mass-communication-theory

156 Section 3 From Limited-Effects to Critical Cultural Theories: Ferment in the Field
combatants were a Caucasian male grasping a razor and an unarmed African
American male. Those who saw the scene were then asked to describe it to another
person, who in turn passed it on. In 1945 America, white people recounting the
story of the picture inevitably became confused, saying the blade was in the hands
of the black man, not the white man. Allport and Postman concluded, “What was
outer becomes inner; what was objective becomes subjective” (1945, p. 81).
The attitude researchers who documented the operation of selective processes
were good scientists. But their findings were based on people’s use of a very different
set of media and very different forms of media content than we know today. In the
1940s and 1950s, movies were primarily an entertainment medium; radio disseminated
significant amounts of news, but typically as brief, highly descriptive reports
that expressed no partisan opinion; newspapers were the dominant news medium;
and television did not exist. Television moved all the media away from dissemination
of information toward the presentation of images and symbols. Many contemporary
movies sacrifice story line and character development for exciting and
interesting visuals; your favorite radio station probably presents minimal news, if
any; newspaper stories are getting shorter and shorter, the graphics more colorful
and interesting, and more than a few papers across the country regularly present pictures
snapped from a television screen in their pages. It’s not surprising that we process
information very differently today than our grandparents did in the 1940s.
Let’s transport the valuable Allport and Postman experiment to our times to
explain why the selective processes categorized by the attitude researchers and
quickly appropriated by mass communication theorists might be less useful now in
understanding media influence than they were in Allport and Postman’s time.
If a speaker were to appear on television and present the argument, complete with
charts and “facts,” that a particular ethnic group or race of people was inherently
dangerous, prone to violent crime, and otherwise inferior to most other folks, the
selective processes should theoretically kick in. Sure, some racists would tune in and
love the show. But most people would not watch. Those who might happen to catch
it would no doubt selectively perceive the speaker as stupid, sick, beneath contempt.
Three weeks later, this individual would be a vague, if not nonexistent, memory.
INSTANT ACCESS
Attitude-Change Theory
Strengths Weaknesses
1. Pays deep attention to process in which messages
can and can’t have effects
2. Provides insight into influence of individual differences
and group affiliations in shaping media
influence
3. Attention to selective processes helps clarify
how individuals process information
1. Experimental manipulation of variables
overestimates their power and
underestimates media’s
2. Focuses on information in media
messages, not on more contemporary
symbolic media
3. Uses attitude change as only measure
of effects, ignoring reinforcement and
more subtle forms of media influence
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