Aaudiences have been Researched in Terms of Media 'Effects' - Essay Example

Why and how have audiences been researched in terms of media effects Introduction The use of media for the achievement of specific political and social targets is a common phenomenon in countries around the world. The existence and the development of this phenomenon on a continuous basis can be explained by the fact that media can influence the public view on all issues represented through them (social, cultural, political, financial even interpersonal); in this context, media is considered to be a valuable tool for all politicians, managers and every other part of the population that is interested to gain the trust of the public and influence its view regarding specific social and political events. Because of the importance of the media in daily social activities a series of theories has been stated regarding the potential interaction of media with personal and social life. On the other hand, appropriate empirical research has been conducted aiming to highlight the importance of the media for the development of public’s views on specific social and political issues (also for the development of specific preferences referring to the use of media for the promotion of particular products/ services). Current paper focuses on the identification of the reasons that the methods used for the research on audiences in order to locate the consequences of the so-called media effects. Specific aspects of media effects, as presented in the literature and the empirical research will be also presented trying to emphasize on the value of media effects for the development of specific social and political behaviour. 2. Media and its influences on the public – theoretical framework – implications The impact of media on the development of personal perceptions (referring to a variety of issues of political and social interest as explained above) cannot be denied. The specific issue of the influence of news on the development of public opinion has been examined by de Vreese et al. (2006). The above researchers tried to identify ‘the differential effects of exposure and attention to news and of interpersonal communication on change in public opinion under the condition of one-sided or two-sided information flows’ (de Vreese et al., 2006, 19). Their research led to the assumption that there are ‘media effects for less politically sophisticated individuals under the condition of a one-sided message flow and effects of interpersonal communication for politically sophisticated individuals; media had no effect under the condition of a two-sided message flow’ (de Vreese et al., 2006, 19). In other words, media can influence the development of public opinion on a variety of social, political, financial and commercial issues; however in order for such a target to be achieved it is necessary that appropriate preparation of the relevant schemes is taken place in advance; careful planning is required because it is possible that the whole effort is led to a different outcome. We could refer to the study of Gross et al. (2004, 49) who explored ‘the relationship between media consumption and political trust, social trust, and confidence in governmental institutions in the year following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001’. Their research led to a series of interesting findings. At a first level, it was found that ‘television news use was associated with higher levels of trust in government and confidence in institutions during the surge that followed the terrorist attacks; those who watched television news exhibited declines in social trust and those who read newspapers exhibited increased social trust between fall 2001 and late summer 2002’ (Gross et al., 2004, 49). The above findings suggest that there are differences among the media effects on the public as an audience. The methods used by media for the development of specific public opinion is therefore of crucial importance regarding the response of the public to specific social and political events. In the case of the events of September the 11th the role of the media can be considered as significant offering all information available for the events and contributing even to the protection of the public (suggesting the measures that should be taken by the people living across USA but mostly in the regions where the above events took place); there was also another role of the media in this case; media influenced the perception of public regarding the responsibilities related with the events of September the 11th; the presentation of the conditions under which the events took place were critical for the development of public opinion on the political responsibilities regarding the specific events; the promotion of the voluntary help towards the families of the victims was another role of the media in that specific period. It is for this reason that the specific period could be regarded as the most representative one proving the power of the media to the formulation of the views of the people on severe social and political events. From another point of view, the above power of the media could be considered to be a threat for the political and social life of a country; all political and judicial decisions would be under the continuous control and criticism of the media but in this way specific freedoms of people would be violated (especially the freedom of speech but also the freedom of work and socializing within a specific social framework). On the other hand, it has been proved in the literature and the empirical research that the particular media types can have different effects on public opinion on specific social and political issues. The above fact was explored by Nisbet et al. in 2002. Their study revealed the following findings: different media — newspapers, general television, science television, and science magazines — do affect perceptions differently; although newspaper reading, science television viewing, and science magazine reading all promote positive perceptions of science, given the relative size of its audience, the impact of general television viewing remains the most compelling finding’ (Nisbet et al., 2002, 584). In other words, the extension of the media effects is depended on the targeted (and the actually existed) audience; since the audience of television has been found to be the most extended from all the media types examined through the above study, it could be expected that television is related with the strongest media effects (referring to the number of people being influenced by the messages presented in the television). However, the particular characteristics and consequences of media effects are going to be analytically examined in the section that follows. It is made clear that media effects are strong within every country in the international community; however, the higher the level of development of media the higher their influence to the public. 3. Media ‘effects’ and research on audiences – reasons and methodology Many theories have been developed through the years regarding the potential effects of media on audiences around the world. One of these theories is the media richness theory; in accordance with this theory ‘performance improves when team members use "richer" media for equivocal tasks’ (Dennis et al., 1999, 405). The above theory supports the views stated earlier that media can influence the public in accordance with their level of development within a specific country. The specific argument was tested in practice by Dennis et al. (1999). The above researchers made an experiment which ‘studied the effects of media richness on decision making in two-person teams (all male, all female, and mixed gender) using one form of "new media" (computer-mediated communication); participants took longer to make decisions with computer-mediated communication’ (Dennis et al., 1999, 405). The above experiment presents the value of media – especially of the computer – for the development of public view on a specific issue; indeed media was found to influence the perceptions of participants (indirectly assumed through the time required for the completion of the project) even if not directly; the participants needed more time in order to give an answer on the questions included in the experiment. Gender was found to have a relation with the interaction between media and public view. More specifically, it was proved that ‘matching richness to task equivocality only resulted in better performance for the all-female teams, likely because females are more sensitive to nonverbal communication and more affected by its absence in computer-mediated communication’. Another available theoretical scheme for the examination of the role of media effects on development of specific views by audiences worldwide is the dependency model which ‘is presented as a theoretical alternative in which the nature of the tripartite audience-media-society relationship is assumed to most directly determine many of the effects that the media have on people and society’ (Ball-Rokeach et al., 1976, 3). Other factors could be possibly related with the development of public opinion on various political and social issues. When the specific issue of the interaction between media and audiences was examined by Davis (2006) it was revealed that ‘audiences actively consume and use the media for self-serving purposes’ (Davis, 2006, 603). In this context, the media effects can be considered as being related – at least up to a point – with the personal perceptions of people regarding the various aspects of social and political life. There is no one-way interaction between the media and the public; it is rather a mutual exchange of knowledge and perceptions leading to the development of specific views. 4. Conclusion The media effects on audiences worldwide can be identified and evaluated using a variety of theoretical and empirical schemes. The main aspects of media effects on audiences have been highlighted in the previous sections; however there are still many areas in the specific field that should be examined. In accordance with the study of Ball-Rokeach et al. (1976, 3) ‘audience dependency is said to be high in societies in which the media serve many central information functions and in periods of rapid social change or pervasive social conflict’. In other words, media effects on audiences are stronger in regions where the personal perceptions on various political and social events cannot be appropriately developed – because of severe political, financial and social conflicts; also in periods of social and political turbulences or severe social events (like the case of September the 11th already mentioned above) the media effects on audiences are expected to be stronger. In any case the intervention of the state could lead to the limitation of the power of media within all aspects of daily life of a specific country. References Ball-Rokeash, S., Defleur, M. (1976) A Dependency Model of Mass-Media Effects. Communication Research, 3(1): 3-21 Davis, A. (2006) Media effects and the question of the rational audience: lessons from the financial markets. Media, Culture & Society, 28(4): 603-625 Dennis, A., Kinney, S., Hung, Y. (1999) Gender Differences in the Effects of Media Richness. Small Group Research, 30(4): 405-437 De Vreese, C., Boomgaarden, H. (2006) Media Message Flows and Interpersonal Communication. Communication Research, 33(1): 19-37 Gross, K., Aday, S. (2004) A Panel Study of Media Effects on Political and Social Trust after September 11, 2001. The Harvard International Journal of Press/ Politics, 9(4): 49-73 Nisbet, M., Scheufele, D., Shanahan, J., Moy, P. (2002) Knowledge, Reservations, or Promise? A Media Effects Model for Public Perceptions of Science and Technology. Communication Research, 29(5): 584-608 Read More