COMM205:
Lesson 2: Critical-Cultural Theories
Lesson 2 Overview
Introduction
A primary purpose of media studies and cultural critique is to create positive change in media practice and to build audience media literacy and empowerment. Theory develops from research results and helps explain how things work.
Research on violent media content and media effects has continued from the early days of film with the 1930's Payne Fund Studies until today where research examines violence in all genres of media. Gerbner and peers initiated the Cultural Indicators Project from University of Pennsylvania in 1967 to examine TV messages, media effects, and institutional policies with regard to violence and other common message patterns. This research developed cultivation theory and the concepts of Mean World Syndrome to explain findings that heavy television viewing helps cultivate a view of the reality that reflects the TV reality, with a disproportionate incidence of violence.
Gerbner and Morgan analyze Mean World Syndrome and explain the meaning of their extensive research on TV and other media violence.
Our reading this week by Ott & Mack (Introducing Critical Media Studies) provides an overview of how the mass media and other communication technologies increasingly mediate both what we know and how we know it.
We suggest you complete readings and view the film before you complete the lesson activities. Reading and film notes are also provided for your reference.
Knowledge Goals
Here are the knowledge goals for this lesson:
- Understand communication theories and research methods.
- Describe how theory can explain identity, social knowledge and understanding of diversity.
- Describe how cultivation theory developed from TV media effects research.
- Develop some insights about why media violence is so attractive to audiences.
Lesson Readings and Activities
By the end of this lesson, make sure you have completed the readings and activities found in the Lesson 2 Course Schedule.
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How Theory Will Be Used in This Class
In most cases in academia, theories are used in research to test hypotheses. This is not a research class, so instead, we will use theory as a way of understanding the media better.
If nothing else, your goal is to understand generally what each theory means, to recognize them in use in the research papers we will read, and to understand how theory is being used to make sense of the world or our perceptions of it.
For example, last week one of the papers listed on the What does "critical-cultural" mean? lesson page was called Examining the rage donation trend: Applying the Anger Activism Model to explore communication and donation behaviors. In that article, the researchers use the Anger Activism Model to make sense of a phenomenon they observed about how/when/why the public makes charitable donations based on anger. You would need to understand the Anger Activism Model in order to understand their research findings.
For that reason, we are starting with theory as a way to build a set of shared knowledge to make sense of the course readings. Look for the theories covered in this lesson as you read research papers and watch films during the rest of the semester. At your best, I would love to see you identify and unpack the theories used because researchers choose which theories to apply very carefully. They can be as laden with ideology as a documentary about immigration and can shed light on the researchers' perspectives and possible biases.
Being able to critically engage with research papers is a fundamental skill in media literacy. Journalists are often very bad at this and jump at one catchy aspect of the findings instead of digging into the whole paper to understand the context. Using media literacy combined with an understanding of why theory matters and what it means will give you an essential skill set to better engage with the media.
For example, a study released in mid-2010s seems to indicate that drinking coffee helps you live longer. Or does it? From the results shown in a simple Google search (Figure 2.1), no one seems sure.
Without access to the original study and the tools to make sense of the researchers' hypotheses and results, the public is only getting part of what the study found, what the journalists thought was important, and why it might matter to those of us who dearly love multiple cups of coffee each day. Filtered through all of those layers, the information being consumed by the public is limited and could be misleading.
Communication Theories
Communication theory helps explain media dynamics. The following are definitions of theories developed from research findings and commonly used to explain observed results of media research.
| Theory | Explanation |
|---|---|
| SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY (also called Social Learning Theory) | Albert Bandura helped develop this theory which encompasses both imitation and identification to explain how people learn through observation of others in their environments and can base behavior on symbolic representations of behavior in media. |
| SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY THEORY | A treatise on the sociology of knowledge. Media contribute to the construction of our social reality (Berger P. L. & Luckmann, T. 1966) |
| SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY | Media are responsible to inform the public in a democracy. Developed from 1948 Hutchins Commission Report findings. |
| FEMINIST THEORY | Idea that gender equality is a social value. |
| CULTIVATION THEORY | George Gerbner and others’ research helped develop this theory to explain research findings that mass media exposure cultivates a view of the world that is consistent with mediated reality in heavy viewers. |
Theories help explain Media Production, Distribution, Exhibition and Consumption.
| Theory | Explanation |
|---|---|
| ECONOMICS | Theory that explains society in terms of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. |
| POLITICAL ECONOMY | Struggle between social classes, the owners of means of production & the production workers, underlies all political issues. |
| MARKET ECONOMY SYSTEM | Decisions on resource allocation are left to the independent decisions of individual producers and consumers acting in their own best interests without central direction (Baumol & Blinder, 1988). |
| MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS | All ideas are put before the public and a democratic public will choose the best ideas. |
Theory helps explain media-audience relationships & meaning construction
| Theory | Explanation |
|---|---|
| USES & GRATIFICATIONS | Predicts media usage according to the human needs media satisfy. |
| SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY | Emphasizes the inherent use of group comparisons in managing identity needs and recognizes the important role that media images play in this process (Mastro et al, 2008, p4) |
| FRAME ANALYSIS | Erving Goffman helped develop this analysis method and theory, which explains how frames or sets of expectations are used to make sense of social situations and frames use cues to help interpret or plan actions. |
| PRIMING THEORY | Explains how media images can stimulate related thoughts in the minds of the audience. |
| AGENDA SETTING THEORY | Explains how media help determine what is important, because though they don’t tell us what to think, media does tell us what to think about. |
| GATEKEEPING THEORY | Explains the media power to decide what to present to the public and what to withhold from public. |
Introducing Critical Media Studies Reading Notes
Important: there is a section labeled SKIP in big letters which you do not have to read.
In this book chapter, Ott & Mack provide an introduction to different aspects of critical research and why it should matter to the public. They provide definitions for important concepts which you will see pop up throughout the semester.
Concepts to pay attention to:
- medium
- convergence
- fragmentation
- socialization
- Marxism
- media messages
- media audiences
Four key characteristics of critical media studies:
- A skeptical attitude
- A focus on the humanities to understand cultural and social phenomena
by interpretive and analytical means. - Paying attention to the political implications
- A commitment to social justice
The Mean World Syndrome
Watch The Mean World Syndrome (51 minutes)
Film Notes
“Debate has raged about the effect of violence on our behavior.” Does media violence make us violent? Decades of research has affirmed media violence is not likely to cause us to imitate violence but “likely to make us more scared of violence being done to us.”
“As a citizen, I would consider a matter of grave concern that a society in which most or many people expect a high degree of victimization, sooner or later they are going to get it violence” stated Gerbner in testimony to Congress. George Gerbner fled facism in Hungary, worked in OS, US Army in WWII. After, he spent his life studying how media violence affected our consciousness and behavior in the real world.
As Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Gerbner and others conducted extensive longitudinal research since 1967, the Cultural Indicators Research Project. Gerbner researched media violence and how it functions in society with the premise that “Commercial media have eclipsed religion, art, oral traditions and the family as the great story telling engine of our time”
A Tidal Wave of Violence
Global media “conglomerates own and control he telling of all the stories over the world” … “have global marketing formulas that are imposed on the creative people in Hollywood … get told every day ‘put in more action, cut out complicated solutions’ …apply this formula because it travels well in the global market, need no translation, image driven, speak action in any language…leading element of that formula is violence …Tidal wave of images of violence, inundating every home with expertly choreographed brutality such as the world has never seen…mass production and introduction to every home… a relentless pervasive exposure to violence and brutality many times every day.”
The formulaic, cultural difference transcendent language of violence draws on the powerful persuasive power of fear to appeal to global audiences. “American children see 8000 murders by elementary school and over 200, 000 violent acts by age of 18.”
“Violence is a legitimate artistic and journalistic feature…and it is necessary to show sometimes…Most of violence is ... ‘happy violence’… Violence is thrilling, glamorous, spectacular …and they always lead to a happy ending…sugar coated with humor.
“Humor makes the pill (of power) easier to swallow…who can get away with what against who?” What matters most about media violence “is not simply the quantity of violence that saturates the media landscape, but how it all adds up to tell a story…that reinforces and normalizes a certain view of the world… the meaning has the greatest effect.”
Does it create more violence? Research says “contribution of TV violence into the actual committing of violence is practically negligible compared to poverty and other factors.
Payne Fund Studies 1929-1932 found media effect of violence, raised interesting questions. Most interesting example is “War of the Worlds” October 30, 1938 drama radio broadcast. The vast majority of listeners did not respond in panic but understood the fictional nature of the radio program.
Magic Bullet Theory explained media effects as direct and powerful, and viewers as passive, but it was wrong! These cause and effect arguments were wrong and not scientifically verified. “Its like fish in water, a pervasive environment is always beyond perception.”
Gerbner’s Cultural Indicators Research Project (CIP) research found very limited effects of TV violence on increasing violent behavior effects. The primary effect was increase of fear in heavy viewers. This longitudinal research project affirmed what Gerbner (2010) called, “Cultivation - a stable system of messages and images that shapes our conception of the world and of ourselves, life society and power.”
CIP used survey methodology and response analysis to measure what TV violence and other content elements would cultivate in audiences. Response analysis would take age, gender, ethnicity, and light or heavy viewing characteristics into account. This methodology has become known as cultivation analysis.
The Mean World Syndrome
Television media content ranges between banality and extreme violence. News sensationalism is constant and intense. Cultivation analysis shows anxiety and fear of victimization increase with heavy TV viewing. In 2010, violent crime continued to drop but arms sales continued to increase. CIP scientific research showed a causal relationship between the rising fear and anxiety in audiences and their heavy viewing of TV content inundated with violence.
Mean People
Research also found that fear and anxiety, were disproportionally attributed to those represented in TV as violent. Content analysis research affirms that TV still over-represents people of color in criminal or violent action or as deserving of violent response in TV content. These representation patterns dehumanize and contrast the actual crime and violence statistics. These meanest representations reinforce a siege mentality, and cultivate irrational, fear and anger.
The Fallout
What lies ahead in the world of increasingly violent media? Can we look forward to a media landscape where more respect for human diversity and dignity can coexist with images of conflict?
Reference
Morris, S. (Producer), & Earp, J. (Director). (2010). The mean world syndrome: Media violence and the cultivation of fear [Motion Picture]. United States: MEF
Cultural Criticism and Transformation
Watch Cultural Criticism and Transformation (66 minutes).
Part 1: On Cultural Criticism
Why Study Popular Culture? Because “popular culture is the primary pedagogical medium, it is where the learning or pedagogy is.
Critical Thinking as Transformation
- Critical thinking is at the heart of anybody transforming their lives.
- We all use culture to negotiate the politics of difference to develop agency.
- Hooks found the primary difference between students in or not in conditions of privilege, was a profound difference in their sense of agency.
The Power of Representation
- Who has power to create representations and decide who does what to whom?
- Who determines meaning of representations?
- Hooks discusses films Kids and Braveheart.
Motivated Representations
- Hooks examines: What motivation caused Wayne Wang to cast thief as African American in film Smoke, beyond economic profit?
- What motivates reproduction of dehumanizing stereotypes in gender, race and other representations?
Why? white supremacist capitalist patriarchy
- Hooks uses the phrase to describe an institutional structure with interlocking systems of domination that define our reality… and we all frame ourselves in relation to this political world.
- We will not understand if we only look through the lens of race or of gender.
Enlightened Witness
- We observe representations and responses with a proactive sense of agency.
- We use our literacy, media literacy and our critical thinking to determine what we see and to decolonize out minds
Part 2: Doing Cultural Criticism
Constructed Narrative
- Hooks discussed documentary Hoop Dreams (1990) as a constructed narrative and not a complete account.
Dealing with OJ
- News constructed as race based spectacle, though the public response was similar across race.
- Guy Debord (1967) Society of the Spectacle, described this media behavior pattern.
Madonna: From Feminism to Patriarchy
- Hooks describes how her feminist celebrity was reinvented as realigned patriarchy.
Spike Lee: Hollywood’s Fall Guy
- Hooks questions how filmmaker Lee’s success is framed as failure in Hollywood media.
The Voyeur’s Gaze
- Critical analysis of the film KIDS, described as an example of how the media seduces audiences with images of “transgression”, which actually reinforce and do not challenge gender and race based hegemony with stereotyped images of sexual and racial domination.
Rap: Authentic expression or market construct?
- Hooks says it is important to examine distinctions between authentic cultural expression or voice and economically constructed media products that use gender and race based hegemony.
Color Coding Black Female Bodies
- Hooks explores continuing patterns of gender and race based subordination in media including reinscribing a color based caste system, where ideas of authenticity become meaningless.
Consuming Commodified Blackness
- Imitation of cultural difference is different from real change rooted in cultural understanding.
- It is possible to consume culturally distinctive products, without ever building deeper cultural understanding of difference.
- This allows white privilege to remain unexamined.
Hooks claims Americans are obsessed with transgression and content that grabs our attention, but does not really challenge race, gender, and other hegemony systems.
Reference
Jhally, S. (1997). Cultural criticism & transformation. [Motion picture]. Northampton, MA. Media Education Foundation.