Oct. 22 Tutorial Notes

War of the Worlds

-make sure understand context: pre-war, after war and depression, took news flashes to be true. Contagious Panic: people crowding to the “scene” (previously deserted), having to be controlled by police and eventually becoming the “imaginary” scene of panic
-“some six million heard the Columbia Broadcasting System broadcast; 1.7 million believed it to be true, and 1.2 million were 'genuinely frightened'"

Lazarsfeld

-themes of today: empirical sociology, mid-20^th century media/communication studies, audiences (passive vs. active)
-huge impact on American sociology, mid-20^th century; emphasized empirical, quantifiable studies (conducted first scientific survey study of radio listeners)

Two-Step Flow

-came about because hypodermic needle model did not seem to reflect mass media communication (this model holds that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver – Nazi Germany, WOW)
-instead, Lasarzfeld and Katz thought that audiences were more active, agentic
-two step flow: mass media disseminates message, which is then actively construed/adopted/rejected by “opinion leaders” within community; rest of people then get their views/opinions about subject through opinion leaders
-opinion leaders: anything from computer technicians to magazine journalists to a friend who knows a lot about new technology (example of buying new iPod)

Diffusion of Adoption

-as per the two step flow, it turns out that people don’t form their opinions/most influenced directly through broadcast medium, but rather through opinion leaders and progressively through a sequence of adopters (early, secondary, tertiary, etc)
-criticisms: too simple; other things affect same/more; way technology is used differs from group to group (ie: advent of computers, hackers/hardware – early adopters to widespread use of PCs and Internet – tertiary use, differs greatly)

Uses and Gratifications

-Blumler and Katz: 1974
-basic idea: people use media to get specific gratifications (not helpless victims/passive audience to medium, but agentic, use media to fulfill various needs)
-Four areas of gratification:

1. Diversion – media text that provides escapism, covers one’s senses (ie: video games)

2. Personal Relationships – with the characters in a media text (though dangerous if put too much trust in them, ie: news reporter, take everything at face value)

3. Personal Identity – creation of identity from aspects of people they find attractive in media texts (ie: Jennifer Aniston haircut ). Can go a long way in shaping norms, fashions. (“skinny” obsession)

4. Surveillance – audience gains understanding of larger world around them (ie: news)