Mass Media Effects

Hostile Media Effect: some feel that media coverage is biased against opinions on issues

Research has shown that hostile media effect is not just differences of opinion but a difference of perception

People seem to pay more attention to information that contradicts rather than supports their pre-existing views

Media bias: non-uniform selection or coverage of news stories in media

Many Americans seek out biased news- to find confirmation for their preconceived opinions

Newspapers used to reflect the opinions of the publisher

1798: Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts: prohibited the publication of “false, scandalous, or malicious writing” against gov’t

Made it a crime to voice any public opposition to any law or presidential act- act was in effect until 1801

1861: Lincoln ordered many newspapers closed when he felt border states were biased in favor of the Southern cause

19th century: American newspapers openly advocated one or another political party

Editorials and editorial cartoons- go against the publisher’s opponents

Early 20th Century: Yellow journalism to increase sales

William Randolph Hearst- publisher of several major market newspapers- deliberately falsified stories, which may have contributed to Spanish-American War

Leading up to WWII- politicians who favored U.S. entering the war on the German side accused the media of pro-Jewish bias, said that newspapers were controlled by the Jewish

Hollywood was said to be full of Jewish bias- pro-German politicians in U.S. called for Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator to be banned- they said it insulted a respected leader

1960’s- Civil Rights Movement- some White Southerners stated that television was biased against White Southerners and in favor of mixing the races- Star Trek didn’t air on some Southern stations

1969: Spiro Agnew (VP for Nixon) said he saw the media as bias against the Vietnam War and called those who opposed the war to be “nattering nabobs of negativism”

American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1997- survey said 61% of reporters stated they were members of or shared the beliefs of the Democratic Party

15% said their beliefs were represented by the Republican Party

2002 study- Dartmouth College- 116 mainstream U.S. papers (The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle included) found that mainstream press in America tends to favor liberal viewpoints

Reporters who expressed moderate or conservative points of view were often labeled as holding a minority point of view

Liberal bias about issues like race, welfare reform, environmental protection, and gun control

Zogby International- survey results said that 83% of people surveyed believe there is a bias in the media, 64% said that the bias favors liberals, 28% of respondents believe the bias is conservative

Patrick Buchanan- The American Conservative editorial- wrote the liberal media establishment’s reporting on the Watergate scandal “played a central role in bringing down the President.”

Nixon: “I gave them a sword and they ran it right through me.”

Books about Liberal Bias

John Stossel- Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media

Ann Coulter- Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right

Brian C. Anderson- South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias

Claims of Conservative Bias

Disney, CBS Corporation, New Corporation, TimeWarner, General Electric- corporate conglomerates own the majority of mass media outlets

Media is operated for profit- through the sale of advertisements, which tends to drive news, commentary, and public affairs towards supporting industry

Capitalist model creates competition for fair and quick news coverage and investigative reports

Rupert Murdoch (CEO of News Corporation- parent of FOX News)

Richards Parsons- CEO of Time Warner

Both contribute to Republican candidates

Fox News: “The roots of FOX News Channel’s day to day on air bias are actual and direct. They come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered.”

Books on Conservative Bias

Eric Alterman- What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News

Al Franken “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”

Concerns about coverage of Iraq- saying that media had insufficient coverage of invasion and occupation, but some have also said that media has been unfair to US forces

Did the U.S. media criticize the conduct of American soldiers? (some feel that media was worried about upsetting viewers and losing profits)

Some though feel that media has been too critical of U.S. forces

Media has failed to send a message to support the U.S. forces

Effects on Elections

Some feel that elections on centered on candidates, and the amount of funds, personality, and sound-bites instead of serious political discussion or policies offered by parties

Americans are influenced by the way the media report- concentrated on short sound-bites, scandals, mistakes by candidates

Reporting of elections avoids complex issues or issues which are time consuming to explain

Doonesbury: comic strip, accused of liberal bias

A conservative letter writing campaign caused Doonesbury to disappear from 38 newspapers, but it was reinstated

Violent Media Effects

Television61% of TV shows are violentViolence is on the rise for both

cable and broadcast networksFew shows emphasize and anti-

violence theme

40% of violent scenes on TV include humor

54% of violence is lethal51% of TV violence shows no painOut of 9000 analyzed over 4 years-

only 4% had an anti-violent theme

Media violence can be one contributing factor that leads a person to exhibit aggressive attitudes and behavior

Exposure to media violence can increase the probability of both short and long term harmful effects

Effects are mediated by characteristics of the viewer (demographics, psychological states)

Media violence does NOT affect all viewers in the same way

Short Term Media Effects

Viewer aggression: Bobo Doll experiments in 1970’s demonstrated how children who watched violent media portrayals were more likely to punch a Bobo Doll afterwards than children who did not watch a violent media portrayal

Recent studies find that kids who watch violent television are at an increased risk for aggression

Exposure to violent media increases aggression and anti-social behavior in adults too

Fear

Kids who are high television viewers are more likely than low television viewers to exhibit symptoms such as anxiety, trauma, and post-traumatic stress

When kids view scary events in the media, they become more likely to fear those events in the real world

Fear induced by media in childhood is likely to linger into adulthood

DesensitizationPeople can become jaded even after

minimal exposure to media violenceAs a result, some individuals exhibit a

greater acceptance of violence and a decrease in empathy and concern for victims of violence

Long Term Media Effects

Long Term exposure to media violence is related to aggression in a person’s life

Longitudinal research shows childhood viewing of violence has a causal effect on aggressive behavior in adults

The degree to which viewers identify with the characters who behave violently impacts their likelihood of exhibiting aggressive behavior

Once children become adults, their behavioral dispositions are difficult to change

Media violence is related to violence in society

When TV is introduced into a country, crime rates in the country increase

When a high profile violent act is depicted on television, the incidents of criminal aggression increase afterwards

(For example, teen suicides increase after a suicide appears on a fictional TV program)

Exposure to violence over time leads people to exaggerate their chances of being victimized

Research conducted on this theory states that:

The television world is a violent landscape

As a result, TV viewers will cultivate a view of the real world that matches the TV world

They will believe the world is a mean and violent place

They overestimate the amount of violence in society as well as their chances of being victimized

Exposure to violence over times leads people to grow more accepting of violenceSimilar to short term

desensitization effect- research also shows that long term exposure to media violence leads people to be more accepting of violence and less concerned about victims of violence

Incitement effects: the production of a behavioral tendency towards violence

Instructional effects: the teaching of audiences of how to do something

When media produce an incitement effect, the media have created a behavioral tendency that did not already exist (viewer aggression is a behavioral effect created by the media)

Instructional effects might occur when an already violent person learns how to conduct a bloody rampage by learning skills on television

Industry Perspective

Violence is a natural part of life- Interviews with producers of the

top primetime shows say that violence is just a natural part of human life, and thus a natural part of its cultural representations

Violence is necessary component of dramatic portrayals: Drama is based on conflict, and violence is a tool of conflict. Thus, many dramatic portrayals will need to portray violence

The industry shows responsible violence portrayals- They claim to show the negative side of violence

The Hollywood industry has same family values as the rest of America- They claim that Hollywood is not in fact disconnected from the values of mid-America

Media violence does not harm audiences anyway, even kids

Industry has tried to deny that the television landscape is a violent space- They are selective in supporting content analyses that support their claims that television is not violent

They applaud a study conducted by the UCLA Center for Communications Policy, which claimed that only 2 network shows in 96-97 season raised serious concerns about violence

Members of the industry have engaged in self-regulation of media content

Most networks have their own departments of broadcasting standards and research departments

The V-Chip provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996

Television industry devised its own system of categorizing programs for violence, sex, and offensive language

The V-chip technology involves an electronic filtering device that parents can use to block the reception of sensitive or potentially harmful programming

Parents are reliant, however, on the ratings assigned by the networks themselves

1998 study found the 79% of all shows containing violence did not receive a V rating

Within children’s programming, 81% of the programs with violence did not receive an FV rating for Fantasy Violence