Summary: Reader Media Theory I

Read the summary and the most important questions on Reader Media Theory I

• 1 Why study media effects?

• Why do we study media effects?

  • media message saturation
  • high degree of exposure
  • accelerating production of information
  • impossible to keep up
  • challenge of coping with information
  • media influence is pervasive and constant
  • huge knowledge base about media effects

• what is media message saturation? And why does it matter?

  Society is flooded with information, and the rate of growth is so high it will grow even further.

• what is important about the accelerating production of information?

  there is so much information that it gets lost in the flood, we can barely comprehend how much info there is

• Why is it impossible to keep up with information?

  We have better access than before to media content, but there is simply not enough time to consume everything

• What is the challenge of coping with information?

  Our minds automatically filter information, which costs little effort but it makes us miss certain messages and decrease our experience

• Why is media influence pervasive and constant?

  because we use it unconsciously and therefore the media are constantly poking our subconscious with narratives and messages made to nestle in our minds

• What is the problem with the huge knowledge base surrounding media effects

  there are simply too many 'theories', scholars don't know one from another

• 2 Defining key ideas about media effects

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• what are the two 'natures' of audience members?

  • the human mind as machine
  • humans as interpretive beings
    

• What are the two subjects under media exposure?

  • Exposure and attention
  • Exposure states
    

• What are the three tasks of information-processing?

  • filtering
  • meaning matching
  • meaning construction