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- 1. Historical trends in the study of media effects: Theory and method
- 2. Historical change • Late 19th Century till 1940s saw a fear of powerful media effects • 1940s through early 1970s was the era of ‘limited effects’ • From 1980s media studies splinter into a wide variety of approaches, with the mainstream view moving toward partial and mediated effects
- 4. Early 20th century • Professionalization of advertising • Development and growth of new mass media technologies • The Great War – England and the U.S. develop propaganda on a large scale – After the war, Bernays and others claim to be able to ‘engineer consent’
- 5. Popular fears of mass manipulation • Sudden and rapid growth of mass media –Newspapers –Periodicals –Movies –Radio
- 6. Social fears • Growth and increasing sophistication of persuasion ‘professions’ – Advertising – Public relations/propaganda • Massive WWI propaganda output – Exorbitant post-warclaims of efficacy post-war by Creel Committee members • Creel • Bernays
- 7. Committee on Public Information • Woodrow Wilson re-elected President in 1916 – Ran on a platform emphasizing “He kept us out of war” • Within a year, was leading the country into war with Germany • Created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) on April 13, 1917
- 8. • "Lead this people into war, and they'll forget there was ever such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of national life, infecting the Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street."
- 9. Edward L. Bernays • Freud’s nephew – Attempted to apply psychoanalysis to propaganda • Used psychological research methods, advertising methods to “manufacture consent” • Tireless promoter of PR as way to control public opinion
- 10. Lasswell’s study of propaganda • Interested in the application of symbol manipulation to influence psychological unconscious – Nationalism and ego-involvement – Manipulation of emotions via propaganda – Tried to take a distanced, ‘uninterested’ position toward propaganda • Identified goals and methods of propaganda • Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War (New York: Knopf, 1927).
- 12. Creel Committee Emphases in their propaganda • Emotional Appeals • Demonization • The War to End All Wars • Dishonesty
- 13. • "Propaganda in the broadest sense is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations. These representations may take spoken, written, pictorial or musical form."
- 14. • "Some of those [persons who participated in World War I] who trusted so much and hated so passionately have put their hands to the killing of man, they have mutilated others and perhaps been mutilated in return, they have encouraged others to draw the sword, and they have derided and besmirched those who refused to rage as they did. Fooled by propaganda? If so, they writhe in the knowledge that they were the blind pawns in plans which they did not incubate, and which they neither devised nor comprehended nor approved."{2} • 2. Harold D. Lasswell. Propaganda Technique in the World War. First edition, 1927. Reprint. New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1972. Page 8.
- 15. Payne Fund Studies: The effects of movies on children Conducted in the late 20's and early 30's • this series of studies occurred in two categories: 1. assess content of films and audience size and composition (Dale) 2. audience effects of themes and messages a. acquisition of information (Holaday and Stoddard) b. attitude change (R.C. Peterson and Thurstone) c. stimulating emotions (Dysinger and Ruckmick) d. harming health (Renshaw, Miller and Marquis) e. eroding moral standards (C.C. Peters) f. influencing conduct (Shuttleworth and May, Blumer and Hauser)
- 16. Payne Fund • Conclusions: – Movies affected the way children dressed, their expectations with regard to sex, led to fear and lost sleep. – Movies also provided some positive role models, innocent entertainment, etc. – Some disconfirmation of the worst fears found in popular culture
- 17. The War of the Worlds • An accidental occurrence seemed to validate some of the worst fears about mass society and the power of the newest mass medium, the radio • Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater of the Air’s broadcast of an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds on Halloween eve, 1938
- 20. Research on the broadcast • The invasion from Mars: A study in the psychology of panic (1940: Princeton University) – Cantril, Gaudet, Herzog
- 21. The establishment of the ‘limited effects’ paradigm End of the ‘powerful effects’ model of media influence
- 22. Columbia School • Paul Felix Lazarsfeld emigrated from Austria to the U.S. in the 1930s. – A mathematician – Interested in the application of mathematics, especially the new statistics, to study of social problems • Sets up research programs at Princeton (Radio Research Bureau) and at Columbia (Bureau of Applied Social Research) that combine study of practical problems with academic methods of research – Model that would be followed by the field from then on. • First studies focus on audience size, reactions to and use of radio programming – As well as a wide array of social concerns that were not communication-oriented
- 23. The People’s Choice • Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet • Study of the 1940 presidential election in Erie county, Ohio • 20th Century--strong, commercially successful newspapers, radio, magazines, that had the ability to say what they wanted to in Western European countries • The research comes from vague ideas of what is worth studying
- 24. Research Questions 1. How do people decide to vote as they do? 2. What were the major influences on them? • "Social characteristics determine political preference."
- 25. Results • Lazarsfeld could predict with 76% accuracy which candidate someone would vote for based on his demographics. That was better than the people themselves could predict. – Prediction is taken as the criterion of validity – "Cross-Pressures" • Opinion Leaders (21%) – ("Have you tried to influence someone on a political issue recently?"; "Has anyone asked your advice recently on a political issue?") – opinion leaders were thought to be a relatively small group of influential people • Lacked evidence of actual influence
- 26. Media influence Whenever a person in the sample changed his/her vote intention, the interviewer asked why: • Democrats mentioned radio most often (30% vs. 20% for newspapers) • Republicans mentioned newspapers (31% vs. 17% for radio).
- 27. • Over half the voters said the media had the most important impact, 2/3 said news media were “helpful” • “Two-step flow” • Conclusion--interpersonal communication most important
- 28. • Those most likely to be predisposed to vote Democratic were exposed to more pro-Democratic propaganda – the analogous situation was true for Republicans • Lazarsfeld decided this showed ‘selective exposure’--those who were predisposed to vote one way or another chose to expose themselves to propaganda that was positive toward the preferred party
- 29. When did they make up their minds? • 1/2 made up their minds before May • Once they knew who won the nomination, another 1/4 made up their mind • 1/4 made up their mind between the nomination and the election • Columbia did another campaign study in 1948, then turned to other concerns – Voting, by Berelson, Lazarsfeld and McPhee
- 30. Impact of the studies • The studies set the parameters of political communication research for over a decade and still influence the field now • Major studies of elections did not even ask about media for several election cycles
- 31. Hovland • Experiments on mass communication: Persuading the American soldier in World War II – Hovland, Lumsdaine and Sheffield (1949) • Studied the impact of showing Frank Capra’s propaganda films in “Why We Fight” series to American soldiers in a training camp – Many were draftees and did not want to fight • Attempted to measure the effects of movies on information acquisition and modification of soldiers' interpretations and opinions, attitudes toward allies, and motivation
- 32. Why We Fight • Films from the series included in the study: Prelude to War, The Nazis Strike, Divide and Conquer, The Battle of Britain
- 33. Battle of Britain • Men in two camps--some were exposed to a film, some not – 2100 in one camp (before/after control group) – 900 in another camp (before/after control group) – 1200 (after-only control group) – Sampling by company units • Units were matched on several demographic variables
- 34. The Battle of Britain • Before and after questionnaires were slightly different – Tried to distract men from wondering why they were answering twice by writing “revised” on the questionnaire • One week between exposure and the second measure • Anonymity was assured
- 35. Results • The movies had a significant impact on factual knowledge • Ex. Why weren’t the Germans “successful at bombing British planes on the ground”? • Ans. “because the British kept their planes scattered at the edge of the field” • Experimental group: 78% correct • Control group: 21% correct
- 36. Results: Learning from films dependent upon education 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Grade School High School College Test Score
- 37. Results • Opinions and interpretations – Effects were not as great – “the heavy bombing attacks on Britain were an attempt by the Nazis to . . .” – Answer: “invade and conquer England” • Experimental group: 58% • Control group: 43%
- 38. Results • General attitudes – Effect was slight – “Do you feel that the British are doing all they can to help win the war?” • Experimental group 7% greater than control • In many cases, only 2-3% positive difference was found
- 39. Results • Morale – Almost no impact at all – Preference to serve overseas rather than in the United States • Experimental group 42% • Control group 39% – Unconditional surrender by Nazis is an important war aim • Experimental group 62% • Control group 60%
- 40. “Sleeper effect” • 9 weeks after exposure – Factual material was forgotten • Retained only about 50% of factual items that 1-week groups remembered – On 1/3 of opinion issues, the long-term group showed less change – However, on more than half of the fifteen issues under study, the long term group showed greater change than the short-term group
- 41. One-sided v. two-sided argument • Radio presentation saying war would be lengthy – Presented either as one-sided argument or with additional 4 minutes discussing view that it would be short – Before/after with control group
- 42. Results • One-sided argument more effective with soldiers who: – Initially supported the idea that it would be a lengthy war – Had not completed high school • Two-sided arguments more effective with soldiers who: – initially felt the war would be short – had a high school degree education or greater
- 43. Yale School • Hovland et al. set up Yale School of research on persuasion • Studied the effect of: – Source characteristics – Message characteristics – Order of presentation – Psychological characteristics of audience
- 44. Source characteristics • Credibility – Topic: Atomic submarines • Sources: J. Robert Oppenheimer/Pravda – Topic: Future of Movie Theaters • Sources: Fortune magazine/A woman movie gossip columnist – Greater persuasion with more credible source • However, after 4 weeks differences had disappeared
- 45. Content • Fear appeals – The more fearful the message, the greater the effect on interest, tension – Less fearful message had a greater effect on intension to change behavior – Fear was thought to invoke some sort of interference
- 46. Channel • The main study here tends to indicate that interpersonal channels are more effective at changing attitudes than are mass media channels.
- 47. Audience factors • Scouts who valued group membership highly were least influenced by speaker who criticized wood craft learning
- 48. Personality Personality variables such as self-esteem, anxiety and depression have an influence on persuadability. Janis's research suggests that people with low self-esteem are likely to be relatively easily persuaded.
- 49. Katz and Lazarsfeld • Personal influence: The two-step flow of communication – Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) • Based on ideas originating in the "People's Choice" • Concerned with the movement of information from media through interpersonal networks • Decatur study of opinion leaders conducted by the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia
- 50. • Assessed opinion leaders’ role in four areas of influence: – 1. marketing – 2. fashion – 3. public affairs – 4. film choice • Delineated the characteristics of opinion leaders – position in the life cycle, SES, social contacts • Marketing—middle-aged women, especially with families • Fashion—younger and single women • Public affairs—older and more educated • Film choice—younger and single
- 51. Research on information campaigns • Cincinnati United Nations campaign – Star & Hughes (1950) • Large-scale information campaign to generate knowledge of and support for UN • Very little effect on knowledge or support • Effects that did occur were concentrated among the already informed rather than those targeted by the campaign
- 52. Some reasons why information campaigns fail • Hyman and Sheatsley’s (1947) review of findings from several surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center • Psychological barriers to information dissemination – The Chronic “Know-Nothing’s” in relation to information campaigns – The role of interest in increasing exposure – Selective exposure produced by prior attitudes – Selective interpretation following exposure – Differential changes in attitudes after exposure
- 53. • 1. Mass communication ordinarily does not serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, but rather functions among and through a nexus of mediating factors and influences. Klapper’s (1960) The Effects of Mass Communication
- 54. • 2. These mediating factors are such that they typically render mass communication a contributory agent, but not the sole cause, in a process of reinforcing the existing conditions.
- 55. • 3. On such occasions as mass communication does function in the service of change, one of two conditions is likely to exist. Either: – a. the mediating factors will be found to be inoperative and the effect of the media will be found to be direct; or – b. the mediating factors, which normally favor reinforcement, will be found to be themselves impelling toward change.
- 56. • 4. There are certain residual situations in which mass communication seems to produce direct effects, or directly and of itself to serve certain psycho-physical functions.
- 57. • 5. The efficacy of mass communication, either as a contributory agent or as an agent of direct effect, is affected by various aspects of the media and communications themselves or of the communication situation (including, for example, aspects of textual organization, the nature of the source and medium, the existing climate of public opinion, and the like).
- 58. • People just don’t change their minds all that easily – They have stable attitudes that flow from their socialization and experience • Can predict attitudes from demographics
- 59. • An excellent example of this is provided by Kendall and Woolf's analysis of reactions to anti-racist cartoons. The cartoons featured Mr Biggott whose absurdly racist ideas were intended to discredit bigotry. In fact 31% failed to recognise that Mr Biggott was racially prejudiced or that the cartoons were intended to be anti-racist (Kendall & Wolff (1949) in Curran (1990)).
- 60. Selectivity • Selective exposure • Selective attention • Selective perception • Selective interpretation • Selective recall • Usually tied to ‘balance models’ of cognitive psychology – Especially ‘cognitive dissonance’
- 61. Modern effects study • In the 1970s and 1980s effects study came under powerful attack from more critical approaches, many developed in Europe • British cultural studies (neo-Marxist) and popular culture studies, postmodernist philosophy, etc. criticized many of the underlying assumptions of effects research
- 62. • Followed the lead within psychology away from social psychology to cognitive information processing – Move away from a narrow focus on persuasion to learning, beliefs, etc.
- 63. Renewed belief in media power • Move toward a belief in stronger effects – Agenda setting effect – Spiral of silence – Social construction of reality – Cognitive effects/learning – Mediation • Lowered expectations for the ‘effects’
- 64. Contemporary media effects • Search for multiple types of effects and the impact of medium and context as well as content • Interactions with multiple concepts – For example, what types of appeals are most effective with elderly men with regard to influencing exercise behavior? – What forms of humor are the most enjoyable for teen girls? – What are the relative influences of fantasy violence on television, movie and videogame audiences?
- 65. Common methods • Laboratory experiments • Surveys • Becoming more common: – Focus groups – Depth interviews – Content analyses tied to social statistics
- 66. Cognitive information processing • Contemporary models of learning/thinking present a series of steps in these processes – Modeled after computers, information theory • Patterns of stability and change have been identified that need explanation – When do similar stimuli elicit similar behaviors, different behaviors or simple inattention?
- 67. CIP • Steps: – Stimulation of sense organs – Maintenance in sensory registers – Short-term memory – Working memory – Stimulation of content in long-term storage – Evaluation and encoding – Storage – Behavioral response
- 69. Stimulation of sense organs • Limited perception of light spectrum, sound waves, touch, etc. • Registers react to environmental change by generating variable electrical impulses that are carried by the nerve system
- 70. • Sensory registers maintain patterns of electrical stimulation for a short time – Separate registers for visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile information • Pattern recognition – Letters, etc. are ‘recognized’ and sent along to the short-term memory or lost/discarded/ignored
- 71. Short-term memory • The small minority of information that passes through the sensory registers and reaches short-term memory is evaluated for the allocation of attention – Limited processing capacity – Practically limited information in the environment
- 72. What draws attention • Physical characteristics of the signal – Contrast – Movement – Intensity • Survival value
- 73. What draws attention • Transitory physical needs – Hunger – Emotion • General human tendencies – Human faces • Generalized learned interests – Politics – Chick flicks
- 74. What draws attention • Transitory intellectual demands – Decision making – Need to write an essay
Editor's Notes
- "...Wilson created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) on April 13, 1917. According to a must-read study by Aaron Delwiche at the School of Communications, University of Washington, "Under the leadership of a muckraking journalist named George Creel, the CPI recruited heavily from business, media, academia, and the art world. The CPI blended advertising techniques with a sophisticated understanding of human psychology, and its efforts represent the first time that a modern government disseminated propaganda on such a large scale. It is fascinating that this phenomenon, often linked with totalitarian regimes, emerged in a democratic state." "Invoking the threat of German propaganda," the study continues, "the CPI implemented 'voluntary guidelines' for the news media and helped to pass the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. The CPI did not have explicit enforcement power, but it nevertheless 'enjoyed censorship power which was tantamount to direct legal force.'" "The tools, techniques and processes developed by the CPI to manipulate the collective attitudes of the public did not disappear with the termination of [WWI]. The heads of the organization went on to apply the lessons learned in time of war to a country at peace. These former CPI agents moved on to Madison Avenue, joined the nascent Public Relations firms and became lobbyists. ""Two years later," the study states, (5) "the Director of the CPI's Foreign Division argued that 'the history of propaganda in the war would scarcely be worthy of consideration here, but for one fact — it did not stop with the armistice. No indeed! The methods invented and tried out in the war were too valuable for the uses of governments, factions, and special interests.' Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, took the techniques he learned in the CPI directly to Madison Avenue and became an outspoken proponent of propaganda as a tool for democratic government. 'It was, of course, the astounding success of propaganda during the war that opened the eyes of the intelligent few in all departments of life to the possibilities of regimenting the public mind,' wrote Bernays in his 1928 bombshell Propaganda. 'It was only natural, after the war ended, that intelligent persons should ask themselves whether it was not possible to apply a similar technique to the problems of peace.'" The absence of public unity was a primary concern when America entered the war on April 6, 1917. In Washington, unwavering public support was considered to be crucial to the entire wartime effort. On April 13, 1917, Wilson created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) to promote the war domestically while publicizing American war aims abroad. Under the leadership of a muckraking journalist named George Creel, the CPI recruited heavily from business, media, academia, and the art world. The CPI blended advertising techniques with a sophisticated understanding of human psychology, and its efforts represent the first time that a modern government disseminated propaganda on such a large scale. It is fascinating that this phenomenon, often linked with totalitarian regimes, emerged in a democratic state.
- One of Lasswell’s most effective techniques of "mobilizing hatred against the enemy, was the use of atrocity stories." Stories such as these bring out feelings of pain, sadness and hatred in people, and make them want to "fight back".
- Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (1901-1976) was one of the major figures in 20th century American Sociology. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau for Applied Social Research, he exerted a tremendous influence over the techniques and the organization of research. "It is no so much that he was an American sociologist," one colleague said of him after his death, "as it was that he determined what American sociology would be." Lazarsfeld was born in Vienna, where he attended schools, eventually receiving a doctorate in mathematics (his doctoral dissertation dealt with mathematical aspects of Einstein's gravitational theory). In the 1920s, he moved in the same circles as the Vienna circle of philosophers, including Otto Neurath and Rudolf Carnap. He came to sociology through his expertise in mathematics and quantitative methods, participating in several early quantitative studies, including what was possibly the first scientific survey of radio listeners, in 1930-31. Lazarsfeld came to America shortly thereafter, securing an appointment at the University of Newark as head of new research center based upon the institutional structures had created in Europe. Under "Administrative Research," as he called his framework, a large, expert staff worked at a research center, deploying a battery of social-scientific investigative methods--mass market surveys, statistical analysis of data, focus group work, etc.--to solve specific problems for specific clients. Funding came not only from the university, but also from commercial clients who contracted out research projects. This produced studies such two long reports to the dairy industry on factors influencing the consumption of milk; and a questionnaire to let people assess whether they shop too much for Cosmopolitan magazine. While at Newark, Lazarsfeld was appointed head of the Radio Project, which was later moved to Columbia. There, it grew into the acclaimed Bureau for Social Research where he spent the rest of his career. One of Lazarsfelds' succesful students was Barney Glaser - propounder of grounded theory (GT) - the worlds most quoted method for analyzing qualitative data. Index formations and qualitative mathematics were subjects taught by Lazarsfeld and are important components of the GT method according to Glaser. Lazarsfeld died in 1976. Bibliography: Hans Zeisel, "The Vienna Years," in Qualitative and Quantitative Social Research: Papers in honor of Paul F. Lazarsfeld, ed. Robert K. Merton, James S. Coleman, and Peter. H. Rossi (New York: Free Press, 1979) Wilbur Schramm, The Beginnings of Communication Study in America: A Personal Memoir, ed. Steven H. Chaffee and Everett M. Rogers (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997) Lazarsfeld, Paul. "An Episode in the History of Social Research: A Memoir." In _The Intellectual Migration: Europe and America, 1930-1960_, ed. Donald Fleming and Bernard Bailyn 270-337. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969. The Radio Project was a social research project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation to look into the effects of mass media on society. In 1937, the Rockefeller Foundation started funding research to find the effects of new forms of mass media on society, especially radio. Several universities joined up and a headquarters was formed at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. The following people were involved: Paul Lazarsfeld - Director of the Radio Project Theodor Adorno - Chief of the Music Division Hadley Cantril - A Princeton psychologist Gordon Allport - another of Lazarsfeld's assistants, went on to be the Tavistock Institute's leading representative in the United States. Frank Stanton - another of Lazerfeld's assistants, went on to be president of CBS. Among the Project's first studies were soap operas, known as radio dramas at the time. The Radio Project also researched the 1938 Halloween broadcast of The War of the Worlds. They found that of the estimated 6 million people who heard this broadcast, 25% thought it was real. Most of the people who panicked did not think that it was an invasion from Mars that was occurring, but rather one by the Germans. It was later determined that because of the radio broadcasts from the Munich crisis earlier in the year, the masses were prone to this. A third research project was that of listening habits. Because of this, a new method was developed used to survey an audience. This was dubbed the Little Annie Project. The official name was the Stanton-Lazarsfeld Program Analyzer. This allowed one not only to find out if a viewer like the performance, but how they felt at any individual moment, through a dial which they would turn to express their preference (positive or negative). This has since become an essential tool in focus group research.
- Mass Medium There is no very clear evidence as to which medium is likely to be the most effective. Lenin and Goebbels both considered film to be the most powerful propaganda medium. TV today has much the same reputation and radio was considered in its early days to be particularly powerful. Television and radio are perhaps considered so effective because they are in our own homes, but there's not much evidence to show that that makes much difference, even though it's one important factor in the BBFC's decisions on how to censor videos. TV and film may be considered especially powerful because they incorporate both sound and vision, but there is some evidence that that may in fact reduce effectiveness. TV is often also considered especially powerful because it is a mass medium, delivering the same message to around 20 million people at a time for the major soaps. However, that may work to its disadvantage when compared with, say, newspapers and periodicals which have highly differentiated markets, allowing much more precise targeting. Research tends to show relatively little effect of any of the mass media - the so-called 'limited effects' paradigm, which emerges quite strongly from the empirical research tradition in the USA. However, it is possible that that is a deficiency of the research rather than of the media. It is often argued that since the American researchers were looking for clearly measurable effects they tended to concentrate on the short-term and thus may have missed the longer term and more diffuse effects. A very important piece of research was conducted by Katz and Lazarsfeld into the effects of radio propaganda in the 1940s. Their research led them to formulate their Two-Step Flow Model of mass media communication, which still underlies much communication practice today. In essence, it emphasises the importance of the influence of our social contacts in influencing our interpretation of media messages. Sophisticated political 'spin doctors' continue to recognise today that the best form of advertising is word-of-mouth advertising. They don't only need to persuade us as individuals of the validity of what they have to say. They must also persuade the people we come into contact with, especially the 'opinion leaders' in our lives. Selective exposure The Labour Party spin doctors know that Conservative Party voters will switch off when the Labour election broadcast is on and vice-versa. We will tend actively to seek out those messages which support the view we already have and avoid those which may challenge it. This applies not only to the mass media, but also to interpersonal communication. For example, it is well known that those with a positive self-image will tend to remember positive comments made about them, and those with a negative self-image will tend to remember the negative ones. (See also the sections on Selective Attention and Cognitive Consistency). Selective attention We maybe can't avoid being exposed to messages we don't like, but there is plenty of evidence that in such a case we won't pay much attention to them. Selective interpretation Even if we are exposed and do attend to messages which conflict with our views, the chances are that we will interpret them in such a way that they do fit what we already believe. However good the Labour Party's arguments might be, the chances are that the Conservative voter will dismiss them as a load of nonsense. An excellent example of this is provided by Kendall and Woolf's analysis of reactions to anti-racist cartoons. The cartoons featured Mr Biggott whose absurdly racist ideas were intended to discredit bigotry. In fact 31% failed to recognise that Mr Biggott was racially prejudiced or that the cartoons were intended to be anti-racist (Kendall & Wolff (1949) in Curran (1990)). Another study referred to by Curran was conducted by Hastorf and Cantril in 1954. Subjects were showed film of a particularly dirty football match between Princeton and Dartmouth and asked to log the number of infractions of the rules by ether side. The Princeton students concluded that the Dartmouth players committed over twice as many fouls as their team. The Dartmouth students concluded that both sides were about equally at fault. The authors concluded that it is not accurate to say that different people have different attitudes to the same thing, as in fact, 'the thing is not the same for different people, whether the thing is a football game, a presidential candidate, communism or spinach.' As Curran suggests, it might be more accurate to say 'believing is seeing' rather than 'seeing is believing'. Interpersonal communication Visual channel Physical attractiveness of the Communicator is certainly important and there are other factors we can be fairly certain of. The following seem to undermine the persuasiveness of a message: In public speaking, we expect rather higher levels of eye contact than in ordinary interpersonal interaction, where we expect the speaker's eye contact to be intermittent and the listener's to be high. In public speaking, we expect the speaker to keep looking at the audience. Our impression of the speaker's expertise is increased if we see them able to speak without constantly referring to their notes. It may also have some impact on their apparent sincerity, since we know that many public speakers' speeches are written for them. Thus, it is not at all uncommon nowadays to see public speakers using the 'truth machine', also known as the 'idiot box', perhaps because President Reagan was the first to use it extensively. The speaker has in front of her an autocue, whose image is projected on the two screens to left and right, thus allowing the speaker to read the speech off the screens while at the same time appearing to look straight through them at the audience. Auditory channel In the auditory channel, a high pitch, lots of hesitations, erm's, like's, sort of's and tag question like 'won't he?', 'didn't he?' etc. will tend to reduce credibility.
- The Bureau of Applied Social Research was established in 1941 and helped make Columbia a pioneering institution in the social sciences. "The Bureau of Applied Social Research was one of the major social research organizations in the mid-20th century," said Columbia Provost Jonathan Cole ( CC'64, GSAS '69), who studied under Lazarsfeld and Columbia emeritus professor Robert K. Merton while a graduate student at Columbia. " The Bureau was designed to develop theoretical ideas that were tested with empirical evidence and research. There was a close linkage between theory and research. In those days, it was about legitimizing the field as well as pursuing discoveries in research." The ground-breaking studies conducted by Lazarsfeld and his colleagues blended several fields of scholarship, such as economics, mathematics, sociology, social psychology and political science. Among the most prominent inquiries dealt with the impact of radio and television on the American public, helping the Bureau become the "birthplace" of mass communication research, according to communication historian Everett Rogers. Innovative studies coming out of the Bureau of Applied Social Research included The People's Choice (Columbia University Press 1944), by Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet, which analyzed how Americans made their voting decisions during the 1940 presidential campaign, and Personal Influence (Free Press 1955), by Elihu Katz and Lazarsfeld, which examined the relationship between the mass media and interpersonal communication in the process of opinion leadership. Other the prominent works to come out of the Bureau were Union Democracy (Free Press 1956), an innovative study of organizations, by Seymour Martin Lipset, Martin Trow and James Coleman, and The Focused Interview Democracy (Free Press 1956) by Merton, Marjorie Fiske Lowenthal and Patricia Kendall. It presented research using what are now called focus groups. "When the Bureau was at its peak, people would often spend 14 to 15 hours a day there, of which three or four hours were devoted to deep conversation with colleagues about the direction of research," Cole said. "It was an exciting place to be. That's what we want to re-create now at ISERP."
- Here are Klapper’s five generalizations quoted verbatim from his introduction to the book: 1. Mass communication ordinarily does not serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, but rather functions among and through a nexus of mediating factors and influences. 2. These mediating factors are such that they typically render mass communication a contributory agent, but not the sole cause, in a process of reinforcing the existing conditions. (Regardless of the condition in question—be it the vote intentions of audience members, their tendency toward or away from delinquent behavior, or their general orientation toward life and its problems—and regardless of whether the effect in question be social or individual, the media are more likely to reinforce then to change.) 3. On such occasions as mass communication does function in the service of change, one of two conditions is likely to exist. Either: a. the mediating factors will be found to be inoperative and the effect of the media will be found to be direct; or b. the mediating factors, which normally favor reinforcement, will be found to be themselves impelling toward change. 4. There are certain residual situations in which mass communication seems to produce direct effects, or directly and of itself to serve certain psycho-physical functions. 5. The efficacy of mass communication, either as a contributory agent or as an agent of direct effect, is affected by various aspects of the media and communications themselves or of the communication situation (including, for example, aspects of textual organization, the nature of the source and medium, the existing climate of public opinion, and the like).
- (Regardless of the condition in question—be it the vote intentions of audience members, their tendency toward or away from delinquent behavior, or their general orientation toward life and its problems—and regardless of whether the effect in question be social or individual, the media are more likely to reinforce than to change.)
- Another study referred to by Curran was conducted by Hastorf and Cantril in 1954. Subjects were showed film of a particularly dirty football match between Princeton and Dartmouth and asked to log the number of infractions of the rules by either side. The Princeton students concluded that the Dartmouth players committed over twice as many fouls as their team. The Dartmouth students concluded that both sides were about equally at fault. The authors concluded that it is not accurate to say that different people have different attitudes to the same thing, as in fact, 'the thing is not the same for different people, whether the thing is a football game, a presidential candidate, communism or spinach.' As Curran suggests, it might be more accurate to say 'believing is seeing' rather than 'seeing is believing'.