Page 84 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

4. MEDIA CONSUMPTION AND PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL REALITY 73

having viewed recently than light viewers, accessibility may be enhanced
for heavy viewers through the recency of viewing as well (although these
effects may be relatively short term).

Vividness. Vividness relates to the extent to which something is
“emotionally interesting, concrete and imagery provoking, and proximate
in a sensory, temporal, or spatial way” (Nisbett & Ross, 1980, p. 45), and
constructs that tend to be more vivid are more easily activated from mem-
ory (Higgins & King, 1981; Nisbett & Ross, 1980; Paivio, 1971). Like fre-
quency and recency, vividness has particular applicability to media
effects. It seems reasonable to think that television portrayals of particular
actions or events may be more vivid than real-world experiences, given
the drama-enhancing goal of entertainment. Examples might include a
fistfight, an execution, family conflict, a natural disaster, military conflict,
and so forth.
Vividness may also play a role in news reports. As Zillmann and col-
leagues have noted (see chapter 2; Zillmann & Brosius, 2000), news
reports often convey information in the form of case studies or extreme
examples. Such a bias in favor of vivid examples over precise but pallid
statistical information may make those examples relatively easy to
remember.

Relations with Accessible Constructs. As the accessibility of a partic-
ular construct increases, so does the accessibility of a closely related con-
struct. This concept is consistent with the associative network/spreading
activation model of memory made popular in cognitive psychology as
a means of explaining the interconnectedness of knowledge (Collins &
Loftus, 1975). This model holds that constructs are stored in memory in
the form of nodes, and links are formed between the nodes. When a par-
ticular node (stored construct) is activated, other constructs will also be
activated to the extent that they are related to that node.
It seems likely that the relation between accessible constructs may
have implications for media effects. One of the attributes of media por-
trayals, particularly on television programs and films, is the relatively
consistent and formulaic way in which particular concepts (e.g., anger
and aggression, particular classes of people) are portrayed. These por-
trayals may provide “scripts” (Schank & Abelson, 1977) or “situation
models” (Wyer & Radvansky, 1999) for what represents a construct and
how to react to it. Given the relations between accessible constructs, the
activation of a particular construct (e.g., aggression, anger) may similarly
activate scripts for behavior that are closely related to these constructs
(e.g., crime, violence).