Ryan Lacey
June 3, 2018
Mass Media Communication
Outline of Theory Research
A.
1. There are primarily two approaches to research in mass communication, which is
Social Scientific and Cultural Studies
2. The idea that media have a significant impact on society has fueled the development of the two types of research in mass communication. Social scientific research attempts to understand, explain, and predict the impact of mass media on individuals and society. The main goals of this type of research is to define the problem with a testable hypothesis, collect data through one of various methodologies and draw conclusions based on the data. cultural studies explore how people make meaning, understand reality, articulate values, and interpret their experiences through the use of cultural symbols in media. Cultural studies scholars also examine how groups such as corporate and political elites use media to circulate their messages and serve their interests. Research focuses on daily cultural experience, examining the subtle intersections among mass communication, history, politics, and economics. Researchers can study the ties between media messages and the broader world. Broadened discussion to include class, gender, cultural differences. Limit is that sometimes it focuses only on texts and ignores effect on audiences. Cultural approaches to media research emerged to challenge social scientific media effects theories and to compensate for those theories’ limitations. In contrast to social scientific media research, the cultural studies mode of media research involves interpreting written and visual texts as symbols that contain cultural, historical and political meaning.
A. The spiral of silence theory by German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in 1974, Spiral of silence is the term meant to refer to the tendency of people to remain silent when they feel that their views are in opposition to the majority view on a subject. The theory posits that they remain silent for a few reasons: Fear of isolation when the group or public realizes that the individual has a divergent opinion from the status quo. Fear of reprisal or more extreme isolation, in the sense that voicing said opinion might lead to a negative consequence beyond that of mere isolation (loss of a job, status, etc.). For this theory to...
