Page 211 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

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research methods. As techniques for studying media effects gradually
became more precise, in part due to the methodological advances pio-
neered by Lazarsfeld, mass communication investigators concluded that
the media generally have minimal direct effects (the most-cited statement
of the minimal effects of the media is Joseph Klapper’s generalization,
which appears at the top of the present chapter). On the relatively rare
occasions when the media were found to have strong effects, they were
thought to occur due to massive exposure to media messages by a partic-
ularly vulnerable audience (such as the effects of violent television pro-
grams on children).
The media often have strong indirect effects, such as the agenda-setting
process through which the media tell their audience what news issues
are most important (Dearing & Rogers, 1996). But communication
researchers have generally found that the mass media have limited
effects for most individuals under most circumstances. Even though the
occasions in which the media have strong effects may be relatively rare,
these instances can be quite important in illuminating the nature of
media effects.

Background of Research on Media Effects

Several classic communication “milestones” (Lowery & DeFleur, 1995) are
scholarly studies of the relatively unusual circumstances in which the
media have strong effects. Two examples of noted early investigations of
media effects are (1) the investigation by Hadley Cantril with others (1940)
of the widespread panic resulting from Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds”
radio broadcast in 1938, and (2) the study by Robert K. Merton with others
(1946) of the 1943 Kate Smith radio marathon to sell War Bonds during
World War II. These two media events had two characteristics:

1. Highly unusual radio messages whose effects were easily dis-
cernible from those of the regular content of radio programming.
A dramatic end-of-the-world show and a patriotic marathon
fund-raiser by a popular singer, respectively, served as “markers”
for Cantril, Merton, and their fellow scholars who traced the
effects of these two radio programs. These unique radio pro-
grams stood out starkly from the backcloth of other radio pro-
gramming of the day.
2. A specific, measurable individual-level behavior resulting from
the media event, which served as a distinctive indicator of the
media’s effects. For example, the effects of the Kate Smith