Amelia, Emilee and Maggie

1. Attribution Theory and
Media Dependency Theory
By Amelia, Emilee and Maggie

2. "Concerned with how people
interpret events and how this
relates to their thinking and
behavior" - University of Twente
Assumes that people try to
determine people why people do
what they do
"commonsense psychology"
Strong need for individuals to
understand events by attributing
them to the “actors disposition or
characteristics of environment.”
Attribution Theory
http://s3.amazonaws.com/stripgenerator/strip/15/12/67/00/00/full.png

3. Internal v. External Attribution
Internal
Attributing the cause of someone’s
behavior to their personality or
abilities
Example: Someone receives a bad test
grade.
“I guess they didn’t study well enough.”
“They didn’t understand the concepts.”
“They weren’t serious about the exam.”
External
Attributing the cause of someone’s
behavior to situational or outside
factors
Example: You receive a bad test grade.
“That teacher is a harsh grader.”
“I didn’t have much time to study with all
this other work.”
“The notes from class were unhelpful.”

4. Origin and History
Proposed by Heider in 1958.
Heider: classified this as “naive” or “commonsense”
psychology.
Heider: believed people were like amateur psychologists
trying to understand the behavior of others by piecing
together information until they reach a reason or cause.
Weiner and colleagues created theoretical framework that

5. Syrian Refugee Crisis

6. Discussion
How can we apply attribution theory to
the groups of people in these videos?

7. Attribution Theory and Social Media
Social media is a vehicle for comparison
"Likes" on Facebook
Followers on Twitter
Likes and follows on Instagram
News

8. Do you agree or disagree with the reasoning
behind this theory?
Are there other ways attribution theory applies
to social media?
Discussion

9. Media Dependency Theory
http://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/b59de9e9-36c6-494a-a0bc-70d8859e94e3/59944.jpg

10. Discussion
Have you ever been in a time of crisis? How
did you rely on media? What types of media
did you rely on?
Ex. ACA Civic Association Shooting

11. Media Dependency Theory
Media depends on social context
Depend on media to meet certain needs
Two dependency factors:
1. Become more dependent on a type of media that will meet more needs
than a type of media that will only meet a few needs.
2. When social change and conflicts are high, institutions, beliefs and
practices are challenged: forces others to reevaluate and make new
choices. Therefore, reliance on media increases. When times are more
stable, reliance goes down.

12. Origin
Developed in the 1970s
Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur
Formed from uses and gratification
Relates to agenda setting
One of the first theories to recognize the audience as an active piece of the
communication process

13. Discussion
Can you think of any other examples of
media dependency theory in our society?

14. Media Dependency and Social Media
Do we turn to social media in times of crisis?
“Check-ins” on Facebook
Many people use social media as their main sources for news and
communication with others. Do our lives drastically change if we lose those
channels of communication?
Have we become too dependent on social media?
● Turn to social media to hear what others are saying about the news, not just to
consume news.
Police brutality: when we see any police related articles shared on social media

15. Discussion Questions
Are there any benefits to being dependent on social media or
media in general?
Do you think you are dependent on media?
If so, what platforms?
Were you dependent on media 5 years ago?

16. Criticism of Media Dependency
Critics:
Theory attempts to describe the media's
role during crises
Flexible and descriptive theory
(qualitative)
Power of the theory isn't clearly described
Difficult to prove in terms of numbers
and science

17. Sources
http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/Dependency%20Theory/
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/attribution-theory.html#ixzz3lrbBsfwn
http://www.thundertix.com/crowd-safety/the-impact-of-hurricane-sandy-on-venues-and-events
http://communicationtheory.org/media-dependency-theory/
http://uky.edu
https://www.google.com/search?q=internal+v+external+attribution&biw=1055&bih=581&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=
0CAcQ_AUoAmoVChMIrsKtjNn7xwIVgho-
Ch23FQVm#tbm=isch&q=internal+v+external+attribution+model&imgrc=NN8ADGZncPkjTM%3A
http://www.slideshare.net/RyanMarks1/psyco241-ch41understanding-others2012wclass