History of Media Effects Research

Perceived Social Ills ‘Caused’ by Media

• 1920s: Movies• 1930s: Radio• 1940s: Radio and Newspapers• 1950s: Comic Books• 1960-1980s: TV• 1990 to the present: Internet and Smart

Phones

Payne Fund Studies (1929-1932)

• Thirteen studies• Funded by a private foundation• To study the effects of film on children– Film content– Audience composition– Effects on children

Herbert Blumer’s Effects Studies

• Acquisition of information• Attitude change• Stimulation of emotion• Harm to health• Erosion of moral standards

“War of the Worlds” Broadcast (1938)

• Powerful effects• Magic Bullet Theory– “once a message reaches an audience, it will exert

a powerful, relatively uniform effect on everyone who processes it”

“The People’s Choice” (1940)

• Limited effects• Political communication vs. IPP– IPP (Index of Political Predisposition)• SES• White vs. blue collar job• Self-identification as business class vs. working class• Religion• Age

Results

• Rejection of the ‘magic bullet’• Effects– Activation (14%)– Reinforcement (50%)– Conversion (8%)

Frederick Wertham, “Seduction of the Innocent” (1954)

• Content analyses of comic books– Every imaginable crime represented in detail– ‘How to’– Reflected crime in the news– Ratio of crime:arrest (76:1)

Wertham . . .

• Clinical case studies– Normalized violence– Stereotyping (women, minorities [Batman and

Robin]– Literacy

Current Issues

• “Julie and Julia”• PSA (Texting and Driving)• Cartoons depicting Mohammad• Koran burning