📘 Chapter 5: The Effects of Mass Communication –

Introduction
🔍 Understanding Media Effects

Potter (1998) compares the media to the weather—both are constant, pervasive forces whose
effects are complex and difficult to predict. Unlike the weather, however, media effects are
not immediately visible or felt, making them harder to recognize and measure. Although
extensive research has been done on media effects, the results remain inconclusive.

The chapter aims to raise awareness of the different possible media effects. Understanding
these effects is:

 Strategically important: Knowing how media messages can influence people under
certain conditions is valuable for campaigns in politics, marketing, and social
awareness.
 Scientifically important: Studying media effects helps improve the positive impact
of media on individuals and society.
 Ethically important: Media professionals have a responsibility to understand how
their work may affect people and communities.

CATEGORISING MEDIA EFFECTS

Grossberg, Wartella and Whitney (1998:278–284) suggest that we
distinguish between the following different kinds of media effects:

 Cognitive Effects: Media can influence what we know and how we think (e.g., shaping our
views on racism).

 Affective Effects: Media can influence our emotions (e.g., evoking feelings about child
abuse, terrorism, or violence).

 Conative (Behavioural) Effects: Media can influence our actions or behaviours (e.g.,
inspiring political protest).

 Manifest vs. Latent Effects:

 Manifest: Obvious and recognized effects.

 Latent: Hidden or unconscious influences.

 Intended vs. Unintended Effects:

 Intended: Planned by the media (e.g., HIV/AIDS awareness).

 Unintended: Unplanned side effects (e.g., inadvertently spreading harmful
information).

 Timescale of Effects:

 Short-term: Effects last only during or shortly after media exposure (e.g., feeling
motivated by a fitness article but forgetting it later).
  Intermediate: Repeated or related media messages (like a campaign) can lead to
changes in thoughts and behaviour over time.

Long-Term and Other Media-Induced Effects

1. Long-Term Media Exposure:

o Repeated exposure to media messages over time (e.g., on violence,
pornography, environmental issues, or anti-smoking) can gradually influence
attitudes and behaviours.
o Example: Long-term exposure to anti-smoking ads may lead someone to quit
smoking.
2. McQuail’s (2000) Five Types of Media Effects:
o Intended change
o Unintended change
o Minor or facilitated change (whether intended or not)
o Reinforcement of existing beliefs (no change)
o Prevention of change

These effects can happen at various levels: individual, societal, institutional, or

cultural. They also vary by:

o Time: short-term vs. long-term

o Intentionality: planned vs. unplanned
3. Planned Media Effects:
o Propaganda: Deliberate campaigns to manipulate public opinion by focusing
on the negatives of an opponent, often withholding balanced information.
o Media Campaigns: Targeted efforts to inform or influence (e.g., product
advertising, AIDS awareness, literacy, education, climate change).
4. Unplanned Media Effects:
o The media may unintentionally contribute to:
 Cultural change
 Socialization (how individuals learn societal norms and behaviours)

Media Effects and Short-Term Theories

Additional Types of Media Effects:

1. Reality-Defining: Media shape how we understand and interpret everyday events and
issues.
2. Institutional Change: Media can influence changes within social or political
institutions.
3. Collective Reaction: Media can trigger group or societal responses.
4. Media Violence: Exposure to violent content can lead to aggressive behaviour in
individuals or groups.

These effects can be short-term or long-term.

Effect Theories (based on De Fleur & Dennis, 1994)

Short-Term Effect Theories:

 Media have direct and immediate effects under specific conditions, such as during
war, crisis, or through persuasive advertising.

Key Short-Term Theories:

1. Hypodermic Needle Theory (Magic Bullet Theory):

o Origin: 1930s–1940s.
o Assumes media have strong, direct, and immediate effects.
o Media messages are like injections that directly "inject" ideas into passive
audiences.
o Audience is seen as helpless and easily influenced.
o Mainly supported by early radio research.
2. Two-Step Flow Theory (Mediating Factors Theory):
o Suggests media effects are filtered through opinion leaders, who then
influence others.
3. Uses and Gratifications Theory:
o Focuses on how audiences actively use media to fulfill specific needs and
desires (e.g., entertainment, information)

4. The hypodermic needle theory, which suggests that media messages have a direct and
powerful effect on audiences, was supported by Hadley Cantril’s 1940 study of the
1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast. The broadcast caused panic among listeners
who believed it was real, demonstrating radio’s potential to incite immediate
reactions. However, such findings must be viewed in the context of their time—when
radio was a dominant and trusted medium, and alternative media were limited.
5. Though the theory doesn't strictly apply to television, film, or the press, modern fears
about media influence—such as claims that TV negatively affects children—reflect its
assumptions. In the 1960s, attention shifted from radio to TV, particularly concerns
about violence and sex. Despite research often disproving these fears, moralists,
politicians, and the media continue to amplify them without scientific backing.
6. Moral Panic and Media:
Moral panic arises when certain behaviors or changes are seen as threats to the
dominant culture's morals, often exaggerated by the media in a sensational and
stereotypical way. This is linked to the concept of anomie, a state of normlessness
that occurs during societal change. In South Africa, social transitions since the 1990s
(e.g., changes in laws on abortion, land, and gay marriage) have sparked such panics,
amplified by the media. The media both reflects and fuels public debate, often
creating a sense of widespread "public outcry" that may not truly represent public
opinion.
7. Critique of Media Surveys:
Studies (like Howitt and Cumberbatch, 1977) show that supposed public concern over
media content (e.g., violence) is often shaped by the media itself, and people may
privately enjoy content they publicly condemn. This questions the reliability of
surveys and experiments that claim to measure media effects on morality.
8. Two-Step-Flow Theory:
Introduced in the 1950s, this theory challenged the idea of direct media influence. J.T.
 Klapper (1960) argued that media effects are mediated by many factors. People are
not passive recipients; they engage with media selectively based on their background,
knowledge, experience, and expectations.

elective Media Exposure and Mediating Factors:

People engage with media selectively, choosing content that aligns with their preferences,
understanding, and values. Media messages are further filtered by social groups (family,
friends, colleagues) through discussion and shared interpretation. Opinion leaders such as
parents, teachers, and religious or political figures also influence how media messages are
understood. Additionally, in a free-market media environment, audiences are exposed to
multiple, often conflicting, interpretations across various platforms (TV, radio, internet, etc.).

Klapper’s Conclusions on Media Effects:

 Media alone is neither a necessary nor sufficient cause for behavioral change—it
works alongside mediating factors.
 Media can reinforce existing behaviors or contribute to change, depending on the
context.
 In some contexts, like authoritarian or developing societies, media may have a
stronger influence due to fewer mediating factors.
 Media effects are dependent on situational and contextual factors.

Overall Insight:
Klapper and others confirmed Bernard Berelson’s classic view that media effects are limited
and not as direct or powerful as once believed. They are shaped by personal, social, and
situational influences.

Two-Step-Flow Theory:
This theory views media users as active members of structured societies who interpret media
through the lens of their social groups. It shifted the focus from “What does the media do to
people?” (hypodermic needle theory) to “What do people do with the media?”—a question
that laid the foundation for the Uses and Gratifications Theory.

Uses and Gratifications Theory:

This theory explores why and how people use media, based on their needs and the
satisfaction they gain from media use. Key findings include:

 Diversion: People use media for escapism and emotional release from daily routines
or problems.
 Personal Relationships: Media offers companionship and creates parasocial
relationships with media figures or fictional characters. It also encourages social
interaction around shared media experiences.
 Personal Identity: Media helps individuals explore, affirm, or adjust their identity by
comparing themselves with others.
 Surveillance: Media provides information about the world, helping users stay
informed about matters that affect them.

Despite some methodological criticisms, the uses and gratifications approach remains a key
framework for understanding media consumption today.
Several related cognitive media theories—such as accumulation theory, diffusion of
innovation theory, modelling theory, social expectation theory, meaning construction
theory, stereotype theory, agenda setting theory, framing theory, and the spiral of silence
theory—focus on how media influence the way people think, understand, and behave.

These theories suggest that media play a significant role in shaping our knowledge and
perceptions of the world and others, which in turn influences our attitudes and actions. They
emphasize the cognitive processes involved in how individuals interpret and respond to
media content.

Accumulation Theory – Simple Notes

 Media effects build up slowly over time.

 One message has little impact, but repetition causes change.
 The media accumulate influence by repeating the same views.
 Public opinion changes gradually through repeated exposure.
 Change happens when many media say the same thing over time.

Diffusion of Innovation Theory – Summary

 Explains how new ideas, technologies, or products spread through society.

 Innovation is communicated over time among members of a social system.
 Media plays a key role in spreading the innovation.
 People adopt innovations in stages: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late
majority, and laggards.
 Adoption depends on factors like: the innovation’s advantages, its compatibility
with existing values, its complexity, trialability, and observability.

Modeling Theory

 People learn behavior by observing others, especially in media.

 Viewers may imitate what they see in films or on TV, especially if actions are
rewarded.

Social Expectation Theory

 Media contributes to setting social norms and expectations.

 Viewers adjust behavior based on what they believe is expected or accepted by
society.

Meaning Construction Theory

 Media messages do not have fixed meanings.

 Audiences actively construct meaning based on their own background, context, and
experience.
Stereotype Theory

 Media often represents people and groups in fixed, simplified ways.

 These repeated portrayals create and reinforce stereotypes in society.

Agenda Setting Theory

 Media does not tell people what to think, but what to think about.
 Media highlights certain issues, making them seem more important in public
perception.

Framing Theory

 The way information is presented (framed) influences how audiences understand it.
 Framing affects interpretation by emphasizing specific aspects of a story.

Spiral of Silence Theory

 People fear social isolation and may stay silent if they believe their opinion is in the
minority.
 Media can amplify majority views, making others less likely to speak out.