Theories of Communication

Lecture# 18
 Variables that enhance priming effects
 Cultivation Theories
 Modeling form Mass Media

 Modeling from mass media, is an efficient

way to learn wide range of behaviors and
solution to problems that we otherwise learn
slowly or not at all, or pay too high a price to
learn in the actual environment.
 Priming Effect

 Priming occurs when exposure to mediated

communication activates related thoughts
that have been stored in the mind of an
audience member.
 Priming Effect

 Media message content triggers concepts,

thoughts, learning or knowledge acquired in
the past that are related to the message
content.
 In this way, message content is connected,
associated or reinforced by related thoughts
and concepts that it brings to mind.
 Priming Effect

 E.g. if one views a rail accident or air

accident the viewer might recall an accident
he is part of. His interest in the news story
and his reaction to it may well be affected by
his existing knowledge and previous
experiences.
 In other words, his memories primed him to
react in a particular way to the story.
 Conceptual Roots

 Priming is based upon the concept of cognitive

neo association.
 This social psychological perspective attempts to
explain a portion of the phenomenon memory.
 To understand cognitive neo association, one must
picture the brain as a complex network or pathway
that connect associated ideas, thoughts feelings
and concepts.
 Individual differences in perceptions, of course
cause priming activation strengths to vary
considerably from person to person.

 One study found that children who read comic

books with violent content were more likely to
gave aggressive thoughts than children who
read comic books with more neutral contents.
Variables That Enhance Priming Effects

 Research has shown that there are some

intervening variables that strengthen the
cause-effect phenomenon when they are
present, which are following:
1. The perceived meaning of the
communication.
2. The perceive justifiability of the witnessed
aggression.
3.The extent to which audiences identify with
the characters.
4.The perceived reality of the mediated
communication.
5.The stimulus of prior experiences.
 Perceived Meaning

 In a research first participants were angered

then shown professional prize fights and
professional American football.

 They were given the information that either

they were fighting to hurt others or simply
performing their professional jobs.
 Perceived Justifiability
 Research has shown that viewers of
mediated violence are also influenced in their
actions by the outcomes of the situations
they see.
 A number of studies reveal that viewers
believe what happens on television or in
movies could also happen to them if they
behave in ways similar to the characters
depicted.
 Character Identification

 Research has shown that identification with a

media character enhances priming effects.

 In an experiment participants were divided in

three groups.
 Perceived Reality

 The perceived reality of media depictions can

also intensify the strength of priming effects.

 Research has shown that priming effects are

strongest when audiences believe they are
witnessing actual rather than fictional events.
 Perceived Reality

 In one study angered participants saw the

war film, but only half were told it was a
fictional movie. The other half were led to
believe that the film depicted actual combat.

 Similarly in another study similar results were

achieved among three groups of 5th and 6th
grade children.
 Memories Of Prior Experiences
 Another factor identified with enhancing
priming effects is that of prior learning or
remembered experiences.

 As an audience member views a violent act,

he or she remembers other occasions when
semantically similar thoughts or feelings
cropped up. The memory re-activates a
neural network and strengthens the effects of
priming.
 In recent years, priming effects have been
founded in areas of communication
research other than media violence studies
such as political communications:

1. Minority portrayals
2. Advertisements
 The number of media effects studies base
upon priming theory continues to increase as
more research seek to identify the links
between media priming and the subsequent
attitudes and behaviors of audience
members.
 SUMMARY

 Priming is a popular area of media effects

research that explores the cognitive
components of information processing.

 Priming occurs when exposure to mediated

communication activates related thoughts in
the mind of an audience member.
 SUMMARY
 Media content triggers concepts, thoughts,
learning or knowledge acquired in the past and
related to the message content.

 For a certain period of time after viewing, a

person is more likely to have thoughts about the
content, related thoughts, or memories,
sometimes these related thoughts become
permanently associated with the message
content or stimulus.
 Cultivation Of Perceptions Of Social
Reality
 The cultivation tradition grew out of a media
violence research project called the Cultural
Indicators Project, headed in 1960s by
George Gerbner, a communication scholar of
University of Pennsylvania.
 Cultivation Of Perceptions Of Social
Reality

 Investigators explored the relationship of long-

tem television viewing, to the inculcation of
various perceptions, values, and beliefs on the
part of audiences.

 The cultivation hypothesis proposes that over

time, heavy viewers of television develop views
of the world similar to what they see on
television.
 Historical Development

 DeFleur in 1967 found that television had a

homogenizing effect on children's perceptions of
occupations commonly shown on television.

 Since 1968 they have collected data on the

content of television and have analyzed the
impact of heavy exposure on the audience.
 Some of the many variables that have been
content analyzed are the demographic
portraits of:
 The perpetrators and victims of television
violence
 The prevalence of violent acts
 The types of violence portrayed
 The contexts of violence
 The basic hypothesis of cultivation analysis
is that the more time one spends living in the
world of television, the more likely one is to
report conceptions of social reality that can
be traced to television portrayals.

 In their finding indicated that the perceptions

of reality were cultivated by television.