Media Effects

NMC 435

Winter, 2008

Tuesday/Thursday: 2-3:20 PM

CRPS 122

 

Instructor:  Dr. William E. Loges

Office: Oak Creek Bldg., Room 218

Office phone: (541) 737-9855

Office hours:  Tuesday, 3:45-5 PM; Wednesday, 10 AM to 1 PM; and Thursday, 11:45 AM to 1 PM, or by appointment

e-mail: bill.loges@oregonstate.edu

 

COURSE SYLLABUS

 

“If . . . our purpose is manipulation—the persuasion of a large number of people to act, feel, think, know, in certain ways—the convenient formula will be that of the masses.”

Raymond Williams, Culture and Society: 1780-1950, p. 303

 

This is a 3-credit class.

 

There are policies, laws, social movements, and everyday decisions based on the assumption that media are capable of changing the minds and behaviors of audiences. In fact, much of the advertising industry is based on this premise. This course will explore the nature of these effects, and some of the theories that have been proposed over the years to explain these effects.

 

We will begin with a look at the general idea of media effects, and some of the assumptions that underlie that idea. We will then focus on specific approaches and theories. In the last week we’ll grapple with the implications of these theories. That is, if they’re accurate, what does that imply about action that should be taken in the world? If they’re not, is that significant too? Students’ ability to critically examine claims made about media effects will be developed.

 

The Textbook

 

Bryant, J. & Zillmann, D. (Eds.) (2002). Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, 2nd Edition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

 

In addition to the textbooks, there will be some readings on reserve in the library. A chapter from The New Media Reader (on reserve in the library under NMC 101) is also required.

 

Learning Outcomes

 

Students who complete this class successfully should be able to do the following:

 

  1. Distinguish media effects according to criteria such as long-term and short-term, powerful and weak, and the audiences most susceptible to the effects.
  2. Define key concepts, including attitude, value, transfer, elaboration, and accessibility.
  3. Apply knowledge of media effects to an analysis of existing media content that evaluates the potential for the content to influence its audience.
  4. Critique public policy proposals based on assumptions about the power of the media to influence their audiences.
  5. Distinguish between the effects due to the technical characteristics of media and effects due to the content of media.

 

What is Expected of You:

 

(1) You will write a paper of about 6 pages in which you evaluate a piece of current media content in terms of its likelihood of having an effect on its audience, using one of the effects studied in this course as the basis of your evaluation. (2) There will be two written midterms and a written final exam.

 

Your Grade

 

Your grade will be calculated as follows:

 

Midterm 1:      20%

Midterm 2:      20%

Paper:              30%

Final Exam:     30%

 

Regarding Students with Disabilities

            Accommodations are collaborative efforts between students, faculty and Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). Students with accommodations approved through SSD are responsible for contacting the faculty member in charge of the course prior to or during the first week of the term to discuss accommodations. Students who believe they are eligible for accommodations but who have not yet obtained approval through SSD should contact SSD immediately at 737-4098.

 

What Could Go Wrong?

            You are expected to hold yourself to the highest standards of academic integrity. Among other things, this means: (1) preparing for class by completing the required reading before class begins; (2) attending class faithfully, and taking part in class when the opportunity arises; (3) taking tests honestly, relying only on your own knowledge during the exam; and (4) supporting and assisting one another when you can.

            If you fail to meet these standards, your grade will suffer, especially if you are found to have plagiarized any portion of your term paper.

            More information is available at http://oregonstate.edu/admin/stucon/achon.htm

 

Calendar of Events

 

Week One

Jan. 8               Introduction to Media Effects

Jan. 10             Conditions for Media Effects

Read: Loges (1994) on reserve

                        Read: Katz (1980), on reserve

 

Week Two

Jan. 15             Individual effects: Agenda setting

                        Read:  McCombs & Reynolds*

Jan. 17             Individual effects: Attitude change

Read: Petty et al.*

Read: Banerjee & Greene, on reserve

 

 

Week Three

Jan. 22             Individual effects: Making sense of the world

Read: Zillman*

Jan. 24             Individual effects: Priming

                        Read: Roskos-Ewoldsen*

                        Read: Carpusor & Loges, on reserve

                        Read: Romer, Jamieson, & Jamieson, on reserve

 

Week Four

Jan. 29             Midterm 1

Jan. 31             Individual effects: Violence and the mean world

                        Read: Gerbner et al.*

Read: Sparks & Sparks*

 

Week Five

Feb. 5              Individual effects: Sex

                        Read: Harris & Scott*

                        Read: Wertham, on reserve

Feb. 7              Individual effects: Learning

                        Read: Fisch*

                        Read: Papert, (pp. 413-432 in The New Media Reader)

 

Week Six

Feb. 12            Individual effects: Understanding the world

Read:  Shrum*

Feb. 14            Individual effects: Entertainment

Read: Bryant & Miron*

Read: Cantor*

Read: Cantril, on reserve

 

Week Seven

Feb. 19            Midterm 2

Feb. 21            Individual differences in individual effects

Read: Oliver*

 

Week Eight

Feb. 26            Social effects: Public health and campaigns

Read:  Rice & Atkin*

Read:  Brown & Walsh-Childers*

Feb. 28            Social Effects: Crime and Punishment

Read: Bruschke & Loges, on reserve

Read: Loges & Ball-Rokeach, on reserve

 

Week Nine

Mar. 4              Social effects: The Third Man

Read:  Perloff*

Reid et al., on reserve

Mar. 6              Social effects: Marketing

                        Read: Stewart et al.*

                        Paper due

 

Week Ten

Mar. 11            Looking ahead

Read:  Mundorf & Laird*

Read: Katz (1996), on reserve

Mar. 13            Review for final exam

 

*Chapters in Bryant & Zillmann

 

Final exam: Wednesday, March 19, 2 PM

 

Bibliography of Reserve Readings

 

Banerjee, S.C. & Greene, K. (2006). Analysis versus production: Adolescent cognitive and attitudinal responses to antismoking interventions. Journal of Communication, 56, 773-794.

 

Bruschke, J. & Loges, W.E. (1999). Relationship between pretrial publicity and trial outcomes. Journal of Communication, 49(4), 104-120.

 

Cantril, H. (1940). The invasion from Mars: A study in the psychology of panic, pp. 47-63. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

 

Carpusor, A. & Loges, W.E. (2006). Rental discrimination and ethnicity in names. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(4), 934-952.

 

Katz, E. (1980). On conceptualizing media effects. Studies in Communications, 1, 119-141.

 

Katz, E. (1996). Mass media and participatory democracy. Paper presented at Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, November, 1996.

 

Loges, W.E. (1994).  Canaries in the coal mine:  Perceptions of threat and media system dependency.  Communication Research, 21(1), 5-23.

 

Loges, W.E. & Ball-Rokeach, S.J. (2002). Mass media and crime. In J. Dressler (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice, 2nd Edition, pp. 988-995. NY: MacMillan.

 

Reid, S.A., Byrne, S., Brundidge, J.S., Shoham, M.D., & Marlow, M.L. (2007). A critical test of self-enhancement, exposure, and self-categorization explanations for first- and third-person perceptions. Human Communication Research, 33 (2), 143-162.

 

Romer, D., Jamieson, P.E., and Jamieson, K.H. (2006). Are news reports of suicide contagious? A stringent test in six U.S. cities. Journal of Communication, 56 (2), 253-270.

 

Wertham, F. (1953).  Seduction of the innocent, pp. 83-118. NY:  Rinehart & Co.

The Paper

 

Your paper is due on March 6 at 5 PM. You can submit a hard copy to me at any time before then, or send it by e-mail in a message that I receive before that time. If your paper is late, its weight in your final grade will increase 5% for every 24 hours (or increment of 24 hours) that it is late. In other words, at 5:01 on March 7, your paper will become worth 35% of your grade, with the extra percent deducted from your highest other test grade. NO PAPER WILL BE ACCEPTED, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AFTER MARCH 9 AT 5 PM.

 

Your assignment in this paper is to identify a piece of currently available media content and discuss its potential effect on an audience, using one of the effects we’ve discussed in class as the focus of your discussion. For instance, you could describe an episode of Desperate Housewives and discuss its potential effect on its audience using the priming effect the Roskos-Ewoldsen describes as the focus of your analysis. Other media you could discuss include video games, magazine articles, movies, pop songs and their videos, radio broadcasts, and many more. Feel free to ask me if the content you’re thinking of using is a good choice.

 

Your paper should begin by describing the content in some detail, since you should not assume that I’m familiar with it. Be sure to describe aspects of the content that are most relevant to the effect you’re going to write about. Use professional terms to describe the content (i.e., make use of the vocabulary you learn in production courses).

 

After describing the content, explain the effect. Include a discussion of the medium or content the effect is primarily concerned with, the kind of person or society that is considered most susceptible to that effect, and the circumstances under which the effect is particularly likely. Finally, link the content you’ve chosen to the effect. Specify aspects of the content that are most relevant to that effect, or most likely to affect a given audience, or most likely to create circumstances that are optimal for producing the effect.

 

In order to complete this paper you will certainly have to consult material that is not on the syllabus. You should use the bibliography in the syllabus material to point you toward other books or articles that will provide more information about the effect or content you’ve chosen. Any paper that fails to make obvious and substantial use of at least two scholarly publications that are not on the syllabus will receive a grade no higher than D. Let me know if I can help identify other helpful resources.

 

Your paper should be no longer than 7 pages (not including a title page—which I don’t require—but including your bibliography—which I do require). The font should be no larger than 12 points. The margins should be one inch all around. The text should be double-spaced. You can include examples of the content if that’s feasible, or links to a website where such examples can be found, if any of this would help clarify your points. (Such material is not included in the page count.)

Rules for the Paper

 

1. Cite sources for claims of fact. Use the course textbook as a model for how to do this. For instance, if you claim that research has shown that children are particularly vulnerable to the third-person effect, cite a published source to support that claim. You need not cite sources for common knowledge facts (e.g., you don’t have to cite a source if you claim that Salem is the capital of Oregon). If you’re not certain whether something is common knowledge, err on the side of caution and cite a source.

 

2. Do not cite my lectures. If you want to use material from my lecture, first check if the reading for that date’s lecture provides the published support you need. If that doesn’t work, let me know what you’re looking for. I don’t make up the statements of fact in my lectures, so I should be able to provide the citation you need.

 

3. Do not include material in your bibliography that you have not cited in your paper’s text.

 

4. Be EXTREMELY careful to indicate direct quotes appropriately. Mostly this means using quotation marks. For quotes longer than 40 words, indent the entire quote, and don’t use quotation marks. If you fail to acknowledge direct quotes appropriately you are guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism makes me VERY angry.

 

5. Do not cite Wikipedia. You might find Wikipedia helpful to get some background information on your subject, and its entries frequently include recommended reading that might prove helpful to you, but Wikipedia must not be the ultimate source of support for any claim you make. It is hilariously unreliable and prone to hacks and pranks.

 

6. Do not cite summaries you find on other professors’ Websites. Like Wikipedia, such material might be helpful to you and it might lead you to helpful published material, but you must find published support for any claim you want to make based on what such a Website says. Too often those sites are archives of other undergraduate students’ papers or presentations, not created or maintained by the professor. That doesn’t make them unhelpful, only unreliable.

 

7. Remember that the word “media” is a plural of medium. Students studying media should be more sensitive to that than students in other areas of study.

 

8. Your grammar should be flawless. You are media students.