Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future

By Stanley J. Baran & Dennis K. Davis

 Chapter 1
UNDERSTANDING AND EVALUATING MASS COMMUNICATION THEORY

• Redefining Mass Communication

• Science & Human Behavior
• Defining Theory
• Types of Theory
• Four Trends in Mass Communication Theory
 Chapter 1
Learning Objectives
• 1.1 Define legacy media, large-scale social media, and mass
communication.
• 1.2 Explain differences in the operation of the natural and social sciences.
• 1.3 Describe the relationship between the scientific method and causality.
• 1.4 Define theory.
• 1.5 Differentiate the four broad categories of mass communication
theory—postpositive, cultural, critical, and normative theory—by their
ontology, epistemology, and axiology.
• 1.6 Establish criteria for judging theory.
• 1.7 Differentiate the four trends in media theory—the mass society and
mass culture, media-effects, critical cultural, and meaning-making trends.
 Defining Mass Communication

• The rise of social media has necessitated a

redefinition of mass communication
• Mass Communication involves:
– Complex organizations that use standardized practices
to send messages to mass audiences
– Audience members who are widely dispersed and
conditioned to make repeated exposures
– Channels of message dissemination that make
messages public, extend messages in time and space,
and reach audiences in a relatively short time
 The Rise of Large-Scale Social Media
• Media compete against each other to get the attention of mass audiences
(Marketplace of Attention)
• Social media have advantages that have enabled them to succeed against
large, well-established legacy media:
– They can reach individual members of audiences at personally convenient
points in time using a variety of media technologies
– Message production costs are less because most messages originate from low-
cost sources including audience members
– The attention of individual audience members can be instantly detected and
auctioned to advertisers
– Advertisers are able to target very specific audiences so that their ads are
more effective
– The online behavior of massive numbers of users can be tracked and analyzed
to gain insight into user preferences and habits (Big Data)
– Big Data enables social media to develop computer algorithms that are used
to effectively steer users toward content that is likely to attract and hold their
attention
 Mass Communication Theory and Large-
Scale Social Media
• Most of the long-standing media theories considered in this
textbook were developed to try to describe, understand and explain
legacy media phenomena
• Some of these theories need to be adapted so that they apply to
social media; others may need to be abandoned
• Social media pose serious problems for media researchers seeking
to assess how and why these media are influential
• We each could use these media differently to serve different
purposes; we can use them at different times and in different
places; we can multitask and use several of them at the same time
• To the extent that large-scale social media tend to be used by large
audiences to serve many of the same purposes as legacy media,
some older media theories can be revised and used to assess their
influence
 Assess Your Use of Media
• How do you use of legacy or social media? How much time
do you spend:
– Producing and distributing media content?
– Actively searching out and consuming personally interesting or
meaningful media content?
– Storing and organizing media content to be consumed when you
want to use it?
– Sharing media content with others and getting content from
them?
– Passively consuming media content that pops up when you surf
TV channels or surf the web?
• Discuss how you would characterize your personal use of
media – are you a heavy user, a passive user, an isolated
user, an expert user…?
 Should We Be Concerned about Big Data?
• Social media companies have created enormous datasets (Big Data)
containing information gathered from users of their services. The
companies:
– Tell us that Big Data only contains information about patterns of online
behavior of large groups of individuals
– Argue that Big Data enables them to tailor the presentation of media
content and advertising to best serve user interests
– Reserve the right to define which interests should be served and how
those interests are served
– Sell Big Data to advertisers who rely on it to target their ads to users
most likely to be influenced by and act on them
• Have you noticed how online advertising has been tailored to fit
your interests? How effective are these ads? Are they becoming
more effective?
 Media Theory and Scientific Research

• A key purpose of media theory is to guide

scientific research
• Useful research yields findings that give us
insight into what media do for us and for our
society
• There are several quite different ways that we
can do scientific research on media
• Different types of theory have been developed
to guide different ways of doing research
 Social Science Research
• Social science research methods are used to study media
• Social science research is more challenging to conduct than physical
science research
– The most significant and interesting forms of human behavior are the
hardest to measure
– Human behavior is complex in terms of causation
– Humans have goals and are self-reflexive
– We find the notion of causality troubling when applied to ourselves –
we like to think we are free agents
• Discuss why it would be difficult to study your personal media use
to determine how it affects your most important thoughts and
actions
• Discuss why it could be possible to explain and predict the actions
of large groups of individuals even when its hard to predict what
specific individuals will do
 Defining Theory

• Four major schools of social theory offer different

definitions of theory
– Postpositivist
– Cultural
– Critical
– Normative
• These schools of theory differ in their:
– Goals
– Ontology = view of the nature of reality
– Epistemology = how knowledge is created
– Axiology= role of values in research
 Postpositivist Theory

– Goals = describe, explain, predict and control

phenomena in the social world
– Ontology = there is an ordered, structured social
world that exists apart from our perception of it
– Epistemology = systematic, logical search that
produces intersubjective agreement about
regularities and causal relationships in the social
world
– Axiology= research should be objective and value-
free
 Cultural Theory
– Goals = Understand how and why actions occur in the
social world
– Ontology = there are many different “realities” in the
social world that are constructed based on culture and
personal experience
– Epistemology = knowledge is created through
interaction between researchers and their
communities with a focus on how
communication/media serve to construct reality
– Axiology= Values guide research in that there is a
focus on the the most meaningful aspects of the social
world
 Critical Theory

– Goals = Restructure the social world to overcome the

abuse of power and achieve egalitarian values
– Ontology = Reality is produced by an interaction
between structure and agency; this interaction tends
to be dominated by structures controlled by elites;
these structures limit the agency of most people
– Epistemology = knowledge is created by studying
social structures, human agency and the way these
interact
– Axiology= Egalitarian values dominate research and
theory construction
 Normative Theory

– Goals = Use human values to decide how the

social world should be structured = use values to
guide media system development
– Ontology = the social world is humanly
constructed to achieve valued goals
– Epistemology = knowledge is created by assessing
and comparing how values have been or could be
achieved
– Axiology= Theory is constructed so that values can
be realized
 Evaluating Postpositivist Theory

• How well does it explain events, behaviors or

relationships?
• How well does it predict future events
behaviors or relationships?
• How testable is it? Can assertions be
supported or rejected based on observation?
• How parsimonious is it?
• How practical or useful is it?
 Evaluating Cultural Theory

• How much new insight does it provide into

events, behavior or relationships?
• How well does it clarify values embedded in
phenomena or in researchers?
• How much support does it generate within the
scholarly community?
• How much aesthetic appeal does it have to
enthuse or inspire adherents?
 Evaluating Critical Theory

• How much new insight does it provide into

events, behavior or relationships?
• How well does it clarify values embedded in
phenomena or in researchers?
• How much support does it generate within the
scholarly community?
• How much aesthetic appeal does it have to
enthuse or inspire adherents?
• How useful is the critique of the status quo? Can
it provide a basis for challenging elite power?
 Evaluating Normative Theory

• How stable and definitive are the ideal

standards of operation that have been
developed based on the theory?
• What economic, social, cultural, and political
realities must be considered when applying
the theory?
• How much support does the theory have
within the scholarly community?
 Flexible Social Science

• Increasingly, media researchers tend to “mix” or

blend together the different types of theory (and
associated) research methods
• Different blends sometimes produce different
research findings and that produces controversy
about the influence or role of media
• Ideally, different blends produce compatible
research findings that increase our confidence in
the usefulness of findings
 4 Trends in Media Theory
• There have been 4 different trends in media theory
• Each trend involves specific conceptions of media and
different notions about how our understanding of media
can be improved
• Trends developed at specific points in history and were
shaped by larger political and social concerns
• Trends never completely disappear, they are gradually
displaced by new trends
• The trends are:
– Mass Society and Mass Culture
– Media Effects
– Critical Cultural
– Meaning-Making
 Mass Society and Mass Culture

• The increasing popularity of mass

newspapers, magazines and books in the late
1800s raised elite concerns
• During WWI innovative forms of propaganda
were widely circulated using mass media; the
effectiveness of this propaganda was troubling
• The sudden popularity of movies and radio in
the 1920s and 1930s raised more elite
concerns
 Mass Society and Mass Culture

• The development of new forms of mass media in the

1800s and 1900s took place at a time of enormous
social change
• A new form of social order was created – Mass Society
• In Mass Society most traditional ways of doing things
were abandoned
• Elites and scholars worried that media could be making
these changes worse by promoting Mass Culture
• Media seemed to provide irresponsible elites with a
powerful tool for gaining and exercising economic and
political power over mass society
 Thinking about Mass Society and Mass Culture

• Discuss some of the currently popular ideas or technologies

– To what extent were media important in popularizing these
ideas or technologies
– How did you find out about these ideas or technologies?
– If you found out about them from other people, did you go to
media to learn more
• Discuss popular online content, movies or TV shows
– How important is this content to you personally? How
important is it to other people?
– Does this content do more than entertain you? Does it do more
than entertain other people?
– Does the content promote lifestyles or values that you finding
meaningful? What about other people?
 The Media Effects Trend
• By 1930 the power of media to fuel societal disruption
and totalitarianism was widely feared
• The power of media began to be seriously studied
using new social science (postpositivist) research
methods
• During WWII the power of propaganda was
systematically studied
• By 1950 experiments and survey research indicated
that media effects were limited by a number of factors
• Media effects were limited in terms of the number of
people influenced, the type of influence, and the
duration of the influence
 The Media Effects Trend

• During the 1960s and 1970s limited effects theories

were tested over and over
• Researchers became convinced that media did little to
promote problematic social changes or harmful effects
– TV violence didn’t cause widespread aggressiveness
– Propaganda couldn’t quickly convert people from one
political ideology to another
– Advertising primarily reinforces existing predispositions to
buy products
– Popular culture fads are a superficial form of
entertainment with largely trivial consequences
 Thinking about Media Effects Theory
• Discuss Direct to Consumer Advertising of Prescription
Drugs
– Most drug advertising is aimed at older people who have
the problems that the drugs are designed to alleviate
– How effective do you think this advertising is when it is
placed next to relevant information found by an online
search for a specific disease?
– Are you aware of family members who have responded to
these ads?
– Would you be likely to try a drug after seeing it advertised
on TV or online?
– What harmful effects could result from these ads?
– What beneficial effects could occur?
 Critical Cultural Trend

• Media effects theories leave unanswered questions about the

possible power of media
– Why are billions spent on advertising if it doesn’t have effects?
– Why has fundraising to buy advertising become the central focus of
most political campaigns?
– Why is there such widespread interest in sports and celebrities?
– Why have Google, YouTube, and Facebook become multibillion dollar
industries?
– Why are typical young adults spending more than 7 hours a day using
media?
• Critical cultural theories offer ways of answering such questions
• Most critical cultural theories of media were developed in Europe
and Canada after WWII
• Some of the most important critical cultural theories were based on
Marxist Theory and mass society theories
 Critical Cultural Trend

• Critical cultural theories of media began to slowly

enter the US during the late 1960s and 1970s
• The most important source of critical cultural
theory was the British Cultural Studies School
• Another important source was Marshall McLuhan
in Canada
• James Carey was one of the first Americans to
gain notoriety for promoting American Cultural
Studies in the 1980s
 Thinking about Critical Cultural Theories
• Discuss how you have learned about the various ethnic cultures
that are important in the US such as African American, Hispanic, or
Asian cultures?
– Through personal experience
– From talking to other people
– From classes that you have taken
– From media content = news, sports and entertainment content
• Compared to other information sources how important and useful
have media been in providing information?
– To what extent does media content promote useful, accurate insights
into other cultures?
– To what extent do media perpetuate problematic stereotypes or
encourage animosity based on race or ethnicity?
– Are you aware of cultural misunderstanding on your campus that
could be perpetuated by media?
 Meaning-Making Theory
• We are seeing the rise of a new trend in media theory
– Critical cultural theories have gained prominence
alongside limited effects theories
– Most new media scholars are being trained in both
Postpositivism (Quantitative) and Cultural (Qualitative)
Research Methods
– There is growing interest in meaning-making theories that
focus on the power of communication to construct and
maintain our understanding of the social world
– Meaning-making theories are being used to guide both
quantitative and qualitative media research
– A coherent body of research findings is emerging that is
grounded in both quantitative and qualitative research
 Thinking about Meaning-Making Theory
• Discuss how much you rely on media to make meaning
in your life:
– Do you engage in mood management = use mobile devices
to enhance or change your mood?
– Do you use Facebook to promote a specific identity for
yourself among your friends through pictures and stories?
Do you know of others who do this?
– Do you choose news content that mostly reinforces what
you currently believe about politics or do you try to learn
new things about politics from media?
– Do you routinely use media content to avoid thinking
about problems in your life or do you seek solutions to
those problems in media content?
 Microscopic vs Macroscopic Levels of Analysis

• Media research can be done at different levels of

analysis
– Macroscopic level involves research done on media impact
on cultures, societies or nations
– Microscopic level involves research done on media impact
on organizations or individuals
• Media effects research has tended to be microscopic
since it is easier to observe individuals and this
research relies heavily on observation
• Critical cultural research has largely been macroscopic
since the focus is on how media affect culture
 On-Going Debate over Media Effects
• How likely is it that the following types of media content have
important good or bad effects? What about the meaning that can
be derived from this content?
– Violent images or sexual content in videogames
– Fast food advertising
– Advertising aimed at children for toys or fast food
– News coverage of politics, war, or economic crisis
– Fashion magazines and ads that promote ultrathin body images as
ideal
– Heavy metal or rap music
• If you think certain types of effects are possible, consider how those
effects take place – why would certain types of people be
influenced and how widespread would that influence be?
 Chapter 1
Review of Learning Objectives
• 1.1 Define legacy media, large-scale social media, and mass
communication.
• 1.2 Explain differences in the operation of the natural and social sciences.
• 1.3 Describe the relationship between the scientific method and causality.
• 1.4 Define theory.
• 1.5 Differentiate the four broad categories of mass communication
theory—postpositive, cultural, critical, and normative theory—by their
ontology, epistemology, and axiology.
• 1.6 Establish criteria for judging theory.
• 1.7 Differentiate the four trends in media theory—the mass society and
mass culture, media-effects, critical cultural, and meaning-making trends.