Media effects refers to the influence of media exposure on people, and these effects

Introduction

Media effects refers to the influence of media exposure on people, and these effects can be positive or negative. An environmental documentary may enlighten us about an important issue, so the effect is positive as its intent was to educate. A news story promoting negative information about a person may have a negative effect as it may damage someone's reputation. Media effects can also be both intended and unintended. The documentary specifically intends to raise public awareness. The negative news story, while intending to create a negative view of a person, might have the unintended consequence of evoking sympathy for its subject.
MEDIA EFFECT THEORIES
The Social Category Theory
The Social Category Theory focuses on reaction against the powerful effects of the media.
Okenwa (200) observes that the social category theory exists as reaction against the powerful effect of the media. It assumes that people of the same social category will response to the mass communication message in more or less uniform ways.
Bittner (1989) quoted in Okunna (1999) explains that in social categories theory, the audience is made up of different sub- group, each constituting a ‘mass within a mass’. Meaning that mass communication audiences are differentiated according to either their age, gender, religious and ethnic affiliation, income level etc.
Okunna explains that members of each sub-group belong to a social category and which determine which mass media they use and how they use them… Within each

category, members have had commonly shared experiences and therefore have similar social norms, attitudes and values.
For instance, it has been observed that men read newspapers than women.
Confirming this
Wilbur Schramm quoted in Okunna (1999) explains that men read more newspapers, and read to greater length and greater depth than women, and that men are more likely to use newspapers for information than entertainment, when compared with women.
Social Relationship Theory
The Social Relationship Theory assumes that people’s reaction to mass media messages is modified by their informal social relationships with significant others
– relations, friends, social groups etc. Okunna observes that another factor which is important in understanding the effects of mass communication on the audience is the interaction between people in a society. This is explained in the social relationships theory of mass media effects, which is closely related to the Social
Categories Theory. The emphasis in the social relationships theory is on the interaction of members of social categories, that is, the relationships between them. In these social relationships or interaction, interpersonal communication in face-to-face situations is of

paramount importance. During this face-to-face communication, members of a group are able to influence one another, and this can help to determine the effect of mass media messages of the people.
For instance during election or other important issues of public opinion, individuals decisions and actions (e.g. voting) may be influenced by decisions of family or other informal social relationship the person belong to.
3 Two-Step Flow Theory
The Two-Step Flow Theory focuses on the influence of media messages. This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information.
Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content.
The term personal influence ‘was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media‘s direct message and the audience‘s ultimate reaction to that message. Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviors and are quite similar to those

they influence.
The Two-step Flow Theory has improved our understanding of how the mass media influence decision making. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages on audience behavior, and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes an behaviour. The two-step flow theory gave way to the multi- step flow theory of mass communication or diffusion of innovation theory.
The theory was first introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelsoand Hazel
Gaudet in ‘The
People's Choice’, a 1944 study focused on the process of decision-making during a presidential election campaign in the USA. These researchers expected to find empirical support for the direct influence of media messages on voting intentions. They were surprised to discover, however, that informal, personal contacts were mentioned far more frequently than exposure to radio or newspaper as sources of influence on voting behavior. Armed with these data, Katz and
Lazarsfeld developed the two-step flow theory of mass communication.

4 Social Cognitive Theory
The Social Cognitive Theory focuses on the explanation of behavioural patterns. The theory explains how people acquire and maintain certain behavioral patterns, while also providing the basis for intervention strategies (Bandura, 1997). Evaluating behavioural change depends on three factors; environment, people and behavior. It provides a framework for designing, implementing and evaluating programs.
Environment refers to the factors th at can affect a person‘s behavior. There are social and physical environments. Social environment include family members, friends and colleagues.
Physical environment is the size of a room, the ambient temperature or the availability of certain foods. Environment and situation provide the framework for understanding behavior
(Parraga,
1990).
The situation refers to the cognitive or mental representations of the environment that may affect a person‘s behavior. The situation is a person‘s perception of the lace, time, physical features and activity (Glanz et al, 2002). The three factors environment, people and behaviour are constantly

influencing each other. Behavior is not simply the result of the environment and the person, just as the environment is not simply the result of the person and behavior
(Glanz et al, 2002). The environment provides models for behaviour.
In 1941, Miller and Dollard proposed the theory of social learning. In 1963Bandura and Walters broadened the social learning theory with the principles of observational learning and vicarious reinforcement. Bandura provided his concept of self-efficacy in 1977, while he refuted the traditional learning theory for understanding learning. People rather, people do things with media. In other words, the
Influence of media is limited to what people allow it to be.
It is not the persuasive contents of media messages that influence people's attitude but the derivable benefits from such media contents as determined by the audience member. A media content that satisfies the education need of an individual audience member may satisfy the entertainment need of another audience member.
6. Agenda Setting Theory
The agenda-setting theory of media stated that mass media determine the issues that conc ern the public rather than the public’s views. Under this theory, the issues that receive the most attention from media become the issues that the public discusses, debates, and demands action on. Chimaroke (2012) suffice that the degree of attention and interest the media gives an issue determines the degree of value and manner the public would place on it.

As a consequence, issues with heavy media focus take precedence in the minds of the public and other issues are marginalized. Agenda-setting is the creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media. As well, agenda- setting describes the way that media attempts to influence viewers, and establish a hierarchy of news prevalence. Two basic assumptions underlie most researches on agenda-setting: the press and the media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it; media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues.
These core statements were established by measuring the changes in salience through the use of surveys with the presence of more frequent news coverage.
7 Spiral of Silence Theory
This theory borrows from the saying that 'no man is an island unto himself .' people normally want to ensure that their own held opinions,views,characters or dispositions towards lifetime general conform with those of the others in the society. This leads to a situation whereby almost everybody is compelled to examine issues from the same perspective or point of view. Joseph Obi(2014) asserts that the theory has accused the mass media (especially the television) of forcing people in the society to see issues from common perspective, thereby eroding or snatching the individuality of persons in forming their own opinions on certain critical issues.
8 Knowledge gap Hypothesis
This theory has divided audiences into two extreme poles that set them apart, resulting in the information-rich and the information-poor. According to this hypothesis, s OK me people will seek and acquire more knowledge through the media and will make use of same than some others would do. The theory points out some factors such as socio-economic classes and educational background that

prevent some people to be exposed to the computers and the internet system of communication, which obviously make them to remain information-poor. The research revealed that people in this group watch a lot of television rather than read newspapers, magazines or books. It is the suggestion of the knowledge gap hypothesis that, the media should have in their programmes, issues that help to develop realities, by concentrating on only messages that reinforce their sense of reality.
However, the theory observes that the solution to this trend is that the information- rich will get to a certain level where they would remain stagnant, while those at the opposite side, i.e. the information-poor would meet their stagnant optimum level.
9. Aggressive cue theory
The postulation of this theory is that exposure to television portrayed violent programmes or content increases an individual's level of psychological and emotional inflammation which automatically produces the likelihood of aggressive behavior in such an individual. Put differently, aggressive cue theory simply points pit that watching or viewing violent or aggressive television programmes triggers off aggressive behavior in the viewer. If you had at some point in the passed observed some young person's after watching some television programmes, day an action movie, boxing context, wrestling, you would have observed that they always would like to re-enact what they had seen on the screen, as if it was in real life.
10 Hypodermic niddle theory
The main argument of this theory is that receivers of media messages are simply helpless, but healthy receptacles of the messages without contributing anything to the process. This is viewed as media bombardment, ascribed to the war time propaganda and the effect of advertising messages on the audience.
10. Limited Effect Theory
Basing their works on that of Lazarsfeld's researchers were able to identify those persons and social characteristics that make others to be influenced (or not

influenced) by the media. The study found that, media influence was limited by individuals differences such as intelligence and education, religion and political leaning, peer group and family. Being the first systematic and scientific of media effects study, it gave rise to a set of theories generally referred to as limited effects theories.
11. Attitude Change Theory
As far as we humans are concerned, attitude play a critical role in constructing our social behavior. This is the reason each individual person is always on the watch out to know other peoples' attitude and opinion, much as he/she would like others to know and appreciate his /her viewpoints. In the same manner, he /she strive to change the opinions of other persons especially when such opinions are not in conformity with his/her held idea about an issue.
Attitude and the process of attitude change are central to the field of social psychology. In communication, our interest is on how to change people's attitude towards person's, situations, events, programmes or Objects through persuasion.
12. Status Conferral Theory
The enormous reach of the media as well as its capability to change the world around us make it possible for it to be able to impact on the personality rating of people in the society.
The media is said to have that omnipotent power by which it confers recognition on people, through featuring such people in the news all the time. Obviously, one can attain either positive or negative popularity when one is frequently the subject of media report. A less popular politician can become more popular over night, when he/she is able to attract media attention over a long period of time.
The broadcast media especially has this attribute of building a world of popularity and acceptance around people, where such people rise to stardom. Many broadcasters/presenters in the electronic media have become celebrities because of

such opportunity which makes the audience to see their faces always on the screen
(TV) or hear their good microphone voices (Radio).