So I was having problems posting under my name, so I am doing it under Katie.
In chapter 10, page 424 the discuss the study on how media can and/or does change people's public opinions. During their studies, researchers found that the media actually didn't have a strong influence on people. Do you believe this research to be accurate? Do you think the media changes people's public opinions? Has it ever changed your personally?
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I believe that mass media affects our opinions to some extent. I agree with the whole last paragraph on the bottom of pg. 427 when they mention:
ReplyDelete“In cases where individuals did make up their minds to vote for a candidate during the campaign or decided to switch support from one candidate to another, interpersonal influence seemed to hold more say. The opinions of a spouse or a respected, knowledgeable neighbor appeared more likely to carry weight that campaign news coverage, candidate speeches, or editorials.”
I really believe that media sparks new ways of looking at issues, but it is really other interpersonal factors that make or decision. Personally, the media has played a role in forming some of my opinion on some issues, but mainly I rely on my family and friends to help decide what way to feel on certain issues. I think I feel this way because I trust my family and friends. It’s hard to change your opinion when you hear things in the media because you don’t personally know those reporters. You question whether or not they have your interests in mind or if they were paid to report on certain issues. Again, I do think media helps spark conversation which, in turn, forms opinions, but there are many other factors that play into the equation as well.
In the 1940's the analogy of the media "injecting" people with thoughts and opinions with whatever was on the media's agenda was described. Recently, researchers have rejected this view that the media shapes our opinions and now accept the “indirect” and “minimal effects” of media on how the public shape their opinions. I agree with this view because personally, I don't feel like the media has shaped my opinions. Also, I typically watch and read things that reinforce my opinions and rarely challenge them. I think that my friends and family have a greater influence over how I form my opinions. However, I believe that the media does have influence over what I talk about with my friends and family.
ReplyDeleteOn page 425 and 426 they discuss when CBS radio broadcasted a fiction novel The War of the Worlds.’ The listeners believed what was being said and panic washed over the country. This is an excellent example of how media does have strong influences on public opinion. I believe that media can change people’s opinions. Media is the only way the majority of individuals receive information. The media we hear influences conversations we have with others, how our opinions form and the actions we take. This brings us back to Gabriel Tarde’s Model of Public Opinion.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do not think that only media influences our opinions. I believe it has a great affect on our personal opinions. I do think that our attitudes and behaviors towards issues are a combination of our own personal opinions we have received from media and those opinions and perspectives of others around us.
Media definitely influenced my opinion on issues during the Presidential election. But the media was not the only influential factor in forming my opinions. I gained opinions from the information I received from media and then finalized my opinion after conversations with others in my life.
In my opinion, the media doesn't tell us what to think as much as it tells us what to think about. Because of this, I think that the research is accurate in saying that the media does not strongly influence people's opinions. While temporarily a person's opinion may be influenced, I don't think the media has a lasting effect on people's public opinion.
ReplyDeleteI believe that people's opinions can be influenced by the media if that is the person's only source of information. I believe that people's opinions change as they gather more information, and only if the information comes from a media source does the media influence public opinion. However, as it has been discussed in the book and in class, the aggregate public opinion is fairly stable and does not change quickly. I think that if media had a strong influence on public opinion, we would see greater swings in public opinion in short amounts of time, based on what was in the news at a particular time.
For me personally, media can be a source of information, but if I care about an issue, I work to find sources other than media for information. For example, leading up to the elections, I tried to avoid the news as much as I could so that I wouldn't be influenced by it. Instead, I found information on the candidates' websites and other political forums that were not affiliated with the media. Overall, I believe that the less-informed I am on an issue, the more likely the media would be to influence my opinion.
I was very interested to learn that the media does not play a large role in public views and actions. Personally, I believe these findings to be false.
ReplyDeleteI believe that yes, the media can change peoples' opinions. For example, during the 2008 presidential election individuals who were on the fence about a candidate turned to the media to find out more about the two platforms. This example shows how some people rely on the media to help with their opinion formation.
In addition, Gerbner's cultivation theory also supports this idea. Cultivation theory states that heavy television viewers will have an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world, due to the violence seen on television. For example, some individuals form perceptions about walking down a dark alley based on what they see in the media (violence, bombings on the news, shootings, war, dying/injured people, etc). Heavy television viewers believe that their chance of being a victim of violence is 1/10, when the actual reality is 1/10,000.
These two examples, in my mind, exhibit just how much some individuals (not all) can be influenced by the media.
I believe the research to be true. I think the media does tell us what to think about, but I also believe that other factors have a larger influence on our lives. The book mentions Lazarsfeld's discovery that "the vast majority of voters knew for whom they would vote all along and that political party affiliation far overwhelmed direct media effects in choosing candidates" (p. 427). He found that voters did follow campaigns in the media, but they attended more to the information that supported their own candidates. I've noticed this to be true. During the months prior to the general election last November, I would be more engaged in media that were in favor of the candidate I had chosen to vote for.
ReplyDeleteThe book also mentions that "primary reference groups" play a higher role in influencing our opinions than the media. As I said before, I think the media can tell us what to think about, but it is the people in out lives that really influence the way we think.
I was shocked to see that the media did not influence public opinion, but the more I thought about it I came to understand why it would not change people'spublic opinion.
ReplyDeleteJoseph Klapper found that people that are exposed to the media, they already have knowledge on the subject that they are listening to or viewing. They already have beliefs, attitudes and behaviors about the subject, and selectively expose themselves to issues that they already have a stance on.
I think in these sorts of occasions, that people have knowledge on the subject, that the media does not change their public opinion. However, I do believe that people's opinion is changed when they have little knowledge on a subject and are introduced to the other side of the issue.
From personal experience, I have changed my public opinion on issues. As the book states "Interpersonal interaction was seen as a much stronger form of influence,more likely to stimulate change." I agree with this statement. I have changed my opinion a few issues for this very reason. My friends, family and co-workers have shown me a different side of the issue and my opinion has changed because of this.I also have changed my opinion on things such as the election by listening to the news and finding out what issues the candidate is concerned with.
I agree that media does not change public opinion of the person already has knowledge on a subject, but disagree if the person has little knowledge. If little is known on an issue, a person could change their opinion if different sides are shown.
I believe that any person would be foolish to say that the media does not influence the public. Simply look at the amount of advertising that is produced every year. If advertising did not work, companies would not pump billions of dollars yearly into advertising campaigns. Media thrives off of the ability to create needs and wants.
ReplyDeleteThe media essentially wants the public to need and want the media that individual people are using. For example, news media desire to fulfill the needs and wants of people to informed. Because of the desire for people to be informed, the people will tune into news casts.
Public opinion is definitely affected by news media because look at the affect that news media has had on the reporting of wars. Military powers across the world were once able to control propaganda for and during wars. The book gives the example of Nazi Germany, but really it was every country that was spreading propaganda before the reporting during the Vietnam War.
If the news media during the Iraq war had decided to lie about the war in Iraq and spread news that the war is going well and that no people were dying public opinion would definitely support the war. Since the media has reported that the war so far has not been a success, public opinion has generally not supported the war.
“An analogy was drawn between the media and hypodermic needle, with the media injecting members of an increasingly atomized mass public with whatever thoughts and opinions the media manipulators wanted inscribed.” (Glyn et. al, 2004, p. 425) This analogy is a little severe, but essentially the public is subjected to the information that the media provides. Information leads to the formation of opinion.
To conclude, I refute the argument that people are not influenced by the media. Personally I find myself searching out different media sources to improve my knowledge about the current economic climate. I have noticed a change in my own level of confidence in the economy. I believe that my lack of confidence is directly related to the state of the economy and the reporting that is done my media today.
I think that the media does have an effect on our opinions, however I think that the extent of the influence depends on the individual. The book discusses Orson Welles' "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast that invoked panic in many listeners. I think that people who are less educated or less aware of current events are more likely to be persuaded by the media because they look to the media to provide them with information and to tell them what to think about an issue.
ReplyDeleteHowever, people who are more educated or spend more time paying attention to current events would have the knowledge/skill to filter the information that the media is giving them and then to evaluate the information and decide how trustworthy the information is.
An example in my life, would be taxes or economic stimulus packages. Before I came to college, I could really have cared less because I wasn't paying taxes and I couldn't vote anyway so it didn't really matter to me. If someone had asked me my opinion about those issues, I would probably have repeated whatever I had heard on the news as my opinion. Now that I am paying my own way, and I am able to voice my opinion through voting, I am more likely to think about the information I receive, evaluate the source, and then decide my own opinion. Although I am receiving my information from the media, I am not letting the media dictate that opinion.
I agree with Anne, the media is more of an agenda setter than a meeting controller. As Lauren said, we expose ourselves to things that re-enforce what we already believe/know.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as the Mars invades story illustrates once we often engage in selective hearing. "Many of these people had not heard the introduction to the broadcast that set the stage for the imaginary news coverage and either did not hear or ignored later statements indicating that it was a fictionalized account" p. 426. This problem of not hearing the entire story has increased with today's technology. Channel flipping and article skimming are main culprits in the matter.
I think the media has the power to change public opinion however it is something that is really hit or miss depending on the person.
Personal I feel that to some extent I am affected by the media as it is where I receive most of my information. I do believe however that my views on the matter are obstructed by the Third person effect and feel that the media does affect others more than myself.
I tend to agree with the newest research on the topic. Over time, researchers have discovered that media doesn't have a tremendous impact on opinion. The book talks about how people believed P.O. was greatly influenced by the media from 1900-1940. It was after that when researchers discovered that not only did media have limited power but it had minimal power in the influence of P.O.
ReplyDeleteI say that I only "tend" to agree with this theory because I do believe media influences a lot of what we have P.O. about. We seem to be able to develop our own opinions on topics but many times we need to have the media tell us what we should have an opinion on.
Personally, I find many times that I need to see something or read about something in the media before I completely consider it. The media may not be able to completely change a persons opinion on an issue but if they bring it to the attention of the public it is really like they are changing the opinion.
I think that the media has influence on people in some instances. I think the amount of influence the media has depends on how much a person knows abouts the topic/how strong a person's feelings are toward an issue.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the last paragraph on page 427 that Erin posted in her comment. That particular paragraph stood out to me personally because that is how I view the media's influence. In most cases, I think that people tend to be more influenced by family and friends than they are the media because you can't always trust everything you see or hear. Influences from family and friends are greater because you actually listen to them and trust them.
The media has definitely help shape some of my opinions, but the media does not make my decisions for me. I rely more on what my parents have taught me and what I have personally grown to believe based on personal experiences.
I think the media is a huge component of how the general public forms decisions and opinions. I personally look to television when there is national news traveling through word of mouth. I know it’s not completely reliable, but I think it has some credence since it was approved to be broadcasted nationally. I feel the difference between me and others is that some people don’t have a critical lens the see the world through. I pretty skeptical of most things, but if it’s on many news channels or internet, newspaper and web then I will give it some validity.
ReplyDeleteIn the book it covers when cbs radio broadcasted a novel called “The War of the Worlds” which happened to be fiction. Listeners ended up believing what was being said and chaos spread around the country. In class aggregate public opinion is viewed as stable and doesn’t change quickly. I believe most people are stubborn in their ways so if there is to be a shift in opinion it must be a highly credible source giving information or consistent dissemination of the news or several weeks.
Nevertheless, I believe that the more ignorant I am on a topic, the more likely the media would be able to influence my opinion.