MEDIA AND SOCIAL INFLUENCES

Media and Social Influences

Media and Social Influence

Introduction

Many of the theories examined thus far have attempted to measure the effects of mass media on the public. Some of the theories have dealt specifically with the idea of meaning structuring. For example, cultivation theory focused on how one learns and understands the world based on exposure to mediated messages, while agenda-setting research uncovered how the news media influences what one views as important. While researchers have a desire to understand these media effects, many are interested in such research in order to learn how to apply it practically to areas like advertising, "political" campaigns, public relations, and other areas of social life.

What is Persuasion?

It involves a volitional change in one's attitude, belief, or behavior as a result of a transmitted message from another source (Perloff, 1993). If one of these elements is not changed in an individual, persuasion has not taken place. Three important theoretical perspectives can be shed light on the process of persuasion: Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Elaboration Likelihood Model, and Social Judgment Theory. Though there are many other theories that attempt to explain the same areas of behavior, these three are among the popular and serve the purpose of giving a more comprehensive understanding of the process of social influence.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive Dissonance Theory, developed by psychologist Leon Festinger while he was at Stanford University, is an example of a theory in psychology known as a consistency theory. These theories hold that human beings desire consistency among their attitudes and beliefs. Festinger (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989) maintained that when one of these elements (which he referred to as cognitive elements) contradicted another related element, a state of cognitive tension would result.

This tension is what Festinger referred to as cognitive dissonance. For example, someone may hold the ...