Media Effects Research A Basic Overview (with InfoTrac),9780534545864

Media Effects Research A Basic Overview (with InfoTrac)

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Edition: 1st
ISBN13: 9780534545864
ISBN10: 0534545866
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2001-10-15
Publisher(s): Cengage Learning
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List Price: $72.95

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Summary

This exciting new text provides an excellent introduction for students of mass media effects. Through an engaging, narrative style, the author presents the fascinating research findings of media impacts and the connected mass media theories in the context of those research findings. Students are provided with a clear perspective of the relationship between science, methods, and the practical questions of the effects of mass media.

Table of Contents

Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvi
A Scientific Approach to the Study of Media Effects
1(18)
Ways of Knowing
2(2)
Experience
2(1)
Authority
3(1)
Science
4(1)
Goals of Science
4(4)
Prediction
4(1)
Explanation
5(1)
Understanding
6(1)
Control
6(2)
How Are the Goals of Science Achieved?
8(2)
Falsifiability
9(1)
The Nature of Science
10(6)
Science Is General
11(2)
Science Acknowledges the Existence of Objective Truth
13(1)
Science Assumes a Skeptical Attitude
14(1)
Science Can't Answer Certain Kinds of Questions
15(1)
Summary
16(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
16(1)
Key Names
17(1)
Web Links
17(1)
Notes
17(2)
Scientific Methods in Media Effects Research
19(20)
Analyzing Media Content
19(4)
What Is Content Analysis?
20(1)
An Example: The Content of TV Commercials
21(2)
The Sample Survey
23(4)
An Example: The Effects of Talk Show Viewing on Adolescents
24(3)
The Search for Causal Relationships
27(5)
Criteria for Causal Relationships
27(5)
The Experimental Method
32(4)
Manipulation of a Key Variable
33(1)
Random Assignment to Experimental Conditions
33(1)
Identical Treatment Except for the Manipulation
33(1)
Control Groups
34(1)
An Example: The Effects of Realistic Versus Reenacted Violence
35(1)
Controversy About Research Methods
36(1)
Summary
36(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
37(1)
Key Names
37(1)
Web Links
37(1)
Notes
38(1)
A Brief History of Media Effects Research
39(18)
Setting the Stage
40(2)
1898---Congress Declares War on Spain
40(1)
1917---Propaganda in World War I
41(1)
The 1920s---Movies Explode as Mainstream Entertainment
41(1)
1929--1932---The Payne Fund Studies
42(3)
What Was the Content of Movies?
42(1)
The Emotional Impact of Movies
42(1)
Does Watching Movies Affect Behavior?
43(2)
The Aftermath of the Payne Fund Studies
45(1)
The Invasion From Mars
45(2)
The Research at Princeton
46(1)
Early Theory of Media Effects: The Magic Bullet Model
47(1)
The People's Choice Study: The ``Limited Effects'' Model
48(3)
Why Use Control Groups?
48(1)
Media Impact in the 1940 Campaign
48(1)
The Limited-Effects Perspective
49(2)
The Evils of Comic Books
51(1)
The Dawn of Television
52(1)
Many Types of Media Effects
52(2)
Summary
54(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
55(1)
Key Names
55(1)
Web Links
55(1)
Notes
56(1)
Time Spent With Mass Media: Reasons and Consequences
57(15)
The Uses and Gratifications Perspective
58(4)
Why Do Children Watch TV?
58(4)
The Problem With Self-Reports
62(1)
Time Spent With Media
63(6)
The Displacement Hypothesis
64(3)
Television Viewing and Obesity
67(2)
Summary
69(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
69(1)
Key Names
69(1)
Web Links
70(1)
Notes
70(2)
Effects of Media Violence
72(18)
The Presence of Violent Content
74(2)
The Causal Link Between Viewing Violence and Behaving Aggressively
76(8)
The Research of Albert Bandura
76(3)
The Long-Term Studies of Leonard Eron and Rowell Huesmann
79(2)
The Research of Brandon Centerwall
81(1)
The Catharsis Hypothesis
81(2)
A Priming Analysis of the Effect of Media Violence
83(1)
Desensitization to Violence
84(1)
Why Do People Like Media Violence?
85(1)
Concluding Comments
86(1)
Summary
87(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
87(1)
Key Names
87(1)
Web Links
87(1)
Notes
88(2)
Sexual Content in the Media
90(19)
Human Sexuality Brings Out Passionate Opinion
90(2)
Sorting Out Definitions and Terms
92(1)
The Commission on Obscenity and Pornography
93(2)
Major Finding
93(1)
A Reexamination of the Commission's Findings
94(1)
Research Following the Commission Report
95(4)
Content Available
96(1)
Perceptual Consequences of Viewing
96(1)
Behavioral Consequences of Viewing
97(2)
The Meese Commission Report on Pornography
99(1)
Major Conclusion
99(1)
Sex on Prime-Time TV
100(4)
The Dynamics of Excitation Transfer
101(1)
Content Analyses
102(2)
Sexual Behavior and Viewing
104(1)
Control over Media Content
104(2)
Sex and the Internet
104(1)
Legal Control
105(1)
Social or Economic Control
105(1)
Control Through Education
106(1)
Summary
106(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
107(1)
Key Names
107(1)
Web Links
107(1)
Notes
107(2)
Frightening Media
109(18)
Fright Reactions to Media Are Prevalent
111(1)
What Scares One Child May Not Scare Another
112(1)
Experimenting with the Incredible Hulk
113(3)
Why Is the Paranormal So Scary?
116(4)
Poltergeist
117(1)
The Nightmare on Elm Street Series
118(1)
The Exorcist
119(1)
What's a Parent to Do?
120(2)
Is it Fun to Be Scared?
122(2)
Frightening Films and Roller-Coaster Rides
122(1)
The Sexual Dynamic in Viewing Frightening Films
123(1)
Summary
124(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
125(1)
Key Names
125(1)
Web Links
125(1)
Notes
125(2)
Persuasive Effects of the Media
127(24)
What Is Persuasion?
127(1)
Subliminal Persuasion: The Magic Key?
128(3)
Early History
128(1)
The Presumed Mechanism
129(1)
Two Important Questions
129(2)
How Media Messages Persuade Without Even Trying
131(6)
The Theory of Media Cultivation
133(2)
Do Media Messages About the Paranormal Influence Paranormal Beliefs?
135(2)
Intentional Persuasion in the Media
137(3)
The Great American Values Test
137(2)
How Does an Advertiser Determine Success?
139(1)
Some Evidence for the Effectiveness of Advertising
139(1)
The Third-Person Effect
140(1)
Some Key Principles of Media Persuasion
140(7)
The Power of the Source
142(1)
Message Features: Simplicity and Repetition
143(1)
More Message Features: Fear, Guilt, and Humor
143(2)
The Health Campaign
145(2)
Summary
147(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
147(1)
Key Names
147(1)
Web Links
148(1)
Notes
148(3)
The Effects of News and Political Content
151(16)
Do Certain News Reports Cause More People to Die?
151(2)
Imitative Suicides and the News
152(1)
Thinking About the News
153(7)
Need for Cognition
154(1)
Political Sophistication
154(1)
Agenda-Setting Theory: A Theory About Thinking
155(2)
The Spiral of Silence
157(1)
How Much of the News Do We Remember?
158(2)
The Role of Emotion
160(4)
Summary
164(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
164(1)
Key Names
164(1)
Web Links
165(1)
Notes
165(2)
The Effects of Media Stereotypes
167(18)
What's in a Face?
167(4)
Stereotypical Representations in the Media
171(9)
Sex Role Stereotypes
172(1)
Effects of Sex Role Stereotypes
173(2)
Media Images of Thin Bodies and Effects on Body Image
175(2)
Racial Stereotypes
177(1)
Overrepresentation of African Americans as Lawbreakers
177(3)
The Imbalance in Media Research on Stereotypes
180(2)
Summary
182(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
182(1)
Key Names
182(1)
Web Links
183(1)
Notes
183(2)
The Impact of New Media Technologies
185(15)
The Revolution in New Media Technology
185(2)
Computers and the Internet: Connection or Alienation?
187(5)
The Carnegie Mellon Study
187(3)
Applying the Lessons of History
190(2)
Are Video Games Really Training Kids to Kill?
192(6)
An Opinion on Video Games from an Expert on ``Killology''
193(1)
What Does the Research Say?
194(4)
Summary
198(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
198(1)
Key Names
198(1)
Web Links
198(1)
Notes
199(1)
Meet Marshall McLuhan: A Less Scientific Approach to Media Impact
200(17)
Is There Any Value to Considering Marshall McLuhan?
200(1)
Meet Marshall McLuhan
201(1)
The Eras of Communication History
202(4)
The Tribal Age
202(1)
Moving from the Tribal Age to the Print Age
203(1)
Moving on to the Current Electronic Age
204(2)
The Medium Is the Message
206(1)
The Effects of Electronic Media on Human Beings
207(5)
Education in the Electronic Age
208(1)
War in the Electronic Age: Not So ``Hot''
209(2)
Politics in the Electronic Age: Was Bill Clinton ``Cooler'' Than George Bush?
211(1)
Drugs in the Electronic Age
212(1)
McLuhan's Influence
212(1)
Some Final Reflections
213(1)
Summary
214(1)
Key Terms and Concepts
215(1)
Key Names
215(1)
Web Links
215(1)
Important Sources on Marshall McLuhan
216(1)
Notes
216(1)
Names Index 217(2)
Subject Index 219

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