account.
Twitter's 140-character restriction may make it ideal for disseminating attention-grabbing, breaking news headlines. But, to tell the complete story, a formally produced and edited television news package is probably more appropriate.
Newspapers, radio and television are typically grouped under the rubric of "traditional media," but each channel operates differently. In the digital age, new or emerging technologies are dramatically changing the overall media landscape. Research into the medium thus seeks to gain a better understanding of what defines each medium.
Into the 1950s, mass communication research was very much a product of the United States: U.S. media programming and news events, U.S. media practices and policies, with necessary consideration of U.S. politics and society. There was a tendency for mass media research to concentrate on one aspect of the communication process originally outlined by Lasswell, namely effects. Later, research refocused some attention on other elements of the communication process—on what was produced and how it was produced.
The interest of sociologists in mass communication was stimulated by developments in technology allowing the reproduction and speedy transmission of messages. It began with the rise of the popular press, followed by the invention of film, sound broadcasting (or radio), and the audiovisual, including television and cable television.
Harold Innis (1951), the Canadian institutional economist, distinguished between bias toward space and bias toward time. Paper, he averred, because of its light weight, was easily transported but also perishable, and so supported the development of centralized administration.
Media effects have been studied on three levels: the atomistic, the aggregate, and the societal. Effects on the atomistic level involve the cognitive processes and behavioral responses of individuals who make up the various mass audiences.
To answer these and similar questions, audience research has typically focused on the situations in which mass communications are received and on the habits and cognitive processes that underlie the responses of individuals either to specific media messages or to some significant part of the media fare.
One can use media penetration (e.g., newspaper circulation, or the proportion of homes with a television set) or content characteristics (e.g., the number of violent acts in children's programs, editorial endorsements, or issues emphasized in the news).
policy, this UNESCO report was to become pivotal in pitching these issues to the rest of the world for research and analysis.
Through bringing us stories of all kinds, media has the power to take us away from ourselves. Media can also provide information and education . Information can come in many forms, and it may sometimes be difficult to separate from entertainment.
Media fulfills several roles in society, including the following:#N#entertaining and providing an outlet for the imagination,#N#educating and informing,#N#serving as a public forum for the discussion of important issues, and#N#acting as a watchdog for government, business, and other institutions. 1 entertaining and providing an outlet for the imagination, 2 educating and informing, 3 serving as a public forum for the discussion of important issues, and 4 acting as a watchdog for government, business, and other institutions.
In newspapers or other periodicals, letters to the editor allow readers to respond to journalists or to voice their opinions on the issues of the day. These letters were an important part of U.S. newspapers even when the nation was a British colony, and they have served as a means of public discourse ever since.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has posted free lecture notes, exams, and audio and video recordings of classes on its OpenCourseWare website, allowing anyone with an Internet connection access to world-class professors.
A University of California, San Diego study claimed that U.S. households consumed a total of approximately 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008—the digital equivalent of a 7-foot high stack of books covering the entire United States—a 350 percent increase since 1980 (Ramsey, 2009).
The contemporary media age can trace its origins back to the electrical telegraph, patented in the United States by Samuel Morse in 1837. Thanks to the telegraph, communication was no longer linked to the physical transportation of messages; it didn’t matter whether a message needed to travel 5 or 500 miles.
Users may have to wade through thousands of inane comments or misinformed amateur opinions to find quality information. The 1960s media theorist Marshall McLuhan took these ideas one step further, famously coining the phrase “ the medium is the message (McLuhan, 1964).”.
Print media is one of the oldest andbasic forms of mass communication. It includes newspapers, weeklies,magazines, monthlies and other forms of printed journals.
The reformation ofHinduism, the move for abolition of sati and efforts to encourage widow re-marriage were some of the major reforms. Inspired by these great leaders,many newspapers were started in different parts of the country. All this led toa boom in the newspaper industry in India.
India has a live and active print media. India is known for its vastness ofarea, diversity of culture and multiplicity of languages which are spoken andwritten. India has 28 states and seven union territories .Most of them havetheir own language. When India became Independent in 1947, there wereonly 3533 newspapers and periodicals. Among them 330 were newspapersand 3203 were other publications.
Literacy is a basic Even an illiterate person canrequirement for the print watch a news bulletin and graspmedia. Only a literate its contents though the written matterperson can read it. on the screen cannot be read.
The media affects the public’s opinion of crime and punishment, and its perception of the police. If the media is responsible for the headlines, the conclusion is that it influences the public’s attitude regarding crime incidents.” (Muraskin and Domash 2007). Crime stories are covered extensively by the print-based media seemingly ...
In terms of fear of crime, the British Crime Survey offers an in depth insight into the British publics perception of crime, in comparison to actual crime statistics.
Garofalo (1981:840) defined fear of crime as an ’emotional reaction characterized by a sense of danger and anxiety… produced by the threat of physical harm… elicited by perceived cues in the environment that relate to some aspect of crime.’.
Of the roughly 1,500 daily newspapers in the U.S., “Only a handful—at most a dozen, including The [Washington] Post—actually have a reporter who covers the press full-time as a beat. What critical reporting exists, though at times is refreshingly good, it is for the most part timid and superficial. About 15 papers have an ombudsman on staff to respond to readers' complaints. When it comes to looking at itself, society's watchdog is a lamb,” according to Sydney Schanberg, one of the most respected journalists of this era, he has been a reporter for The New York Times for more than twenty-five years, and recipient of many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize.
Public confidence in the media, already low, continues to slip. A poll by USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup found only 36 percent of Americans believe news organizations get the facts straight, compared with 54 percent in mid-1989.
In 1945, four out of five American newspapers were independently owned and published by people with close ties to their communities. Those days are gone however. Today less than 20 percent of the country's 1483 papers are independently owned; the rest belong to multi-newspaper chains.
When it comes to looking at itself, society's watchdog is a lamb,” according to Sydney Schanberg, one of the most respected journalists of this era, he has been a reporter for The New York Times for more than twenty-five years, and recipient of many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize.