This document outlines the schedule and readings for a course on media and elections. It includes 12 sections covering topics like the media's role in campaigns, media effects on public opinion, and strategies for managing the news. It also announces a conference on "The Polarized Electorate" to be held at the end of the term. The conference will feature presentations from researchers using experimental methods to study how polarized communications can drive divisions among the public.
2. VII. Media and Election Campaigns (Oct. 11, 16, 18) will discuss under XI.
Read: Iyengar, Media Politics, Ch. 6 (“Campaigning Through the Media”)
VIII. Media Effects on Public Opinion (Oct. 23, 25, 30)
Read: Iyengar, Media Politics, Ch 8 (“News and Public Opinion”)
IX. Sources and Consequences of Americans’ Distrust of the Media (Nov. 1, 8)
Read: Ladd, Why Americans Hate the Media, Chs 5-7, pp. 108-193.
November 6th: Election, Academic Holiday
X. Media and Campaign Effects (Nov. 13)
Read: Iyengar, Media Politics, Ch 9 (“Campaigns that Matter”),
XI. Strategies for Managing the News (Nov. 15, 20):
Read: Iyengar, Media Politics, Ch 7 (“Going Public: Governing Through the
Media”) Ch. 10 (“The Consequences of Going Public”)
Nov. 22: Thanksgiving break!
XII. Conclusion (Dec. 6)
Read: Iyengar, Ch 11 (“Evaluating Media Politics”)
Ladd, Why Americans Hate the Media, Ch. 8
Dec. 7: Conference, The Polarizing Effects of Political Communications, Young Library
Auditorium
3. The Polarized Electorate:
Date: Friday, December 7, 2012 (All day)
Location: Young Library Auditorium, Gallery
James N. Druckman (the Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science
at Northwestern University) uses experimental methods to show how
the framing of communications from polarized parties drives the
public apart. Paper here.
Dan Kahan (the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of
Psychology at Yale University) uses survey experiments to show how
people’s cultural identities shape their perceptions of threat and
scientific research. Paper here.
Kevin Arceneaux (Political scientist, Temple University) uses
innovative media experiments to study the impact of polarized news
shows, like Fox and MSNBC, where audiences can tune in to news that
reinforce their political biases and avoid exposure to contrary
information.
4. Strong Media:
Early studies raised fears that mass media could be a
powerful propaganda tool
War propaganda
Hypodermic model
Gerbner’s "cultivation" model
10. Nazi propaganda
"The Jew in his element: With
Blacks in a Parisian night club.”
11. "Workers of the mind and hand! Vote
for the front soldier Adolf Hitler!“
"Enough! Vote Hitler!"
"Long live Germany!."
12.
13. "Youth Serves the Führer. All 10-year-olds
into the Hitler Youth.“ (mandatory in 1936)
"Hitler is building. Help him. Buy
German goods."
14. Types of early war propaganda
Positive: The first type of propaganda was
that which motivated the viewer by
instilling patriotism, confidence and a
positive outlook. Patriotic colors of red,
white and blue were predominate. Pictures
of fists, muscles, tools and artillery convey
American strength.
Negative: The second type of propaganda
showed people grim, unromantic visions of
war. They depict the human cost of war,
confronting the viewer with corpses,
bloodshed, and gravestones. These images
appeal to darker impulses, fostering feelings
of suspicion, fear and even hate.
15. Film: Triumph of the Will
(1935, German: Triumph des Willens), propaganda film
by German filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, commissioned by
Hitler.
16. “Birth Of A Nation,” U.S., 1915
Sympathetic portrayal of white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan in the South after Civil War.
17. “Why We Fight” series, Frank Capra
Know Your Enemy--Japan The Nazis Strike
(WWII)
19. BASIC ELEMENTS OF PROPAGANDA
Propaganda is an attempt to influence people through the manipulation of symbols and the
psychology of the individual by playing on the individual’s prejudices and emotions rather
than the merits of the message.
Repetition - owing to the infantile limitations of collective memory, a message must be
continuously propagated in order to take hold within the collective consciousness.
Simplicity - The message must be designed in such a way that it appeals to or is quickly
understood by the lowest common intellectual denominator of the collective. This is not only
true because of the vast ignorance of the masses, but also because the collective attention span
is virtually nonexistent. We now live in a world of sound-bite discourse. The simple lie always
conquers the complex truth.
Imagery - The most powerful propaganda is embedded within appealing imagery. This
imagery could be pictorial or descriptive. This is why movies and music are such potent forms
of propaganda.
Sentiment - The message must contain as little detail as possible, and instead be designed in
such a way that it appeals to some strong emotion or sentiment—such as sex or sympathy.
The exclusion of detail allows for the quicker processing of the message, while the underlying
sentiment reinforces it. The message need not be logically or factually based, this only clouds
the affective force of the message. If any logic or fact is included, it must be very simple and
plain, requiring virtually no processing time — the use of cliches and platitudes is quite
effective.
20. Hypodermic Needle Theory
Or: Magic Bullet Theory
Mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on
its audiences
Mass media can influence a very large group of people
directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them
with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired
response
Mass publics are isolated individuals, passive, highly
vulnerable and messages are unmediated
Examples:
War propaganda
"War of the Worlds“ radio broadcast
New media introduction
23. Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory
Heavy exposure to mass media, namely television, creates and cultivates attitudes
more consistent with a media reality versus actual reality.
Heavy viewers' attitudes are cultivated primarily by what they watch on television.
Heavy viewers make assumptions about violence, people, places, and other
fictionalized events that do not reflect reality.
Evidence consists of the correlation of television content with data accumulated
from surveyed audience members.
E.g., increased fear of walking alone at night,
and a mistrust of people in general, violent behavior.
24. Limitations of Cultivation Theory
Theoretical: Unmediated messages, vulnerable
audiences.
Learning is far more conditional.
Methodological: Correlational evidence raises
questions of:
What is causing what?
Measures of exposure to media
Self-selection effects
Question: what if we found that people who watch
more television are less trusting of the government?
25. Empirical Support for strong
media models?
Strong media confronts evidence from panel surveys
and experimental studies in the U.S. (below)
Without (authoritarian) control over all messages,
strong media models are often unrealistic and
exaggerated
26. Weak Media:
Research on persuasion from 1940’s (e.g., Paul
Lazarsfeld’s classic 1940 panel survey study in Ohio)
to 1970’s concluded that media have "minimal effects."
This became the conventional wisdom.
Limited effects:
Psychological factors: perceptual screen
Social factors:
interpersonal factors
2-step flow
Economic factors
Result is reinforcement of existing
predispositions
29. Weak Media?
Reevaluating the conventional wisdom: Problems with
narrow definitions (of media, media effects, messages,
etc.); political and technological developments; and
methodological considerations.
Methodological concerns:
Survey research as too blunt to capture cause & effect of media
influence, especially subtle effects that may be short-term but
critical in an election.
Other, more subtle effects, not just attitude change
New era of New Media
