Understanding Audiences: Learning To Use the Media Constructively

by Wicks,Robert H.

• ISBN13: 9780805836479
• ISBN10: 0805836470
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Understanding Audienceshelps readers to recognize the important role that media plays in their lives and suggests ways in which they may use media constructively. Author Robert H. Wicks considers the relationship between the producers and the receivers of media information, focusing on how messages shape perceptions of social reality. He analyzes how contemporary media--including newspapers, film, television, and the Internet--vie for the attention of the audience members, and evaluates the importance of message structure and content in attracting and maintaining the attention of audiences. Wicks also examines the principles associated with persuasive communication and the ways in which professional communicators frame messages to help audiences construct meaning about the world around them. Among other features, this text: * describes the processes associated with human information processing; * presents an analysis of the principles associated with social learning in children and adults and explores the possibility that media messages may cultivate ideas, attitudes, and criticisms of this perspective; * explains how most media messages are framed to highlight or accentuate specific perspectives of individuals or organizations--challenging the notion of objectivity in media information messages; * considers the effects of media exposure, such as whether the contemporary media environment may be partially responsible for the recent rash of school violence among young people; * analyzes the Internet as an interactive medium and considers whether it has the potential to contribute to social and civic disengagement as it substitutes for human interaction; and * evaluates the principles of the uses and gratifications approach as they apply to the new media environment, including traditional media as well as popular genres like talk shows and developing media systems such as the Internet. Intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students who need to understand the nature of the media and how they interact with these messages,Understanding Audiencespromotes the development of media literacy skills and helps readers to understand the processes associated with engaging them in media messages. It also offers them tools to apply toward the shaping of media in a socially constructive way.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
PART I: BEYOND MEDIA EFFECTS TO CONSTRUCTING SOCIAL REALITY
Interpreting Media Messages	3	(11)
Summary	3	(1)
Distorting Reality	3	(2)
The Interaction Between People and Media	5	(1)
Understanding the Nature of Media Industries	6	(2)
Understanding Nature of Media Audiences	8	(1)
Overview of the Book	9	(5)
From Media Effects to Constructing Social Reality	14	(19)
Summary	14	(1)
Early Communication Theory	14	(1)
Media's Limited Effects	15	(1)
The 1970s and 1980s: Alternative Perspectives	16	(2)
The Cognitive Revolution of the 1980s and 1990s	18	(1)
Cognitive Theory	19	(2)
Media Literacy	21	(2)
Interpreting and Misinterpreting Media Information	23	(1)
The Constructionism Model	24	(2)
Studying Constructionism	26	(1)
Using Multiple Methodologies	27	(1)
Conclusion	28	(5)
PART II: CONSTRUCTING MEDIA MESSAGES
Attracting and Maintaining the Attention of the Audience	33	(20)
Summary	33	(1)
Redefining Mass Communication	33	(1)
The Profit Motive	34	(1)
The Mass Audience	34	(4)
The Segmented Audience	38	(1)
Media as Big Business	39	(1)
Publishing Houses, Movie Studios, and Cable Networks	40	(1)
Personalized Media in a Global Communications Environment	41	(2)
Partnerships and Cross-Media Marketing Strategies	43	(1)
Electronic Publishing	44	(1)
Electronic Books	45	(1)
Selling Books, Films, and Videos	46	(1)
Newspapers, Radio, and Television	47	(2)
Winds of Change and the Telecommunications Act of 1996	49	(1)
Regulatory Changes on the Horizon	50	(1)
The Internet and the World Wide Web	51	(1)
Conclusion	51	(2)
Persuading the Media Audience	53	(22)
Summary	53	(1)
Persuading the Audience	54	(1)
Communication Campaigns	54	(1)
Balance and Dissonance Theory	55	(1)
Selective Perception: Exposure, Attention, and Interpretation	56	(1)
The Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change	57	(1)
Influences of the Source on Attitude Change	58	(2)
Effects of the Message on Attitude Change	60	(2)
The Role of Audience Involvement in Attitude Change	62	(1)
Principles of Public Communication Campaigns	63	(1)
Effective Communication Campaigns	64	(1)
The Enduring Persuasive Campaign	65	(3)
Take a Bite Out of Crime	68	(1)
Targeting Audience Segments	69	(3)
Conclusion	72	(3)
Framing Media Information	75	(24)
Summary	75	(1)
What Is Framing?	75	(1)
Message Framing and Media Agenda Setting	76	(1)
Episodic and Thematic Framing	77	(1)
Evolution of the Framing Concept	78	(1)
Framing Political Information	79	(2)
Framing of Nonpolitical Information	81	(2)
Framing Airline Tragedies	83	(6)
Summary of Media Framing	89	(1)
Audience Framing	89	(1)
Cultural Membership and Communication About Smoking	90	(1)
Use of Tobacco by Native Americans	91	(2)
Studying Communicator and Audience Framing in Tandem	93	(1)
Conclusion	94	(5)
PART III: USING MEDIA MESSAGES
Fundamentals of Media Information Processing	99	(19)
Summary	99	(1)
Receiving and Processing Media Messages	99	(1)
Memory Processes	100	(4)
Developing Common Knowledge	104	(1)
Influences on the Processing of Media Messages	105	(11)
Conclusion	116	(2)
Children as Audience Members	118	(24)
Summary	118	(1)
Glorifying Killing on Television	119	(1)
Rising Concerns About Media Violence	119	(2)
Frightening Films	121	(3)
Television News: If it Bleeds, it Leads...	124	(1)
Children Processing Media	125	(2)
Effects of Viewing Aggression	127	(1)
Learning Aggressive Behavior and Attitudes	127	(5)
Desensitization to Aggression and Violent Behavior	132	(1)
Cultivating Fear	133	(1)
Criticisms of Cultivation Theory	134	(1)
Hard Data: The National Television Violence Studies	135	(2)
Targeting Children With Advertising	137	(1)
Prosocial Children's Programming	138	(2)
Conclusion	140	(2)
The Radio and Television Talk Show Audience	142	(21)
Summary	142	(1)
The Nature of Talk Shows	143	(1)
The Uses and Gratifications Model	144	(1)
Talk Radio Comes of Age	145	(2)
The Rush Limbaugh Phenomenon	147	(1)
Who Is Listening to What Channel With What Effect?	148	(3)
Segmenting the Radio Audience	151	(3)
Who Is Watching What Channel With What Effect?	154	(2)
Videomalaise and Criticism of Television Talk Shows	156	(2)
A Theory of Social Comparison	158	(1)
In Defense of Trash Television	159	(2)
Conclusion	161	(2)
The Internet Audience	163	(28)
Summary	163	(1)
The Internet as Media	164	(1)
Gratifications From the Internet	165	(1)
Using the Internet to Satisfy Communication Needs	166	(1)
Parasocial Relationships, the Media, and the Internet	167	(1)
Internet Society: Lists, MUDs, MOOs, Chatrooms, and Usenet	168	(1)
Socializing in Cyberspace	169	(5)
Two Theories: The Virtual Society or the Virtual Desert?	174	(1)
Comparing the Internet to Television and Telephone Adoption	175	(2)
Social Affiliation, Psychological Well-Being and Internet use	177	(1)
Addiction to the Internet	178	(4)
The Progression of Internet Addiction	182	(1)
Seducing the Internet Audience	183	(3)
Internet Retailing	186	(1)
Measuring the Internet Audience	187	(2)
Conclusion	189	(2)
Learning to Use Media Constructively	191	(10)
Summary	191	(1)
Using Media Constructively	191	(1)
Media Effects and Literacy	192	(3)
Building Better Media	195	(1)
How to Implement Change	196	(3)
Conclusion	199	(2)
References	201	(28)
Author Index	229	(8)
Subject Index	237