Notes
In-depth – thorough, complete, and considering all the details (e.g.: We shall be conducting a series of in-depth interviews with economic experts.)
(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman Pearson Education 2005)
Ivory tower – a place or situation where you are separated from the difficulties of ordinary life and so are unable to understand them (e.g.: Departmental barriers and ivory tower attitudes are detrimental to good results.)
(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman Pearson Education 2005)
Hypothesis is a countable noun in the meaning of “an idea that is suggested as an explanation for something, but that has not yet been proved to be true” (e.g.: We hope that further research will confirm our hypothesis.)Its plural form is hypotheses /-si:z/. The noun is uncountable in the meaning of “ideas or guesses rather than facts” (e.g.: All this is mere hypothesis.)
(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman Pearson Education 2005)
Behaviour is an uncountable noun but it has recently started to be used as a countable noun in the meaning of “a pattern of what a person and an animal do”
(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman Pearson Education 2005)
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I. Multiple Choice
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Choose the alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
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1. What is considered to be the founding book in American media studies?
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a. Liberty and the News b. Public Opinion c. Propaganda Techniques in the World War d. The Century
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2. Walter Lippmann's book Liberty and the News _____.
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a. called on journalists to act more like scientific researchers b. applied the principles of psychology to journalism c. defined and examined propaganda d. all of the above
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3. Who wrote the 1927 study Propaganda Techniques in the World War?
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a. Walter Lippmann b. Daniel Czitrom c. Howard Cossell d. Harold Lasswell
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4. Polls conducted after the first O. J. Simpson verdict were an example of _____.
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a. public opinion research b. marketing research c. social psychology studies d. propaganda analysis
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5. The rise of commercial radio led to the first _____.
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a. production codes b. poll projections c. ratings systems d. all of the above
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6. The _____, also called the magic-bullet theory, attributes powerful effects to the mass media.
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a. hypodermic-needle model b. minimal-effects model c. uses and gratifications model d. none of the above
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7. The _____ relies on objectivity, reliability, and validity.
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a. hypodermic-needle model b. scientific method c. uses and gratifications model d. magic-bullet theory
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8. Who conducted content analysis research showing that heavy watchers of television overestimate the amount of violence that actually exists in the world?
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a. Hadley Cantril b. Orson Welles c. Harold Lasswell d. George Gerbner
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9. _____ is the idea that the mass media determines the major topics of discussion for individuals and society.
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a. The cultivation effect b. Agenda-setting c. Media effects d. none of the above
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10. Which of the following is a problem with content analysis research?
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a. it is basically descriptive and does not measure the effects of media b. it systematically codes and measures media content c. most content analysis is done by college students d. all of the above
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11._____ focus on how people make meaning, apprehend reality, and order experience through their use of cultural symbols in print and visual media.
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a. cultural studies b. media-effects studies c. public research projects d. none of the above
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12. The interpretive approaches of the European school of media research were built on the writing of philosophers like _____.
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a. Noam Chomsky b. Karl Marx c. Camille Paglia d. Horace Newcomb
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13. Which book was considered the first serious academic analysis of television programs?
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a. Democracy without Citizens b. Manufacturing Consent c. TV: The Most Popular Art d. none of the above
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14. _____ focus on the production of popular culture.
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a. political economy studies b. audience-response studies c. reader-response studies d. media-effects studies
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15. Which of the following was not part of Elizabeth Bird's analysis for her study of supermarket tabloids?
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a. interviews with writers and editors of popular tabloids b. charting the sales of popular tabloids c. in-depth discussions with tabloid readers d. analyzing the form and content of tabloids
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16. During what time period did more scientific approaches to mass media research begin to develop?
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a. during the late nineteenth century b. after World War II c. during the late 1920s and 1930s d. all of the above
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17. Which of the following is NOT a trend that contributed to the rise of modern media research?
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a. marketing research b. propaganda analysis c. social psychology studies d. subliminal advertising
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18. Harold Lasswell defined propaganda as _____.
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a. "partisan appeal based on half-truths and devious manipulation of communication channels" b. "the control of opinion by significant symbols … by stories, rumors, reports, pictures, and other forms of social communication" c. making unseen facts intelligible to those who have to make decisions d. measuring how many people are listening to the radio on a given night
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19. The Payne Fund Studies emerged from _____.
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a. an effort to measure how many people were listening to the radio
b. political elections c. a concern about the effect of movies on youth d. concerns about how the mass media shape public opinion
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20. _____ developed through the efforts of advertisers and product companies.
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a. Marketing research b. Social psychology studies c. Public opinion research d. Propaganda analysis
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21. _____ usually takes place in academic or government settings.
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a. Private research b. Public research c. Proprietary research d. none of the above
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22. Who wrote a book-length study of The War of the Worlds broadcast that challenged the hypodermic-needle model?
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a. Orson Welles b. George Gerbner c. Hadley Cantril d. Harold Lasswell
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23. The _____ enabled researchers to develop inventories cataloguing how people employ the media.
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a. hypodermic-needle theory b. uses and gratifications model c. minimal-effects model d. scientific method
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24. A(n) _____ is a tentative general statement that predicts a relationship between a dependent variable and an independent variable.
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a. experiment b. survey c. analysis of content d. hypothesis
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25. Which of the following is a problem with experiments?
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a. subjects might act differently in a lab setting than they would in everyday surroundings b. the results are not necessarily applicable to a larger population c. most experiments are performed on college students who are not representative of the general public d. all of the above
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26. _____ is cultural research that focuses on how people use and interpret cultural content.
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a. Political economy studies b. Audience response research c. Textual analysis d. all of the above
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27. Which of the following is an example of a weakness of cultural studies?
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a. some studies focus too heavily on the meanings of media, ignoring their effect on audiences b. studies pay attention to the arrangement of power and status in society c. studies interpret stories, messages, and meanings in our culture d. none of the above
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28. What was a major inadequacy of traditional scientific research as pointed out by the Frankfurt School?
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a. it reduced large cultural questions to verifiable categories b. it depended on rigidly enforced neutrality c. it did not take into account historical and moral contexts d. all of the above
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29. Which of the following disciplines should NOT require specialized language?
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a. math b. chemistry c. journalism d. engineering
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30. During what time period did more academics start to become active in public life?
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a. the 1960s and 1970s b. the 1980s and 1990s c. the mid-1800s d. the 1930s and 1940s
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(http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/pages/bcs-main.asp? v= chapter&s=14000&n=00040&i=14040.04&o=|00020|00030| 00040|&ns=38)
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II. Summary
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Summary 1 Read the summary of the section of Chapter15 titled "Early developments in media research" and answer the multiple choice questions that follow.
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Early developments in media research
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In the mid to late nineteenth century, media analysis was based on moral and political arguments. However, during the late 1920s and 1930s, more scientific approaches to mass media research began to develop. In 1920, Walter Lippmann published Liberty and the News, a book that called on journalists to operate more like scientific researchers in gathering and analyzing factual material. His next book, Public Opinion, published in 1922, applied the principles of psychology to journalism and is considered by many academics to be the founding book in American media studies. The new emphasis on applied research led to an expanded analysis of the effects of the media. Media historian Daniel Czitrom traced four early research trends between 1930 and 1960 that contributed to the rise of modern media research: propaganda analysis, public opinion research, social psychology studies, and marketing research.
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Propaganda analysis became a major early feature of mass media research after World War I. Researchers became interested in the ways in which propaganda had been used to advance the war effort. They labeled propaganda as "partisan appeal based on half-truths and devious manipulation of communication channels." Harold Lasswell, in his important 1927 study Propaganda Techniques in the World War, defined propaganda as "the control of opinion by significant symbols … by stories, rumors, reports, pictures, and other forms of social communication."
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Researchers extended the study of propaganda to include general concerns about how the mass media filtered information and shaped public attitudes. Walter Lippmann advocated social scientists as part of a new expert class that could make "unseen facts intelligible to those who have to make decisions." Today, this expert class conducts citizen surveys in the form of public opinion research. This type of research is especially influential during political elections. On the upside, research on diverse populations has provided insights into citizen behavior and social differences. For example, polls conducted after the first O. J. Simpson verdict documented a wide disparity between white and black citizens regarding their trust or suspicion of police officers. On the downside, journalism has become increasingly dependent on these public opinion polls. Critics wonder whether this reliance affects political involvement. For example, many studies suggest that some citizens do not vote because they have already seen poll projections on television and decide that their votes would not make a difference in the outcome of the election.
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Social psychology studies are a research method used to measure individual behavior and cognition. The Payne Fund Studies, conducted by social psychologists between 1929 and 1932, were the most influential of early social psychology studies. They emerged from a national concern about the effects of motion pictures on young people and were later used by politicians to attack the movie industry. These studies linked frequent movie attendance to juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and other antisocial behaviors. The Payne Fund Studies eventually contributed to the establishment of the film industry's production code, and the studies were the forerunners of today's TV violence and aggression research.
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A fourth area of media research, marketing research, developed through the efforts of advertisers and product companies. These companies began conducting surveys on consumer buying habits. The rise of commercial radio led to the first ratings systems, which measured how many people were listening on a given night. By the 1930s, radio networks, advertisers, large stations, and advertising agencies all subscribed to ratings services, even though radio listeners were more difficult to trace than newspaper customers. To counteract this problem, researchers developed direct-mail diaries, television meters, phone surveys, the telemarketing industry, and Internet tracking to try to measure media use.
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1. Who wrote Liberty and the News, a book that called on journalists to act more like scientific researchers?
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a. Walter Lippmann b. Harold Lasswell c. Daniel Czitrom d. none of the above
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2. Who traced research trends between 1930 and 1960 that contributed to the rise of modern media research?
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a. Walter Lippmann b. Harold Lasswell c. Daniel Czitrom d. none of the above
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3. Public opinion research is especially influential during _____.
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a. world wars b. political elections c. psychological studies
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d. none of the above
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4. The most influential early social psychology studies were _____.
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a. direct-mail diaries b. propaganda analysis c. the Rockefeller Studies d. the Payne Fund Studies
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5. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways the marketing research industry attempts to measure media use?
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a. Internet tracking b. direct-mail diaries c. door-to-door surveys d. television meters
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Summary 2 Read the summary of the section of Chapter 15 titled "Research on media effects" and answer the multiple choice questions that follow.
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Research on media effects
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Between 1930 and 1960, the major motivation of media research was finding the answer to the question "who says what to whom with what effect." The research stemming from this question, usually identified as media effects, attempts to understand, explain, and predict the impact ‒ or effects ‒ of mass media on individuals and society. Media researchers use almost the same set of questions to examine the media as reporters use to find news ‒ who, what, when, and where. However, while reporters describe what happens, media researchers try to explain what happens and predict whether or not it will happen again.
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Media research can come from the private or public sectors. Private research, which is sometimes called proprietary research, is generally conducted for a business, corporation, or political campaign. The information gathered usually addresses a real-life problem or need, like determining the hot-button issues for a political race. Public research usually takes place in academic or government settings and involves information that is more theoretical ‒ information that tries to clarify, explain, or predict the effects of mass media.
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Key phases in research approaches
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Historical, economic, and political factors influence media industries, making it difficult to develop systematic theories to explain communication. Instead, a number of small theories have developed that help explain individual behavior rather than the impact of the media on large populations. However, before these small theories developed during the 1970s, the major approaches to media research included the hypodermic-needle, minimal-effects, and uses and gratifications models.
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The hypodermic-needle model, also called the magic-bullet theory, suggests that the media shoot their potent effects directly into unsuspecting victims. This was one of the earliest and least persuasive theories, attributing powerful effects to the mass media. As film and radio became influential cultural forces in the 1920s and 1930s, some social psychologists and sociologists who arrived in the United States after fleeing Nazism worried that the popular media in America had a strong hold over vulnerable audiences. They imagined that radio, film, and print media could be used as propaganda tools in much the same way these media were used in Germany. An early challenge to the hypodermic-needle model was Hadley Cantril's book-length study of the legendary Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds broadcast. Cantril argued that contrary to the hypodermic-needle model, not all listeners thought the fictional report of Martian invaders was a real news report. Cantril noted that some people were more likely than others to believe the report. For example, factors such as listening situation (if people tuned in late and missed the initial disclaimers for the program) and personal traits like gullibility and strong fundamentalist religious beliefs might sway people to believe the program was real.
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Cantril's research helped lay the groundwork for the minimal-effects model. This model claimed that in most cases the mass media reinforce existing behaviors and attitudes rather than change them. It says that people engage in selective exposure and selective retention with regard to the media. We selectively expose ourselves to media messages that are most familiar to us, and we retain messages that confirm values and attitudes we already hold.
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While the hypodermic-needle model and minimal-effects model assumed that audiences were passive and were acted upon by the media, the uses and gratifications model, which was proposed in the 1940s, contested this notion of audience passivity. Instead of asking "What effects do the media have on us?" researchers asked "Why do we use the media?" This enabled researchers to develop inventories cataloguing how people employed the media. For example, individuals might use the media to fulfill a need for drama and stories, to confirm moral and spiritual values, or to see authority figures elevated or toppled. Though the uses and gratifications model addressed the functions of the mass media for individuals, it didn't address questions related to the impact of the media on society.
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Approaches to media effects
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Most media research employs the scientific method, a system long used by scientists and scholars that follows the following stages:
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1. identifying the research problem
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2. reviewing existing research and theories related to the problem
3. developing working hypotheses or predictions about what the study might find
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4. determining an appropriate method or research design
5. collecting information or relevant data
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6. analyzing results to see if the hypotheses have been verified
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7. interpreting the implications of the study to determine whether they explain or predict patterns in human behavior
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This method relies on objectivity, reliability, and validity. In scientific studies, researchers pose one or more hypotheses, or tentative general statements that predict a relationship between a dependent variable that is influenced by an independent variable. For example, a researcher might hypothesize that heavy levels of TV viewing among adolescents (independent variable) cause poor performance (dependent variable) in traditional school settings.
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The methods for studying media effects on audiences have taken two forms ‒ experiments and survey research. These have been supplemented by the technique of content analysis. Experiments isolate some aspect of content, suggest a hypothesis, and manipulate variables to discover a particular medium's impact on attitude, emotion, or behavior. Experiments usually take place in lab or field settings where people can be observed using the media in their everyday environments, though in field experiments it is more difficult for researchers to control variables. In lab settings, researchers have more control, but there are other problems. For example, when subjects are removed from the environments in which they regularly use the media, they may act differently than they would in everyday surroundings. Another problem with experiments is that they are not generalizable to a larger population ‒ they can't tell us whether cause-effect results can be duplicated outside the lab. Also, most academic experiments are performed on college students who are not representative of the general public.
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Survey research, which usually works best for long-term studies of the media, is a method of collecting and measuring data taken from a group of respondents. This research method uses a much larger sample of the population than those used in experimental studies. While surveys cannot show cause-effect relationships, they can reveal correlations or associations between two variables. For example, a random questionnaire survey of ten-year-old boys might demonstrate that a correlation exists between aggressive behavior and watching violent TV programs, even though it can't explain which causes which. Surveys are also useful for comparing voting behavior and levels of media use. And surveys enable researchers to investigate various populations in long-term studies. For example survey research might measure subjects when they are ten, twenty, and thirty years old to track changes in how frequently they watch TV and what kinds of programs they prefer at different ages. Survey researchers use direct mail, personal interviews, telephone calls, email, and Web sites to accumulate large amounts of information from a diverse cross section of people. However, it is important to note that surveys are only as good as the wording of their questions.
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Content analysis is a systematic method of coding and measuring media content. Recent studies have focused on television. For example, researchers might track the number of male and female, black and white, and blue- and white-collar characters found in daytime and prime-time television programming. The most influential content analyses have been conducted by George Gerbner and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania. Since the late 1960s, they have coded and counted acts of violence on network television programs. These studies have shown that heavy watchers of television overestimate the amount of violence that exists in the actual world. The problem with content analysis is that it is basically descriptive and does not measure the effects of media or explain why a particular media message gets produced in the first place. There are also problems of definition in content analysis. For example, researchers in a Kaiser Foundation study defined sexual content as flirting, kissing, talking about sex, intimate touching, depictions of sexual intercourse, or the strong suggestion of it. But is this how most television viewers would define sexual content?
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Explaining media effects
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Two of the most influential contemporary frameworks that help explain media effects have been agenda-setting and the cultivation effect. Agenda-setting is the idea that when the mass media pay attention to a particular event or issue, they determine the major topics of discussion for individuals and society. For example, when the media began to cover ecology issues after the first Earth Day in 1970, a much higher percentage of the population began listing the environment as a primary social concern in surveys. Agenda-setting researchers argue that the mass media do not so much tell us what to think as what to think about. The cultivation effect suggests that heavy viewing of television leads individuals to perceive reality in ways that are consistent with the portrayals they see on television. The major research in this area stems from the work of George Gerbner, and the basic idea is that the more time an audience spends watching television, the more likely it is that the audience's views of social reality will be "cultivated" by the portrayals they see on television. For example, though fewer than 1 percent of Americans are victims of violent crime in any year, people who watch a lot of television overestimate this percentage.
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Evaluating research on media effects
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Mainstream models of media research have made valuable contributions to our understanding of the mass media. This wealth of research exists in part because funding for studies on media effects on young people remains popular among politicians. Government support for such research has been strong since the 1960s. Limits to media research do exist, including the inability to address how the media affect communities and social institutions. Because most media research operates best in examining media and individual behavior, few research studies exist on media's impact on community and social life.
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1. What type of media research is usually conducted for a business, corporation, or political campaign?
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a. theoretical research b. public research c. proprietary research d. none of the above
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2. The hypodermic-needle model is also called the _____.
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a. magic-bullet theory b. selective exposure theory c. private research theory d. uses and gratifications model
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3. The _____ model says that people engage in selective exposure and selective retention with regard to the media.
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a. hypodermic-needle model b. minimal-effects model c. magic-bullet theory d. uses and gratifications model
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4. Which of the following is NOT a step in the scientific method?
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a. identifying the research problem b. prepping the subjects c. analyzing results to see if the hypotheses have been verified d. collecting information or relevant data
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5. _____ is/are a systematic method of coding and measuring media content.
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a. content analysis b. survey research c. experiments d. hypotheses
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Summary 3 Read the summaries of the sections of Chapter 15 titled "Cultural approaches to media research" and "Media research, ivory towers, and democracy" and answer the multiple choice questions that follow.
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Cultural approaches to media research/Media research, ivory towers, and democracy
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During the rise of modern media research, approaches with a historical and interpretive edge developed alongside the scientific models. These approaches stemmed from British and European traditions, which favored interpretive rather than scientific methods ‒ researchers study media questions as if they were literary or cultural critics, not as survey researchers. Such approaches were built on the writings of political philosophers like Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci. In the United States, a group of European researchers known as the Frankfurt School, who fled Nazi Germany, were among the early critics of modern media research. The Frankfurt School pointed out three major inadequacies of traditional scientific approaches: 1) they reduced large "cultural questions" to measurable and "verifiable categories"; 2) they depended on "an atmosphere of rigidly enforced neutrality"; and 3) they refused to place "the phenomena of modern life" in a "historical and moral context."
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Cultural studies
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Academics who embrace a cultural approach to media studies try to understand how media and culture are tied to the patterns of communication in daily life. Cultural studies generally focus on how people make meaning, apprehend reality, and order experience through their use of cultural symbols in print and visual media. Cultural researchers focus on the investigation of daily experience, especially on issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality, and on the arrangement of power and status in society. The major analytical approaches to cultural research are textual analysis, audience studies, and political economy.
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Textual analysis is the cultural research equivalent to measurement methods and content analysis. It is the close reading and interpretation of the meanings of culture, including the study of books, movies, and TV programs. Textual analysis also looks at rituals, narratives, and meanings. Until the 1974 publication of Horace Newcomb's TV: The Most Popular Art, which was considered the first serious academic analysis of television stories, textual analysis generally focused on "important" debates, films, poems, and books. However, Newcomb's work prompted a shift to a new generation of media-studies scholars who had grown up on television and rock and roll and who were interested in less elite forms of culture.
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Audience or reader-response research is cultural research that focuses on how people use and interpret cultural content. For example, Janice Radway, who was trained in literary criticism, was interested in investigating and interpreting the relationship between reading popular fiction and ordinary life. She used her training, as well as interviews and questionnaires, to investigate this relationship with a group of midwestern women who were fans of romance novels. In her book Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature, Radway argued that this cultural activity functioned as personal time for some women whose family and work lives provided very little time for them. She also suggested that the fans identified with the active, independent qualities of the romantic heroines they admired.
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Political economy studies focus on the production of popular culture. The greatest concern political economy studies have about the media is the increasing conglomeration of ownership, which means that the production of media content is being controlled by fewer and fewer organizations. Political economy studies work best when combined with the textual-analysis and audience-studies approaches, which provide a well-rounded context for understanding cultural content, the production of that content, and the audience's reception of it.
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Evaluating cultural approaches
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Unlike media-effects research, a cultural approach doesn't provide explanations for laws governing the mass media. Instead, it offers interpretations of the stories, messages, and meanings that circulate throughout our culture. One of the strengths of a cultural approach is the freedom to broadly interpret the impact of the mass media. However, just as media-effects research has its limits, so do cultural studies. Sometimes studies focus too heavily on the meanings of media programs, ignoring their effect on audiences. Elizabeth Bird tried to address this weakness by setting up a three-part analysis for her study For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study of Supermarket Tabloids. Her analysis included interviews with writers and editors of popular tabloids, in-depth discussions with tabloid readers, and an analysis of the form and content of tabloids. Her research demonstrated that a researcher could combine textual analysis, audience studies, and political economy approaches. In addition, media-effects and cultural researchers have begun to borrow ideas from each other to better assess the complexity of the media's impact. For example, political scientist Robert Entman used both perspectives to examine journalism and politics in Democracy without Citizens. He used cultural theories about economics and politics to reveal how journalists slant the news, and combined them with surveys that measured the impact of slanted reporting.
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Media research, ivory towers, and democracy
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With the growth of mass-media departments in colleges and universities has come an increase in special terminology and jargon. This specialized language can intimidate nonacademics and tends to exclude the public from access to the research process. Also, researchers often find it difficult to speak to one another across disciplines because of the jargon used to analyze and report findings. As academic life splintered into narrow areas of specialization in the 1970s, the use of jargon became accelerated. While scientific studies such as chemistry, math, and engineering require special symbols and languages, it is not always clear why the social sciences and humanities use so much jargon. Even in cultural research, which tends to identify with marginalized groups, the language of study is so complex that it often isolates the research from the daily experience of the groups it is trying to address.
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In addition to specialized language, other problems have arisen involving media research and democracy. Government funding for university research was slashed in the mid-1990s as lawmakers and the public had become increasingly concerned about the emphasis on research over teaching at many major universities. This led universities to look to corporations to raise money for research, which is problematic on several levels. As historian Christopher Lasch warned, corporate funding leads to the potential for corruption in higher education. Also in the mid-1990s, it was becoming more difficult for middle- and working-class students to attend college, contradicting the wide access to higher education that was gained during and since the 1950s and 1960s with GI loans and the women's and civil rights movements. Yet another problem was that increasing specialization of academic disciplines in the 1970s led to the isolation of many researchers from life outside the universities. Academics were once again locked in their ivory towers.
Facing these problems in higher education, more academics began stepping forward in the 1980s and 1990s to broaden their ideas of research and to become active in political and cultural life. For example, linguist Noam Chomsky was the subject of a 1992 documentary, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, and feminist critic Camille Paglia has often written commentary for Esquire, Salon, and the New York Times. In the TV coverage of the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, many professors helped interpret the war in the larger context of ongoing Middle Eastern struggles, and during the 1990s and continuing today, many academics have made regular TV appearances to help place current events in a historical and legal context. Public intellectuals based on campuses help to carry on the conversations of society and culture, actively circulating the most important new ideas of the day and serving as models for how to participate in public life.
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1. Media-research approaches with a historical and interpretive edge developed from _____.
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a. British and European traditions b. Nazi Germany c. U.S. traditions d. none of the above
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2. _____ involves the close reading and interpretations of the meanings of culture, including the study of books, movies, and TV programs.
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a. political economy b. audience analysis c. textual analysis d. the Frankfurt School
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3. The book Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature is an example of the use of _____ research.
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a. political economy b. audience or reader-response c. textual analysis d. none of the above
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4. Which research method did Robert Entman use in his book Democracy without Citizens?
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a. media-effects b. cultural c. nonacademic d. both a and b
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5. Which of the following is a problem plaguing media research?
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a. specialized language excludes the public from access to the research process b. funding for university research was slashed in the 1990s c. increasing specialization of academic disciplines led to the isolation of researchers from life outside the university d. all of the above
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(http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/pages/bcs-main.asp? v=chapter&s=14000&n=00040&i=14040.04&o=|00020|00030| 00040|&ns=38)
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III. Text reviewing
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Review the sections "Early developments in media research", "Research on media affects", "Cultural approaches to media research" and "Media research, ivory towers, and democracy" in your textbook. When you are ready, write a brief paragraph-length response to each of the questions that follow.
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What were the Payne Fund Studies?
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Name and briefly describe the four early research trends that contributed to the rise of modern media research.
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Briefly describe the three major approaches to media research that developed before the 1970s.
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Describe some of the problems with content analysis.
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Briefly describe the three major analytical approaches to cultural analysis.
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What are the problems with the increase in special terminology and jargon within the university system?
(http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/pages/bcs-main.asp? v= chapter&s=14000&n=00040&i=14040.04&o=|00020|00030| 00040|&ns=38)
IV. Focus Questions (1)
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This photo depicts a march in New York City protesting the war in Iraq.
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Can you think of other major events either nationally or internationally that prompted agenda-setting in the media?
Questions
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What is agenda-setting?
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![]() What was the result when the press began to pay more attention to environmental issues after the first Earth Day?
Focus Question(2)
1. What do these television ratings tell you about the effect of media research to change policies within the media?
Questions
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What are the Payne Fund Studies?
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How did the Payne Fund Studies contribute to the establishment of the film industry's production code?
(http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/pages/bcs-main.asp? v= chapter&s=14000&n=00040&i=14040.04&o=|00020|00030| 00040|&ns=38)
V. Vocabulary Exercises
A. Match the words (1-29) with the definitions (a-cc).
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imaginary, pretended
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uses and gratification model
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the ways in which television, radio, and newspapers change the society
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half-truth
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to remove facts that you do not need or want
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conduct a survey
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to accept things that happen without taking any action
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statistical techniques
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a plan for achieving something
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antisocial behavior
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a statement that is only partly true, especially one that is intended to keep something secret
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media effects
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to influence ordinary people’s opinions and make it develop in a particular way
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hypothesis
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to give a sudden clear understanding of something
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audience sampling
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examination of the mental processes relating to human society
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vulnerable audiences
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illegal actions of young people
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retain messages
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having many sexual partners
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pseudo-poll
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violent or harmful things that a person does to other people
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blueprint
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to ask a large number of people a set of questions in order to find out about their opinions or behaviour
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to filter information
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choosing some people from a larger group in order to ask them questions or get information from them
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to provide insights
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an unscientific poll
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promiscuity
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special ways of calculating a set of numbers which represent facts or measurements
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longitudinal studies
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the audiences more likely than others to be affected by the media
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social psychology studies
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to make it possible for somebody to experience new ideas, ways of life etc
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textual
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to remember information
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juvenile delinquency
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an idea that is suggested as an explanation for something, but that has not yet been proved to be true
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to shape public attitude
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the theory holding that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs
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make believe
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a piece of work that someone is asked to do without any definite plan, aim, or pattern
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cultural
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research relating to the development of something over a period of time
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to respond passively
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examination of the ideas, facts, or opinions that are contained in a speech, piece of writing, film, programme etc
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agenda-setting
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a small part or amount of something that is examined in order to find out something about the whole
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to cultivate
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the ability of the media to lead people to think about certain issues
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content analysis
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to work hard to develop a particular skill, attitude, or quality
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sample
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belonging or relating to a particular society and its way of life
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random assignment
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relating to the way that a book, magazine etc is written
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expose
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