Religious and government organizations have attempted to suppress printed works that they deem ideologically contrary and unfit for consumption since the advent of the printing press in the mid-to late 1400s. Members of the upper social strata have long tried to stifle the written word and keep new ideas from the masses, because knowledge is power, and they wanted to keep the power among themselves. increased literacy and access to mass-produced writings came an even greater need to keep information out of the hands of the general public to silence opposition.

The years between the end of World War I and the onset of the Great Depression were a time of growth in the United States. People moving to the cities were disconnected individuals from
family and social ties leaving them to assimilate into a new culture. newcomers to a city turned to newspapers, magazines, and books to learn about new ways of life and to keep up with current events. The mass media became a central and influential part of their lives.

Many thought of the media as a ‘magic bullet’ or ‘hypodermic needle’ that could penetrate people’s bodies and minds and cause them to all react the same way to a mediated message. These fears were not unfounded when considering the successful propaganda campaigns waged during World War I, the newness of the mass media, and the move to the cities that left many people without close social networks.

During World War I, propaganda was used to spread hatred across nations, to concoct lies to justify the war, and to mobilize armies. Starting in the 1920s, the world followed Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, which was aided by his domination over radio and carefully crafted propaganda campaigns.

Harold Brown has distinguished between the two concepts. According to Brown, propaganda and
persuasive techniques are the same, but their outcomes differ. Propaganda is “when someone judges that the action which is the goal of the persuasive effort will be advantageous to the persuader but not in the best interests of the persuaded,” whereas persuasion is when the goal is perceived to have greater benefits
to the receiver than to the source of the message

The limited-effects perspective, which states that media have the power to influence beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, but that influence is not as strong as once thought. The fact that the media’s influence is limited by personal characteristics, group membership, and existing values and attitudes makes us less vulnerable and not easily manipulated by what we see and hear.

1. Selective exposure is the tendency to expose ourselves to media messages that we already
   agree with and that are consistent with our own values and beliefs.

2. Selective perception is the tendency to change the meaning of a message in our own mind so
   it is consistent with our existing attitudes and beliefs.

3. Selective retention is the tendency to remember those messages that have the most meaning
   to us.

the media claimed that there was no relationship between viewing violence and increased aggression; in other words, the media claimed they had a limited effect on the viewing public. the media claimed to their advertisers that they could indeed persuade the public to
purchase certain products; in other words, the media had a strong effect on viewers. The limited-effects perspective was questioned in light of this inconsistency

Rather, we choose what messages to expose ourselves to and then screen and
alter the meanings of those messages so they are consistent with our current attitudes and beliefs.

In the early 1960s, Stanford University psychologist Albert Bandura was studying the effects of filmed
violence on children. Bandura and other researchers demonstrated that children and adults learn from observation and model their own behavior after what they see, whether in real life or in films or on television. Further, the media
teach people how to behave in certain situations, how to solve problems and cope in certain situations, and in general present a wide range of options upon which to model their own behavior, thus lending support for media as a strong influence.

FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 1978. In late 1973, comedian George Carlin’s expletive-filled
monologue “Filthy Words,” was broadcast in the middle of the day on a noncommercial New York radio station owned by the Pacifica Foundation. the FCC ruling against Pacifica was upheld, and in 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the
definition of indecency. asserted that children were less likely to be in the audience between
10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m

Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, and

Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically
defined by the applicable state law, and

Whether the work taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

The powerful-effects model is complex, and the circumstances must be
right for certain effects to occur. Most young viewers today have grown up watching an enormous amount of violent television, yet they are not all aggressive and violent, as suggested by the magic bullet theory.

Survey Research is one of the
oldest research techniques and perhaps the most frequently used method of measuring the electronic media audience.

Content Analysis is a research method used to study the content of television programs, song lyrics, Web sites, and other mediated messages. Although content analysis does not tell about media effects or audience use of media, it does tell about
media content.

Laboratory Experiments usually involve a test group, which is exposed to a variable or condition under study, and a control group, which is not exposed to the variable or condition. The biggest drawback to laboratory experiments is that people may not behave or react in a lab as they do
in real life.

Field Experiments is to study people in their natural environment instead of in an artificial
laboratory setting. Field researchers do not have much control over outside factors, but the tradeoff is that they get to observe real-life behaviors.

Finding: Six out of 10 programs contain violence.
Consequence: Viewers are overexposed to mediated aggression and violence

Finding: Television violence is still glamorized. Seven out of 10 violent acts go unpunished.
Consequence: Unpunished violence is more likely to be imitated by viewers.

Finding: Physically attractive characters initiate 4 out of 10 violent acts. Consequence: Viewers are more likely to imitate characters they judge as being good looking.

Finding: Four out of 10 violent scenes include humor. Consequence: Humor trivializes the violence and thus contributes to desensitization.

Finding: About half of all violent scenes show pain or harm to the victim. Consequence: Showing pain and suffering reduces the chance that viewers will learn aggression from

Finding: Fewer than 5% of violent programs feature an anti-violence message. Consequence: Viewers are not exposed to alternatives to violence or shown nonviolent ways to solve problems.

Because of FCC oversight, broadcast programs have long contained fewer incidents of cursing than cable programs, which are not under the FCC’s purview.

With self-presentation, gamers determine how they
want to be seen by others.

With collective identity–formation tools, friends define their friends with questions such as: “What’s the best way to make [friend’s name] happy?” “How would you describe [friend’s name] sense of style?”

Social network interactions are also a form of phatic communication, which is a linguistic term that defines a type of expression that is used only for social reasons instead of for the purpose of sharing information.

third person effect, in which individuals claim that they are not as susceptible to mediated messages as others,

Humans have always been able to multitask But that is not the case with electronic devices because they command a higher level of cognition than, say, cooking several different dishes at the same time.

: (1) they are more interactive, which increases involvement; (2) a large percentage of games involve violence as the main activity, and players are encouraged to ‘kill’ and ‘injure’ as many of the ‘enemy’ as possible to win; and (3) the games’ portability makes them somewhat of a companion, as they can be played almost anywhere on a mobile device

Playing videogames may also be addictive. Playing violent videogames stimulates psychoneurological
receptors that give the player a ‘high,’ producing symptoms similar to those induced by drugs and other pleasurable activities.

Studies have shown that people are spending slightly less time with traditional media and more time online. In fact, some people are actually spending too much time on the Web.

Mobile device addiction is called nomophobia (for no-mobile-phone phobia), the fear of being
disconnected from the virtual world. Excessive texting may lead to failing grades, social anxiety, dependence, stress, and other psychological
disorders. Mobile communications are linked to a significant increase in distracted driving, resulting in injury and loss of life.

Children and young adults may be particularly susceptible to mediated words and images, both positive and negative. Looking at the time children spend watching television versus interacting with their parents, an unsettling trend emerges. In the mid-1960s, American children spent an average of 30 hours a week with their parents, whereas now, they spend an average of 17 hours with them

Children’s eating habits are also influenced by watching television and by watching commercials, in particular What is more, the incidence of obesity increases the more time children spend watching television, and children who are heavy television viewers tend to eat more snacks between meals than light television viewers.

Agenda setting is a function of the gatekeeping process that news media practice daily.

A cumulative effects
model of agenda setting looks at the repetition of certain messages and themes in the media. After viewers repeatedly see and hear about events and topics in the newspaper headlines or on the evening television newscast, they begin to believe that these are the important issues of the day.

Agenda setting can be thought of as the ability of the news media to focus attention and concerns on
certain issues.

Why do some people prefer listening to television news to reading the newspaper?
Under what conditions is an individual more likely to watch a sitcom rather than a violent police drama? What satisfactions are derived from watching soap operas or reading blogs?

The model is based on these
assumptions: (1) the audience actively and freely chooses media and content; (2) individuals select media and content with specific purposes in mind; (3) using the media and exposure to content fulfills many gratifications; and (4) media and content choice are influenced by needs, values, and other personal and social factors.

Ritualistic viewing is less goal oriented and more habitual in nature; viewers watch television
for the act of watching, without regard to program content.

Instrumental viewing tends
to be goal oriented and content based; viewers watch television with a certain type of program in mind.

restricts obscenity, which has stricter legal standards than indecency. Whereas obscenity cannot be shown, indecency, in some circumstances is allowable.

The act set parameters for protecting the public from objectionable
content. Current television ratings are a blend of both age
and content indicators.

The bill allowed
the FCC to increase fines for indecency violations from $32,500 to $325,000. Additionally, rather than fining a broadcast television station on a per-program basis, the FCC could issue fines for each indecent incident.

The consequences of addiction are many, such as depression, antisocial
behaviors, lost jobs, dropping out of school, broken relationships, and increased drug and alcohol use

The Entertainment Software Rating
Board (ESRB) has established the following age-based ratings system:
C: Content intended for young children
E: Suitable for all ages
E10+: Suitable for viewers older than 10
T: Suitable for ages 13 and older
M: Suitable for ages 17 and older
AO: Adults Only. Not suitable for players under the age of 17. These games may contain high levels of violence, profanity, or sexual content.

The typical office employee spends 13.5 hours per workweek reading, responding to, and managing email, and about three-quarters reply to a message within an hour of receiving it. Additionally, 81% of employees check their work email accounts during nonwork hours. All this checking and responding makes employees less efficient, more stressed out, and less productive.

many believe that objectionable content should not be curtailed because of the possibility
of its causing negative effects or because some viewers are offended by it.

Many strongly believe that it is
the parents’ responsibility to monitor what their children watch on television, what music they listen to and buy, and what Internet sites they visit.

New communication technologies have given rise to new uses of media. Activities such as remote channel changing, digitally recording programs, fast-forwarding through commercials, watching videos and DVDs, and watching television programs on the Web all employ new media technologies that have altered
existing television-viewing patterns.

Whether they are called digital dissenters, techno-skeptics, or luddites, there is a growing number of
activists who are resisting new communication technologies. Digital critics question the benefits and fear the consequences of technologies that are moving forward at warp speed. Digital dissenters are attempting to rein in runaway data and help shape a digital world in which man and machine can live side by side but with humans as first priority.