Page 249 - Culture Society and the Media

CULTURE, SOCIETY AND THE MEDIA 239
WHEN THE MASS MEDIA SEEMED OVER-RIDINGLY
POWERFUL
The assumption, widely accepted before the 1940s, of massive propaganda
impact for the persuasive contents of the mass media, and a concern to test this
through effects research designs, had many sources. There was the seeming ease
with which World War I war-mongers and Fascist regimes in Europe of the
1930s had manipulated people’s attitudes and bases of allegiance and behaviour.
That impression was compatible with theories of mass society, current at the
time the study of media effects began to take shape, which postulated that the
dissolution of traditional forms of social organization under the impact of
industrialization and urbanization had resulted in a social order in which
individuals were atomized, cut off from traditional networks of social
relationships, isolated from sources of social support, and consequently
vulnerable to direct manipulation by remote and powerful élites in control of the
mass media. Thus, the explosive growth of the media at the beginning of this
century, and the global socio-political upheavals in which they were perceived to
have played a part, lent urgency to the need to explain systematically and
scientifically the role of this new social force and the mechanisms of its power
and influence. However, an interest in the effects of assumed-to-be powerful
media developed from more ‘benign’ and pragmatic concerns as well. It was
hoped, for example, that the potential of the media could be used for civic
education, cultural enlightenment and the diffusion of socially beneficial
innovations, while advertisers and politicians hoped to learn more about the
design of media messages for marketing purposes and political mobilization. The
emergence of effects research in response to both policy problems and practical
applications was further facilitated by the academic development of
socialpsychological concepts, techniques of measurement and statistical methods
of survey sampling and data analysis. Once the notion of ‘effects’ was equated with
authoritarian, benevolent or competitive actors initiating changes in audience
members’ attitudes and opinions, it was almost inevitable that social psychology
should become its main disciplinary home.

SOME EXAMPLES OF EARLY ELECTION STUDIES
DESIGNED TO TEST THE PRESUMPTION OF MEDIA
POWER IN POLITICS
Perhaps the most famous election study conducted in the 1940s was the one
carried out by Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet on the 1940 US Presidential
elections, and published under the title, The People’s Choice (1944). This
investigation found that only limited change had occurred during the campaign.
About half the electors knew six months before the elections how they would
vote, and maintained their party preferences throughout the campaign. Another
quarter made up their minds after the parties’ nominating conventions in the