The War of the worlds • Orson Welles used War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells for a radio broadcast • Aired late October 1938 • Had real geographical sites and realistic sounding scientists • Aliens were invading America • The historical context was ripe with fear because this was the time of Hitler starting in Europe and someone could take over the world

Cantril’s research • Princeton U. researcher, Hadley Cantril, found that many people acted too fast after hearing the first ‘bulletins’ • He used ‘triangulation’ or multiple methods (interviewing, newspaper articles, etc.) • He found that those who used their “critical ability” (e.g. changed the station) were reassured it was a drama (there were two such disclaimers during broadcast before and halfway through) • Some people did overreact (got out there shotguns, etc.)

Limited-effects perspective • Cantril’s research suggested that the media play a large role but only for those people who did not check the facts • Thus, the media “effect” was limited • During this period, and for some time afterward, other scholars would find this same limited effect

• Two scholars in particular, Paul Lazarsfeld and Carl Hovland played a role in this perspective • They were primarily researchers and theorists • Others would include Irving Janis, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet

• Neither Hovland nor Lazarsfeld set out to overturn the way mass communication was understood at the time (mass society, strong effects) • They favored scientific methods to understand media and power

Why limited effects? • 1. the use of new scientific methods conflicted with past, non-scientific methods • 2. these new “social researchers” exploited the commercial potential of the new research as well as for academic use • 3. the radio networks sponsored social research departments • 4. national polling came out at this time (George Gallup, Harris, Roper, et. al.) • 5. these researchers successfully established their place in political science, sociology, etc. Later media and communication studies would follow (1960s)

• Frank Stanton created the “program analyzer” a technology used before the Nielsen ratings • George Gallup successfully predicted presidential elections • Gallup was also involved in the film industry and tested movies

The two-step flow of information and influence • Paul Lazarsfeld believed in inductive theory or what some people call “grounded theory.” • This type of research avoids sweeping generalizations that go beyond empirical observations and demands that theory construction be ‘disciplined’ by data collection and analysis

deduction

observations

hypothesis Theory Theory

process under study

generalizations observations

induction

• Lazarsfeld’s 1940 study of the Rooseveld./ Willkie presidential election was where he got the idea of the 2 step flow • He interviewed 600 panel members from Sandusky, Ohio and interviewed them 7 times over the election • He had 2 other panels that were not continuously interviewed (a control) • He found that most voters were early deciders and not affected by the political propaganda • So, why were the media not powerful?

Paul Lazarsfeld

• He found that there were “heavy user/early deciders” or people who read, listened and paid careful attention to the media about the election (opinion leaders) • In turn, people (opinion followers) who knew of these people personally or about them trusted their judgments and were influenced

Media

Opinion leaders

Opinion followers

• This two step flow theory late came out in 1955 in a book co-authored by Elihu Katz called Personal Influence

Limitations of the research • 1. surveys are only slices of time and good for that day only • 2. the study only looked at patterns of media use and not content • 3. historical events can affect elections (for example, the research was done while Hitler was invading Europe; Roosevelt was leader, so why change a successful leader0 • 4. other variables (rival explanations) could have an impact (e.g. a person’s background)

Limited Effects Theory • Basically the media have some effect, but that effect is filtered through intervening variables (e.g. friends, social groups, daily events)

Carl Hovland and the experimental section of the US Army’s education division • Why we Fight series • Frank Capra, Hollywood filmmaker, made a number of films designed to influence soldiers about the war and be motivated to fight • What the researcher showed was the films were informative but did no increase motivationg for the war • What they also found was that over time factual knowledge decreased but attitudes towards the British increase; a latent or “sleeper effect”

Hovland’s 2-sided research • Hovland used two versions of a radio program in a field experiment with soldiers being trained; one presented one-side (the war would be long) and a two-sided (the war would be long, but the alternative view was addressed)…WWII • The one-sided worked best with soldiers who believed in the long ward • The two-sided worked better for soldiers who thought the war would be short or soldiers who were highly educated ( high school)

Carl Hovland

Hovland’s credibility research • Basically, high-credible sources are trusted and considered experts over lowcredible sources • However, it depends: eg. When using fear appeal, the vividness of threat to a person in fear campaigns heightened attitude change (e.g. doctor telling you not to smoke plus evidence of what would happen)

Individual effects and Social Categories • Thus, individuals’ different psychological make-ups can affect or filter media messages (intervene) • Also, members of social categories tend to respond to media in similar ways (e.g. college students listening to contemporary music vs baby boomers listening to 60s music)

Selection process • Cognitive consistency: people consciously and unconsciously work to preserve their existing views – We like to think of the world through our own expectations and values – We expect (schema) certain things from our friends or family or from strangers – Politicians act a certain way

• Cognitive dissonance: (Leon Festinger) information that is inconsistent with a person’s already-held attitude creates internal conflict or psychological discomfort (dissonance) • This dissonance forces a person to become selective in what they read, hear, watch, etc.

Leon Festinger

• Selective exposure means that people tend to expose themselves to messages that are consistent with their preexisting attitudes – So, political commercials about party X are believed by members of party X – People who believe the world is run by Washington read the New York Times

• Selective retention: people tend to remember best and longest those messages that are most meaningful to them – You remember the day you got your first A – Some people remember bad things too

• Selective perception: people will alter the meaning of messages so they become consistent with preexisting attitudes and beliefs – See what you want to see – Allport and Postman experiment showing research subjects of a fight on a train – A Caucasian male was grasping a razor and an unarmed African American – Subjects saw the picture and asked to pass along the information to someone else – This 1945 study showed that the subjects said the African American man and not the Caucasian

Limitations of experimental persuasion research • 1. short term effects • 2. the experimental stimulus might be spurious or unusual in strength • 3. conducting experiments outside a laboratory is difficult; thus unnatural environment

Joseph Klapper and reinforcement theory • Mass communication ordinarily does not serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects; rather, functions among a nexus of mediating factors – Demographics, context, etc. Thus, the media tend to reinforce rather than change the status quo or behavior

Contributions of the limited-effects perspective • 1. this perspective supplanted mass society theory and the magic bullet • The perspective prioritized empirical observations and downgraded more speculative forms of theory construction • It stimulated more research