Defining Mass Communication
Theory
Whether you accept the limited effects arguments or their counterarguments,
all the positions you just read are based on one or more mass communication
theories, explanations and predictions of social phenomena that attempt to
relate mass communication to various aspects of our personal and cultural
lives or social systems. Your responses to the five quiz questions that opened
the chapter, for example, can be explained (possibly even predicted) by
different mass communication theories.
The first four items are a reflection of cultivation analysis—the idea that
people’s ideas of themselves, their world, and their place in it are shaped and
maintained primarily through television. People’s responses to the three true
or false items can be fairly accurately predicted by the amount of viewing they
do (question 4). The more people watch, the more likely they are to respond
“true” to these unflattering statements that others are generally selfish,
untrustworthy, and out to get you.
The solution to the dime-drawing task is predicted by attitude change theory,
which explains how people’s attitudes are formed, shaped, and changed and
how those attitudes influence behavior. Almost everyone draws the dime too
small. Because a dime is an inconsequential coin, we perceive it as smaller
than it really is, and our perceptions guide our behavior. Even though every
one of us has held a real-world dime in our hands, our attitudes toward that
coin shape our behavior regarding it. Mass communication theorists study
media’s contribution to the formation of our attitudes on a wide array of
issues of far greater importance than the size of a dime.
To understand mass communication theory, you should recognize these
important ideas:
1. There is no one mass communication theory. There is a theory, for Page 430
example, that describes something as large as the process by
which we give meaning to cultural symbols and how these symbols
influence our behavior (symbolic interaction). And there is a theory that
explains something as individual as what a person chooses to do with
media (the uses and gratifications approach). Mass communication
theorists have produced a number of middle-range theories that explain or
predict specific, limited aspects of the mass communication process
(Merton, 1967). You can see an overview of some historically important
mass communication theories later on in Table 15.1.
2. Mass communication theories are often borrowed from other fields of social
science. Attitude change theory (the dime question), for example, comes
from psychology. Mass communication theorists adapt these borrowed
theories to questions and issues in communication. People’s behavior with
regard to issues more important than the size of a dime—democracy,
ethnicity, government, and gender roles, for example—is influenced by the
attitudes and perceptions presented by our mass media.
3. Mass communication theories are human constructions. People create them,
and therefore their creation is influenced by human biases—the times in
which we live, the position we occupy in the mass communication process,
and a host of other factors. Technology industry researchers, for example,
have developed somewhat different theories to explain why people engage
in social media use than have university researchers.
4. Mass communication theories are dynamic. Because theories are human
constructions and the environments in which they are created constantly
change, they undergo frequent recasting, acceptance, and rejection. For
example, theories that were developed before television and social media
became commonplace have to be reexamined and sometimes discarded in
the face of these new technologies.
▼ Table 15.1 Mass Communication Theories
▼ Table 15.1 Mass Communication Theories
MASS
COMMUNICATION DESCRIPTION
THEORY
Mass Society The idea, propagated by cultural and societal elites, that
Theory the media are corrupting influences that undermine the
social order; “average” people are defenseless against
the influence.
Limited Effects The media’s influence is limited by people’s individual
Theory differences, social categories, and personal relationships.
These factors “limit” media’s influence.
Two-Step Flow The idea that media’s influence on people’s behavior is
Theory limited by opinion leaders, who consume content,
interpret it in light of their own values and beliefs, and
pass it on to opinion followers. Therefore, the source of
effects is interpersonal rather than mass communication.
Attitude A collection of theories explaining how people’s attitudes
Change are formed, shaped, and changed through communication
Theory and how those attitudes influence behavior.
Dissonance The argument that people, when confronted by new
Theory information, experience mental discomfort (dissonance),
so they consciously and subconsciously work to limit or
reduce that discomfort through the selective processes.
Reinforcement Joseph Klapper’s idea that if media have any impact at all,
Theory it is in the direction of reinforcement, especially as
important social factors—school, parents, religion—also
reinforce cultural norms.
Uses and The idea that media don’t do things to people; people do
Gratifications things with media. Audience members are powerful
