Media effects, interpersonal communication and beyond: An experimental approach to study conversations about the media and their role in news reception
Journal Title: ESSACHESS - Journal for Communication Studies - Year 2013, Vol 6, Issue 1
Abstract
The paper aims at discussing the challenges and opportunities of laboratory experiments for communication studies. An experimental approach to research on TV news effects is presented. It focuses on interpersonal communication about a newscast and simulates the social context of media use and media effects. Based upon two research domains, (1) The role of interpersonal communication in media effects and (2) TV news reception, five hypotheses are derived which are tested in an innovative experimental design integrating survey and observation methods in a combination of media effects study and small group experiment. The influence of conversations on news memory and evaluation is assessed by treating conversations as independent variable in the experiment. In a video observation, the mechanisms of interpersonal communication about the media are identified. A moderating influence of conversations, specifically an enhanced news recall, is revealed. Additionally, the characteristics of the social processing of the media content can be described and applied as possible explanations for the effects of the experimental treatment. Consequently, the advantages of integrative research designs are explicated.
Authors and Affiliations
Denise SOMMER| PhD Lecturer, University of Leipzig, GERMANY
Shared secrets: Web 2.0 and research in Social Sciences
Web 2.0 represents a revolution in terms of the possibilities it offers for facilitating communication and collaboration between users – something that has become increasingly common in the world of research. A mere...
The sacralization of information
The objective of the article is to describe some parts of the process of "regarding as sacred of the information " which was set up in the middle of the XXth century, within the cybernetics. It is also a question of sh...
Experimenting relations between artists and scientists : the appropriation of motion sensors by dancers
We want to show here how recent innovations called Motion Capture, still being tested in laboratory on their potential uses, invite us to change our way to relate to the “techniqueâ€. We don’t want to question wha...
Expressive violence: the performative effects of subversive participatory media uses
This article discusses the communication strategies employed by 8 school shooters who used participatory media to frame their acts as well as their identity. By resorting to content analysis of 78 self-produced videos...
Swiss innovation and social networks: a thematic analysis in French-speaking print media and in the newspaper Le Temps
Currently the themes of innovation and social networks appear in the content of press articles. Living in an Internet society where the users are increasingly involved in the innovation process, thus acting upon the no...