Medium refers to anything that is used by humans to communicate some kind of message.
McQuail states that there are four elements that determine the emergence of a mass medium:
- Purpose or need for communication.
- Technology for public communication.
- Social organization for production and distribution.
- Governance in the public interest.
McLuhan argued that it is not possible to separate medium and message. He also argued that media can be seen as an extension of man as a medium can be seen as any phenomenon that changed the way we go about the world (e.g. electric light). This means that a medium is a phenomenon that changes meaning of something in the world. According to McLuhan, each medium that emerges needs to be treated as an entirely new cultural phenomenon.
Before the twentieth century, the newspapers emerged which were fixated on advertisements, followed by the development of magazines, which were also fixated on advertisements. After the twentieth century, radio, television and telephones emerged, which were new forms of mass media.
New media distinguishes computer-based media from broadcast media (e.g. radio). There are two phases of web technology; web 1.0 and web 2.0. Web 2.0 refers to media that appeared in the mid to late 2000s (e.g. social networking sites). Media literacy refers to sorting out reliable, useful information from junk, marketing and lies. Media blindness refers to being unable to locate the source of the information we acquire and confuse our actual experiences with mediated experiences.
The media effects approach in research focusses on the effects media imposes on the individual. It is mostly based on experimental research.
There are two objections to the media effects approach:
- Low ecological validity
This type of research has a low ecological validity as it removes context from media. - Not fully developed theoretical rationale
This type of research often does not have a fully developed theoretical rationale.
Brain imaging can be used to draw conclusions based on the experimental research (i.e. media effects approach).
The hypodermic needle theory states that media ‘injects’ itself in the brain to influence an individual. This theory is based on the effects propaganda can have on a society which mainly uses one form of mass media (e.g. radio). Over time, however, people become increasingly media literate.
The excitation transfer theory states that media (e.g. violent films) raises adrenaline in people without the people recognizing the source of their heightened excitement, leading people to overreact in certain situations. This is similar to priming. However, this theory is only focused on the interpretation of physiological changes and does not include personality.
Most media effect theories assumed that the individual is a passive observer of media, rather than a user of media.
The uses and gratifications theory (U&G) states that the individual is a media user rather than a passive observer. According to this theory, the media user is an active agent which seeks out certain media for gratification and rejects other media. Seeking out gratification using media leads to media dependency. However, in media use, individuals needs and individual gratification often gives way to group demands.
U&G research makes use of psychometric scales (e.g. multiple regression). This type of research can take previous media use into account, which provides information about the cumulative effect of media.
The cultivation theory states that media gradually cultivate certain views and values in their audiences over time (i.e. cumulative effect of media). It makes use of content analysis, in which the content of a medium is analysed.
Mainstreaming refers to the gradual convergence of world views among different cultures. Resonance refers to media messages resonating with an individual which strengthens the effect on their personal beliefs.
The active audience theory states that media users read media texts in different ways and not always in the way intended or expected by media producers.
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