THE TWO-STEP FLOW OF COMMUNICATION

Paul Lazarsfeld, et al., The People's Choice [This study found that other influences were more important in voting behavior than the mass media: IPP; interpersonal influence].

Elihu Katz continued to develop studies to analyze interpersonal influence in communication:

Rovere Study

Decatur Study

Drug Study

He concluded that the flow of communication from the mass media was not direct.

source>message>mass media>opinion leaders>masses

opinion leaders--"every day" influential associates: "the opinion leader is influential at certain times and with respect to certain substantive areas by virture of the fact that he is 'empowered' to be so by other members of his group."

Influence is related to--

*the personification of certain values (who one is)

*competence (what one knows)

*strategic social location (whom one knows)

 

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS METHOD

Katz, Jay Blumler and Michael Gurevitch began to do survey studies: "an attempt to explain something of the way in which individuals use communications, among other resourses in their environment to satisfy their needs and to achieve their goals, and to do so solely by asking them."

Categories--soap operas

Exciting entertainment

Pass time

Voyeurism

Escapist Relaxation

Information

Social Utility

*parasocial interaction--Perse and Rubin

Categories--Teens and the Internet

Learning

Habit

Companionship

Relaxation

Pass time

Arousal

 

DISPLACEMENT HYPOTHESIS

South Africa research

Notel, Canada research

 

MORE RECENT RESEARCH

1999 -- Kaiser Family Foundation Research

Survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,090 2-7 year olds and 2,060 8-18 year olds.

*Average household is full of media

*Children spend 5.5 to 6.5 hours/day with media content

*Adults do not supervise reading (50% of the time), Music/Video (33%) and TV (20%)

*Rules about use vary with age

70% for age 2-7

47% for age 8-13

25% for 14 and older

*Most subjects scored high on psychological well-being scale (except for those with the highest use and no parental supervision)

*The main use of print, TV and computers was entertainment or killing time. Little learning going on

2000 -- Nie's Research at Stanford University

Subjects spent 5 or more hours a day online

*Blurring of the boundry between home/work.

*Social isolation--less time spent with friends and family

*Displacement of time spent with traditional mass media (TV, newspapers. . .)

2001-- Pew Study

Compared subjects using the internet with non-users

*Internet users report having more social networks (50%) than non-users (38%)

*Internet users feel less isolated (8%) than non-users (18%)

*Internet users visited more friends/family the previous day (75%) 61% for non-users

*Email does not decrease telephone calls between parent and child

Overall -- Strengthing family ties

2003 Kaiser Family Foundation Report: Zero to Six--Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers [interviews with 1000 parents]

*immersion of the youngest children in the world of electronic and interactive media

^children 0 to 6 spend an average of 2 hours a day with screen media [compared to 2 hours spent outside and 39 minutes of reading]

^36% have a TV in their bedroom; 10% have video game player in their bedroom

^TV watching begins before the time recommended by the medical community

^50% of 4-6 year olds have played video games

^70% of 4-6 year olds have used computers

^parents see media as an important educational tool-but parents consider books to be more important

^parents see a primarily positive effect media has on behavior

^there are gender differences

>boys are more likely to imitate aggressive behavior than girls

>boys are more likely to play (and play for longer periods of time) video games

*impact of this exposure on development is unknown

^issues:

>concentration, attention span, multi-tasking

>displacement of physical activity

>exposure to advertising and marketing

2006 Kaiser Family Foundation: "The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers and Their Parents"

Parents turn to media

to cope (get household chores done)

to calm children down; keep siblings from fighting

"me" time

 

Parents

deal with guilt by relying on PBS, Disney and Nickelodeon as 'educational'

are duped my marketing (baby videos for the 1 month old; computer games for the 9 month old child)

 

2010 Kaiser Family Foundation: "Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8 to 18 Year Olds" (Handout)

 

 

 

USES A

 

ND GRATIFICAATIONSUS