This document provides an overview of several communication theories including: 1. Agenda-setting theory which suggests that media influences what issues the public considers important. 2. Uses and gratification theory which examines how audiences actively use media to fulfill needs like information, identity, and entertainment. 3. Cultivation theory proposes that heavy television viewing shapes peoples' perceptions of social reality in ways that reflect what is portrayed on TV. 4. Gatekeeping theory describes how media professionals control the flow of information reaching the public by selecting which stories to publish or air.

1. Communication Theory
Diksha Jawle,
Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism,
09,
S. K. Somaiya College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Vidyavihar
(Affiliated to the University of Mumbai)

2. Agenda Setting Theory
 Powerful influence of the media
Media tells us what issues are important
 Eg- A person may give more importance to the stock market boom
over the mal nutrition deaths because the media may give more
importance to the former
Media tells public ‘What’ to think about the issue
Eg- The coverage given to a war may supersede all other events and
make people think it is the most important issue
 Media tells public ‘How’ to think about the issue
Eg- The coverage given to the war may be critical of the war, driving
public opinion against it

3. Bernard Cohen (1963): ‘The Press may not be successful much of the
time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in
telling its readers what to think about.’

4.  Lippmann- There is a
world outside, and a picture
in our head
What we know about the
world largely depends on
what the media tells us
Eg- The mal nutrition
deaths in Vidharba were
ignored by a lot of the
English urban media, as a
result of which the middle
class and upper middle class
actually thought that India is
prospering

5. How do we determine the importance of a story
 In newspaper- the length of the story
the position of the story (above fold, below fold)
size of the headline
Eg- A story on the top half of page 1 is more important than a story on the
bottom half of page 2
 In broadcast- the order of the story
the time devoted to a story
Eg- The first story in a TV or radio newscast is considered more important
than the second story

6. Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw1968
Recipients: Undecided voters in North Carolina
Content: Asked to choose most important issue of the day
Analysis: It matched with the actual issues covered by the media during
the election campaign

7. Uses and Gratification Theory
 Audience reads/ views content only if has some ‘use’
from them
Audience has some ‘needs’ which media helps to gratify
(satisfy)
How people use media to gratify or satisfy their needs
Uses that people have from media
a) Surveillance/ Information
b) Personal Identity
c) Personal Relationships
d) Diversion/ Entertainment

8. Surveillance
 Gives information about our immediate environment
 Helps satisfy general curiosity
Helps us solve practical problems (Kitchen Tips)
Personal Identity
 Identifying with people in the media (Identifying with a sympathetic
heroine in K serials)
Finding models of behavior (I should really be like him/ her)
Comparing oneself with others (I am so much more good looking than
that hero)
 Reinforcing personal values (My favorite actor agrees with me!)

9. Personal Relationships
 Using media to substitute for real life companionship (I’m in love with
the heroine of that movie)
Using media to bond with family and friends
Diversion/ Entertainment
 Diverting problems temporarily
Relaxation
 Passing time
Emotional release

10. Medium Theory
 known as Channel theory
Medium affects the perception
McLuhan (1964)- Medium is the message
Channels differ not only in terms of content but also in
regard to how they awaken and alter thoughts
Channels are dominant force
 Focuses more on the medium than what it conveys

11. Eg.- Cotton Sari were originally set up at Breach Candy (elite class), Ritu
Kumar’s designer ads in Vogue (elite class),

12. Hypodermic Needle Theory
Known as Magic Bullet theory
Media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audience
Media injects or shoots the audience with a message designed to
trigger a desired response
Message is bullet, fired from the media gun into the viewers head
Media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the
receiver is powerless to resist the impact of the message
No escape from the message
Public is the sitting duck

14. War of the Worlds, 30th Oct, 1938
Recipients: 12 million people in USA
Content: Orson Welles and Mercury Theater broadcasted
radio drama of H. G. Wells ‘War of the Worlds.’
fictional account of how Martians attack the earth
Analysis: 1 million listeners panicked and fled their homes,
disrupted households, interrupted religious
services, traffic jams, clogged communication
systems, raided grocery stores and began to ration
food

15. Gatekeeping Theory
Regulates flow of information
Kurt Lewin used the term for the first time
Describe a wife or mother as the person who decides which food ends up
on the family’s dinner table
Later applied to communication
White sized upon Lewin’s comment and solidly turned toward
journalism in in 1950
Gatekeeper is the person who decides what shall pass through each gate
Gatekeepers control public’s knowledge of actual events by letting some
stories pass through the system but keeping others out of it.
Gatekeeping can be dangerous as it can lead to abuse of power

17. Cultivation Theory
George Gerbner and his associates at the University of Pennsylvania
Total phenomenon of television
Person watching television excessively got information from it
which shaped his perception on reality
Television modified ones views of the world that he lived in
Did 2 studies
a) Message System Analysis
b) Cultivation analysis

18. Message System Analysis
Content : Drama based television program
Analysis: Showed events and characters shown in the television were
variance with real people and actual situation. This analysis was
not explaining everything so lead to the cultivation analysis.
Eg- criminals (White Collar), doctors (Grey’s Anatomy), police (Castle)
are glamorized in television serials and in real life they hardly get any
publicity
Eg- stereotyping image of women as young, beautiful (Scandal, Grey’s
Anatomy, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl)
stereotyping image of men as macho, smart handsome (Grey’s
Anatomy, White Collar, Castle)
stereotyping image of parents (Friends, How I Met Your Mother, )

19. People addicted to television adapt their lives to the value system and
views that are brought to them by this media tool
Eg- Couch potatoes watching comedy shows believe life is hunky dory
Eg- People viewing more of detective serials tend to act like one
No instantaneous process but acquires over a period of time
3 type of viewers
a) Heavy
b) Medium
categorized on basis of time devoted to television
watching everyday
c) Light

20. Recipients: Heavy and light viewers, both adults and adolescents
Content: a) were they ever involved in violence?
b) how many people did they think worked in the government
security agencies?
c) what was the percentage of violent crimes?
d) was murder more common among strangers or among people
who were known to one another?
Analysis: heavy watcher exaggerated presence of violence in society

22. Dependency Theory
Sandra J. Ball Rokeach and Melvin L. DeFleur
People depend on media to make sense of what is happening in their
lives how to react to situation and at times how to escape from some of
them
Eg- whenever there is a crisis at a macro level we turn to mass media to
understand what has passed and to find out how we should behave in
such a situation
Audience and media depend on each other

23. Two Step Flow Theory
Paul Lazarfeld from Austria
Conducted research in Ohio, USA
Recipients: over 600 people on town
Content: asked whom they would vote for every month for 7 months
leading up to election.
Analysis: most people were early deciders. Only small portion of voters
were converts who changed their mind in between. Early
deciders were heavy users of media. Converts did not use media
much.

24. Heavy users use
media to reinforce
their own opinion
Media does not
directly influence
public
Opinion leaders act
as mediators
Observed certain
interest groups like
politicians,
businessman,
celebrities, etc. serve
as primary opinion
leaders in society

25. Six Degree of Separation
An idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by
way of introduction, from any other person in the world
Because we are all linked by chains of acquaintance
A 'degree of separation' is a measure of social distance between
people
You are one degree away from everyone you know, two degrees away
from everyone they know, and so on.
Concept was popularised by John Guare's 1990 play, later turned
into film

26. Eg.- Facebook is testing the “six degrees of separation” theory by
asking Facebook’s 750 million users, each of whom have an average of
130 friends, to select one Facebook friend to be the “target person.” A
message will then be sent from friend to friend in what they hope is
less than six friends until they get to the target person.

27. A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend is a friend
Six Degree of Separation Theory
Eg- He’s Just Not That Into You, Salaame Ishq, Valentines Day

28. Media gives you exactly what you want… and what you deserve.
Uses and Gratification Theory
(refer slide 35 and link the question)

29. Our perception of the world around us depends on the level of our
education and knowledge, which in turned is shaped by the media.
Discuss the statement.
Agenda Setting Theory
Cultivation Theory
Gatekeeping Theory
Hypodermic Needle Theory
Medium Theory
Dependency Theory

30. The condition of the world you live in is directly proportional to the
amount of time you spend with the media.
 Cultivation Theory
Hypodermic Needle Theory
Medium Theory
Agenda Setting Theory

31. Is the public so naïve that it believes everything that the media says?
If it doesn’t then has media lost its credibility?
Audience Reception Theory
Stuart Hall, a Jamaican
Had interdisciplinary approach of politics and culture.
Felt that a message that popular media conveyed having more than one
meaning and a lot depended on the people to interpret the same.
The interpretation or decoding would in turn depend on the culture of
the receiver.
What the reader interprets and what the media meant maybe different
and this difference is called ‘Margin of Understanding.’

32. Eg- An ad showing a hand closing the lid of a jar full of tomatoes. The
jar was full enough that some of the tomatoes were dripping of the jar
in pieces. The tomatoes were used as a metaphor to the over rising
population. This ad would be difficult for the rural audience to
understand
Eg- Fifty Shades of Grey, Lady Chatterley's Lover (Some consider is as
soft porn, but in the end it is a form of literary work) also add old
Greek paintings

33. Hypodermic Needle Theory
Agenda Setting Theory

34. I HAVE to use a shampoo, a conditioner, a fairness cream, a toothpaste, a
deodorant, wear branded clothes, to look and feel sexy and beautiful!
What theories, effects would you associate with this statement?
 Agenda Setting Theory
Hypodermic Needle Theory
Two Step Flow Theory
Eg.- One Direction launching a perfume brand made it sales beyond 1 lakh
in a month, Olay- Sushmita Sen launch, Chak De India- SRK
Dependency Theory
Eg.- Taj Attacks, Uttarakhand flood, Jessica case

35. With consumers turning into producers, there is nothing called
gatekeeping anymore.
Gatekeeping Theory
Uses and Gratification Theory
Eg.- Cooks shows for a person interested in cooking, Travel shows,
Big Boss, Saas Bahu serials, Golmaal 1, 2, 3, Iron Man 1 and 2, Batman
(Christian Bale), Masti, later Grand Masti, scripting for Vikram Bhatt

36. Is medium really the message? Does it apply to new media?
Medium Theory
Eg.- Cottan Sari were originally set up at Breach Candy (elite class), Ritu
Kumar’s designer ads in Vogue (elite class), Any news through twitter or
facebook (Arab revolution) (Kolavari Di) ( hashtag # system)

37. The media gives us what we want and they are absolutely right in
doing so. After all, media is business.
Noam Chomsky, a political activist and philosopher
Lippmann said public does not have time and intelligence to think
about major issues on their own.
The public should be guided on the issues by a special class.
Chomsky completely rejected Lippmann’s view.
He believed that if all decisions are made by only the special class and
if the public only watches, then the public becomes the spectator and
not a participant in democracy.
He framed a propaganda model which had 5 filters.

38. Among them the very first- OWNERSHIP- major media outlets are
owned by large corporations and these corporations are primarily
interested in profit and try to influence public.
Second- FUNDING- media derives the majority of their funding from
advertisers and not readers. Thus, they are profit oriented business
selling a product to readers and audience.
Uses and Gratification Theory

39. Thank You