com515 communication theory
the complete class notes box set
Communication Theory
The Public Sphere
The Sociological Tradition
Durkheim Tradition
Media Effects
Structuralism
Information Theory
Systems Theory
Networks & Diffusion
Space, Time & Communication
Limited Effects of Mass Media
08.31.04
09.07.04
09.14.04
09.21.04
09.28.04
10.05.04
10.12.04
10.19.04
10.26.04
11.02.04
11.09.04
course taught by dr. alex halavais
study notes by kevin lim
updated 11/14/04
QuickTi me™ and a
T IFF (Uncom pressed) decom pressor
are needed to see t his pict ure.
Page 2 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Communication Theory 8/31/04
A syllabus for the class is available at:
http://alex.halavais.net/files/TheoryClass
One of the readings is a short article on communication theory in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_communication
The other two may be found in Adobe PDF format here:
http://schoolof.info/courses/
To-do:
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Get syllabus
Buy books from Amazon: Severin & Tanker / Theories of Comm.
Speed reading techniques
Google readings
Mark highlights in notes / Find passion
Summarize / Find core argument
Find connecting readings / concepts
Bring knowledge to class
Challenge the argument
Response Papers due each Friday before class (Blog / 800 words)
Cite reading to provide evidence
White’s Writing Style Guide (online)
Communication is…
 Resistance to change over time
 Information shared between Systems
 Creating mutual understanding
 Noise to Meaningful
 Reduction of Uncertainty
 Increase utility / Shape Behavior
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 3 of 29
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The Divides:
o Intentional or Unintentional interaction
o Non-human or human (preferred); has to be heard
o Process (Transmission/Laswell) or Ritual
(Context/History/Ethnography/Humanistic*/Qualitative)
o
*What is Humanistic?
Cyclic Process: Theory -> Hypothesis -> Testing -> Abstraction/Induction ->
Theory explains why there is a causal relationship between two or more
things.
 Prediction is not so important in social sciences
 Explanatory power is more important
 Falsifiability: possibility for other way (Freudian)
 Validity: Degree to which results lines up with real-world (whether
it makes sense)
 Parsimony: simplest explanation
 Appropriateness: Does the theory makes sense to what you’re
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studying, with relevant process and assumptions
Theoretical Scope: Generalizability (Structuration), Mutual
uncertainty reduction between two strangers (Berger)
Openness (compatibility): Good theories do not invalidate other
theories as much
Heuristic Value (expandibility): easy to turn into ideas for
hypotheses
Epistomology - How to we know things? Study of Knowledge. Language.
Ontological - Nature of Being/Material World. Saphire Worf/Language
Axiological - Rules/Values, Habermaas (what’s the reason behind it?),
Critical Studies
Covering Law (Berger): Always the case
Rules: Norms/Regularities/not a law/negotiable over time (rules can change)
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 4 of 29
Alex’s Oral Exam Questions (Littlejohn's definitions):
 What is communication? Skill is key!
 How do you determine a good theory?
 What if your criteria? Explain your criteria.
 Define Theory.
 How social science differs from natural sciences?
 How information plays in Communication?
 Transmission vs Ritual model?
Upcoming Themes:
 Public vs Private (Habermas Public Sphere, Penny Press)
 Rise of the Mass
 General idea on Dewey
 Read Mills (skip last chapter), then Parsons (only needed)
 Get Broad Ideas
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 5 of 29
Public Sphere
Habermas
for mediation, legitimating function of social policy
Mutual Understanding
Dewey
enables and facilitates inquiry
Mutual Growth
Social Inquiry
Habermas
Theory of communicative action
Achievement of goals (strategic action) require inquiry
Different from reason for the goals (communication action)
- validity claims rather than common definition
Dewey
Successful resolution of situation more important than legitimacy
If validity of norms and shared values in dispute, there is no common
starting point for argument.
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 6 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
The Public Sphere 9/7/04
Keep a public academic journal (Mills)
 PhdBlogs, CANA, Mathmagenic (KM)
Public Sphere
 Four sociological theories
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Birth of Sociology?
Dewey said environment shaped the individual
Question of Agency: Do we have power over our social system?
Consequence of individual Decisions / Causes?
o Concentrate on consequences rather than causes
o Look for something observable (consequences easier than
causes; humans are erratic)
o Method
Dewey: American Pragmatism, deductive nominalism
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How do humans organize? No clear difference b/w Private & Public
Talcott Parsons: grandfather of cybernetics (focus on system over
individual)
o For the individual: motivational forces and mechanisms
o Reproduction: culture
Human societies are different because of Self-Consciousness
o Human individuals examines own behavior and adjusts it
o Dewey on Friendship (1927, p. 26)
Grounded Theory: Facts don’t reveal theory to you. You have to
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start with your own theory. Theory then strongly influences how
you look at the world. The kinds of things you look for.
o Observe consequences not causes (prevent poisoning)
o Dewey’s Theory of the State (p. 18, 35)
o A way of looking at the world, design theory to benefit from
facts
o Rather than looking at motivations (Parsons)
What is structure?
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com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 7 of 29
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o It is the difference
o Natural difference b/w man / woman is who works and who
stays home
o Desires may be decided by structure, not individual
Talcott Parsons
o Doesn’t like history (Unlike Spencer)
o Marx: dialectic (Hagel)
 The process in Hegelian and Marxist thought, in which
two apparently opposed ideas, become combined in a
unified whole, the synthesis
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Marx thinks that material/technology determines our
consciousness
For Parsons, History doesn’t matter as much as
Structure
Talking about relations with each other, whether to
society or other things
Institutions are functional in societies:
 Situational
 Instrumental
 Integrative
Don’t need to understand behavior (brain as blackbox),
to draw structure, and if drawn correctly, we will get a
theory
Theory’s Appropriateness, Generalizability, (No
dynamics of society)
Model vs Theory: Model social behavior to tell how
elements relate. It is theory which you formulate which
predict, model helps at a basic level.
Parson’s theory seems more like a model
Parsons knows that his theory isn’t really predictive
(Closer to Dewey than Parsons)
We cannot blackbox individuals
If individuals fail to comply with system, there might be
something wrong with the system
 Individual differences
 Systems approach too general
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o Mills
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com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 8 of 29
Argues that small elite controls society (bad boy)
Out of four schools, he is in conflict school (by himself)
Wants to take in history
Want something in the middle (b/w grand theory vs.
little theory) Hard to get that distinction
 Thus sociological imagination, though it is hard in
practice
o Habermas
 Ultimately what we want is agreement, through rational
discussion
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Bourgeois owned their own tools of production
Marxist – Frankfurt School (effort to unite Freudian with
Marxist)
Enlightenment
Self-motivated educated individuals lead to ordered
rational discussion rather than simply emotional
argument
Pre-conditions: Open to anyone rational
Power is important to Mills, absent from Parsons
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 9 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
The Sociological Tradition 9/14/04
Communication with a toy
Two school of symbolic interactionist
 Empiricalism
 Phenonelogical
20 Statement Test (TST)
1. I am a human being
2. I am a lover
3. I am a mac fan
4. I am caring
5. I am evil
6. I am cool
7. I am not who I am
8. I am me
Role vs Characteristics
80% characteristics
Pierce’s theory of meaning
 Sophisticated three-pointed structure
Humans have local rationality, depends on local interactions. One might get
irrational in other environments.
Theory of history or time, and the “Generalized Others”
Chicken and Egg question is where does it all start?
Symbol and Responses
Structuration: fractal in nature
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 10 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Durkheim Tradition 9/21/04
In simplest terms, why was the press the way it is today?
 The Press always takes the form and coloration of the society
today.
 The readers take it more critically than in the early days, more
rational.
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Conglomerates buying over presses, less room for
comments/opinions
Same for smaller radio stations
Fox = conservative, good because we have another point of view
Network news = no clear liberal slant, report as they see
Is the thesis on the press related to the Durkheim’s theory?
 Which comes first, Liberalism the cause or the consequence?
 Power? Durkheim = idea to structure
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Colins: How are structures formed?
Durkheim: Structure through collective consciousness
Cause and Consequence
Last week, Blumer & Mead = Individual focused
This week, Durkheim = groups & masses
Durkheim “scientific theory of religion” (pg. 149)
Social density vs Connectivity; which leads to more suicides?
Perhaps the quality of connectivity? City vs. Countryside?
Division of Labor leads to interdependence on people
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Dependence on oneself maybe less if you can be replaced (i.e. city)
Search for the Truth
 Structure defines the people
 Structure vs. Individual
 Milton was confident that Truth was definite and demonstrable and
that it had unique power of survival when permitted to assert itself
in a “free and open encounter.” (Pg 44)
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
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Page 11 of 29
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Belief shapes people, societies
Libertarian is more like a religion (Pg 50)
Lasswell: Structure & Function of Communication
 Models, mechanical, something we can work from (pg.90)
 Other readings about ideological sense
 Groups and Publics (pg. 98)
 Politics vs. commercial conglomerates
Blogs: Personal Media
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Social Network media
Voices of big boys vs small boys
Equivalent Enlightenment
 Emergent
 Enough information to make a decision
 To get on with their life, e.g. likelihood of war
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 12 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Media Effects 9/28/04
Media Effects & Propaganda
http://www.bloglines.com/public/halavais
Laswell’s Function of the Media
 Surveillance of environment
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Correlations to part of society
Transmission of generations
Murthen added: Entertainment as a function (to be dysfunctional
from society instead of being part of it)
Also added Mobilization
Movies and Children
 Hooking up things to children’s bed to measure if kids were sleeping
well
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Kids would treat it as a stimulus, or bad dreams could be due to
something else; only movies harm kids?
Suggestibility
 Naïve children = children reference from real-life, they know things
 Both articles refer to suggestibility
 Idea of Critical Faculty
 Polarizing effect of reality TV
o some people taken in, some see it totally fake
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o highly educated or not see to have different effects depending
on culture
Stimulus: war makes people nervous, religious people believe more
Critical Thinking & Suggestibility can work differently
o I can be critical yet be suggestible (four levels)
Involvement also a factor
Involvement and Media? Radio vs. TV: which is more involving?
Video game influence violence: Motivation and Appeal
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 13 of 29
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Like Barbie dolls damages girls bodies
What kind of movies are violent? Some violent war movies may not
influence violence. Selective Perceptions.
Media effects timeline (taken that effect is at same level)
o Magic Bullet
o Uses and Gratifications: take what meanings you want
o Media has no effect at all
o Limited effects model
Generalizing Violence
What’s unique about new technology?
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o More typing
Mass Media as a social structure (Durkheim)
o Media as Social Input
Video Games are deviant so we can’t test if they have positive
influence
The Sims
Games
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Does the medium have anything to do with involvement?
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Define Sleeper effects? Shows up after stronger 6 months later?
o People forget where they heard it and they just use it
Classic Propaganda films: Why We Fight?
o Convince Americans why Germans and Japanese were evil
Environmental issues for violence instead of just media?
o Education and Values
o What aspect of it made it particularly influential?
Why did this broadcast frighten some people and not others?
Who funded the Payne Studies? Haha!
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How does individual “knowledge” play a role in influence?
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com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 14 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Structuralism 10/05/04
Structuralism
 Saussure only meant his idea for language
 Some signifier are based on other signified
o Symbols built on other symbols
 Conceptual chains evolve over Time
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Arbitrary nature of signs
Mutability
o Language cannot change in a single point of time, yet
language as a whole changes over time (paradox)
o In playing chess, we learn the rules first
o In understanding society, we play it first
Covering Law vs Rules-based system
o Natural Sciences has general rules
o Social Sciences cannot, even with covering laws
o Holy Grail of finding Laws of Human Behavior
o Karl Popper’s ideas (read it!)
Levi-Strauss was trying to construct differences
o What are the differences that make the difference?
o Mutability of sign over time immutability of sign in a system
o Axis of most important differences?
 E.g. Rule vs Law based systems
 System of Differences: Major themes that divide books
 Extract the differences and structures will be apparent
Essential polar differences, some things don’t fit in
Casablanca + Photograph
Movies draw on myths
Every story have strong connotations
Helps re-inform us about ourselves
No choice but to choose within existing Photos/Movie
archetype (theme)
Bourdieu: Social Space
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Eco:
o
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o
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 15 of 29
Habitus: born into it, choices limited to such (unobserved)
False consciousness, how do you argue against it?
Not falsifiable, but not invalid though, might explain
Where do tastes come from?
Why are there so many left-ist democrats in academia?
How much is it your choice?
Cultural capital points can shift
 artists look good then bad, changing + cultural capital
Summary
o The arbitrary nature of the sign
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Mon – Plural
Mutability/immutability
Qns: Boudieu, epistemology
Heuristics, Parsimony etc
Who is eco and what are his ideas? Etc…
com 515 class notes
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Page 16 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Information Theory 10/12/04
Natural systems vs. Engineered systems
 Info theory is unique because it deals with abstract ideas based on
statistical theory. Discreet.
What is entrophy?
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Degree of uncertainty in a theory
Compare and contrast entrophy as used in statistical mechanics and
information theory.
 Info Theory: Less uncertainty in info theory more organized
 Mechanical: You can have no entrophy. Remove the cap and there
will be less order which is irreversible.
 Mr. Info: Creating order out of disordered system
What is ergotic?
How related to entrophy?
Why wasn’t the first telegraph wire buried?
 Impudence (Ground)
How many signals can you send over the wire at one time?
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Bandwidth
How do you decide how much” information” you can pass down?
Phase Shift: Delay in the wave form
Harry Nyquist (1917)
 Measure of entrophy in a system (formula)
Norbert Wiener: Cybernetics
com 515 class notes
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Page 17 of 29
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Measuring systems with noise, without control over source, so he
dealt with noise by learning process
Shannon: Info Theory
 Focused on source and improving clarity of information
 Predict no. of words in text (e.g. the, E)
 System has characteristics
Zipf Law
 A distribution curve which shows how some words/letters occur a
lot while some occur only once in a while ALL THE TIME.
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Importance is that this turns up in lots of places (e.g. distribution of
cities, distribution of wealth)
Power Laws
So what?
Preferential attachments: the rich get richer, top bloggers
Anomalies are interesting to study (suddenly rise to the top)
First and second order approximation of words/letter
 P(u) = 0.03
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What is
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P(q(u)) = 0.99 (conditional probability)
In as little space (compress) for encoding
Finite state machine?
Pg. 55 (See figure)
Scissors Paper Stone (3rd order)
Stochastic machine: Freq. doesn’t change over time
Finite State machine
Shannon:
 Ergotic source: at any position at any time, chance is the same
 Assume symbolic system is a finite state stochastic machine
 But humans are not exactly stochastic
 More complex structure, less stochastic, less predictable
 DICE coefficient: to find out who wrote Shakespeare’s plays by
looking at word count/frequency
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 18 of 29
How is it that DNA shapes itself into a protein?
 You can figure out Protein folding and predict it
 Binary 010011 = 19 (0/1)
 Octave = 8 (numbers), Hexadecimal = 16 (use letters), ASCII 255
places to fit into 8 bits (1 byte) 26 uppercase, 26 lowercase.
Unicode = 16 bits
Norbert
 Ontogenetic: development of individual animal or human
 Phylogenetic: evolution, survival of the fittest (insects)
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Finite Machine: Tit-for-Tat, Tit-for-twoTats,
Binary Code for finite machines:
Tit for Two Tats
10100 00110 00100
Tit for Tat
10100 00100
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 19 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Systems Theory 10/19/04
General
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Systems Theory
Wordcount.org – frequency of words
Chaotic Pendulum – sensitive to initial change
General Theory – have to be precise (car get older, more chaotic)
Laplas Demon – If you can predict how every molecule moves, you
can predict the future
Flocking behavior between insects and bird, and in people
brainstorming, music jamming.
What is General System Theory?
 How Individuals interrelate, not individual behavior
 Social Networks, looks not at what individuals do, more on how
they relate and how structures change
 Ecosystem
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“The
o
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o
whole is more than the sum of it parts”
Systems
Relations
Whole
Isomorphisms (equivalence. Identical structural traits? e.g.
info theory in DNA. Is light a particle or wave?)
o Homologies (Common roots. Two systems are similar.
Development of telephone and Internet is homologous)
o Dynamics (some systems seek equifinality – common ending,
open systems reach equifinality, close systems don’t)
o Teleological (goal oriented systems)
o Homeostasis (Self balancing systems, pursuit of life: open
system + information maximizing = more complex/more
order)
o Most of above dynamics involves Self-Regulation
Traditional Science is about reducing things into pieces
System theory is looking at the relations of the parts
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 20 of 29
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Attributes:
o Relations
o Objects
o Environment (outside world)
o Information (measurement)
o Hierarchy (Black-boxing: nothing beyond the skin, blackbox
people and their inner workings, frame of reference)
Autopoesis – recreating / self replicating system (Nicolas Neuman)
Self organized systems (open source software)
2nd Order Cybernetics:
o 1st Order Cybernetics died as a popular trend in the 60s
o Wasn’t good for human communication
o Feedback system
o Started to include the observer in the system (2nd order)
Deviance in a System
o Schizophrenia (relies on relationship to others, cannot see it
on individual alone)
Frame of Reference
o Method of Inquiry to get to theory
A study:
o A dean come to see you, Dane Hannigan, from School of
Informatics. Collapse the departments, what problems will
you have and what recommendations can you make?
o Economic efficiencies
 General System Theory
 LIS, Comm, Informatics - multidisciplinary
 Overarching structure similar in three systems
 Optimize
 Similarity: Collapse faculty, computer labs same use
 Similarity as a problem: ownership, group identity
 Interaction between departments, students, faculty
 Merging cultures
 Dynamics
Twain Bee
o Life in rural vs life in city (gurmineshaft vs gursomething)
o Precursors of systems theory
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Page 21 of 29
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Heigle
o Pre systems theory
Which of these people are together?
com 515 class notes
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Page 22 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Networks & Diffusion 10/26/04
Georg Simmel: The Web of Groups-Affiliation
 Difference between Family & Social Group
o Social group is based on individual interest
o Family is natural, social group is man-made
o Pg 128: Propinquity & Interest
a quo: group based on geographical/ physiological
factors
 terminus a quo: based on purpose, individual interests
Simmel writes after gerzalshaft/germindshaft
The boon, tribes, gangs (across physical space, associated)
We choose relationships based on interest
Rural vs. City life:
 Juxtaposed / Overlapped systems on a person
 Rural = same people
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 City = different people (easier to be individual, choice)
Definition by Society; where is individual?
Park (Chicago School) talks about agency (self-determined
self-will)
Habatus (Structure defines us! No individualism!), can
intersect
Pg 139 “treating individual as a member of a group rather
than as individual”
Pg 130
o Pg 141 “causal determination of, and purposive actions by,
the individual appear as two sides of the same coin”.
o Pg 160
o Online vs. Physical friends
o Research: International people with friends who overlap or
spread out?
o *Dec 1st: Social Networking conference (abstract submission)
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Page 23 of 29
Iowa Study of Hybrid Seed Corn
 Diffusion of Innovation (Everett Rogers)
 Sociological phenomenon
 Salemen and neighbors had more influence over farmers than mass
media
 How do you define opinion leaders?
 S-shaped curve
Elihu Katz: Two Step Flow of Communication
 Mass media -> Opinion Leaders -> rest of population
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Decantur study of decision making in marketing, etc (Ohio new city)
Flow of personal influence
Role of the influence leader across the board for all studies
o More exposed to mass media
o More visible (conferences, etc)
Flow forward and backward, they found
Pg 68: Who are opinion leaders?
Time series analysis to determine flow of information
Panels of people over time method
Pg 73: three factors defining opinion leaders
o personification of certain values (who you are)
o competence (what you know)
o social placement (whom you know)
Opinion leaders and mass media (connected)
Hamophonous – someone like you
Buzz Agent: opinion leaders marketing
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
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Page 24 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Space, Time & Communication 11/02/04
Communication as Culture
Space, Time and Communication (Chpt 6) by James Carey
 Limits of technology
 Oral vs. Written
 Bias = Tendency (not political, natural)
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For Innus, history occurs because of communication
Innus = hard technology determinist
In empire, particular kinds of technology leads to different kinds of
empires
Egyptians inscribed in rocks, hard to transport, but lasts very long
time (longer than anyone)
Versus an empire writing in paper, mobile, but short life span
(British empire, worldwide, but short-lived)
Bible
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Printing press shipped to central America
Envelum (last longer) vs. paper; CDs ruin in 10 years
TV & Radio is more spatial and short-lived
Romans communication under the lens of Jewish Prudence (laws)
Meant to stay, non-changing, applies equally to everyone
But it concentrates power in interesting ways
There will be people not willing to be part of the monopoly, they will
fight back, blowing things up to communicate
Centers of production out of the U.S., outsourcing
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3% of Americans involved in agriculture
Service & Knowledge oriented jobs go up
Decentralization
Export programmers, robot builders
Creative industries are left
To be creative, you have to import a wide varieties of ideas
Immigration to US aids US to grab ideas
Great book called “Guns, Germs and Steel”
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 25 of 29
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o Certain geographical resources define a society
German and Japan had cultural drive
Chinese in Singapore encourage hard work
Bad placement might make it inescapable to get out of bad
structure
Printing Press, Gutenburg, movabletype 16th Century
o Also, perfecting ink that didn’t gum up
Elisabeth Izenstein within 50yrs of printing press, opera shared
For the first time, fashion, music hits exists
The enlightening comes about because of printing press
First time scholars used citations because same books were
available everywhere, could build on argument
Late 8th century, the Song Dynasty developed the movabletype for
Buddhist text, not for commercial reasons
Korea, iron industry, 12th century, built it.
Why didn’t China and Korea have continuing innovation, why only in
US?
In China, language was something meant for elitist ruling class
Economy structure different
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Chinese characters harder than English
Woo wrote about why printing didn’t catch on in those countries
Works with radio and TV
TV – 15th century
Conrad Zeus presented computer to Nazis, didn’t need it
Context… which one? Tech, Culture, Social
Easy to find counter examples to determinism
Innus has an explanation to parts of communication people don’t
pay attention to. (McLuhan made Innus famous)
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See Media Ecology Conference
Some technologies inherently leads to concentration of power, while
some, like radio, many to many, tend to be democratic in nature
Technologies have variety of uses, depends on social and political
forces
Valence; soft determinism
Vigotsky - Speech is the first tool we use
Technology = tool = method (extension of man)
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com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 26 of 29
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Writing –ve aspect = cannot be abstract thinking
No new thinking (google), externalize a lot of ourselves into
technology
Written word is Personalized, Oral is Emergent
Literacy
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 27 of 29
COM515 Communication Theory
Limited Effects of Mass Media 11/09/04
Sunbelt Social Networking (INSNA)
Abstract due 15th December 2004
February 2005
Media Ecology Association
New York (June 2004)
Book Review for Journal
RCCS University of Washington (David)
In research, Significance = Inferential
About election polls:
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In news coverage, reporters try to give “Balance” (not neutrality)
Perhaps news wants to be right by prediction
Competitive nature of people
Mass Media theory
 From Direct Effect (magic bullet theory)
 To Zero Effect
 To some limited effect (agenda-setting, priming)
Agenda-setting is important because it changed the paradigm.
Agenda-Setting has issues
 Sample size too small (100 people)
 People media consumption then (TV) is different from now (Web)
 5% undecided voters
 Conclusion do not apply themselves well
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 28 of 29
Politician interested in this, but comm researchers interested in media
effects
PEW Internet Report found that instead of self-selection of news, people
actually read on opinions opposite of their own. They could articulate the
alternative views well.
Do people find out about news when they are watching TV or surfing the
web? (Interactivity driving involvement)
Difference between Agenda-setting and Priming:
 Agenda-setting treated more as a test
 Priming treated more as a stimulus
 Priming also is more about “framing”
Laboratory already acts as a primer
On the flipside, Ethnographical approach: See “Media in Use”, but can be
difficult as there is a lot of data
Framing = Selection of Representations
Living with Television by George Gerbner and Larry Gross
 TV says violence is okay
 Element of fear, easy to manipulate
Social Learning: Imitation
Bandura & “BoBo the Clown”
We imitate what we see
Uses & Gratification: Especially in high school (dating)
Cultivation by Gerbner
Cultivation vs. Social Learning
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com
Page 29 of 29
Symbolic violence vs. raw violence
Mean World Syndrome = How many murders were there in Buffalo
com 515 class notes
updated 11/14/04
compiled by kevin lim
http://theory.isthereason.com