POST EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION

3.  The post-positivist effects trend has also had an impact on
the field of mass communication theory.
 This paradigm shift began in the 1980s and 1990s, with
scholars questioning the traditional positivist approach to
studying mass media effects
 The positivist approach focused on identifying cause-and-
effect relationships between media exposure and behavior,
with the aim of predicting and controlling audience
responses to media messages.

4.  Post-positivist scholars challenged this approach, arguing that it was too
narrow and failed to account for the complexity of media effects.
 They suggested that media effects were not simply the result of direct
cause-and-effect relationships, but were shaped by a range of factors,
including the social, cultural, and historical contexts in which media
messages were received.
 One of the key figures in the development of post-positivist effects
theory in mass communication was Stuart Hall.
 He emphasized the importance of understanding how media messages
were produced, circulated, and consumed within specific cultural and
historical contexts.

5.  Today, the post-positivist effects trend continues to shape mass
communication theory, with many scholars advocating for more critical
and reflexive approaches to studying media effects that take into account
the complex and dynamic nature of media audiences and the social,
cultural, and historical contexts in which media messages are produced
and consumed.

6.  The refinement and broad acceptance of empirical social research methods was an
essential factor in the emergence of the media-effects trend.
 Empirical social researchers successfully branded people who advocated mass
society and propaganda notions as “unscientific.”
 Social researchers exploited the commercial potential of the new research methods
and gained the support of private industry.
 The development of empirical social research was strongly backed by various
private and government foundations, most notably the Rockefeller
Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

7.  As empirical research demonstrated its usefulness, media companies
began to sponsor and eventually conduct their own empirical research on
media.
 Empirical social researchers successfully established their approach within the
various social research disciplines political science, history, social psychology,
sociology, and economics.

8.  Carl Hovland (1912-1961) was an American psychologist who made significant
contributions to the field of communication and persuasion. He is best known for his
research on attitude change, message effectiveness, and persuasion.
 Hovland's research on persuasion has been influential in the development of
communication theory and has been applied in many fields.
 Hovland conducted a series of experiments in the 1940s and 1950s that examined
the factors that influence attitude change. He found that the source of the
communication, the message itself, and the audience that receives the message all
play important roles in the persuasiveness of the message
 The Experimental Section focused on documentary films and the war department’s
orientation movie series

9.  The fact that the films produced little attitude change and that what change did occur
was influenced by people’s individual differences directly contradicted mass society
theory and its assumption that media could radically change even strongly held
beliefs and attitudes
 One of the most important variables the researchers examined was the presentation
of one or two sides of a persuasive argument

10.  Mass media can have a significant influence on the way people vote, particularly in modern
times where media outlets are easily accessible and widespread. Here are some ways in which
mass media can impact the way people vote.
 Information dissemination: Mass media can provide voters with information about candidates,
their policies, and their positions on various issues. This information can influence voters'
opinions and decisions.
 Agenda setting: Mass media can also set the agenda for political discussions and debates,
influencing what issues are considered important and how they are discussed. This can
influence voters' perceptions of what is important when choosing a candidate.
 Framing: Mass media can also frame political issues and candidates in a certain way,
emphasizing certain aspects and downplaying others. This can influence voters' perceptions and
attitudes towards candidates and issues.

11.  Persuasion: Mass media can also attempt to persuade voters to vote for or against a
particular candidate or issue. This can be done through advertising, editorials, or news
coverage.
 Social influence: Mass media can also create a sense of social pressure to vote for a
particular candidate or issue, particularly through social media and online platforms where
opinions can be easily shared and amplified.
 Overall, while mass media is not the only factor that influences how people vote, it can be a
significant one, particularly in shaping voters' perceptions and opinions of candidates and
issues.

12.  Hovland proposed and conducted a systematic program of research.
 He established the Communication Research Program at Yale University, which
was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation
 The program aimed to study the role of communication in social change, with a
focus on mass media and its effects on individuals and society.
 The CRP was one of the first large-scale research programs to use empirical
methods to study the effects of mass communication on attitudes and behavior.

13.  One of the key contributions of the CRP was the development of the two-step flow model
of communication, which posits that media messages are first received by opinion leaders
who then pass on their interpretations and opinions to others. This model challenged the
traditional view that mass media had a direct and powerful effect on audiences.
 The CRP's research had a significant impact on the field of communication studies and
influenced subsequent research on media effects and communication theory.
 Hovland and his group studied the power of source credibility, which they divided into
trustworthiness and expertness.

14.  Persuasion research represented an important shift away from concerns about
the role of propaganda in society and toward a focus on what happens when
people are exposed to abroad range of media content
 Lazarsfeld’s group, empirical media research focused heavily on the study of
media effects, and so the media-effects trend had become the dominant force in
media research findings of effects research were enormously varied and even
contradictory, two interrelated sets of empirical generalizations emerged from
the early research:
 (1) The influence of mass media is rarely direct, because it is almost always
mediated by individual differences
 (2) the influence of mass 104 Section 2 Ferment: Methodological Disputes Divide
the Discipline Copyright 2013

15.  Limited- or minimal effects theory
The theory that media have minimal or limited effects because those effects are
mitigated by a variety of mediating or intervening variables
 Individual differences
Individuals’ different psychological make ups that cause media influence to vary
from person to person
 Social categories
The idea that members of given groups or aggregates will respond to media
stimuli in more or less uniform ways

16.  Cybernetics emerged as an important new field during World War II, partly
because of its use for designing sophisticated weapons (Wiener, 1954, 1961).
Itproved especially useful for communications engineering—the design of
powerful
 Feedback loops. In these systems, ongoing mutual adjustment is possible,
ultimately leading to the achievement of a long-term objective or function.
 Feedback loops enable sources to monitor the influence of their messages on
receivers.
 Provided sophisticated means of detecting subtle changes so that a weapons
system could achieve its objective. We refer to these as communication systems if
their function is primarily to facilitate communication.

17.  The term system is used in communication engineering and cybernetics to
refer to any set of interrelated parts that can influence and control one another
through communication and feedback loops.
 Any representation of a system, whether in words or diagrams, is a model.
 Systems can be relatively simple or quite complex. They can display a high or low
level of internal organization. They can operate in a static fashion, or they can
evolve and undergo profound change over time. They can operate in isolation or
be interconnected with a series of other machines to form an even larger system.
 System are goal oriented.
System that serves a specific overall or long-term purpose

18.  Simple systems models can be used to represent some forms of human
communication.
 1st Example
 2nd Example

19.  This transmission model assumes that a message source dominates the
communication process and that its primary outcome is some sort of effect on
receivers—usually one intended by the source.
 Communication theorists proposed new models of communication processes
with feedback loops in which receivers could influence sources and mutual
influence was possible.