Exam 13: Theories and Effects of Mass Communication

Media effects on individuals are said to be

What three factors have historically led to shifts in mass communication theory?

In social construction of reality theory,collections of meanings that individuals assign to specific phenomena and situations are called typification schemes.

_____________ theoryproduced theorist Stuart Hall,who first developed the idea of media as a public forum.

_____________ theory explains how people's attitudes are formed,shaped,and changed through communication and how those attitudes influence behavior.

The idea that information from the media,and therefore media effects,travel from media through opinion leaders to opinion followers is called _____________ theory.

Media effects that occur at the cultural level are said to be

The idea that media's influence resides in the "relationship between the larger social system,the media's role in that system,and audience relationships to the media" forms the basis of _____________ theory.

The mass society theory idea that media are a dangerous drug,or a killing force that directly and immediately penetrates a person's system,is summed up in the

Theorists in the 1930s who valued serious art and saw consumption of art as a means to elevate people to a better life represented

The uses and gratifications approach is interested in what people do with media rather than in what media do to people.

During the _____________ era of mass communication theory,the media were believed to be corrupting influences that undermined the social order,and "average" people were considered defenseless against their influence.

People's psychological dissonance is reduced through the selective processes,one of which is _____________,the process in which people attend to only those messages that are consistent with their preexisting attitudes and beliefs.

Social cognitive theorists consider identification to be a special form of imitation.

The text cites three forces that usually operate to bring about shifts in mass communication theory.What are they? How did they cause a shift from limited effects theories to more culturally oriented theories?

 _____________ theory argues that cultures give symbols meaning and then those symbols control behavior.

Marxism rests on the belief that people are oppressed by those who own the factories and the land-the means of production,or

In limited effects theory,the influence of media is thought to be limited by people's intelligence and education,in other words by their

The fundamental assumption of dependency theory is that audience members' dependency on the media and their messages heightens the media's power.

Critical cultural theory typically finds its intellectual home in conservative political circles.