Mass Communication Talk

Information-Processing Theory Information processing theory Theory that uses mechanistic analogies to describe and interpret how people deal with all the stimuli they receive the elaboration likelihood model. Drawing on the same metaphors as systems theory (Chapter 7), information processing theory uses mechanistic analogies to describe and interpret how each of us takes in and makes sense of the flood of information our senses encounter every moment of each day. It assumes that individuals operate like complex biocomputers with certain built-in information-handling capacities and strategies. Each day we are exposed to vast quantities of sensory information. We filter this information so only a small portion of it ever reaches our conscious mind. Only a tiny fraction of this information is singled out for attention and processing, and we finally store a tiny amount of this in long-term memory. We are not so much information handlers as information avoiders—we have developed sophisticated mechanisms […]

News production research The study of how the institutional routines of news production inevitably produce distorted or biased content Lance Bennett (1988, 2005a) surveyed news production research literature and summarized four ways in which current news production practices distort or bias news content: Personalized news: 2. Dramatized news: 3. Fragmented news: 4. Normalized news: Objectivity Rituals In news production research, the term for professional practices designed to ensure objectivity that are implicitly biased toward support of the status quo Strengths Weakness 1. Provides recommendations for potentially useful changes in news production practices   2. Raises important questions about routine news production practices 3. Can be used to study production of many different types of news 1. Focuses on news production practices but has not empirically demonstrated their effect   2. Has pessimistic view of journalists and their social role 3. Has been ignored and rejected as impractical by practicing journalists

Media Intrusion Theory Media intrusion theory Idea that media have intruded into and taken over politics to the degree that politics have become subverted Social capital The influence potential leaders develop as a result of membership and participation in social groups Strengths Weakness 1. Provides basis for social change   2. Raises important questions about operation of news media organizations 1. Focuses on operation of news media but has not empirically demonstrated its effect   2. Has overly pessimistic view of news media and their social role 3. Focuses too much on intrusion into politics 4. Is based on elite pluralism assumptions

Frame Analysis Goffman’s idea about how people use expectations to make sense of everyday life While critical cultural researchers were developing reception analysis during the 1980s, a new approach to audience research was taking shape in the United States. It had its roots in symbolic interaction and social constructionism. As we’ve seen, both argue that the expectations we form about ourselves, other people, and our social world are central to social life. You have probably encountered many terms in this and other textbooks that refer to such expectations—stereotypes, attitudes, typification schemes, and racial or ethnic bias. All these concepts assume that our expectations are socially constructed: Expectations are based on previous experience of some kind, whether derived from a media message or direct personal experience (in other words, we aren’t born with them). Expectations can be quite resistant to change, even when they are contradicted by readily available factual information. […]

Social Construction of reality Theory that assumes an ongoing correspondence of meaning because people share a common sense about its reality