Changing Minds or Changing Channels - Book Report/Review Example

Number: Book review “Changing Minds or Changing Channels” Written by Kevin Arceneaux and Martin Johnson, and published by University of Chicago Press, in the year 2013, Changing Minds or Changing Channels is a 224 page book that probably stands out as one of the most incisive publications in the analysis of American media effect of expanded choice. Kevin Arceneaux and Martin Johnson not only speak on the impact of media on the growing American population, but also the evolution, which has taken place with the rise of satellite and cable television. The author also does several research where 11 experiments are carried out to prove these effects and to consider the background of the authors, and it is appropriate to appreciate their work. The first chapter of the book tries to give both the contemporary and historical effects of media. The audience has a variety of channels to choose from, and the different programmes are interpreted differently by different audiences on the channel. It gives the comparison of the number of channels shown in or TVs. In 1970s there were only 6 channels shown on TV on most of the homestead channels and all the channels were in UHF spectrum which is of inferior quality, by 2010 the number of channels had increased drastically and the author states that more than 90% of the US homestead had access to either the cable or satellite television which had more than 130 channels. The cable television has brought in most channels to the viewers. The chapter also shows the study of media effects on American public opinion. It gives a clear review of the debate on high persuasive effect of media versus minimal effects. The emergence of cable television is revolutionary and through this development in technology has brought television to areas where broadcast. Therefore, the more channels translated to more choices and the expansion of opportunity afforded by satellite and cable television not only transformed the face of television entertainment and news but also had great insinuation for the reach and effect of news media. The authors also shows that before the rise of cable and satellite television viewers could only watch a few programs only in a few days and at fixed intervals and had little in the way of televised entertainment option during the newscast. On the contrary, the rise of cable television provides viewers with a variety of choices, the content is broad and more varied and increasingly more specialized as the programs of television seek audience niche. The other side of the wide and varied number of channels is that they have become purveyors of pitched partisan discussed. Chapter 2 of the book provides an intellectual history of media effect research. The increasing number of channels provided and also their effects on the growing population and the concern of the government. It describes the 1992 Cable act which gave the viewers a broader range of varied channels to watch. Before the act, the number of channels was so few, and the author describes the monopoly of the television cables before the law was enacted. Cable subscriptions were skyrocketing, and customers only had one provider in every municipality to choose from. Satellite television wasnt yet an option, and the phone companies were banned from offering video programming thanks to nominally pushing from TV broadcasters. Television has become so adverse that it can take into consideration the interest of all the viewers. This vast array of choices the viewers have at their disposal allows views only to watch the news by tuning 24-hour cable news channels or to avoid watching news at all. The more channels also give the viewers unprecedented control over the content they consume on television as they do not have to watch news because they lack alternative channels since they also have plethora of entertainment options which therefore hinders the access of partisan news and substantially blunt its direct impact on the American society. The chapter ends with a discussion on how the disintegration of media has swayed recent media effect research. Chapter 3 is based on the latest changes in the media environment placed in the historical context. It describes the significant contribution of the book, the methods of innovation employed by Johnson and Arseneaux. The authors argue that the methods used before to look at the effects of media were not appropriate and did not do a perfect work in capturing the impact of media. They poke holes on one particular method used where the respondents were not given choices, but were forced to look at the media content. Although forced exposure studies employed by the previous researchers were vulnerable the method produced maximum impact that are significantly more modest when taken into consideration which would have chosen the mediated content outside an experimental context. The chapter also elaborates on making the case that partisan news audiences are not passive viewers but the active one, and people do select into individual because of their different political opinions. Others with less interest in the political sector will choose to watch other programs that do not contain politics. The chapter also talks about the laid down theoretical frameworks of selective exposures that have received a great deal of attention from extant research and the motivation to be entertainment that has received very minimal attention. Two experiments are also described in this chapter; Selective Exposure Experiment (SEE) and Participant Preference Experiment (PPE). The chapter concludes with an experimental description and research of the experimental research and studies. Chapter 4 of this through to chapter 7 constitute the main content of the book, here 11 experiments are described which draws more than 1700 participants. The respondents are drawn from different fields and go beyond the typical college students sample by also including non-students brought from across the broader population of the community. The chapter also investigates the polarizing effect of partisan news media and shows clearly that exposure to both counters and pro attitudinal news have the capability to polarize attitudes of the viewers. It is clearly demonstrated that when participants are given the option to select out of partisan news shows, there is a clear, substantial attenuation in the polarizing effect of partisan news programs. Most of the polarization effects observed are found to be among the inadvertent audience since most news seekers are absolutely less affected by the exposure to partisan news than entertainment seekers. Chapter 5 majors on the effect of partisan news media on polarization of political attitude through a subtle route. The chapter exposes how partisan news media strengthens preexisting beliefs; it may make viewers be more resistant to opposing arguments. It is very evident that the partisan media can make viewers be very resistant to opposing arguments and mostly those who enjoy thinking about arguments. Also, we find that choice weakens reinforcement impact and also tries to have great powerful reinforcement impact on those audiences who seek out entertainment when given chance. The chapter also goes beyond the persuasive power partisan news and considers the way in which the viewer’s understandings are shaped by partisan news media. Chapters 6 gives details on how the public agenda may be influenced by the biased news shows and shows how these partisan news shows can transfer salience to issues by mainly deliberating them just like the mainstream news media. When partisan news media talk about varied issues they literally reduce the common conversation which are ordinarily taken for granted during the transmission broadcast era. However, it also demonstrates that choice attenuates the agenda setting impacts of partisan news media though, it is evident that partisan news media can have strong agenda-setting effect on the field of entertainment and can have the same impact on both the entertainment and news seekers. Partisan news media can shape the agenda of news seekers; it still has very minimal effect to be successful in outlining those issues. The chapter also states that television viewers are normally active members in the media they consume. The viewers are not passively and unquestioningly soaking in the content to which they are exposed to as assumed by most scholars and media observers. They make choices on what to watch whether the content is biased or not, the choices made help them shape their reactions to the content they watch. In chapter 7, there is a consideration of how the perception of media bias and trust in the political system is shaped by partisan news media. While the partisan news media is an able heighten hostility towards oppositional news and lower the trust in the political system, a media surroundings with choice lessens these impacts. The chapter also looks at the political implications of the expansion of the viewing options and the claim that the introduction of new cables, featuring the expression of politically ideological reporting, impacts of distinct biased issues agendas, polarizes the public, and reduces confidence in social and political institutions. Biased news may have serious effect on the democracy of the country and for this reason, these biased news are fully responsible for polarizing the public. Biased news attract very few audience while the other broadcasts like the entertainment will attract very many viewers. Chapter 8 summarizes the book with the aid of meta-analysis that bring together the findings of all the studies. The chapter is instructive and shows that the viewer’s choice is not erased but blunts effects of media related to partisan news. It also considers array of explanations for perceived mass polarization in US where it is found that the availability of partisan news choices accentuates concern about the voice of supporters and the extremism in US politics. Polarization is not driven by availability of partisan news media as thought to most people but with other options accessible besides each other heighten concern that partisan news divides America. The book “changing minds or changing channels” looks at the effects of media on the American population. The early chapters give a clear review of the debate on the hypodermic model of strong persuasive effect against the minimal effect of the shift of interest to agenda framing, priming and setting effects. The book also takes off from two perspective where the first view claims that the expansion of the satellite and cable television have aided in causing ideological sorting and mass polarization. The other which is the Markus Prior’s Post‐Broadcast Democracy the ground breaking book which stresses on how media expansion has led news junkies bring themselves of more political statistics which therefore made the partisans to selectively choose more partisan sources. Arceneaux and Johnson also gives a compelling observation that those who have little interest in politics have variety of sources to get entertainment and other interests “choices to screen out news altogether” (p. 53). Arceneaux and Johnson clearly shows how selective exposure of partisans and screening out confuses all observational studies penetrating for the media’s causal consequence of a biased conflict. It therefore restrictions our learnings on real world behaviors from experiments on forcing exposure to media content. Arceneaux and Johnson devised and conducted a set of 11 randomized experiments, which included experiments, which allowed some objects controlled selective exposure to entertaining versus new programs. The experiment was carried out on more than 1700 correspondents who not included university students but also diverse sets of temporary office workers and also adults from other areas from the community. The studies examine the persuasive impacts of talk shows on partisan polarization, setting agenda, priming, framing effects and the results of hearing opposing views and also the impact of perceptions of media incivility and bias. Persuasion is the overall results. As summarized in the meta-analysis, some attitudes are affected by partisan broadcasts. Furthermore, counter-attitudinal exposure appears to increase some partisan attitudes. The main finding is how position of entertainment seekers is influenced by partisan talk shows The two authors, therefore, finalizes that any media, which is directly partisan that leads to partisan polarization are significantly limited. Therefore, any prevailing mass polarization could be much worse, though the choice of an individual on the use of mass media reduces the consequences of the outlets of partisan news. What is most evident is that the solution to ending partisan polarization and conflict is not the changes in mass media, but there is a need to look at the political leadership level. The partisan news provides a way of reinforcing individual opinion, the authors also notes that the experiments only estimates direct impact of media broadcast and therefore its necessary to put into account the cumulative effect of partisan news and the succeeding dissemination society‐wide of the ideas and debates that they emphasize. In summary, the introduction of satellite and cable channels which has led to the introduction of various and different channels has greatly impacted on the lives of the growing Americans. Viewers have to make choices on their preferred channels at any given time. This has indeed led to the polarization as most of the channels are always so partisan on their broadcasts. The introduction of several channels is the best idea to have happened though it has both its advantages and disadvantages though advantages over ways disadvantages in that there is no monopoly of channels and one can choose the best channel that sits them at any given time of the day. Work cited Arceneaux, Kevin, and Martin Johnson. Changing Minds or Changing Channels?: Partisan News in an Age of Choice. , 2013. Print Read More