Transcript Document

Media Expressions
Social Scientific & Cultural
Approaches to Media Research
Chapter 16
Edward R. Murrow
Apr 25, 1908 - Apr 27, 1965 (age 57)
This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes,
and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the
extent that humans are determined to use it to
those ends. Otherwise it's nothing but wires and
lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps
decisive battle to be fought against ignorance,
intolerance and indifference. This weapon of
television could be useful.
Speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA)
convention in Chicago (15 October 1958)
The idea that media have a significant impact on
society has fueled the development of two
research approaches
Social Scientific Research
(quantitative)
 Attempts to understand,
explain, and predict the
impact of mass media on
individuals and society.
 This approach involves
formulating a testable
hypothesis, collecting data,
and drawing conclusions
based on the data. P. 278.
Cultural Studies (qualitative)
 Explores how people make
meaning, understand
reality, articulate values,
and interpret their
experiences through use
of cultural symbols in
media.
 Takes a subjective
experiential perspective.
Early Research Methods
• The “social scientific method” evolved out
of the study of people acting within a social
setting or society at large.
• Growing fields of sociology, psychology,
political science, and anthropology fueled
the demand for empirical approaches to
theorize about human behavior.
• Walter Lippman’s 1922 Public Opinion is
considered the “founding book in American
media studies” p. 479.
Communication Early Research Methods
research grew from
1930-60 in the
following areas:
1. Propaganda
Analysis
2. Public Opinion
Research
3. Social
Psychological
Studies
4. Marketing
Research
early social scientific research
• Who says what to whom with what effect?
• This approach is known as ‘media effects’
• Three useful theories emerged:
1. Hypodermic Needle (or magic bullet)
model.
2. Minimal Effects Theory involving selective
exposure and selective retention.
3. Uses and Gratifications Theory
social scientific research today
•
•
•
•
Social Learning Theory – Albert Bandura
Agenda-setting Theory- McCombs & Shaw
The Cultivation Effect – George Gerbner
The Spiral of Silence Theory – Elizabeth
Noelle-Newman.
• Third Person Effect Theory – W. Phillips
Davison
Who Conducts Social Scientific Media
Research?
• Private (proprietary) research – done by
businesses, corporations, and political
campaigns.
– Typically focuses on a narrow agenda.
– Sell a product, correct a bad image, win a campaign.
• Public research – done in academic and
government settings.
– Typically tries to clarify, explain, or predict the
effects of the media.
Seven Steps
Research involves following the scientific method:
1. Identify the problem to be researched.
2. Review existing research and theories related to
the problem.
3. Develop a working hypothesis
4. Determine an appropriate method.
5. Collect information or relevant data.
6. Analyze results to see if they verify the hypo
7. Interpret the implications of the study (so what?)
Three main ways to collect data:
Experiments = 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr0OTCVtHbU
Survey Research =2
• Collects & measures
information about
attitudes, knowledge, or
behavior.
• Uses a random sampling
technique.
• Often used in longitudinal
studies.
• Can only show
correlations.
Content Analysis = 3
• Defines terms
• Develops a coding scheme.
• Conclusions based on
number of times a symbol
(image, word) appears.
• http://www.huffingtonpos
t.com/2013/12/05/how-themedia-failed-women2013_n_4391309.html
Evaluating Social Scientific Research
• The focus of most government funded
research is media effects on youth, i.e.
violence, language use, and sexuality.
• Privately funded research is usually not
available for public consumption.
– Bias may skew the results given a sponsor’s
agenda.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTJhVBqWOM
Cultural Approaches to Media
Research
• “Interprets written and visual ‘texts’ or
artifacts as symbols that contain cultural,
historical, and political meanings.
• A cultural approach offers interpretations of
the stories, messages, and meanings that
circulate throughout society” p. 492
• Cultural approach theories, like social
science theories, have evolved over time.
early cultural studies approaches
Hegemony
Literary and cultural critics
Antonio Gramsci
theorized about how the
disempowered accept
their oppression and
even buy into it through
media exposure.
Other early cultural approaches
http://marxlacanzizek.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/th
e-frankfurt-school-in-our-time-radio-4/
Frankfurt School
• Max Horkheimer, T.W.
Adorno, Leo
Lowenthal & others
http://www.marxists.org/subject/frank
furt-school/
Stuart Hall’s Representation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY
Contemporary Media Studies
• Race, class, and gender are intersections
where cultural studies researcher look for
subjects to study.
– A favored topic of inquiry is lost voices or
silenced voices.
– My own work has often taken this line of inquiry.
– http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10646171003727433#p
review
Contemporary Cultural Studies -2
• Textual analysis is a close reading and
interpretation of cultural messages,
including those found in books, movies, & TV
programs, essentially any media that uses
symbols to broadcast from one to many.
• Horace Newcomb’s TV: The Most Popular Art
• Studied why certain TV programs and
formats were popular in the 1960-70s.
Contemporary cultural studies - 3
• Political Economy Studies looks at the
interconnections among economic interests,
political power, and ways in which that
power is used.
• Areas of interest include consolidation of
media ownership and implications of a
handful of individuals owning the majority of
the media outlets.
Contemporary
http://www.slideshare.net/bomborey/media-hegemony
Evaluating Cultural Studies Research
Pros
• Inductive reasoning: from
one example to many.
• Specialization in area
reveals hidden
assumptions about text.
• Offers a variety of theories
to apply to the text.
Cons
• Requires thorough
grounding in theories used
to analyze text.
• Requires thorough
understanding of the
subject.
• Often ignores audience
effects.
Research topic
Breaking
Bad
Social Scientific Approach
• Apply 7 steps
• Hypothesis: Viewers of BB
become desensitized to
drug-related violence and
believe it is common.
• Survey to collect data.
• Use cultivation effect
theory to analyze data.
• Draw conclusions.
Cultural Studies Approach
• Research Question: Is
morality inflected by
gender, race, & class?
• Close reading of the text.
• Analyze the characters of
Walter White, Skyler, Saul
Goodman.
• Review literature on
ethics, gender, race, &
social class .
Converging Media Case Study:
Studying digital narratives:
Ethnography explores the big picture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaAHv4UTI8
Questions about either approach?
• Activity:
• With a partner, generate a research question
about a medium & product you are
interested in learning more about.
• Identify how you would go about
researching the question. Why?