Mass Communication: Gatekeeping, Agenda-Setting, and the Impact of Media - Prof. Buddy How, Study notes of Communication

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Mass Communication Mass Communication:

• 1. Experience is not direct
• 2. Much larger audience Gate-Keeping:
• Who determines what is okay to be released out into the public?
• We only know about what the people who report the news wants us to know
• We are getting a perspective of whoever is reporting to us
• Gate-keepers have to make decisions on what is news-worthy and what is not Agenda-setting:
• What will the public want to know
• What they want the public to know Importance of Mass Media:
• 1. They can control what we think about (influences us)
• 2. Uses and Gratification Theory o Bullet-in-the-gun, commercials directly influence the viewers to go out and buy products o Agency- the power to choose o We use media for gratification:  Self improvement  Pleasure o We discriminate ourselves from what we don’t want to see o We use media, not so much media uses us Cultivation:
• Media cultivates us to feel or think a certain way
• No correlation between violence on tv and violence of people
• Mean World Syndrome: o I don’t watch a violent show and then want to emulate it, but I begin to see the world as a more violent, scary place o Gartner’s research:  1. “Most people are just looking out for themselves”  2. “You can’t be too careful when dealing with people”  3. “Most people would take advantage of you if they get the chance”  People were classified into two different groups: heavy television watchers and light television watchers  Heavy viewers were more likely to say that people are negative