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Assignment 2: Media Effects
About 60-65 years ago, universities began to graduate Ph.D.-level researchers interested in and skilled at applying scientific methods to analyzing mass communication. These researchers soon began seeing patterns in mass communication production and consumption that they summarized in what have become some of the most influential theories about mass media effects: social learning theory, agenda-setting, the cultivation effect, the spiral of silence, media systems dependency, and the third-person effect.
Even as modern media research developed, Littlejohn and Foss (2023) say qualitative approaches with strong historical and interpretative bents were emerging. This cultural studies approach to mass communication research examines how people make meaning, understand reality, and order experiences according to cultural symbols propagated by the media. For example, some researchers explore the relationship between mass communication and democracy, while others study how media messages create and maintain our reality through the stories they tell. The critical theorists among them focus on how those stories reinforce existing power structures in a society.
Still other researchers see communication’s symbolic process as culture itself. These researchers say everything that defines our culture—our language, food, clothing, art, books, architecture, music, and other mass media content—is a form of symbolic communication that signifies shared beliefs about culture. According to Campbell, Martin, and Fabos (2015), when events occur that question reality, such as the #MeToo or Black Lives Matter movements, communication may repair the culture with adjusted narratives or symbols, or it may completely transform the culture with new symbols.
Objective:
This activity will introduce you to ways you can explain how your media use can be affecting your life.
Background:
After studying the assigned reading, Chapter 2, “Media Effects,” in Saylor’s Understanding Media and Culture and watching this “Media Effects” video on YouTube, ponder the media effects theories they mention, such as:
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvgURfZMGoQ
Agenda-setting
Cultivation Analysis
Direct Effects
Media Logic
Symbolic Interactionism
Spiral of Silence
Uses and Gratifications
Activity:
Identify ONE of the theories listed in the assigned resources for this week and answer the following questions:   
Does mass media directly influence individuals? Explain your answer. 
Which mass communication theory do you feel most accurately portrays your mass media experiences? Why? Be sure to provide an example that supports your opinion. 
Requirements:
A thoughtful, thorough 1-2 page (about 250-500 words) essay, double-spaced, essay in 12-point, Times Roman or similar serif font, with all the basic components for a beginning, middle, and end. 
The first paragraph should contain a thesis that introduces your main idea or position on the question posed to you in the assignment prompt. What is the point you intend to make in your answer? 
The middle paragraphs should provide information, examples, and details to support your main idea or position. This is where you should show use because statements and detail what you know or think about the topic. 
The final paragraph should sum up your main idea or position on the topic. 
Support your comments with relevant information that you researched in the course’s learning resources. 
Use APA-style in-text citations to cite the sources of the information that you used in assembling ideas for your argument. 
Create a matching APA reference list at the end of the document. 
(make sure Turnitin Score is 20% or below for all assignments; otherwise, revisions will have to be made before grading).
References: 
Campbell, R., Martin, C. R., & Fabos, B. (2015). Media and culture: Mass communication in a digital age. Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Littlejohn, S. W. & Foss, K. A. (Eds.) (2023). Media and mass communication theories. In Encyclopedia of Communication Theory. Sage. https://sk-sagepub-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/reference/communicationtheory/n231.xml?rskey=xmBgTL&row=1