THEORIES OF MEDIA EFFECT

KEKEN FRITA VANRI

208000036
 THEORY OF MEDIA EFFECT

TWO STEP FLOW COMMUNICATION

USES AND GRATIFICATION
MEDIA DEPENDENCY
AGENDA SETTING
 TWO STEP FLOW COMMUNICATION
• Was first intoduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and
Hazel Gaudet a 1944

• People who changed their mind or made their decision late

in the presidential campaign were more likely to say that
they had been influenced by other people rather than by the
mass media.

• was refined in a 1955 publication by Elihu Katz and Lazarsfeld

based on a survey of 800 women in Decatur, Illinois
 TWO STEP FLOW COMMUNICATION

Individual
Message Opinion Leader Individual
(Gate Keeper) Individual
 TWO STEP FLOW COMMUNICATION
Opinion Leader :
• they critically screened media content

• they passed along only the information and ideas that they thought were useful

• Intervening variable: - opinion leader : social environment, social status,

economical capabilities etc

• opinion leaders were found at every level of society

• Their influence appeared to mostly flow horizontally—that is, opinion leaders

were more likely to routinely influence people who shared their status in society.
 USES AND GRATIFICATION
This theory was founded in 1974 by Blumler and
Katz and Gurevitch. it moved from the classical
approach of the functionalist theories since it
presents media use in relation to the
satisfaction of psychological and social needs
of the individual similar to ‘Maslow’s
Hierarchy of needs’
USES AND GRATIFICATION

What media do to people

What people do to media

 USES AND GRATIFICATION
People tend to use media that provide gratification for them

the theory predicts that media-consumption gratifications are

influenced by culture, social institutions, media opportunities,
circumstances, personal traits, needs, beliefs, and values

Weakness :
- There are several concept that can’t be measure
- The orientation too focus on personal values
- It’s not easy to refer on direct/indirect effect
- Descriptive, status quo
 MEDIA DEPENDENCY THEORY
• Dependency theory was originally proposed
by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur
(1976)
• Based on their paper “the Information
Perspective”, dependency theory proposes an
integral relationship among audiences, media
and the larger social system.
 MEDIA DEPENDENCY THEORY

The premise that media effects flow from the

information resources of the media system
that are implicated in the everyday life
requirements of people (micro), groups or
organizations (meso), and other social
systems (macro)
 MEDIA DEPENDENCY THEORY
Grand variable :
1. Social system (economic, education, politic)
2. Social proximity/ social distance (ras,
ethnicity, teritory, locality)
3. External factor (nature, community, society)
 MEDIA DEPENDENCY THEORY
This theory predicts that you depend on media
information to meet certain needs and achieve
certain goals

There are a number of things that can increase or

decrease dependencies on a particular medium
including the individual’s needs and motives,
social conditions outside of the individual’ control
 MEDIA DEPENDENCY THEORY
Number of needs and motives satisfying

One’s needs are not always strictly personal but may be shaped
by the culture or by various social conditions. In other words,
individuals’ needs, motives, and uses of media are contingent
on outside factors that may not be in the individuals’ control

Differences with U&G :

- Certain needs was influenced by external factor
- There is anteceden variable ()
 MEDIA DEPENDENCY THEORY
source of dependency is social stability

media become more influential whenever there

are major disruptions in the social world.
(Conflict, social change, chaos, etc)
 MEDIA DEPENDENCY THEORY
One thing that can decrease the dependencies is
Functional Alternative

A functional alternative is a medium that can

essentially act as an alternative for another
form of media
 AGENDA SETTING
agenda-setting theory developed by Maxwell
McCombs and Donald Shaw

people’s capacity to consciously pay attention to

topics is quite limited. If media publish lots of
news stories dealing with one topic, more
people will remember the topic, and they will
more or less unconsciously assign a higher
priority to it
 AGENDA SETTING
• Differences with Priming Theory :
1.
AGENDA SETTING

what to think

what to think about

 AGENDA SETTING
The press may not be successful much of the
time in telling people what to think, but it is
stunningly successful in telling its readers
what to think about” (Bernard Cohen)

This theory is good at explaining why people

with similar media exposure place
importance on the same issues
 RESUME
U&G identifies how people use and become dependent upon
the media.  People use the media for many reasons. 
Information, entertainment, and parasocial relationships are
just a few of them.  The M&D Theory says the more a
person becomes dependent on the media to fulfill these
needs, the media will become more important to that
individual.  The media will also have much more influence
and power over that individual.  If someone is so dependent
on the media for information, and the media is that person’s
only source for information, then it is easy to set the
agenda.  The individual falls victim to Agenda Setting.