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2 Reddit comments about Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, 3rd Edition:

u/rufusocracy · 18 pointsr/AskSocialScience

“How much power does the media have?” Sounds like a question of measurement, but that’s an oversimplification. This is a question that’s been asked by many social scientists for literally decades, and the research into newer forms of media is ongoing. It’s far too vast a literature to describe in a Reddit comment. I am literally getting a PhD in this and I will never be able to read it all.

But, in short, the media does have an effect of some size on almost everyone because almost everyone consumes media. Most do so for both entertainment and information, and that then influences our attitudes and beliefs, the way we think about social reality (what the society we are in is like even though we will never meet even 1% of the people in it, what our position is in that society and how it relates to other people or groups), which in turn influences our judgements/decisions and behavior choices. There are effects for both entertainment and informational media. It may be different effects for different people or groups, depending on your personality and social identity (or rather, identities). It may be different sizes of effects depending on your personal style of information processing and volume of information, personal or information consumption circumstances, and other forms of information you consume and have access to and use, like interpersonal conversations or direct experience. But effects exist in some size for most people a significant amount of the time.

Media is just a systematic way of distributing or consuming information and stories, usually such that it doesn’t require an in-person transfer anymore. Much of the power of media derives from the power of information and the power of stories. Information and stories existed before media in general and mass media in particular. If you think you are influenced by and use information, then you can be influenced by media.

One common trope used by such researchers is that media do not successfully tell you what to think, but DOES succeed in telling you what to think ABOUT. (This isn’t quite true...sometimes the media can successfully tell you what to think, but it’s much more difficult because people aren’t passive consumers, any more than they are of religion or things told to them by their parents or friends.) Know that trope how “Don’t think of an elephant” doesn’t work because you have to think of the concept of an elephant in the process of consuming the words? And now you are thinking about elephants, positively or hatefully or with boredom but you are still thinking about them. Media effects and media power is more like that.

That said, media effects do not exist in a vacuum and you don’t consume media in a vacuum. They are enhanced or contradicted by your family, your friends and peers, your coworkers and industry, and other elements of your social world in a cycle. Would you say your parents had no effect on the way you think about things and the decisions you make and the way you behave? No. Would you say they have an absolute effect such that you are exactly what they made you and what they intended? Also no. Even if you went against the grain, what they did influenced you specifically enough to reject it. Parenting is powerful, but it’s not determinate. Same for media.

Don’t think of media as brainwashing or copy/paste editing. Thing of it more like the flow of a river you are swimming in. It pulls and pushes you in a particular direction and influences where you end up, but it’s not the only element of the equation in the journey nor the destination. You aren’t totally powerless in the river but you also aren’t in total control, and how much you can influence where you end up compared to an Olympic swimmer compared to a young child or some other person varies.

If you want to know what kinds of effects exist and have been demonstrated, the search term you are looking for is “media effects” or “media impact” and you can look in media psychology, communication, political communication, political science, social psychology and sociology academic disciplines for books and studies.

If you want a place to start, my favorite overview book is “Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research” by Bryant and Oliver. The 3rd edition is here: https://www.amazon.com/Media-Effects-Advances-Theory-Research/dp/0805864504
but you can get a free sample intro on the Kindle version to get an overview of the state of the research at the beginning, and either rent it or search for individual chapters online based on your interest, some of which have been posted for free fair use purposes by their authors. I like agenda setting, priming, framing, and cultivation theory, but there are many more.

Hope that helps.

u/Binary101010 · 17 pointsr/AskSocialScience

There's an entire discipline in social science (communication) devoted to answering questions like this, and you're kind of asking to have summarized most of the findings of that discipline, which is a tall order.

I'll start by pointing you to two good overviews of the subfield of media effects, which seems to be what you're getting at.

Jennings & Oliver's Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, Third Edition

https://www.amazon.com/Media-Effects-Advances-Theory-Research/dp/0805864504/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527168732&sr=8-1&keywords=media+effects

Nabi & Oliver's The SAGE Handbook of Media Processes and Effects

https://www.amazon.com/SAGE-Handbook-Media-Processes-Effects/dp/1412959969/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&qid=1527168732&sr=8-38&keywords=media+effects