Characteristics, Functions and Effects of Mass Communication

Professor notes

Media Effects

Media does affect all of us
Sometime media’s affect is intentional like propogenda, other times, it is not unintentional
Example: Weather forecast
Wear a coat or carry umbrella
Salmonella(food poison) Outbreak, stop eating melon => Affect food industry
Having bias of white people
Social network also affects us, but media also does
Two media effects
reciprocal effect: ex, boyfried
Exampe: Kate Middleton, media affected how she act
George Floyd Murder
Media coverage made people to do more
boomerang effect
Media tries to promote some change, but the change is not what you wanted
Stakes get made
Story could go viral
Piece… leave out important information, not the whole thing
Sometimes, information is excluded, and distortes the meaning
President Teresa Sullivan resigned
If getting rid of this university president…
People in the US couldn’t see what is going out there
What they wanted was banning her, but instead had outpour of support, forced to reelect her
Cultivation Theory
Exposure to television, shapes our social reality
Can give us a distorted view
Reality: World is not as dangerous as we are concerned
-Prime-time(Evening) television
Lots of people watch television at that time..
-How we see ethnic minority
Television shows, have an unrealistic view of a specific country in an outsider view
Not the way it is..
-Heavy televisions viewers tend to view the world dangerous compared to the light television viewers
-See immigration as violence and use the terms invasion
=> People think we have to stop this
News start in 11 O’Clock, they do advertisements, and make people think you’re gonna die when you don’t watch the tv
-THe odds of being a victim of violence within the next week
Heavy viewers: Have about a 10% chance
Light viewers: Have about a 1% chance
If chance is remote, odds of victims of violence 1 in 10,000
Immigrants < Native Americans
-Think more people are involved in law enforcement and that officers, and think they use weapons much more than they do in reality
-Television shows, middle class situations
Poor people don’t get the represenetation
Reason: Have money..
Media has business affecting the contents
-In reality, they are poor
Effects on media