Chapter 4.pptx

CHAPTER 4 PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF SOCIAL MEDIA Objectives: • Normative theory • Behaviorism : Magic bullet theory • Freudianism • The selective process • Social learning • Information processing model • Developmental perspectives Normative theory • A Normative theory describes an ideal way fo...

CHAPTER 4 PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF SOCIAL MEDIA Objectives: • Normative theory • Behaviorism : Magic bullet theory • Freudianism • The selective process • Social learning • Information processing model • Developmental perspectives Normative theory • A Normative theory describes an ideal way for a media system to be controlled and operated by the government, authority, leader and public • The type of theory that describes an ideal way for media systems to be structured and operated. • The basic assumption of the normative theory is that, “the press always take on the form and coloration of the social and political structure within which it operate” • It is observation of situation within which the press operate (Siebert, Peterson and Schramm, 1995). • Explains the expected operation of media under political and economical circumstance. Normative theory • There are six normative theories of the press, in 1950 Siebert et al mentioned four theories, two more were added by McQuail in 1980,these theories are • Authoritarian theory • • Libertarian theory • • Social responsibility theory • • Soviet communist media theory • • Democratic participant theory • • Developmental theory BEHAVIORAL THEORY • John B. Watson is the founder of Behavioral theory. • The notion that all human action is a conditioned response to external environmental stimuli. • According to Melissa Hurt, behavioral perspective, “is the theoretical perspective in which learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships” • Most of the time people respond to the way they watch or listen to media. • When media gives good messages, people responds in a positive way or it affects their positive emptions. • When media promotes negative messages, then people respond in the same way. BEHAVIORAL THEORY • Early mass communication theorists, who saw the media as providing external stimuli that triggered immediate responses, frequently used behaviorist notions. • Example: The powerful, ugly images of people of a certain group or the mentally ill were expected to trigger negative responses in the audiences. • Repeated exposure to these images would condition them to have a negative response whenever they see or think about the certain group (race, country, demography etc) • These behaviorist notions were used by some theorists to develop what has come to be known as magic bullet theory MAGIC BULLET THEORY: • Magic bullet theory or hypodermic needle theory • The media (magic gun) fired the message directly into audience head without their own knowledge. • The message cause the instant reaction from the audience mind without any hesitation is called “Magic Bullet Theory”. • The media (needle) injects the message into audience mind and it cause changes in audience behavior and psyche towards the message. • Audience are passive and they can’t resist the media message is called “Hypodermic Needle Theory”. • Both theories are deals with impact of media messages in audience mind and how audience react towards the message without any hesitation. “Hypodermic Needle Theory”. • The hypodermic needle theory is an approach to the study of the effects of the media on behavior. It took the view that the media ‘injected’ its content into the audience’s lives in a direct way, and subsequently influenced their behavior. The theory views the audience as passive, homogeneous, and impressionable. • The term ‘hypodermic needle,’ moreover, engenders the image of a planned, strategic and direct infusion of messages into a person (Croteau & Hoynes, 1997). The theory notes that passive recipients are immediately impacted by the media messages directly injected into them. • Alternatively, as its other appellation ‘the magic bullet theory’ implies, media messages, resembling bullets, are fired into the receiver’s ‘head’ from the ‘media gun’ (Berger, 1995). Cultivation theory • Gerbner & Gross, this theory examines the long term effects of television. • Cultivation theory is a sociological and communications framework to examine the lasting effects of media, primarily television. • It suggests that people who are regularly exposed to media for long periods of time are more likely to perceive the world's social realities as they are presented by the media they consume, which in turn affects their attitudes and behaviors. • Cultivation theorists posit that television viewing can have long-term effects that gradually affect the audience. • The theory suggests that television and media possess a small but significant influence on the attitudes and beliefs of society about society. • On notable discussed piece of the theory is know as the “mean and scary world syndrome”. In a nutshell, heavy viewing of television and the associated violence leads the viewer to believe that the world is a FREUDIANISM: (different from behaviorism ) • human behavior is the product of the conflict between an individual’s Id, Ego, and Superego. • ID- the egocentric, pleasure-seeking, part of the mind • Ego- the rational mind, reality principle • Superego- Moral values or the internalized set of cultural rules. • These theories saw people as highly vulnerable to media manipulation using propaganda; media stimuli and the Id could trigger actions that the Ego and the Superego were powerless to stop. • For example, propaganda would be most effective if it could appeal (triggers) directly to the Id and bypass the Ego. FREUDIANISM: (different from behaviorism ) • Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented. • Propaganda can be found in news and journalism, government, advertising, entertainment, education, and activism and is often associated with material which is prepared by governments as part of war efforts, political campaigns, health campaigns, revolutionaries, big businesses, ultra-religious organizations, the media, • Propaganda (tactics) theorists used Freudian notions to develop very pessimistic interpretations of media influence. SOCIAL LEARNING THOERIES OF MEDIA • a theory hypothesized by Albert Bandura (1977) • The Social Learning Theory is how people observe and model their behavior, attitudes, and emotional reactions after other. • Social learning in Media widens that range to how we model ourselves after those in magazines, on the news, in movies and TV shows, and our friends on social networking sites • How much and what kinds of behaviors people learn from the media? But people can imitate what they see in the media. • Imitation is the direct mechanical reproduction of behavior, example , aggressive behavior. • Albert Bandura’s famous experiment on modelling and violent behavior is seen in ‘BOBO DOLL EXPERIENT” • In Bobo Doll experiment children who watched a model aggressively behaving to the plastic doll, shown more aggressive and violent behavior. Three ways social cognition use media representations 1. Observational learning. Consumers of representations can acquire new patterns of behavior by simply watching these representations. Example : We all know how to shoot a gun, although many of us have never actually performed or been reinforced for that act. How to make rolls or coffee etc.. 2. Inhibitory effects. Seeing a model in a representation punished for exhibiting a certain behavior decreases the likelihood that the observers will make that response. Example : watching the police punishing a person for stealing in the shop. 3. Disinhibitory effects. A media representation that shows reward for a threatening or prohibited behavior is often sufficient to increase the likelihood that the consumer of the representation will make that response. Example: Superheroes can provide an aggressive role model in the name of justice. Adult films can present such role models as James Bond which children may look up to and imitate. However, when aggression levels are normalized in these role models, the child can grow up with norms that aggression is socially INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY : • The information processing theory is a cognitive learning model that attempts to outline the method in which the human mind observes, stores, and retrieves information. • Each day people are exposed to vast quantities of sensory information. • Only a tiny fraction of this information is singled out for attention and processing, and finally stored in a tiny amount of this in long-term memory. • Much of what takes place in our brain never reaches our consciousness. Although this activity often affects our conscious thoughts, it does so only very indirectly through its influence on other cognitive processes. • Example: When people watch a televised news report, they have the sense that they are getting every bit of useful information from it that is there. INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY : • But recent research finds that only a fraction of the original information reaches us, even when people pay close attention. • People get distracted by compelling pictures and waste precious cognitive resources processing them while important auditory information is missed. • Viewing television is actually a rather complex task using very different informationprocessing skills than reading a textbook. You are exposed to rapidly changing images • Information-processing theory says that people have limited cognitive resources. • If more resources are directed toward one task, another task will be performed badly. Developmental perspective • The view of learning from media that specifies different intellectual and communication stages in a child’s life that influence the nature of media interaction and impact . “How child starts to learn through media” • Developmental perspective “seeks to describe and explain the nature of the communicative differences between four-year-olds, six-year-olds, ten-year-olds, etc., and adults • A well-designed, age-appropriate, educational television can be beneficial to children of preschool age. • Some research suggests that exposure to television during the first few years of life may be associated with poorer cognitive development. • Early exposure to age-appropriate programs designed around an educational curriculum is associated with cognitive and academic enhancement, whereas exposure to pure entertainment, and violent content in particular, is associated with poorer cognitive development and lower academic achievement. References: • Baran, S. J. (2012). Mass Communication Theory, Foundations, Ferment & Future. Wadsworth, Cengage Learner. • The media student blog (2016). Behaviorism in media. Retrieved online from https://themediastudentsblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/behaviourism-in-media/ • Communication theory. (n.d) magic bullet or hypodermic needle theory of communication • In mass communication, psychology, behavioral and social science. Retrieved online from https://www.communicationtheory.org/magic-bullet-or-hypodermic-needle-theory-of-communication/ • Mass communication theory (n.d). Cultivation Theory. Retrieved online from https://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/cultivation-theory/ • Psychology (2020). Aggression: media Influence and disinhibition. Retrieved online from https://www.tutor2u.net/psychology/reference/aggression-media-influences-disinhibition • Lovegran, S. (2005). War of the Worlds': Behind the 1938 Radio Show Panic. Retrieved from nationalgeographic.com/science/2005/06/war-of-the-worlds-behind-the-panic/ • Kirkorian, L.H.,Wartella, A.E. & Anderson,R.D. (2008) Media and Young Children's Learning. The Future of Children. 18(1):39-61. doi: 10.1353/foc.0.0002.