COMM 4643 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Groupthink, Mass Media, Moral Panic

• School: University of Oklahoma
• Department: COMM
• Course: COMM 4643
• Professor: Lindsey Meeks

Document Summary

Moral panic: a feeling of fear spread among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society. Powerful media effects: direct, immediate, and uniform. Limited: media effects can be, and often are, moderated by interactions with social groups. Effects of varying levels: media effects can be, and often are, moderated by individual differences and environmental factors. Hypodermic needle/magic bullet theory: media is all powerful, passive audience, no individual difference. Two step flow: media opinion leaders (2) individuals, active audience, emphasizes role of international communication, individual differences. Selective processes: selective exposure, selective perception, selective retention. Systematic observations: structured, allows us to differentiate between single cases and wide spread phenomena and effects. Explaining/understanding: prediction focuses on what; explanation focuses on why. Control: predictions and explanation can be used to control or change phenomena. Social scientific theories are: complex, falsifiable, generalizable. Focus on objective truths: requires skepticism. Gather relevant people together, 8-12 per group.