Reinforcement Theory
S
History
S Established by Joseph Klapper (1960)
S Released a book ‘The Effects of Mass Communication’
S Suggested that the media has little power to influence people
S Thought it was important to move away from thinking that
the media is all powerful in influence
S The reinforcement theory is a linear theory that contains
relatively open texts
School of Thought
S Reinforcement theory is a form of a reception theory more
than a cultural effects model – why? Kappler’s theory
suggests:
1.
Media has power but it isn’t that significant
2.
The audience use the media to reinforce their
predispositions
3.
Audience therefore has an active involvement due to the
three primary mechanisms that are behind the theory
Three Primary Mechanisms
S As an audience member we have;
1.
Selective Exposure: we favor information that supports our
own beliefs and views
2.
Selective Perception: we won’t notice/will forget stimuli
that contradicts prior beliefs
3.
Selective Retention: based on prior two mechanisms, we
will selectively continue to retain the information we want
to
Media as a Reinforcer
S Klapper theorised that the media acts only to reinforce our –
pre-existing attitudes and beliefs
S It’s unlikely that media will actually
change audience’s attitudes or
ideas under this theory
Media as an Influencer
S Media only influences people on new ideas or concepts
S Media is unlikely to change audience’s views on most issues
with deeply entrenched values such as racial or religious
views
Main Influences
S Since he theorised that media wasn’t the main source of
influence in people’s lives, he suggested that things like;
1.
Schools
2.
Family
3.
Community
4.
Religious institutions
Real World Example
S Violent Video games – reinforcement of violent behavior
S Participating in violent video games where users are ‘awarded’
for killing opponents could reinforce violent behaviors
S The reinforcement theory however would suggest that the
games don’t actually impart the behavior, but would simply
reinforce violent tendencies users would already have