Youth Culture and Media Effects Lecture

Youth Culture in a Digital World

• The presentation discusses youth culture in a digital context, exploring media effects.
• This involves the history, evergreen and contemporary theories of media effects.
• Social media platforms are analyzed for their individual media effects on people.
• "Media Use" is defined as the intended or incidental use of media channels (e.g., telephones, email), devices (e.g., smartphones, game consoles), content/messages (e.g., games, narratives, advertising, news), or all types of platforms, tools, or apps (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Uber).
• The presenter's definition of "Media Effects" include deliberate and non-deliberate, short and long-term, individual or collective changes in cognitions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior.

Today's Lecture

• This lecture covers what media effects are, tracing the history of media effect theories, focusing on the key "Evergreen theories" and the "Contemporary theories" of media effect.

Media Effects Timeline

• CACCIATORE ET AL., 2015 analysis of media effects shows a shift in understanding, with strong effects models dominating in the 1930s, followed by limited-effects models emerging later.

History of Media Effects

• 1920s: Movies start to arise as a media effect
• 1938: The War of the Worlds radio broadcast highlighted the impact of media, driving a high degree of panic.
• Payne Fund Studies investigated the potential effects of media content on children, examining content, emotional, and behavioral impacts.

Cultivation Theory

• Developed by George Gerbner (1969), the theory posits that media exposure over time shapes perceptions of reality, influencing how individuals view the world.
• Gerbner’s cultivation theory suggests that long-term media exposure can shape perceptions of reality.
• The theory looks at how media exposure shapes perceptions of real-world issues like violence and crime or even societal perceptions of different groups.

Agenda-Setting Theory

• McCormicks & Shaw (1972) argued that media influences the public agenda by choosing which issues to highlight.
• There are three levels of agenda-setting (object, attributes, network).
• People are more likely to express opinion in harmony with the dominant perception in the media.

Spiral of Silence Theory

• Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1974) proposed that individuals are less likely to express opinions that differ from prevailing public opinion, influenced by media messages.

Framing Theory

• Developed by Goffman, this theory suggests that the way information is presented significantly affects how audiences perceive and interpret it, thus influencing their ultimate actions.
• Different methods and platforms use different methods of framing information.

Social Comparison Theory

• Festinger (1954) suggested that individuals evaluate themselves by comparing themselves to others, leading to either upward or downward comparisons.

Social Cognitive/Learning Theory

• Albert Bandura (1977) proposed that individuals learn by observing and imitating others, shaping behavior through both intentional and unintentional actions.

Media Effects Today

• The rise of fragmented audiences, echo chambers, and narrow information streams alters the impact of media differently than how it was in earlier eras.
• Individual differences (needs, motives, response intensity, traits, and dispositions) modify media reactions.
• Use of the differential susceptibility model suggests that media effects depend on pre-existing vulnerabilities and tendencies.
• Media uses and effects are transactional, in constant flux.

This lecture dives into the impact of media on youth culture in a digital world, examining both historical and contemporary theories of media effects. It also explores the specific effects of social media platforms on individuals and society. Gain insight into how media use influences emotions, attitudes, and behaviors among young people.