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In what ways do you see a two-step flow existing in new media? Can this formulation apply to social media; why or why not?
Read the lecture ppt and answer these questions:
- In what ways do you see a two-step flow existing in new media? Can this formulation apply to social media; why or why not?
- Where do influencers and partisan pundits fit within the two-step flow landscape?
- Do you think a War of the Worlds-like scenario is possible using present-day new media? If so, what would/could it look like? If not, why?
Media Theory & Processes
Sections 111 & 112:
GSI: Arika Verma
9/22/2020
They need the relief after my monologue of a lecture.
They need the relief after my monologue of a lecture.
We will begin on Berkeley Time
Agenda
Reminder: Student Led Discussion on Thursday
Lecture Review & Limited Effects
Breakout rooms
Opening Questions:
Lazarsfeld was a strong advocate for…
A normative theoretical approach to studying survey results
Postpositivist approaches to researching data
Which was an influence in the development of Limited Effects Theory?
Scientific methods
McCarthyism
Changes in medicine, data, and computing
The trend toward deductive reasoning
Lecture Review
& Limited Effects Overview
Limited Effects Era
1940s – 1960s
Introduction of social sciences & psychology
Where people lived and and social environment (WoW)
Prevailing needs of business and government who provided funding
Mass Media → Opinion Leaders → General Public
Media effects are modest and isolated and can also be temporary
Methods:
Surveys, polls, questionnaires (Lazarsfeld),
Experiments in labs or in ‘the field’ (Hovland)
Empirical methods → science!
The turn away from Mass Society assumptions involved a turn towards inductive reasoning…
Deductive (general to specific)
verses Inductive (specific to general)
Reasoning
observation/data → pattern → hypothesis → theory
Lazarsfeld & Katz
The Readings & Legacies
Lazarsfeld’s Survey Research: “The People’s Choice”
Surveys to measure the influence of media on November 1940 elections
Three types of voters: early, crystalized, & floating voters
Floating voters: less informed, apathetic, less likely to use media, more influenced by other people
Conclusion: personal influence and social context matter more than media exposure
3 Social Functions of
the Mass Media (Lazersfeld & Merton)
The status conferral function
The enforcement of social norms
The narcotizing dysfunction
The status conferral function
Confer status
Bestow prestige and enhance authority
The enforcement of social norms
Expose conditions at variance with public moralities – social action
Public announcement of deviance from social norm necessary to action
Publicity closes the gap between private attitudes and public morality
Media serves to reaffirm social norms
3. The narcotizing dysfunction
Exposure to flood of information may serve to narcotize rather than energize the average reader or listener
Vast amount of information may elicit only a superficial concern
Mistake knowing about problems for doing something about them
Not in the interest of society to have a politically apathetic and inert population
Active participation transformed into passive knowledge
Follow the money!
Social Conformism
Impact Upon Popular Taste
Propaganda for Social Objectives:
Monopolization
Canalization
Supplementation
Structure of Ownership and Operation
Social Conformism: mass media supported by great business concerns- the media contribute maintenance of the system
Impact Upon Popular Taste: formulaic content
Propaganda for Social Objectives:
Monopolization
Canalization
Supplementation
Katz and The Two-Step Flow of Communication
Mass Media → Opinion Leaders → Community
Horizontal flow of social influence
Opinion leaders use media more and have more social contacts; they are more informed, uses relevant media more than followers
Opinion leaders exist at all levels of the community
Impacts: Findings of Subsequent Studies:
3 Aspect of the Two-Step Flow of Communication
Impact of Personal Influence
The Flow of Personal Influence
The Opinion Leaders and the Mass Media
Impact of Personal Influence
Personal and the Mass Media Influence: Personal influence figured both more frequently and more effectively than any of the mass media.
Homogeneity of Opinion in Primary Groups: effectiveness of interpersonal influence is reflected in homogeneity of opinions and actions in primary groups.
The Various Roles of the Media: distinguish between media that ‘informs’ and media that ‘legitimates’ decisions
2. The Flow of Personal Influence
Influence is related to the personification of certain values (who one is) and to competence (what one knows)
Influence is often successfully transmitted because the influence wants to be as much like the influential as possible
Strategic social location: whom one knows
3. The Opinion Leaders and the Mass Media
Opinion leaders are more exposed to the mass media than are those whom they influence
Opinion leaders also have more exposure to ‘the outside world’
Noam Chomsky – The 5 Filters of the Mass Media Machine:
Breakout Rooms
Two-step flow in the age of new media?
Break out rooms:
In what ways do you see two-step flow existing in new media? Can this formulation apply to social media; why or why not?
Where do influencers and partisan pundits fit within the two-step flow landscape?
Do you think a War of the Worlds-like scenario is possible using present-day new media? If so, what would/could it look like? If not, why?
We are seeing how social media could replicate the personal, face-to-face: in comment sections/threads/posting/sharing/etc. in addition to usual personal forms (family, friends, parties, work, etc.—face-to-face). The core idea is personal connection, that’s when opinion really takes shape. How do we fit these into new media? There is a group identity online in these new channels of personal communication. Identity and new media complicates how we think of opinion leaders, change, and communication/personal connection.
Questions?
