levels and kinds of media effects in mass communication

2. CONTENT
Media
Effects
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3. Introduction to Mass Media
The concept “mass media” is a collective term that stands for a broad
variety of print media like newspapers, magazines, books and electronic
media like radio, television, and the Internet. The concept “newspaper,” in
turn, comprises daily and weekly newspapers, and “magazines” publications
like news magazines, fashion magazines, sports magazines, etc. All mass
media offer different features – news analysis, news, editorials, commercial
messages, and so on – and deal with a broad variety of topics – including
domestic and foreign politics, economy, arts, sports. Some mass media
present only visual information (printed media), some only acoustic
information (radio), some primarily moving images (TV, movies), while
some present them all (Internet)
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4. Introduction to media effects
The media effect refers to how particular news and stories that the
media transmits can influence people and society. The media can
pass the information to people using different means such as film,
radio, television, newspapers, magazines, books, video games,
websites, and music.
Whether we realize it or not, what we read, see, and hear in the
media does affect us. Media effects refers to the influence of media
exposure on people, and these effects can be positive or negative.
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5. Introduction to media effects
Example :
An environmental documentary may enlighten us about an important
issue, so the effect is positive as its intent was to educate. A news story
promoting negative information about a person may have a negative
effect as it may damage someone’s reputation. Media effects can also
be both intended and unintended. The documentary specifically
intends to raise public awareness. The negative news story, while
intending to create a negative view of a person, might have the
unintended consequence of evoking sympathy for its subject. These
two examples represent two types of core effects that can occur from
media exposure.
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In order to provide an outline of developments in theory and research, we
begin by interrelating two of the distinctions already mentioned: between
the intended and the unintended, and between the short term and the long
term.
This device was suggested by Golding (1981) to help distinguish different
concepts of news and its effects. He argued that, in the case of news,
intended short-term effects may be considered as ‘bias’; unintended short-
term effects fall under the heading of ‘unwitting bias’; intended long-term
effects indicate ‘policy’ (of the medium concerned); while unintended long-
term effects of news are ideology’. Something of the same way of thinking
helps us to map out, in terms of these two co-ordinates, the main kinds of
media effect process which have been dealt with in the research literature.

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Planned and short term
• Propaganda. Defined as ‘the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions,
manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired
intent of the propagandist (Jowett and O’Donnell, 1999). Propaganda can also be long term.
• Individual response. The process by which individuals change, or resist change, following
exposure to messages designed to influence attitude, knowledge or behaviour.
• Media campaign. The situation in which a number of media are used in an organized way to
achieve a persuasive or informational purpose with a chosen population.
• News learning. The short-term cognitive effect of exposure to mass media news, as measured
by tests of audience recall, recognition or comprehension.
• Framing. As a media effect, refers to the adoption by the audience of the same interpretative
frameworks and ‘spin’ used to contextualize news reports and event accounts. An associated
process is that of priming (where media foreground the criteria for assessing public events or
figures).
• Agenda-setting. The process by which the relative attention given to items or issues in news
coverage influences the rank order of public awareness of issues and attribution of significance.

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Unplanned and short term
• Individual reaction. Unplanned or unpredicted consequences of individual exposure to a media
stimulus. This has mainly been noticed in the form of imitation and learning, especially of
aggressive or
deviant acts (including suicide). The term ‘triggering’ has also been used. Related types of effect
include
strong emotional responses, sexual arousal, and reactions of fear or anxiety.
• Collective reaction. Here some of the same effects are experienced simultaneously by many
people in
a shared situation or context, leading to joint action, usually of an unregulated and non-
institutional
kind. Fear, anxiety and anger are the most potent reactions, which can lead to panic or civil
disturbance.

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Planned and long term
• Development diffusion. The planned use of communication for purposes of long-term
development, campaigns and other means of influence, especially the interpersonal
network and authority structure of the community or society.
• News diffusion. The spread of awareness of particular (news) events through a given
population over time, with particular reference to the extent of penetration (proportion
ultimately knowing) and the means by which information is received (personal versus
media sources).
• Diffusion of innovations. The process of take-up of technological innovations within a
given population, often on the basis of advertising or general publicity. It can be an
unintended as well as an intended effect.
Distribution of knowledge. The consequences of media news and information for the
distribution of knowledge as between social groups. The main reference is to the
closing or widening of ‘knowledge gaps’. A related phenomenon is the digital divide’.

13. Key Issues in Media Effects Definitions
When we look across all the ways that scholars write about media effects, we can see
that there are eight issues that concern them.
These issues are:
1. timing (immediate vs. long term),
2. duration (temporary vs. permanent),
3. valence (negative or positive),
4. change (difference vs. no difference),
5. intention (or non-intention),
6. the level of effect (micro vs. macro),
7. direct (or indirect),
8. and manifestation (observable vs. latent).
When you understand these issues, you can appreciate why we have such a wide variety of
things that have been identified as media effects.
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23. Type of Effects on Individuals
There are six types of effects on individuals. These six differ in terms of the part of
the person affected or the character of the experience of the effect within an
individual.
These six are
1. cognition,
2. belief,
3. attitude,
4. affect,
5. physiology,
6. and behaviour.
All individual-level media effects studies examine how the media exert an influence
on one or more of these six types
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27. Media-Influenced Functions
When any of the six types of effects occur in an individual, we need to
determine whether or not that occurrence was influenced by the media. If
we conclude that the effect was influenced by the media, then we have a
media effect. This does not mean that the media were the sole cause of the
type of effect; instead we mean that the media played some sort of a role in
bringing about that Function How do the media exert their influence? There
are four possible ways. These four ways generally span across all six types of
effects.
These four media-influenced functions are acquiring, triggering, altering,
and reinforcing. The first two of these functions influence immediate effects
that would show up either during the exposure or immediately after The
third-altering-has features that can show up immediately during exposure
as an immediate effect, but it also has other features that may take a longer
period of time to manifest themselves. And the fourth function is a long-
term effect that would take a long time to manifest itself.
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28. Acquiring. Triggering. Altering. Reinforcing.

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Media Effects Template

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Media Effects Template

31. Presentation title 31

32. Types of Media Effects Theories
There are two types of theories when it comes to media effects (direct
and indirect effects). There are also different assumptions as far as
direct effects theory is concerned. The assumptions are as follows:
Media messages have power over other influences
People are passive media consumers, and their responses are
predictable
People are by nature intuitive and irrational
Media is a significant contributor to the ills in society and has
universal and immediate effects
The indirect effects theory, also known as conditional effects theory
asserts that individuals perceive and retain information in different
ways.
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33. Summary
This chapter presents a broad definition of media effects that includes
immediate as well as long-term changes and reinforcements. It includes positive
as well as negative effects and the effects on individuals as well as larger
aggregates, such as the public, institutions, and the media themselves. In order
to organize the many media effects included in this broad definition, the chapter
develops an organizational scheme that is displayed by two Media Effects
Templates— one for individual-level effects and the other for macro-level
effects. Each of these is a two-dimensional matrix that categorizes the thinking
and research of media effects. The individual-level Media Effects Template (MET)
is structured by type of media effects (cognitions, beliefs, attitudes, affects,
physiology, and behaviour) by media influence functions (acquiring, triggering,
altering, and reinforcing). The macro-level MET is an alteration of the individual-
level MET so that it can better organize the much smaller literature of media
effects on larger aggregates.
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34. References
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https://lms.su.edu.pk/lesson/213/media-effects
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0media. 34