/n y to ng their ins and ggres- read- Direct path of influence 212 Dominant code 215 Dominant ideology 214 Elaboration 203 Emphasis 203 amstreaming 208 Mass communication 199 Mass media 200 Mean-world syndrome 207 Modeling 210 Motivation process 211 Need for orientation 202 Negotiated code 215 process Second level agenda setting 204 Selection 203 Self-produced motivation 211 Socially mediated path of influence 212 Symbolic double jeopardy 207 Vicarious motivation 211 Violence index 206 ngage nally, who sney pi- is of 2- g CASE STUDY 11: THE NEW (MEDIA) CULTURE WARS Evelyn and Doug were active in their retirement. They both spent a lot of time working for their community theater group, organizing fund- raisers, building sets, and selling tickets. As full as their life was, they missed their six grand- children, who lived several states away. Their world changed when they joined Facebook; now they could see pictures of Ella's junior prom and Kyle's first efforts at t-ball. They could "like" a funny post from Andy and express sympathy when Allison came down with a stomach virus. Although both Evelyn and Doug used the social media site, Evelyn, in particular, was a very active user. In fact, if anything, she might have been an "over liker." Whenever she saw a post that mentioned one of her favorite merchants or products, she liked it. Whenever she saw a post from a relative or former coworker, regardless of what it was about, she liked it. And whenever she saw anything about one of her favorite plays or actors or songs, she liked that, too. In fact, the more she "liked," the more she liked Facebook. Her news feed was filled with posts that were really interesting to her, and her social network expanded to include people she had never actually met but who shared a lot of common interests. Despite her expanding net- work, however, Evelyn remained nervous about fully using the site. She knew how to comment on posts and accept friend requests, of course, (Continued) CHAPTER 11 MASS COMMUNICATION 210 (Continued) but she was still nervous about using the mes- senger function, or how to share a story, and she had absolutely no idea how to post a photograph or video. On the few occasions she had done any of these things, she had one of her grand- kids sitting next to her showing her how to do it. Despite her best efforts to pay attention, the whole thing was just too nerve wracking for her, so she just chose not to do any of those things. One day, one of her new Facebook friends, Rose, posted a story about the proposed federal budget, which was described as eliminating all funding to the arts. Rose was horrified by this possibility, and Evelyn quickly posted a com- ment supporting Rose's assessment. After that first story, it seemed like every day her friends were posting new stories about the budget cuts to the arts. Each story provided more details about the cuts, providing draco- nian estimates of the impact it would have on all aspects of the arts. Not only would the cuts elim- inate the National Endowment for the Arts, but the cuts also affected art education at all levels. The stories suggested that even kindergartners would no longer have finger paints or paste, and that nonprofit groups associated with the arts would lose their nonprofit status. Evelyn was outraged! What was even more shocking was that the mainstream media was not reporting on any of it. "Typical," Evelyn thought. "If it isn't sports, weather, or people kill- ing people, why would they bother covering it?" One day, one of her friends posted informa- tion about an online petition. To join the peti- tion, subscribers were directed to a web link; once they clicked on the link, they were asked to provide their name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. Evelyn completed it and hit "send," grateful that she could add her voice against the senseless cuts. Soon afterward, she noticed that her com- puter was not working very well. It was processing very slowly, and she was no longer able to con- nect to some of her favorite sites. In fact, she was having trouble connecting to Facebook! Her world became much smaller for a time. She was stuck with her in-person friends because she could no longer follow and respond to her online friends. She was stuck reading the daily newspaper and watching the nightly news, which of course focused only on the positives of the proposed federal budget. It was 2 months before she saw Andy, her oldest grandchild. Andy started teasing her about taking a "social media break." "Grandma, I'm kinda offended that you aren't writing 'LOL' on my very witty posts," Andy said. "What, have you moved onto Instagram or Snapchat? Or is there a new social media plat- form for the geriatric set?" "I'm sure you have been as funny as usual, Andy, but I think my computer is too old. Stop smirking, I said my computer, not me! For some reason, it's running really slowly, and I can't connect to a lot of my favorite sites," Evelyn explained. "Sounds like you have some malware, Grandma. Do you remember clicking on some- thing right before the computer started having problems?" Evelyn thought about it. She knew that she had been actively reading stories about arts funding, but she wasn't sure what might have been a problem. "Not really, Andy. I've been doing a lot of reading about that fool-for-a-president's budget cuts to the arts, but everything I was reading was sent to me by a friend, so I doubt that there could have been anything wrong there," Evelyn replied. "Whoa! I thought you liked our president. What made you change your mind?" Andy asked. "He's going to eliminate all funding to the arts! No more art classes in school! And our community theater group will lose our nonprofit status!" Evelyn fumed. "Wait, wh "There ar that post stor these things y TV, but they a tating these q "Um, Gr been reading The presid classes in s districts det doesn't. And code that e I think we literacy." Questions 1. C fr 220 APPLYING COMMUNICATION THEORY FOR PROFESSIONAL LIFE "Wait, what? Where did you hear that?" "There are all of these news organizations that post stories on Facebook! You would think these things would be covered in the paper or on TV, but they are completely ignoring how devas- tating these cuts are!" she exclaimed. "Um, Grandma, I think maybe you have been reading a lot of fake news," Andy replied. "The president couldn't cut funding for art classes in schools even if he wanted-school districts determine what gets funded and what doesn't. And I don't think he can change the tax code that easily. After I get rid of the malware, I think we need to have a little lesson in media literacy." 3. CHAPTER ELEVEN MASS COMMUNICATION Epiphon "The past decades have wiessenal, atitudinal, and behavioral he past decades have witnessed thousands of empirical stud- effects of media on children and adults" (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013, p. 221). Results suggest that exposure to TV, movies, music, and other media forms is associated with childhood obesity, sexual activity, use of tobacco products, drug and alcohol use, low aca- demic achievement, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (St. George, 2008). Whew! With such negative consequences, why do we continue to allow the media into our lives? Perhaps it is because such a dismal view oversimplifies our complex relationship with the media. For many of us, the media provide both personal and professional opportunities for development. After all, Sesame Street really can teach our children, and the opportunity to surf the web can simplify our quest for information. Moreover, despite the commonly held view of negative media effects, scholarly research often conflicts with popular beliefs and even contradicts other scholars' work. Intellectual and political debate remain over who are most affected, to what extent these individuals are influenced, and why some people are more affected than others. In this chapter, we present four of the most influential and often controversial theories that attempt to explain and predict media use and media effects: agenda-setting theory, cultivation theory, social cognitive theory of mass media, and encoding/decoding theory. First, however, we discuss exactly what we mean by mass media. CHARACTERISTICS OF MASS MEDIA Mass communication and mass media are decidedly different from mediated communication and social media. Mediated communica- tion includes all messages in which there is a device, third party, or electronic mechanism that facilitates communication between the sender and receiver. By contrast, mass communication "is a process Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you will be able to do the following: 1. Discuss the five characteristics of mass communication/mass media 2. Describe and apply the elements of framing to current news stories 3. Explain the process of cultivation via mainstreaming, resonance, and symbolic double jeopardy 4. Relate the process of observational learning and modeling to media violence 5. Differentiate between three ways of reading messages, using preferred, negotiated, or oppositional codes 6. Compare and contrast major theoretical approaches to mass media 7. Provide systematic understanding of a professional situation by applying theories of mass communication 199 in which professional communicators use technology to share messages over great distances to influence large audiences" (Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth, & Harter, 2008, p. 3). Note the source could be an announcer, reporter, writer, and so on, while the technology used to mediate the mass message could include fiber optics, satellites, cable, radio waves, and printing presses to name a few. In turn, the mass media include organizations respon- sible for using technology to send mass messages to the public. Mass communication and the mass media are intertwined; without organizations and agencies to create, produce, and transmit the message content, reaching a mass audience would be difficult. If all of these distinctions seem confusing, remember this: all mass communication is mediated but not all mediated messages are mass communication. McQuail (2010) identified five key characteristics of the mass media that have stood the test of time, despite advances in technology and the decrease in some mediums. First, and noted in Chapter 10, the mass media are able to reach an enormous amount of peo- ple instantly or almost instantly with information, entertainment, or opinions. However, while the mass communication sender can promptly reach a large audience, feedback from these receivers back to the source is typically much, much slower. For example, if you want to comment on an article written in your local print newspaper or favorite magazine, you need to write a letter or send an e-mail to the editor. The letter may or may not be read, published, or otherwise acknowledged. Likewise, if you want to complain about "lewd" content on a supposed family friendly TV show, you must write, e-mail, or attempt a phone call. Again, the show's producer may or may not receive, read, or otherwise acknowledge your message. With emerging and interactive media tech- nologies, this slow feedback process is not always the case (think about texting your vote to America's Got Talent or The Voice). Nonetheless, the quality of feedback the audience can provide is often much less rich than in interpersonal communication. A second characteristic offered by McQuail (2010) argues that the media continue to inspire universal fascination. Again, the popular technologies may change (from sit- ting around the radio listening to Abbott and Costello to watching streaming video via Netflix), but people's preoccupation with shared stories continues. Likewise, a third feature of mass media is that it can rouse, in equal measure, hope and fear in audiences. Think about the U.S. presidential election of 2016; it seems almost everyone in the United States watched endless news coverage on television, posted on Facebook, and tweeted their feelings about the candidates-some celebrated the victory of President Trump while others watched his ascendency to the presidency with despair. The fourth property of mass media noted by McQuail (2010) concerns the relation- ship between the media and other sources of societal power. Unlike other types of com- munication noted in this book, the mass media influence and are influenced by the four sources of social power identified by Mann (2012): economic, ideological, military, and political power. Most mass media are funded by advertising. By emphasizing consumer- ism, either directly through advertisements or indirectly through product placement, sponsoring a national sporting event, or drawing attention to characters' dress, hairstyles, and homes, the media can encourage our shopping and spending habits. To illustrate, research indicates that the more young adults watch or read about celebrity culture and lifestyles, the more materialistic they are (Lewallen, Miller, & Behm-Morawitz, 2016). In terms of ideological power, most Americans can agree that a key term associ- ated with the 2016 American presidential election was "fake news." What is fascinating is what people consider to be fake news; it seems that one's political ideology influences what people view as "fake." Although predating the election, Garrett, Weeks, and Neo (2016) found that biased news site use promotes inaccurate beliefs, leading to partisan belief gaps. Put in simpler terms, the media outlet that one chooses to watch can lead to very different beliefs about the political world. Indeed, consider the role of the media during political campaigns. According to CBS news, candidates for the presidency in 2016 spent $6.8 billion in their efforts to win the election-more than the $6 billion per year that Americans spend on cereal, the $5.4 billion they spend on pet grooming, or the $5.4 billion they spend on legal marijuana (Berr, 2016). Interestingly, this figure is down from the 2012 election, but that doesn't mean that the media played a diminished role. Trump bought fewer televi- sion ads than predicted, in part because he "benefited from huge amounts of free press" (Berr, 2016, 3). We may not like those negative attack ads squeezed in between our primetime TV viewing or the news (real or fake) that appears on our Facebook feeds, but clearly it is influential. Economic power also influences and is influenced by the media. Boomgaarden, van Spanje, Vliegenthart, and De Vreese (2010) found that media coverage strongly influenced public perceptions of the national economy. Further, the lack of scrutiny with which commercial journalists reported on subprime mortgages and the housing rise and fall in the United States is believed to have influenced the public's opinions about the safety of home loans and subsequent panic when the bubble burst, contributing to the market collapse (Longobardi, 2009). Finally, McQuail's (2010) fifth characteristic of the media is the assumption that it is a source of enormous power and influence. For instance, the media influence social reality that which we perceive to be true. The 6 o'clock evening news provides viewers with information, but that information is edited, and other stories are omitted. The news stories presented may or may not be complete, accurate, or reliable. After the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, the FBI criticized the Associated Press, the Boston Globe, the BBC, CNN, Fox News, and other news organizations for hastily and inaccurately reporting that a Saudi suspect had been apprehended well before any suspects were arrested (Williams, 2013). In a rush to be first with breaking news, imprecise, misleading, or incorrect stories can result, thereby creating unintended consequences. The alleged "Saudi suspect" turned out to be an injured witness, who due to the false reports, ended up receiving threatening e-mails, forcing him to leave his home (Chaudary, 2013). The point here isn't to demonize news organizations; rather, it is to highlight the power the media have. The theories featured in this chapter focus on the media's power and influence-the ways and the extent to which various media influence receivers. Again, the four theories are agenda-setting theory, cultivation theory, social cognitive theory of mass communi- cation, and encoding/decoding theory. According to these theories of mass communica- tion influence, although mass media can't make us watch, read, or listen, when we do participate as audience members, we are transformed in some way. APPLYING COMMUNICATION THEORY FOR PROFESSIONAL LIFE CHAPTER 11 MASS COMMUNICATION 201