The document summarizes four eras in the development of mass communication theories: 1) Era of mass society theory from 1850-1940 focused on media's negative impact on society. 2) Era of scientific perspective from 1940-1950 saw Lazarsfeld introduce empirical research challenging mass society ideas. 3) Era of limited effects from 1950-1960s saw empirical research further support limited media effects. 4) Era of cultural criticism from 1960-1980s saw non-empirical European theories challenge the dominant limited effects view.

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AMITY SCHOOL of COMMUNICATION
BJMC 2nd
SEM
UNDERSTANDING MASS COMMUNICATION
MR. ANKIT KASHYAP

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Four Eras
of
Mass Communication

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Four eras in mass communication
theories
• Era of mass society theory (1850-1940)
• Era of scientific perspective on mass media
(1940-1950)
• Era of limited effects (1950-60s)
• Era of cultural criticism (1960s-1980s)

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Era of mass society theory 1850-1940
• Mass Communication theories begins with a review
of some of the earliest notions about media. These
ideas were initially developed in the later half of the
19th
century as new media technologies were invented
and popularized. Although some theorists were
optimistic about new technology, most were
extremely pessimistic (Brantlinger, 1983). They
blamed new industrial technology for disrupting
peaceful, rural communities and forcing people to
live in urban areas merely to serve as a convenient
workforce in large factories, mines or bureaucracies.

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Theorists were fearful of cities because of their crime,
cultural diversity, and unstable political systems. For
many social thinkers, mass media symbolized
everything that was wrong with the 19th
century urban
life. The dominant perspective that emerged during
this period is referred to as mass society theory. It
began as a collection of contradictory notions – some
quite radical, others quite reactionary.

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In general mass society ideas held strong appeal for any
social elites whose power was threatened by change.
Media industries such as ‘penny press’ were a
convenient for elites’ criticism. The media of the time
were easily attacked as symptomatic of a sick society –
a society that needed to either return to old values or be
forced to adopt a set of totally new values.

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In time, the leaders of the Industrial Revolution gained enormous
influence over social change. They strongly favored all forms of
Technological Development, including mass media.
In their view technology was inherently good as it facilitated control
over the physical environment, expanded human productivity and
generated new forms of material wealth.
New technology would bring an end to social problems and lead to
the development of an Ideal social world.
But in the short term, industrialization brought with it enormous
problems – exploitation of workers, pollution and social unrest.

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Today, the fallacies of both the critics of technology and its
advocates are readily apparent.
Mass society notions greatly exaggerated the ability of media to
quickly undermine social order. These ideas failed to consider
that media’s power ultimately resides in the freely chosen uses
that audiences make of it.
Technology advocates were also misguided and failed to
acknowledge the many unnecessary, damaging consequences that
resulted from applying technology without adequately
considering the impact.

9. Name of InstitutionImportant Theories
• Bullet Theory
• Propaganda Theory

10. Name of InstitutionBullet Theory
• Also called as hypodermic needle theory
• It holds that an intend message is directly
received and completely accepted by
listener. It assumes that the media’s
message is a bullet fired from the “media
gun” into viewer’s head.
• Receivers are passive and defenseless
• Media have direct, immediate and poerful
effect to those who pay attention.

11. Name of InstitutionPropaganda Theory
• Media propagates any idea with direct
impact on the mass society.
• Audience here was also passive and
defenseless
• The ideas used to propagate at that time
were highly influenced by the politics.

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Era of scientific perspective on
mass media (1940-1950)
During the 1930’s, world events seemed to continually confirm
the truth of mass society ideas. In Europe, reactionary and
revolutionary political movements used media in their struggles
for political power.
German Nazis introduced propaganda techniques that ruthlessly
exploited the power of new media technology like motion
pictures and radio.
All across Europe, totalitarian leaders like Hitler, Stalin and
Mussolini rose to political power and were able to exercise
seemingly total control over vast populations.

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Private ownership of media, especially broadcast
media, was replaced by direct government control in
most European nations. The purpose was to use media
for the service of the society. But the unintended
outcome in most cases was to place enormous power in
the hands of ruthless leaders who were convinced that
they personally embodied what was best for all their
citizens. Exception was BBC, an independent public
corporation.

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At the very peak of their popularity, mass society
notions came under attack from Lazarsfeld,(1941), an
Austrian researcher and scientist. He argued that it
wasn’t enough to merely speculate about the influence
of media on society. Instead he proposed conducting
carefully designed, elaborate field experiments in which
he would be able to observe media influence and
measure its magnitude.

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It was not enough to assume that political
propaganda is powerful – hard evidence was
needed to prove the existence of such effects
(Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet, 1944).
Lazersfeld’s most famous efforts, the “Voter
Studies”, actually began as an attempt to
demonstrate the media’s power, yet they
proved, at least to him and his colleagues, just
the opposite.

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By the early 1950s, Lazerfeld’s work had generated an
enormous amount of data based on which he concluded
that media were not nearly as powerful as had been
previously imagined.
Instead, he found that people had numerous ways of
resisting media influence and were influenced by many
competing factors. Rather than serving as a disruptive
social force, media seemed to reinforce existing social
trends and strengthen the status quo.

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He found little evidence to support the worst
fears of mass society theorists. Though
Lazarsfeld never labeled his theory, it is now
referred to as the Limited-effects perspective.
These views media as playing a very limited role
in the lives of individuals and larger society.

18. Name of InstitutionImportant Theories
• Two Step flow theory
• Lasswell’s Model
• Persuasion Theory
• Limited Effect Theory

19. Name of InstitutionTwo-Step Flow Theory
• Flow of information takes place in two steps.
First from Mass Media to opinion leaders and
then from opinion leaders to the mass society.
• Media are not so powerful because there are
resistance to their messages. Resistance is
based on psychological individual traits & crucial
role is played by
• Opinion Leaders
• Social Context

20. Name of InstitutionPersuasion Theory
• Subtle change in the attitude of the
receiver.
• Any form of persuasive communication
changes the attitude of the receiver.
Attitude on the other hand changes the
behavior .

21. Name of InstitutionLasswell’s Model
• It is a five step process.
• Who says (Source)
• What (Message)
• In which channel (Media)
• To Whom (Receiver)
• With What effect (Feedback)

22. Name of InstitutionLimited Effects Theory
• Explained in Slide No- 4-7. Refer to
Previous slides.
• Basically, Paul Lazersfeld experiment on
Voting Behaviour. He explained that the
role of media in deciding the voting
behavior is limited.
• 3 steps followed by him are…
• Contd…..

23. Name of Institution3 Steps by Lazersfeld
• 1. Activate floating voters to take a
decision
• 2. Reinforce the preference in convinced
voters.
• 3. Convert convinced voters to switch their
preference.
• Conclusion- He concluded that media had
some kind of influence only at step 2.

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Era of limited effects (1950-60s)
During the 1950s, limited-effects notions about media
continued to gain acceptance within academia. Several
important clashes occurred between their adherents and
those who supported mass society ideas (Bauer and
Bauer, 1960).
In 1960, several classic studies of media effects provided
apparently definitive support for the limited-effects
notions.

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By 1961, V.O. Key had published Public Opinion and American
Democracy, a theoretical and methodological tour de force that
integrated limited-effects notions with social and political theory to
create a perspective that is now known as elite pluralism. This
theory views society as a number of interlocking pluralistic groups
led by opinion leaders who rely on media for information about
politics and social world.
Advocates of mass society notions came under increasing attack as
“unscientific” or “irrational” because they questioned “hard
scientific findings”.

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By the mid-1960s, the debate between mass society and limited
-effects notions appeared to be over – at least within the mass
communication research community.
The body of empirical research findings continued to grow, and
almost all these findings were consistent with the latter view.
Little or empirical research supported mass society theory. This
was not surprising because most empirical researchers trained at
this time were warned against its fallacies.

27. Name of InstitutionImportant Theories
• Play Theory
• Uses & Gratification Theory
• Agenda Setting Theory
• Dependency Theory
• Dissonance Theory

28. Name of InstitutionPlay Theory
• Given by William Stephenson
• First function of media is to provide
entertainment
• He said that one should be subjective and
psychological rather than being objective and
sociological
• 2 points to explain play theory..
• A) Maximize the communication pleasure in this
world
• B) Show the extent of autonomy achievable from
an individual respect to the social control by his
socio-cultural system.

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Uses & Gratification Theory
• “What the media do to the people, to what
the people do with the media”
• USES- It assumes that audiences are
active and willingly expose themselves to
the media
• GRATIFICATION- It refers to the rewards
& satisfaction by audience after the use of
media.

30. Name of InstitutionAgenda Setting Theory
• Given by Maxwell Mc Combs & Don Shaw
• It states that media have the ability to advise or tell
audiences what issues are major & relevant, thus
setting the agenda. They can achieve this by
choosing what stories to consider newsworthy and
how much prominence and space they give them.
• Key Features
• 1. The role of mass media, particularly news media is
to provide filtered information in order to create a
distorted view of reality.
• 2. Media focus on certain issues depicting them as
more important than others because they want the
public opinion to perceive them as more important.

31. Name of InstitutionDependency Theory
• Integral relationship between audience,
media & larger social system
• Learning from experiences in real life is
limited
• Audience depend largely on media to
gather information they need
• Prolonged use of media triggers a
dependence

32. Name of InstitutionDissonance Theory
• When confronted by new/conflicting
information, people experiences a kind of
mental discomfort.
• The level of dissonance is decided by 3
factors…
• A. Selective Exposure
• B. Selective Perception
• C. Selective Retention

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Era of cultural criticism (1960s-1980s)
Though most mass communication researchers in the United States found
limited-effects notions and empirical research findings on which they were
based persuasive, researchers in other parts of the world were less convinced.
Mass society notions continued to flourish in Europe, where both left-wing
and right-wing concerns about the power of media were deeply rooted in
World War II experiences with propaganda. Europeans were also skeptical
about the power of scientific, quantitative social research methods to verify
and develop social theory (they saw them as reductionist – reducing complex
communication processes and social phenomena to little more than narrow
propositions generated from small-scale investigations). This reductionism
was widely viewed as a distinctly American fetish. Some European academics
were resentful of the influence enjoyed by American after World War II. They
argued that American empiricism was both simplistic and intellectually sterile.
Although some European academics welcomed and championed American
ideas, other strongly resisted them and argued for maintaining approaches
considered less biased or more traditionally European.

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One group of European social theorists who vehemently resisted
postwar U.S. influence was the neo-Marxists (Hall,1982). These
left-wing social theorists believe that media enable dominant
social elites to maintain their power. Media provide the elite with
a convenient, subtle, yet highly effective means of promoting
worldviews favorable to their interests. Mass media can be
viewed, they argue as a public arena in which cultural battles are
fought and a dominant or hegemonic culture is forged. Elites
dominate these struggles because they start with important
advantages. Opposition is marginalized, and the status quo is
presented as the only logical, rational way of structuring society.
Within neo-Marxist theory, efforts to examine media institutions
and interpret media content came to have high priority.

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During the 1970s, questions about the possibility of powerful media effects
were again raised within U.S. universities.
Initially, these questions were often advanced by scholars in the humanities
who were unrestrained by the limited effects perspective and untrained in the
scientific method. Their arguments were routinely ignored and marginalized
by social scientists because they were unsupported by “scientific evidence.”
Some of these scholars were attracted to European-style cultural criticism.
Others attempted to create an “authentic” American school of cultural studies
– though they drew heavily on Canadian scholars like Harold Innis and
Marshall McLuhan (Carey, 1977).
This cultural criticism, although initially greeted with considerable
skepticism by “mainstream” effects researchers, gradually established itself
as a credible and valuable alternative to limited-effects notions.

36. Name of InstitutionCultivation Theory
• The Cultivation Theory is a mass communication
theory that suggests a shaping - cultivating - cumulative
long-term effect of TV media on the social reality of
viewers.
Origin of Cultivation Theory
• The Cultivation Theory has been developed by professor
George Gerbner from Annenberg School of
Communications of Philadelphia, US, in 1967-1974. He
was conducting research called “Cultural Indicators
Program” about the impact of violence broadcasted in
TV programs on individuals.

37. Name of InstitutionCultivation Theory
• His early hypothesis aimed to demonstrate that a
massive use of media leads to an increase in
acceptance of violence and in the engagement of cruel
behaviors. Gerbner started considering TV as a new
social agent competing with traditional ones such as
family, school, church and peer groups. Analyzing TV
programs, especially fictions, he divided audiences in 3
groups:
• Low Users, those who watch TV less than 2 hours
a day.
• Normal Users, those who watch TV from 2 to 6
hours a day.
• Heavy Users, those who watch TV for more than 6
hours a day.