3.

2 Social-Scientific Theories (Limited Effects Theories)

Social scientific theories are generalizations derived from systematic observation and
objective analysis of mass media variables, by employing methods associated with
empirical research in the social sciences. Methods such as experimentation, field
surveys, content analysis, focus group etc are used. The social scientific approach to
investigating the effects of the media led to the emergence of limited effects theories.

The theories include the following:

3.2.1 The Post Stimuli-Response theory

 The Individual Differences Perspective

It argues that because people vary greatly in their psychological compositions and
because they have different perceptions of things, media influence differs from person
to person. In other words, people learn attitude, values and beliefs in the context of
experience and this result in differences in the way they understand and perceive media
messages.

 The Social Category Perspective

It assumes that members of a given social category will respond to media stimuli in
more or less uniform ways. In other words, people with similar backgrounds {e.g. age,
gender, and income level, religious affiliations} will have similar reactions to that
exposure.

The Social Relations Perspective

It posits that people‟s reaction to media messages is modified by theirinformal social

relationships with significant others like relations, friends, social groups etc.
3.2.2 The Two-Step Flow Theory

It states that media messages pass through opinion leaders to opinion followers. It was
discovered during election campaign that many people had little exposure to the mass
media, such people obtained their information second hand from people {opinion
leaders} who got it from the media and also shaped it as they passed it down. The
people‟s voting decision was based on their second hand information which has been
modified by the opinion leaders. The Two-Step flow was later modified to Multi-Step or
N-Step flow theory, since opinion leaders also have opinion leaders and so on
continuously.

3.2.3 Dissonance Theory (Selective Processes)

Dissonance theory further corroborates the fact that the media are not all-powerful as
the belief was in the mass society era. The idea in dissonance theory is that any
information that is not consistent with a person‟s already-held values and beliefs will
create a psychological discomfort (dissonance) that must be relieved; this is because
people generally work to k eep their knowledge of themselves and the world consistent
with their preexisting beliefs. What may happen at times is for a person to try as much
as possible to make some things that are not psychologically nor consistently aligned
(consistent) to his values and beliefs through a variety of ways. The „ways‟ of doing this
have become known as the selective processes. Some psychologists see selective
process as defence mechanism used to protect ourselves {and our ego} from
information that would threaten us, while others consider it as a normal means for
coping with the large quantity of sensory information that constantly bombard us.
Whatever it may be, there is no doubt that it functions as complex and highly
sophisticated filtering mechanism that screen out useless sensory data while it identifies
and highlights those that are useful in the data.
Klapper (1960) explains that selective process helps media content consumers to cope
with media‟s impact. Generally, people tend to expose themselves to those mass
communications that are in accord with their existing attitudes and interests; while they
consciously and unconsciously avoid communications of opposite hue. However, when
exposed to such communications, they often seem not to perceive it, or recast and
interpret it to fit their existing views.

 Selective Exposure

This is people‟s tendency to seek out information that supports their interest, confirms
their beliefs and boosts their ego while avoiding those that are contrary to their
predispositions. In other words, receivers choose exposure to ideas that reinforce and
confirm already held beliefs and attitudes e.g. As a christian, you may have the tendency
to read books or watch films that support your religion while you avoid another
religion‟s materials, say Islamic religion.

 Selective Attention

As a result of too much barrage of information that bombard us, we tend to attend to
media messages that we feel are in accord with our already held attitudes and interests,
while we filter those ones that do not cater for us.

 Selective Perception

This is the mental recasting of a message so that its meaning is in line with a person‟s
beliefs and attitudes. It is a psychological process, which involves decoding of
communication messages and ensuring that they align with your previous experiences
and current dispositions – needs, moods and memories.

 Selective Pretention
This is the process by which people tend to remember best and longest information that
is consistent with their pre-existing attitudes or interests.

3.4 Mass Society Theories (All-Powerful Media Effect)

These are perspectives that stress the influence of the media but often the negative
part. They believe that the media are corrupting influences that undermine the social
order and that average people are defenseless against their influence. These theories
emerged in the second half of the 19th Century when mass circulation of newspapers
and magazines, movies, talkies, and radio came to prominence. It was a time of
urbanization and industrialization spread; which in conjunction with the media altered
the society’s patterns of life. The theories are treated below:

3.4./1 Hypodermic Needle/ Magic Bullet Theory

In mid-1930’s media scholars found the first theory on Media Effects and the Media
Behaviors. During second world wars media plays a vital role in both United States and
Germany to made influence in the people’s mind. The Germany Hitler’s Nazi used film
industry for Propaganda and they produced lots of movies about their achievements
which made a great impact in Germans mind. Later the United States also used its own
Hollywood and produced films like “Its Happened one night”, “It’s a wonderful life” and
Mr. Smith goes to Washington” to portrait Germany as Evil force which also made
impact in Americans Mind. Here media audience accepts the messages directly without
any rejection.

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.

3.4.2 Lasswell‟s Propaganda Theory

The theory is based on the idea that the purpose of communication is to influence the
attitudes and behaviors of a target audience. Lasswell identified five key elements of the
communication process: the sender, the message, the channel, the receiver, and the
effect. These elements are interrelated and work together to influence the audience’s
attitudes and behaviors.

The sender is the person or group who originates the message. The message is the
information or persuasion that is being communicated. The channel is the means by
which the message is transmitted, such as radio, television, or the internet. The receiver
is the person or group who receives the message. The effect is the change in attitude or
behavior that occurs as a result of the message.

One of the key components of Lasswell’s theory is the idea of “propaganda.”

Propaganda is defined as the systematic use of communication to influence the
attitudes and behaviors of a target audience. Lasswell believed that propaganda is a
necessary and legitimate tool for governments and other organizations to use in order
to achieve their goals. He also believed that propaganda can be used for both positive
and negative purposes, depending on the message and the intent of the sender.

Lasswell also identified several functions of propaganda, including:

 Surveillance: the gathering and dissemination of information about the attitudes

and behaviors of the target audience
  Correlation: the organization of the information and the selection of the message
to be communicated

 Transmission: the dissemination of the message through the chosen channel

 Mobilization: the use of the message to influence the attitudes and behaviors of
the target audience

Lasswell’s theory is still widely used today in the fields of communication, political
science, and sociology. It is often used to analyze the ways in which messages are
transmitted and received, and the ways in which they influence the attitudes and
behaviors of the target audience. However, it has been criticized for its focus on the
manipulation of public opinion by those in power and for its assumption that the effects
of communication are always predictable.

Overall, Harold Lasswell’s propaganda theory is a comprehensive model of

communication that provides insight into the ways in which messages are transmitted
and received in order to influence public opinion. While it has been criticized, it remains
a significant and widely used theory in the field of communication.

3.4.3 Lippman‟s Theory of Public Opinion Formation

The theory stressed the inability of average people to make sense of their world and
make rational decisions about their actions. Eric Alterman quoted and summarized
Lippman‟s position that average citizen can be compared to a deaf spectator sitting in
the back row. He does not know what is happening, why it is happening, what ought to
happen. “He lives in a world he cannot see, does not understand and is unable to
direct.”…No one expects a steelworker to understand physics, so why should he be
expected to understand politics? Lippman did not believe in the Libertarian assumptions
of the rational audience; he thus advocated the placement of control of information
gathering and distribution in the hands of a benevolent technocracy- a scientist elite-
that could be trusted to use scientific methods to sort fact from fiction and make good
decisions about who should receive various messages.

3.6 Theories of Persuasion and Social Influence

Pfau and Wan defines persuasion as ‘the use of communication in an attempt to shape,
change and/or reinforce perception, affect (feelings), cognition (thinking) and/or
behavior. Public Relations people try to persuade audience to learn new information, to
change emotions and to act in a certain way. The two prominent theories of persuasion
and social influence i.e Social exchange theory and Diffusion theory.

3.6.1 Social Exchange Theory

This theory was propounded by John Thibaut and Harold Kelly. It uses the economic
metaphor of costs and benefits to predict behavior. People makes decisions by
consciously or unconsciously measuring the costs and rewards of a relationship or
action, ultimately seeking to maximize their rewards. The core assumption of this theory
is that if an individual’s personal relationship samples are set on a certain level as a
baseline for future relationships. For example, if a person enters a new relationship after
a succession of poor relationships, that person’s expectations at the start of a new
relationship are going to be lower than those of a person who has a tight group of
friends. So the PR department is to look into the new environment they are going to,
identify what the companies there have done and how know what the customers there
are expecting from them.

3.6.2 Diffusion theory:

This theory suggests that there are five different categories of individuals that go
through the process of adopting innovation and these individuals adopt a new idea by
going through five distinct steps: awareness, intrest, evaluation, trail and adoption.
The first step which is awareness. In order to begin evaluating whether a product or idea
is worth adopting, an individual must first be made aware that this product exists. The
second step is for the individual to be persuaded to the reason why they should use this
product or have interest in the idea. Once an individual decides that they are interested,
they must go on to step three and evaluate the information to decide if it is worthy
trying out. if the individual’s evaluation is that they would like to try, they will take part
in the 4th step: trail. If the subject of this process is a product, this step may include
going to a store and using a tester or taking part in a 30- day taril. The final step in this
process is adoption. If the individual is satisfies with their experience after all of the
previous steps, they may choose to adopt the idea or product.

3.7 Media Violence: Children and Effects

We examine here some theories that summarised and offered useful insight into the
media‟s violence effects.

3.7.2 Aggressive Cues Theory

It believes that people who see mediated violence show higher levels of subsequent
aggression. In other words, exposure to mass-mediated aggression increases people‟s
level of emotional and psychological stimulation which can in turn lead to aggressive
behaviour. It is also assumed that a person‟s response to aggressive cues depends on
whether he is experiencing frustration at the time of exposure to mass mediated
violence. It also depends on whether the violence is presented as justified or not. That
means if the violence is presented as unjustified, it can inhibit the actual expression of
aggression through a sense of guilt.

3.7.3 Social Learning (Social Cognitive) Theory

Social learning theory encompasses both identification and imitation to explain how
people learn through observation of others in their environment. Identification is a form
of imitation in which copying a model, generalised beyond specific acts, springs from
wanting to be and trying to be like the model with respect to some broader quality. In
other words, it involves the tendency, especially by children, to identify with admired
aggressive heroes and copy their behaviour whenever a relevant situation arises.
Imitation is the direct, mechanical reproduction of behaviour.

This theory assumes that people, children especially, tend to learn aggression from the
mass media and to model their behaviour after the ones displayed. When people
observe media violence, they learn and imitate what is seen. The possibility of
actualising what is seen is enhanced when:

1. The subject expects to be rewarded for such behaviour.

2. There is close similarity between the dramatized violence and real – life situation the
subject subsequently encounters.