A History of Television News [Kai Craig - MCS 333]

[Albert H. Cantril & Gordon W. Allport]

"Radio: A Psychological Novelty" goes into the relationship between radio broadcasters and their listeners. Unlike other forms of public speaking, there is no circular relationship amongst radio audiences, so broadcasters have to foster an 'impression of universality" by pointing out that several people have tuned in to the program at the same time as the listener.
In "The Influence of Radio upon Mental and Social Life," Cantril and Allport point out that, since broadcasters are supported by heterogeneous audiences, they must limit their topics to appeal to the most common interests. With this in mind, radio listeners tend to adopt the same points of view.

[Theodor Adorno]

Adorno generally believes that the culture industry creates pop culture by repackaging previous forms of commercially successful culture. Narrowing his focus to pop music, Adorno states that a song becomes recognizable when it builds upon familiar melodies. Repetition of the new melody also gives the song its long-lasting sense of recognition.

[Elihu Katz & Paul Lazarsfeld]

One of the most famous ideas from this reading is the 'two-step flow of communication". Essentially, people are influenced by 'opinion leaders' (anyone in a given social group whose opinions are accepted by others in that group), and the mass media supplies ideas to the opinion leader. This theory is a widely-accepted expansion of the 'hypodermic needle theory', which flatly states that people are directly influenced by mass media.

[Theodor Adorno]

Here, Adorno examines pop culture in general. The thesis of this chapter is that the culture industry transmutes the profit motive into all forms of pop culture. Consequently, the spheres of high art and low art are fused together to the detriment of both. Consumers are led to believe that they influence the culture industry, but the culture industry actually conditions consumers to respond to whatever it creates.

[Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann]

Neumann first defines public opinion as any viewpoint that can be expressed without condemnation by others; this viewpoint usually agrees with the majority opinion. People are afraid of being isolated, and this fear takes precedence over their personal beliefs. Accordingly, the 'spiral of silence' theory states that individuals will refrain from voicing their opinions if they believe that others will isolate them afterwards.

[W. Phillips Davison]

In this reading, Davison writes about the 'third-person effect' hypothesis. Essentially, this hypothesis speculates that individuals believe that others are more likely to be influenced by mass media than they are. Consequently, the same individuals tend to underestimate mass media's effect on themselves.

[Scott R. Maier & Deborah Potter]

Public journalism, a variety of news that engages citizens in the political process, is the subject of this reading. During the 1996 presidential election, several studies were made to analyze the efforts made in television and newspapers to deliver public journalism. Unfortunately, it was determined that, while both forms were somewhat committed to supplying public journalism, television followed through on that commitment the least.

[Shahira Fahmy]

This article examines the role that visual agenda setting played in media coverage of the September 11 attacks. Footage of the plane crashing into the towers was played repeatedly on the news in the days after 9/11. Fahmy argues that since images can elicit emotions and improve retention of a news story, the media's coverage of 9/11 drastically shaped the populace's concerns with terrorism.

[Dietram A. Scheufele & David Tewksbury]

This reading sheds light on three ways that the news media can influence the way its audience thinks about politics. The first way is agenda-setting: if news organizations prioritize a subject, then audiences will prioritize it. Framing is another way: audiences will perceive a subject differently depending on exactly how it is reported. The last way is known as priming: to influence the way audiences perceive an issue, the news media can suggest that they examine it through smaller issues.

[Brian Weeks & Brian Southwell]

During the 2008 presidential election, rumors circulated that then-candidate Barack Obama was secretly a Muslim. Prior to its circulation on mainstream media, the rumor was first seen on a political blog; soon after, conservative websites began to report it. The rumor's presence on mainstream media led to an agenda-setting effect, and several Americans truly believed that Obama was a secret Muslim.

[Christina Petersen]

Petersen's analysis of the Payne Fund study 'Movies and Conduct" concludes that its depiction of the 'youth spectator' as an impressionable film consumer became highly influential in how young film-goers are perceived. Herbert Blumer, who conducted the study, reported that youth spectators become emotionally possessed when they view a film, and their self-control and critical thinking skills take a backseat to their repressed impulses. Blumer also discussed the effect of crowds on film-goers; for example, the reaction of a viewer is reproduced by those around them, creating a 'circular reaction'.

[Ki Deuk Hyun & Soo Jung Moon]

This study examined partisan news coverage during the 2012 presidential election. The study revealed that, while partisan networks had agenda-setting effects, watching coverage from multiple networks could offset those effects.

[Jeff Niederdeppe]

Today, people can obtain information from many sources at once. Niederdeppe makes two predictions: surveys will be increasingly unable to record where people get their information, and researchers will have to consider the time that people were exposed to information, instead of relying heavily on sources.