Mass Media and Health Promotion PDF

2/18/2017 Mass media and health promotion Dr. Fowzi Omer Elamin The Role of Media in Health Promotion “The media is an important ally in any public health situation. It serves the role of being a source of correct information as well as an advocate for...

2/18/2017 Mass media and health promotion Dr. Fowzi Omer Elamin The Role of Media in Health Promotion “The media is an important ally in any public health situation. It serves the role of being a source of correct information as well as an advocate for correct health behaviors. But before the media can take on that role, it needs to understand the disease, the issues surrounding it, policy and practices, and finally, recommended correct behaviors.” 1  2/18/2017 The Role of Media in Health Promotion The local and international media play a vital role as the link between health workers and the larger public. Health authorities educate and entrust the media with essential health information, which is then relayed to the public in readily accessible formats through a variety of media channels. For instance, in order to disseminate information about the a disease to the wider public, the Government develop a training program to help the local media understand the complexity of the disease so that they would be able to report about it effectively Mass Media: Expanding Reach & Health Promotion The mass media helps health workers expand their audience reach, This is crucial considering the fact that face-to-face channels of communication often require too many human resources and reach only a small number of people in large, underserved rural areas. The mass media provides an important link between the rural residents and vital health information. The mass media, in the form of the radio and television, are an effective way to persuade target audiences to adopt new behaviors, or to remind them of critical information. 2  2/18/2017 Mass Media: Expanding Reach & Health Promotion Besides informing the public about new diseases and where to seek help, they can also keep the public updated about immunization campaigns. The mass media can “empower rural populations to fight major causes of infant mortality such as diarrheal dehydration and diseases which can be prevented through vaccination, inform large numbers of people of seasonal or daily variations for such activities as: – an immunization campaign – availability of a new product or service, – teach new health skills such as how to mix oral rehydration solution, – promote new health behaviors such as taking ivermectin once a year, – motivate ad hoc or organized listening groups, – and increase community acceptance of health workers.” Influence of mass media In media studies, media psychology, communication theory and sociology, media influence and media effects are topics relating to mass media and media culture effects on individual or audience thought, attitudes and behavior. 3  2/18/2017 Influence of mass media Media influence definition: – is the actual force exerted by a media message, resulting in either a change or reinforcement in audience or individual beliefs. – Media effects are measurable effects that result from media influence, or a media message. Media Effects (60502nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. 2012-01-03. pp. 35–63. ASIN 1412964695. ISBN 9781412964692 Influence of mass media Media influence definition: – Whether that media message has an effect on any of its audience members is contingent on many factors, including: audience demographics and psychological characteristics. These effects can be: – positive or negative, – abrupt or gradual, – short-term or long-lasting. Media Effects (60502nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. 2012-01-03. pp. 35–63. ASIN 1412964695. ISBN 9781412964692 4  2/18/2017 Influence of mass media Media influence definition: Not all effects result in change: some media messages reinforce an existing belief. Researchers examine an audience after media exposure for changes in: – cognition, – belief systems, – and attitudes, – as well as emotional, physiological and behavioral effects. Media Effects (60502nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. 2012-01-03. pp. 35–63. ASIN 1412964695. ISBN 9781412964692 Influence of mass media There are several scholarly definitions of media effects. Bryant and Zillmann defined media effects as: – "the social, cultural, and psychological impact of communicating via the mass media". Perse stated that: – media effects researchers study "how to control, enhance, or mitigate the impact of the mass media on individuals and society". Lang stated: – media effects researchers study "what types of content, in what type of medium, affect which people, in what situations" 5  2/18/2017 Powerful media effects phase From the early 20th century to the 1930s, – developing mass media technologies, such as radio and film, were credited with an almost irresistible power to mold an audience's beliefs, cognition and behaviors according to the communicators' will. – The basic assumption of strong media effects theory was that audiences were passive and homogeneous. – This assumption was not based on empirical evidence but on assumptions of human nature. Powerful media effects phase From the early 20th century to the 1930s, – There were two main explanations for this perception of mass media effects. First, – mass broadcasting technologies were acquiring a widespread audience, even among average households. – People were astonished by the speed of information dissemination, which may have clouded audience perception of any media effects. 6  2/18/2017 Powerful media effects phase From the early 20th century to the 1930s, Secondly, – propaganda techniques were implemented during the war time by several governments as a powerful tool for uniting their people. – This propaganda exemplified strong-effect communication. – Early media effects research often focused on the power of this propaganda (e.g., Lasswell, 1927). – Combing through the technological and social environment, early media effects theories stated that the mass media were all-powerful. Powerful media effects phase Representative theories: – Hypodermic needle model, or magic bullet theory: Considers the audience to be targets of an injection or bullet of information fired from the pistol of mass media. The audience are unable to avoid or resist the injection or bullets. 7  2/18/2017 Limited media effects phase Starting in the 1930s, – the second phase of media effects studies instituted the importance of empirical research, – and introducing the complex nature of media effects due to the idiosyncratic nature of audience individuals. The Payne Fund studies, – conducted in the United States during this period, focused on the effect of media upon young people. – Many other separate studies focused on persuasion effects studies, or the possibilities and usage of planned persuasion in film and other media. Limited media effects phase Starting in the 1930s, Hovland et al. (1949) – conducted a series of experimental studies to evaluate the effects of using films to indoctrinate American military recruits. Lazarsfeld (1944) and his colleagues' – effectiveness studies of democratic election campaigns launched political campaign effect studies. 8  2/18/2017 Limited media effects phase Researchers uncovered mounting empirical evidence of the idiosyncratic nature of media effects on individuals and audiences, identifying numerous intervening variables, such as: – demographic attributes, – social psychological factors, – and different media use behaviors. With these new variables added to research, it was difficult to isolate media influence that resulted in any media effects to an audience's cognition, attitude and behavior. Limited media effects phase As Berelson (1959) summed up in a widely quoted conclusion: – "Some kinds of communication on some kinds of issues have brought to the attention of some kinds of people under some kinds of conditions have some kinds of effect.“ – Though the concept of an all-powerful mass media was diluted, – this did not determine that the media lacked influence or effect. – Instead, the pre-existing structure of social relationships and cultural contexts were believed to primarily shape or change people's opinions, attitudes and behaviors, – We can say that media merely function within these established processes. – This complexity had a dampening effect upon media effects studies. 9  2/18/2017 Limited media effects phase Representative theories: – Two-step flow of communication: Discusses the indirect effects of media, stating that people are affected by media through the interpersonal influence of opinion leaders. – Klapper's selective exposure theory: Joseph T. Klapper asserts in his book, The Effects Of Mass Communication, that audiences are not passive targets of any communication contents. Instead, audiences selectively choose content that is aligned with previously held convictions. Rediscovered powerful media effects phase Limited media effect theory was challenged by new evidence supporting that mass media messages could indeed lead to measurable social effects. Lang and Lang (1981) argued that: – the widespread acceptance of limited media effect theory was unwarranted, – and that "the evidence available by the end of the 1950s, even when balanced against some of the negative findings, gives no justification for an overall verdict of 'media importance.'" 10  2/18/2017 Rediscovered powerful media effects phase In the 1950s and 1960s: – widespread use of television indicated its unprecedented power on social lives. – Meanwhile, researchers also realized that early investigations, relying heavily on psychological models, were narrowly focused on only short-term and immediate effects. The "stimuli-reaction" model: – introduced the possibility of profound long-term media effects. Rediscovered powerful media effects phase The shift from short-term to long-term effect studies marked the renewal of media effects research. More attention was paid to: – collective cultural patterns, – definitions of social reality – ideology and institutional behavior. 11  2/18/2017 Rediscovered powerful media effects phase Though audiences were still considered in control of the selection of media messages they consumed, "the way media select, process and shape content for their own purposes can have a strong influence on how it is received and interpreted and thus on longer-term consequences" (Mcquail, 2010). Rediscovered powerful media effects phase Representative theories: – Agenda-setting theory: Describes how topics selection and the frequencies of reporting by the mass media affected the perceived salience of those topics within the public audience. – Framing: Identifies the media's ability to manipulate audience interpretation of a media message through careful control of angles, facts, opinions, amount of coverage. 12  2/18/2017 Rediscovered powerful media effects phase Representative theories: – Knowledge-gap theory: States the long-term influence of mass media on people's socioeconomic status with the hypothesis that: – "as the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, higher socioeconomic status segments tend to acquire this information faster than lower socioeconomic status population segments – causing the gap in knowledge between the two to increase rather than decrease". – Cultivation theory: As an audience engages in media messages, particularly on television, they infer the portrayed world upon the real world. Negotiated media effects phase In the late 1970s: – researchers examined the media's role in shaping social realities, also referred to as "social constructivist" (Gamson and Modigliani, 1989).[ – This approach evaluated the media's role in constructing meaning, and corresponding social realities. – First, the media formats images of society in a patterned and predictable way, both in news and entertainment. 13  2/18/2017 Negotiated media effects phase In the late 1970s: – Second, audiences construct or derive their perception of actual social reality—and their role in it—by interacting with the media- constructed realities. – Individuals in these audiences can control their interaction and interpretation of these media-constructed realities. – However, when media messages are the only information source, the audience may implicitly accept the media-constructed reality. – Alternatively, they may choose to derive their social reality from other sources, such as first-hand experience or cultural environment. Negotiated media effects phase In the late 1970s: – This phase also added qualitative and ethnographic research methods to existing quantitative and behaviorist research methods. – Additionally, several research projects focused on media effects surrounding media coverage of minority and fringe social movements. 14  2/18/2017 Negotiated media effects phase Representative research: – Van Zoonen's research (1992): Examines the mass media contribution to the women's movement in The Netherlands New media environment phase As early as the 1970s: – research emerged on the effects of individual or group behavior in computer-mediated environments. – The focus was on the effect of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in interpersonal and group interaction. – Early research examined the social interactions and impressions that CMC partners formed of each other, given the restrictive characteristics of CMC—such as the anonymity or lack of nonverbal (auditory or visual) cues. 15  2/18/2017 New media environment phase As early as the 1970s: – The first generation of CMC researches simply compared existing "text-only" internet content(e.g. emails) to face-to-face communication (Culnan & Markus,1987). – For example, Daft and Lengel (1986) developed the media richness theory to assess the media's ability of reproducing information. New media environment phase in the 1990s: – The internet was widely adopted for personal use further expanding CMC studies. – Theories such as social information processing (Walther,1992) – and social identification/deindividuation (SIDE) model (Postmes et al. 2000) studied CMC effects on users' behavior, comparing these effects to face-to- face communication effects. 16  2/18/2017 New media environment phase in the 1990s: – With the emergence of dynamic user-generated content on websites and social media platforms, research results are even more conducive to CMC studies. – For instance, Valkenburg & Peter (2009) developed the internet-enhanced self-disclosure hypothesis among adolescents, stating that: social media platforms are primarily used to maintain real-life friendships among young people. Therefore, this media use may enhance the friendships. – New CMC technologies are evolving at a rapid pace, calling for new media effects theories. Typology The broad scope of media effects studies creates an organizational challenge. Organizing media effects by their targeted audience type, either on: – an individual (micro-level) – or an audience aggregate (macro-level), 17  2/18/2017 Typology Media effects studies target either an individual (micro-level) or an audience aggregate (macro-level). Typology Micro-level – Theories that base their observations and conclusions on individual media users rather than on groups, institutions, systems, or society at large. – Representative theories: Elaboration likelihood model, Social cognitive theory of mass communication, Framing theory, Priming theory, etc. 18  2/18/2017 Typology On a micro-level, individuals can be affected in six different ways. – Cognitive: This is the most apparent and measurable effect: includes any new information, meaning or message acquired through media consumption. Cognitive effects extend past knowledge acquisition: individuals can identify patterns, combine information sources and infer information into new behaviors. – Beliefs: We cannot validate every single media message, yet we might choose to believe many of the messages, even about events, people, places and ideas that we have never encountered first- hand. – Attitudes: Media messages, regardless of intention, often trigger judgments or attitudes about the presented topics. Typology On a micro-level – individuals can be affected in six different ways. Affect: – Refers to any emotional effect, positive or negative, on an individual from media exposure. Physiological: – Media content may trigger an automatic physical reaction, often manifested in fight-or-flight response or dilated pupils. Behaviors: – Researchers measure an individual's obvious response and engagement with media content, measuring any change or reinforcement in behaviors. 19  2/18/2017 Macro-level – Theories that base their observations and conclusions on large social groups, institutions, systems or ideologies. – Representative theories: Knowledge gap theory, Risk communication, Public sphere theory in Communication, etc. McQuail's typology Denis McQuail, a prominent communication theorist, organized effects into a graph according to the media effect's: – intentionality (planned or unplanned) – and time duration (short-term or long-term) 20  2/18/2017 Key media effects theories Micro-level media effects The following are salient examples of media effects studies which examine media influence on individuals. – Third-person Individuals often mistakenly believe that they are less susceptible to media effects than others. About fifty percent of the members in a given sample are susceptible to the third-person effect, underestimating their degree of influence Key media effects theories Micro-level media effects – Third-person This can allow an individual to complain about media effects without taking responsibility for their own possible effects This is largely based on attribution theory, where "the person tends to attribute his own reactions to the object world, and those of another, when they differ from his own, to personal characteristics.“ Standley (1994) tested the third-person effect and attribution theory, reporting: – people are more likely offer situational reasons for television's effect upon themselves, – while offering dispositional reasons for other members of an audience. 21  2/18/2017 Key media effects theories Micro-level media effects – Priming – This is a concept derived from a network model of memory used in cognitive psychology. – Information is stored in this model as nodes, clustered with related nodes by associated pathways. – If one node is activated, nearby nodes are also activated. – This is known as spreading activation. Key media effects theories Micro-level media effects – Priming occurs when a node is activated, causing related nodes to stand by for possible activation. – Both the intensity and amount of elapsed time from the moment of activation determine the strength and duration of the priming effect. – In media effects studies, priming describes how exposure to media can alter an individual's attitudes, behaviors, or beliefs. – Most media violence research, a popular area of discussion in media effects studies, theorizes that exposure to violent acts may prime an individual to behave more aggressively while the activation lingers. 22  2/18/2017 Key media effects theories Micro-level media effects Social learning – Miller and Dollard (1941) pioneered social learning theory by their findings that individuals do not need to personally act out a behavior to learn it; they can learn from observation. – Bandura (1977) expanded upon this concept, stating that audiences can learn behaviors from observing fictitious characters. Key media effects theories Micro-level media effects Media violence – The effects of media violence upon individuals has many decades of research, starting as early as the 1920s. Children and adolescents, considered vulnerable media consumers, are often the target of these studies. Most studies of media violence surround the media categories of television and video games. – Television's ubiquity in the 1950s generated more concerns. Since then, studies have hypothesized a number of effects. – Behavioral effects include disinhibition, imitation and desensitization. 23  2/18/2017 Key media effects theories Micro-level media effects Media violence Disinhibition, – a theory that exposure to violent media may legitimize the use of violence, has found support in many carefully controlled experiments. Men exposed to violent pornography behave more aggressively towards women in certain circumstances. Imitation theory – states individuals may learn violence from television characters. Bandura's Bobo doll experiment, along with other research, seems to indicate correlation even when controlling for individual differences. Desensitization – refers to an individual's habituation to violence through exposure to violent media content, resulting in real-life implications. Studies have covered both television and video game violence. – Cognitive effects include an increased belief of potential violence in the real world from watching violent media content, leading to anxiety about personal safety. [ Key media effects theories Macro-level media effects – The following are salient examples of media effects studies which examine media influence on an audience aggregate. – Cultivation Not all media effects are instantaneous or short-term. Gerbner (1969) created cultivation theory, arguing that the media cultivates a "collective consciousness about elements of existence.“ If audiences are exposed to repetitive themes and storylines, over time, they may expect these themes and storylines mirrored in real life. 24  2/18/2017 Key media effects theories Macro-level media effects – Agenda setting in the news There are two primary areas of media agenda-setting: – (i) the media tells us the news and – (ii) tells us what to think about the news. Press coverage sends signals to audiences about the importance of mentioned issues, while framing the news induces the unsuspecting viewer into a particular response. Additionally, news that is not given press coverage often dissipates, not only because it lacks a vehicle of mass communication, but because individuals may not express their concerns for fear of ostracization; this further creates the spiral of silence effect. Key media effects theories Macro-level media effects – Framing News outlets can influence public opinion by controlling variables in news presentation. News gatherers curate facts to underscore a certain angle. Presentation method—such as time of broadcast, extent of coverage and choice of news medium—can also frame the message; this can create, replace or reinforce a certain viewpoint in an audience. Entman (2007) describes framing as – "the process of culling a few elements of perceived reality and assembling a narrative that highlights connections among them to promote a particular interpretation." 25  2/18/2017 Key media effects theories Macro-level media effects – Framing Not only does the media identify supposed "causes of problems," it can "encourage moral judgments" and "promote favored policies." One long-term implication of framing, if the media reports news with a consistent favorable slant, is that it can lend a helping hand to certain overarching institutions of thought and related entities. It can reinforce capitalism, patriarchy, heterosexism, individualism, consumerism, and racism. Some theorize this bias may reinforce the political parties that espouse these thought paradigms, although more empirical research is needed to substantiate these claims. Key media effects theories Macro-level media effects – Spiral of silence Individuals are disinclined to share or amplify certain messages because of a fear of social isolation and a willingness to self-censor. As applies to media effects studies, some individuals may silence their opinions if the media does not validate their importance or viewpoint. This spiral of silence can also apply to individuals in the media, who may refrain from publishing controversial media content. 26  2/18/2017 Features of current media After entering the 21st century, the rapid development of the Internet and Web 2.0 technology is greatly reforming media use patterns. Media effects studies also are more diverse and specified. After conducting a meta-analysis on micro-level media effects theories, Valkenburg, Peter & Walther (2016) identified five main features: Features of current media 1.Selectivity of media use – There are two propositions of this selectivity paradigm: (a) among the constellation of messages potentially attracting their attention, people only go to a limited portion of messages; (b) people are only influenced by those messages they select (Klapper 1960, Rubin 2009). – Researchers had noticed the selectivity of media use decades ago, and considered it as a key factor limiting media effects. – Later, two theoretical perspectiveshad been developed based on this assumption: uses-and-gratifications (Katz et al. 1973, Rubin 2009) and selective exposure theory (Knobloch-Westerwick 2015,Zillmann & Bryant 1985), 27  2/18/2017 Features of current media Selectivity of media use – and aimed to pinpoint the psychological and social factors guiding and filtering audience's media selection. – Generally, these theories put media user in the center of the media effect process, – and conceptualize media use as a mediator between antecedents and consequences of media effects. – In other words, users (with intention or not), develop their own media use effects. Features of current media 2.Media properties as predictors – The inherent properties of media themselves are considered as predictors in media effects. Modality: – Media formats have been evolving ever since the very beginning, – whether the modality is text, auditory, visual or audiovisual is assumed to be affecting the selection and cognition of the users when they are engaging in media use. – Known for his aphorism of "The medium is the message," Marshall McLuhan (1964) is one of the best-known scholars who believe it is the modality rather than the content of media that is affecting individuals and society. 28  2/18/2017 Features of current media Media properties as predictors – Content properties: The majority of media effects studies still focus on the impact of content (e.g., violence, fearfulness, type of character, argument strength) on audience. For example, Bandura's (2009) social cognitive theory postulates that media depictions of rewarded behavior and attractive media characters enhance the likelihood of media effects. – Structural properties: Besides of modality and content, structural properties such as special effects, pace, visual surprises also play important roles in affecting audience. By triggering the orienting reflex to media, these properties may initiate selective exposure (Knobloch-Westerwick 2015). Features of current media 3.Media effects are indirect – After the all-power assumption of mass media was disproved by empirical evidence, the indirect path of the media's affect on audiences has been widely accepted. – An indirect effect indicates that an independent variable (e.g., media use) affecting on the dependent variables (e.g., outcomes of media use) via one or more intervening (mediating) variables. – The conceptualization of indirect media effects urges us to pay attention to those intervening variables to better explain how and why media effects occur. 29  2/18/2017 Features of current media 3.Media effects are indirect – Besides, examining indirect effects can lead to a less biased estimation of effects sizes in empirical research (Holbert & Stephenson 2003 – In a model including mediating and moderating variables, it is the combination of direct and indirect effects that makes up the total effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable. – Thus, "if an indirect effect does not receive proper attention, the relationship between two variables of concern may not be fully considered" (Raykov & Marcoulides 2012) Features of current media 4.Media effects are conditional – In correspondence with the statement that media effect is the result of a combination of variables, – media effects can also be enhanced or reduced by individual difference and social context diversity. – Many media effects theories hypothesize conditional media effects, including uses-and-gratifications theory (Rubin 2009), – Take the elaboration likelihood model as an example: the variable of "need for cognition", indicating users' tendency to enjoy effortful information processing, is considered as a moderator of media effects on attitudes. 30  2/18/2017 Features of current media 5.Media effects are transactional – Many theories assume reciprocal causal relationships between different variables, – This include: characteristics of media users, factors in environment, and outcomes of media (Bandura 2009). Transactional theories further support the selectivity paradigm (Feature 1), which assumes that audience somehow shapes their own media effects by selectively engaging in media use; transactional theories make an effort to explain how and why this occurs. Transactional media effects theories are the most complex among the five features. Features of current media 5.Media effects are transactional There are three basic assumptions. – First, » communication technologies (e.g., radio, television, internet) function as reciprocal mediators between information producers and receivers. » They engage in transactions through these technologies (Bauer 1964). – Second, » the effect of media content are reciprocal between producers and receivers of media content. They influence each other. » Producers can be influenced by receivers because they learn from what the audience need and prefer (Webster 2009). – Third, » transactions can be distinguished as interpersonal. However, these features are only limited within micro-level media effects studies, which are mostly focused on short-term, immediate, individual effects. 31  2/18/2017 The Internet Revolution As Internet access continues to expand, it will increasingly serve as a rich health resource in environments that lack health expertise. Regardless of location, the Internet allows people to gain access to a wide array of health-related information from worldwide at a mouse click. The local cyber café may even begin to serve as a health information hub. Since the Internet transcends geographical barriers, there is plenty of potential for websites to provide a valuable source of health information, thus enhancing health and wellbeing for people in developing countries. The Internet Revolution However, there is one important caveat. – As the amount of information grows at an unprecedented rate, so does the amount of false, and potentially harmful information. Misinformation, either due to inaccurate information, misleading information or misinterpretation of health information, can have potentially dire consequences, triggering mass panics, misleading uninformed policy-makers etc. 32  2/18/2017 The Internet Revolution As access increases in the developing world, many health-related crises could parallel social and political movements that have resulted, at least in part, from these technologies (e.g., the use of the Internet by the Falun Gong in China). Hong Kong, for example, narrowly missed mass panic as a result of misinformation being posted to a falsified website concerning SARS. Elsewhere, decisionmakers have been misled by, or chosen to misuse, information found on the Internet (e.g., South African President Mbeki’s stance on HIV/AIDS). For health communication programs, the Internet may become a countervailing factor and an obstacle as a source of misinformation and myth, particularly in the areas of infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS.” Choice of Media The decision to use a particular medium should be based on audience research rather than on assumptions about its utility and audience reach. For instance, certain technologies are not particularly useful when: – they are utilized only by a small number of people. – they are too complicated to be operated by the average person. Audience research, which reveals the target audience’s preferred media, should inform the choice of media. 33  2/18/2017 Let us broadcast https://mixlr.com/download/ http://radio.garden/ further readings http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/24998/InTechThe_role_of_m ass_media_communication_in_public_health.pdf 34