PSYC 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Hypodermic Needle, Moral Panic, Mass Media
25 May 2018
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Chapter 2
Research and theories in media psychology
• Theories
o Organize information, to test it after.
o Pathway for data collection
o Not a fact, not always true.
o They can only be proven false NOT true.
▪ Cannot say true in every context and population
o Looking for objective evidence
o Tentative explanation
o Overturn quickly or slowly
• Laws
o Physical sciences not social sci
o So much variability in human behaviour
• 1. Hypodermic needle models
o Mass media has a significant effect on behaviour
o Bad new wrapped in entertainment
o Entertain and control you
o Direct relationship btw media consumption and consumer behaviour
o Persuasion ads& propaganda, during WWII each side uses propaganda to
rouse the masses
o Focus on negative effects on children
▪ Vulnerable
o Threat to society can change their thought process
o Mixing media (different programs)
o Downside
▪ Turn you into apathetic ppl, only listen and not too much.
Desensitized to what you hear.
o Ex: War of the worlds: A study in Moral Panic (1940) on radio
▪ If you midplay it, you would not know it is sci-fi
▪ Ppl are not questioning anything
▪ Voice was very authoritative
▪ Night before Halloween
▪ Low percentage of ppl listened this
• Attempt to undermine radio by newspapers to say it is
unsafe and show the mass panic it caused. It was fake.
o Media war
o Idea of Passive internalization (it sounds like it
could be true) won
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Desensitized to what you hear: ex: war of the worlds: a study in moral panic (1940) on radio. It"s simple, straightforward and feels like common-sense: 3. Theory was revived in the (cid:883)95(cid:882)"s w concern over tv violence: children would passively copy what they saw in tv, children and adults would get social script and then learn the bobo doll experiment. Idea that watching media violence results in the development of results in scripts that feature aggressive response (even to non- violence: the more media exposure the more deeply rooted and easily activated are the aggressive scripts, problems, 1. Assumption that your brain treats fictional and real- world violence the same: wrong, bc it understands the line btw fantasy and real world, 3. Make inferences: mean world syndrome, more dangerous than it actually is, 2. If everyday life does not meet these needs can get them vicariously by vd games etc.
