Impact of Mass Media on Society
Smarak Swain
The rapid development of media technology is perhaps the biggest technological revolution of 20th century. Communication technology, mass media and finally information technology have revolutionized the way people communicate. In this chapter, we shall examine the positive and negative impacts of mass media on society. We shall limit our study in this chapter to radio and television media. The impact of internet communication and social networking sites is conceptually much more, since they allow two-way interaction with the consumer.
Traditionally society and culture used to change from village to village. Cultural symbols and ways were picked up by one society from another by way of cultural diffusion. Cultural diffusion used to happen through people-to-people contact. Mass media technology has changed the very nature of cultural diffusion, by widely propagating cultures and norms across wider audiences. That is the reason why modern society picks up all new trends, fashion, and fads from mass media.
More importantly, mass media affects behaviour of people in society. The impact of mass media on behaviour can be positive or negative. Mass media is used for social interventions to spread awareness and to change social behaviour. The is the pro-social effect of mass media. At the same time, mass media influences tendency of persons towards violence, deviance, and delinquency. This is an anti-social impact. Mass media can be used for spreading political messages and for generating awareness among people about specific issues. This is a pro-social effect. Yet, mass media could be used for propaganda purpose. This is a negative influence of mass media.
Theories on impact of Mass Media
Numerous reasons have been proposed to explain the causal link between mass media and social behaviour of individuals. Each reason is an approach to understand how mass media affects social behaviour of individuals and social groups. These are as under:
a) Cultivation theory: Cultivation theory states that exposure to media, over time, subtly "cultivates" viewers' perceptions of reality. Cultivists believe that in this new world where media is an integral part of life, it helps shape our understanding of the world. Hence, media is a key element of the socialization process.
Two key ideas in cultivation studies are mainstreaming and resonance. Mainstreaming idea means that different cultural backgrounds and values gradually converge as a result of international TV culture. Mainstreaming leads to cultural globalization and cultural homogenization. We can see this in action in the form of TV channels and platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Many young people in India are fans of American crime shows and sitcoms. Most qualified youngsters have watched popular western sitcoms like Friends and How I met your mother. Yet other youngsters in India are fans of Korean drama and romance series on Netflix. Yet others like to watch Chinese action movies. Such acts lead to acculturation across the board.
Resonance idea means that media acts to reinforce people’s real life experiences. People like to consume media that reinforces their life experiences.
b) Active audience theory: This theory opines that media users are members of social groups and interpret any message sent through mass media based on their social background.
It can be understood with an illustration. Hypothetically, say, you receives a message on whatsapp stating that your mother tongue will become extinct unless the government bans English medium schools. How will you react? How you will interpret the message depends on your own attitude and worldview. There are three possibilities:
i) The dominant code: You accept the message sent to you and fume over the fact that your language is becoming extinct in India
ii) The negotiated code: Audiences modify the message on the basis of their personal experiences. You may take the message with a pinch of salt. This may be true, but then there are so many movies being made in your mother tongue. Many poets and writers in your mother tongue are recognized world over.
iii) The oppositional code: You treat the message with deep suspicion. You may label it as a ‘fake news’ or a biased propaganda.
c) Media dependency theory: This theory states that in a media-saturated world, people have come to depend heavily on media platforms for information about all kinds of topic. There are three key modes in which individuals develop dependencies on the media. They are:
i. Media provides information that helps users understand the world around them
ii. Users may depend on media for orientation, either in terms of action (deciding to vote in an election, or go to the salon to look good), or interaction (googling for ways to propose your girlfriend)
iii. Users depend on the media for play (either for playing a video game or for going to the multiplex for a movie)
d) Agenda setting theory: This theory explains impact of mass media in the context of democratic elections. It states that politicians select, package, and present stories over mass media that project their issues as most important issues. When particular news stories are presented prominently and frequently by the press, the public start believing that it is important.
For instance, the Vietnam war did not directly affect Americans. Americans would not normally consider it an important issue. But political leaders in America wanted to send troops to Vietnam to fight North Vietnam. So they projected Vietnam issue as the most important issue on mass media. When many American soldiers died and public opinion veered against the war, the mass media was used to project Vietnam as the last frontier in fight against communism.
e) Aggressive cues theory: This theory states that exposure to violent videos increases physiological and emotional arousal, which increases probability of violence. Watching violent videos does not always lead to violence but increases the tendency of violent behaviour.
Impact of violence on mass media
There is a clear linkage between watching violent videos on mass media and tendency for increased violence. People who watch a lot of TV are likely to overestimate the amount of violence and crime that occurs in the world. This makes them anticipate more violence in their own lives. In one case, social scientists conducted a series of studies on the effect of violent lyrics on attitudes and feelings of listeners, and found that college students who listened to a violent song felt more hostile and reported an increase in aggressive thoughts compared to another group that heard a similar but nonviolent song[i]. Rubin and his colleagues reported that college students who preferred heavy metal and rap music expressed more hostile attitudes[ii].
Impact of explicit imagery and pornography on society
Questions have been raised about how pornography affects a man’s sexual attitudes and how it leads to sexual violence and rape. It has been found that man pornographic material model rape myths, suggesting that men are entitled to sex, women enjoy rough se and only bad girls get raped. Rape myths affect attitude of men towards women. Pornography also tends to objectify women. One study has found that after five days of viewing pornography, participants gave shorter prison sentences to rapists in a mock trial[iii].
Another major effect of pornography is desensitization. Viewing explicit material for a long period of time instills an appetite for even-more extreme material. In an experiment, Zillman and Bryant showed pornography once a week for six weeks to an experimental group. Later, when left alone with an array or pornographic videos, participants of experimental groups chose significantly more XXX material than control group members. In another study, they found that both males and females reported lower sexual satisfaction with their partners after viewing six weeks of pornographic material.
Thirdly, regular viewing of pornography also increases the incidence of violence against women. In one study a causal link between violent pornography and violence against women was established[iv]. In this study, three groups of male college students were taken. These groups were randomly assigned to watch three kinds of pornographic material;
1. Neutral videos
2. Sexually explicit but non-violent videos
3. Sexually aggressive videos
Later the participants were required to interact with a female. They were asked to quiz the woman with questions related to general knowledge and to punish her with electric shocks for errors, the intensity of shock varying. Malamuth and her colleagues found that strongest experimental effects (i.e., high shock for wrong answers) emerged when participants viewed violent pornography.
Pro-social effects of Mass Media
There are many positive effects of mass media on society. These can be discussed under the following heads:
1.Media and children
Educational media are hugely beneficial for children. Screen presentation of educational material, for example, can be highly successful if used as supplement with printed texts.
In one experiment, investigators tried to study the effect of a TV model on six year olds[v]. One group of children viewed an episode of Lassie in which there was a rescue scene; a second group viewed the same show without such a scene and a third group watched an episode of Brady Bunch. After seeing the shows, the children participated in a game in which winner could receive a prize. In the midst of the game, they came in contact with a group of puppies who were whining unhappily. The first group spent more time in trying to comfort the puppies than other groups in spite of the fact that stopping to help the puppies would interfere with their goal (to win the race). This experiment demonstrates that mass media can be used to promote socially conformist behaviour during the socialization process.
2. Sensitization to Social Problems
Media plays an essential role in sensitizing viewers towards social problem. TV viewership increases the awareness of people towards various problem like HIV-AIDS, drug abuse and alcoholism, etc. However, the type of media one is exposed to makes a difference in level of awareness.
In one study, the degree of awareness pertaining to social problems among high school students in Pune in relation to media was studied[vi]. It was observed that the choice of media and children’s awareness of social problems were positively related. The students with larger exposure to “masala” movies had significantly less information about the social problems as compared to those who had less exposure to films. Also, students who preferred to read mostly the sports and movie supplements of newspaper had significantly less information about social problems as compared to those who prefer science supplement. The study concluded that if media is used properly and methodically according to the needs of different age groups, it can work wonders.
3.Health Awareness
Media is an invaluable means of communicating information. Media has played an important role in promoting desirable behaviour like road safety and handling electric equipments. Media has also played an important role in communicating health messages, like those of HIV/AIDS, smoking, drug abuse, etc.
How effective are these campaigns? In a field experiment in Tanzania, social scientists studied the effect of a soap opera transmitting a program about HIV on Radio Tanzania[vii]. The program had three kinds of role models: positive models who had lesser sexual partners and practiced safe sex; transitional models who initially practiced unsafe sex but changed their behaviour later in fear of AIDS; and negative models who had many sexual partners and practiced unsafe sex. The negative models ultimately die. In this five-year long longitudinal study, the social scientists studied the effects of the radio program on listener’s attitudes and sexual practice. They found a reduction in prevalence of unsafe sex among those who listened to the soap opera.
4.Public Opinion
Public opinion is mediated by the flow of information from mass media. Hence, mass media plays a crucial role in political dynamics of the country. Media representation of various social and political issues makes citizens aware of their rights, various problems and their solutions.
5.Education through entertainment
Information about social issues can be embedded in soap operas and movies. For example, movies like Swades, Taare Zameen Par and Rang De Basanthi sensitize people towards certain social issues, while providing wholesome entertainment. In India, the issues in soaps are explicitly pro-social, ranging from local issues (Ex. Dowry death) to health issues (Ex. Alcoholism discouraged to global issues (like environmentalism).
References:
Anderson, C. A., Carnagey, N. L., & Eubanks, J. (2003). Exposure to violent media: The effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 960–971
Lavalekar, A. (2000) Social Awareness in Relation to Media among high school students. Psychological Studies, Vol. 45, No.3, p.139-144
Malamuth, N.M., Addison, T., & Koss, M. (2000) Pornography and secual aggression: Are there reliable effects and how might we understand them? Annual Review of Sex Research, Vol.11, p.26-91
Rubin, A. M., West, D .V. & Mitchell, W. S. (2001). Differences in aggression, attitudes toward women, and distrust as reflected in popular music preferences. Media Psychology, 3, 25–42
Sprafkin, J.N., Liebert, R.M., & Poulos, R.W. (1975) Effects of a prosocial televised example on children’s helping. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 20, 119-126
Vaughan, P.W., Rogers, E.M., Singhal, A., & Swalehe, R.M. (2000) Entertainment-Education and HIV/AIDS Prevention: A Field Experiment in Tanzania. Journal of Health Communication, Vol 5, 2000.
[i] Anderson, Carnagey, and Eubanks (2003)
[ii] Rubin, West, & Mitchell (2001)
[iii] See Zillman & Bryant (1989)
[iv] Malamuth et al (2000)
[v] See Sprafkin, Liebert and Poulous (1975)
[vi] Lavalekar (2000)
[vii] Vaughan et al (2000)