Introduction to Communication Science week 3: 3.5 Minimal effects
-
0:09 - 0:13I just explained that the belief in the all-powerful
media -
0:13 - 0:17had fuelled academic research in to the topic of
mass communication. -
0:17 - 0:22Although many anecdotes, like the Martian
Attack, seemed to indicate great effects, -
0:22 - 0:28further scientific exploration actually failed to
prove this hypothesis. -
0:28 - 0:34Many researchers now argued that the effects of
mass communications had been overestimated. -
0:34 - 0:40Also the idea of a passive audience that is either
shot or injected was also rejected. -
0:40 - 0:41Also the idea of a passive audience that is either
shot or injected was also rejected. -
0:41 - 0:46World War I and later World War II propaganda
was again looked at in this light -
0:46 - 0:50and scholars, like the influential psychologist
Carl Hovland, -
0:50 - 0:53found that audience members were often not
passive at all -
0:53 - 0:58but quite able to select messages and block
persuasive attempts. -
0:58 - 1:04Especially when they were aware a forehand
that there was going to be a persuasion attempt -
1:04 - 1:06this is the so called inoculation theory,
-
1:06 - 1:08the core premise of which is basically
-
1:08 - 1:13that a prepared audience is better able to resist
persuasion. -
1:13 - 1:17Also they found that it was often difficult to prove
the power of media in reality -
1:17 - 1:20because there are too many variables in real life
-
1:20 - 1:26to reliably ascertain the effect of one specific
variable like media influence. -
1:26 - 1:28When Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet studied
the effects -
1:28 - 1:32of the Roosevelt presidential campaign of 1940,
-
1:32 - 1:35they found that people were not swayed by the
campaign efforts. -
1:36 - 1:37There was some influence
-
1:37 - 1:40but this had more to do with reinforcement of a
position someone already had -
1:40 - 1:44than with actual change.
-
1:44 - 1:48Another element of the magic bullet theory was
debunked by this. -
1:48 - 1:53Also the researchers found that people were in
fact influenced quite a lot, -
1:53 - 1:57not by the media but by so called opinion
leaders. -
1:57 - 2:01Opinion leaders are those who influence and
inform the people around them. -
2:01 - 2:04Typically opinion leaders expose themselves to
media -
2:04 - 2:08in order to be informed and reinforce their
standpoints with arguments. -
2:08 - 2:08in order to be informed and reinforce their
standpoints with arguments. -
2:08 - 2:15A so called two-step flow model was proposed
were people are influenced by opinion leaders. -
2:15 - 2:18The media use of these opinion leaders was of
course very different -
2:18 - 2:21than the old powerful media model would
suggest. -
2:21 - 2:24They actively sought out media they wanted to
use, -
2:24 - 2:29made selections based on their own opinions,
wants and needs. -
2:29 - 2:34So basically they are quite powerful and not
easily manipulated at all. -
2:34 - 2:36The powerful media paradigm was discarded
-
2:36 - 2:41and scholars like Lazarsfeld proposed a
‘minimal effects’ theory instead. -
2:41 - 2:45Media are only one of many variables in a
situation, -
2:45 - 2:48and often not the most influential one by far.
-
2:48 - 2:52People are more likely to be persuaded through
social means -
2:52 - 2:56and therefore media use and influence should be
studied from this perspective. -
2:56 - 2:59Not viewing the audience as uniform and passive
-
2:59 - 3:02but in fact taking into consideration audience
factors, -
3:02 - 3:07seeing that effects can differ from person to
person and group to group. -
3:07 - 3:12This approach can be characterized by a
famous quote from Berelson -
3:12 - 3:16"Some kinds of communication, on some kinds
of issues, -
3:16 - 3:18brought to the attention of some kinds of people,
-
3:18 - 3:23under some kinds of conditions, have some
kinds of effects." -
3:23 - 3:27Although the minimal effects paradigm was
becoming more popular, -
3:27 - 3:33two things happened that sparked a new popular
belief in the powerful media idea. -
3:33 - 3:37Firstly we gradually learned more and more
about the Holocaust -
3:37 - 3:41and the world needed theories that explained
how this horror could have happened -
3:41 - 3:45and why so many had kept silent during the
reign of Hitler. -
3:45 - 3:49Secondly a new mass medium quickly rose to
prominence, -
3:49 - 3:53drastically changing the media landscape and
people’s daily lives. -
3:53 - 3:54Television.
- Title:
- Introduction to Communication Science week 3: 3.5 Minimal effects
- Description:
-
Download links
1. not in the Coursera site:
Transcript of all Week 3 videos: https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/commscience/transcripts%2FTranscript_Week_3%20Coursera.pdf
This lecture in .webm: http://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/commscience/recoded_videos%2F3.5.a7cb2949a4f69ccfc6ab04c64d1be7da.webm
2. In the Coursera site, but apparently unaffected by the login block, for this lecture:
Subtitle text: https://class.coursera.org/commscience-001/lecture/subtitles?q=51_en&format=txt
Video mp4: https://class.coursera.org/commscience-001/lecture/download.mp4?lecture_id=51
*****Week 3 description:
The linear effect-oriented approach
In week three, the linear effect-oriented approach is discussed and how it developed in the twentieth century. Evolving from a belief in all-powerful effects after World War I to a more nuanced negotiated effects perspective in the sixties. - Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Captions Requested
Claude Almansi edited English subtitles for Introduction to Communication Science week 3: 3.5 Minimal effects | ||
Claude Almansi edited English subtitles for Introduction to Communication Science week 3: 3.5 Minimal effects |