Mass Society Theories
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Hypodermic Needle
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Direct, strong effects
Media & Intermediaries
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Minimal Effects
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2-step flow
Intermediaries of influence
“readers” are active agents
Agenda Setting
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Opinions of opinion leaders shaped in elite media
Media coverage affects public opinion more than events
in the “real” world
Problems with Media Theories
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Perceptual Gap
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People experience and ascribe more media
influence than theories predict
Narrow range of effects examined
 Narrow range of evidence sought
 Problems in measurement
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Deep, Gradual Effects
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Sense-making
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Socialization
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Media combined with popular wisdom, other
influences
Media shapes undeveloped thinking
Cultivation
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World view shaped over time
Cultivation
Long term exposure
 Little or no mitigating experience
 Skewed sense of “real world”
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More violent
 Stereotypes
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Media & the Social World
Active Audience
Media Message/
Product
Social World
Technology
Media Industry
Adapted from Croteau & Hoynes, 2000
Social Construction of reality
 Structure & Agency
 Media and Institutions
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Concentration
 Conglomeration
 Integration
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Political power of media corporations
Integration
Music
Books
Film
Musicians
Authors
Actors
Record Label
Publisher
Studios
CD
Manufacture
Printer
Film/Video
Manufacture
Record Club
Trucking
Theaters
Rec. Stores
Bookstores
Video Stores
Pressures on Regulation
Political
 Commerical
 Technological
 TCA 1996
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Ideology
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Ideological analysis
Structures & agency
 Fit between images/texts and ways of thinking
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Hegemony
Naturalizes relationships, outlooks
 Media bring images & point of view
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