COMM 102 Test 2

Limited Effects

Moderate Powerful Effects

Theory that concluded that the media collectively possessed extraordinary power to shape the beliefs and conduct of men and women

Josephy Klapper's work that concluded that the effects of mass communication were limited in the 40s-60s

20s public conceern about harmful effects of motion pictures on children. 13 studies found that movies significantly impacted kids

Dramatization in a newscast style, radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds

Panal survey about the 1940 election between Roosevelt and Wilkie to see how and why people decide to vote as they did

Reinforcement, activation, conversion

studies that indicate limited and powerful effects can be identified in every period

Media -> opinion leader -> Mass audiences

beyond conversion, big imapct of small effects, interpersonal communication, interpersonal effects overestimated

significant impact on knowledge about foreign affairs, delayed effects

2 dimensions: columns = matrix input; matrix output

Effective influence requires a sequence of steps, each stage of matrix outputs necessary for immediately following stage to occur

Exposure. Attention. Interest. Comprehension. Acquistion. Yielding. Memory. Retrieval. Decision to Act. Action. Reinforcement. Consolidation

Media unlikely to succeed in all 12 stages

Source = expertise, attractiveness, etc. Message = emotional, logical, length. Recipient. Channel of Comm. Context = individual, group

Each of the inputs can have an impact on outputs

Some steps may be completely independent of each other. More comprehensive models are needed to explain persuasion process

impact of variables on persuasion depends on the extent to which individuals articulate & rehearse their own thoughts to the info presented

Amount of favorable/unfavorable thoughts generated determines extent of persuasion

assumption of active participation in persuasion process

relationship between thoughts and attitudes should be greater when ppl have CONFIDENCE rather than doubt in their thought

Persuasion depends on a person's likelihood to pay attention to and think very carefully about mssg

mental elaboration increases, CENTRAL ROUTE to persuasion is more dominant

mental elaboration decreases, the PERIPHERAL ROUTE is more dominant

Model explaining process of persuasion by identifying the likelihood of a person to elaborate cognitive about persuasive mssg

Extended Cognitive theory and developed ELM

generation of favorable/unfavorable thoughts on the basis of the merits of mssg, scruitiny of relevance

little cognitive effort, simple cues in context of mssg are more responsible for change in attitude

simplier means of evaluation, things that have no relevance to message

1st variable of ELM. Receiver related variables that affect the amount of thinking

2nd variable of ELM. oftentimes function as peripheral cues

3rd variable of ELM. often times function as peripheral cues

feature of the persuasion context that allows favorable/unfavorable attitude formation even in the absence of considering true merits ofmssg

central route

Dissonance means being inconsistent. Action & Attitude become inconsistent with one another.

processing by means of cognitive components, activating thoughts that have been "stored/archieved" in the mind of audience member

Memory described as overall network consisting of paths connecting ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc.

perspective that attempts to explain a portion of memory by picturing it as a complex network of pathways connecting ideas, etc

individual thoughts/feelings from past experiences are REMEMBERED and associated with new info

Step 1: arousal is increased.

primary/automatic appraisal is made in the mind of viewer

secondary appraisal made which viewer thinks more carefully about reactions to the prime

dynamic mental representation of a situation, event or object

type of mental model that represents a story or episode viewed through mass media

representation of knowledge about a concept or type of stimilus including attributes and relations between them

viewer interprets the meaning of violent actions in a particular way

viewer believes violent behavior is justified for some reason

viewer identifies with the character committing the act

viewer believes they are seeing reality as opposed to fiction

Viewer sees media and something triggers a memory from the viewer's past