This is a blog about my teaching, research and service with some occasional personal comments thrown in. These are my notes on a variety of topics. If you want to follow my blog posts on a specific topic, then see the Table of Contents in the right-hand column. While I try to work in the realm of facts, logic and moral absolutes, if there are any opinions expressed here, they are my own. -WilliamHartPhD
If I say popcorn and cell phones, what pops into your mind? Excuse the pun. Pop.
Seen the videos on the Internet that show people using cell phones to pop popcorn?
Are there health concerns you have when using cell phones? That is, is there a serious consequence of us adopting cell phones?
Watch the video and do a little thinking.
-------------
Think of desirable and undesirable consequences as the good and bad consequences of adopting an innovation. Desirable = good, positive. Undesirable = bad, negative.
What would be some desirable or good consequences of university students adopting cell/smartphones? What would be some undesirable consequences?
As for direct and indirect, think of consequences as chain of consequences.
Adopt an innovation ---> direct consequence ---> indirect consequence -----> indirect consequence.
For example, if you adopt a new 3-D HDTV, then you can then you invite all your friends over and be "the talk of the town." Now, that you are popular among your friends, you fell the pressure to keep inviting your new "friends" over (indirect consequence). Now you lose time and money time and money entertaining your new friends (indirect consequence). Which leads to you not having the time to spend on other important things in your life (indirect consequence). The loss of time is not a direct consequence, but an indirect consequence.
Anticipated consequences are those that you think are going to happen if you adopt the innovation. The unanticipated consequences are those that you don't see coming. For example, you adopt that newest, expensive, tech toy and it is great. You can do all sorts of things with it. However, you didn't think about the struggle of paying off the bill for the new toy.
Another, especially important consequence of technological adoption.
What makes an innovation spread? What makes the rate of adoption increase? What are the key factors according to diffusion of innovations theory? What are the characteristics (or attributes) of an innovation that makes it quickly become adopted?
Specifically, what are the attributes of the innovation that make it spread?
Let's first think about these attributes in the context of early radio? Do you see the attributes mentioned in the adoption of early radio.
See from about 0:30 to about 9:00 in the video below.
Now, how do these attributes of an innovation apply to the diffusion of social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc.?
Diffusion of innovation: “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.”(Rogers). The graph below shows how people in a society over time adopt an innovation.
At first nobody had a TV in the U.S., but over time...
How does this theory help us understand how media technologies develop? Does it help us understand the future of media technologies?
We can boil the decision process down to just five steps.
Rogers’ model for the adoption decision process
What are the steps in the adoption decision process?
"Knowledge - learning about the existence and function of the innovation
Persuasion - becoming convinced of the value of the innovation
Decision - committing to the adoption of the innovation
Implementation - putting it to use
Confirmation - the ultimate acceptance (or rejection) of the innovation”
Think carefully about the most recent new tech you bought, I mean adopted. Did you go through this process? Review the process above and think about it.
What was the tech? How did you learn about the new tech? How were you persuaded to get it? What about the rest of the process?
Earlier we talked about Thomas Kuhn's ideas of paradigms, paradigm shifts and how theories grow and change of time, i.e. how they evolve. In our look at agenda-setting theory, let's see how Kuhn's ideas apply to the development of agenda setting theory. But, first let's start with a good grasp of the basics of agenda-setting theory.
Did you spot the parts of paradigmatic history just in this short video?
Rogers, E. M., Hart, W. B. & Dearing, J. W. (1997). A paradigmatic history of agenda-setting research. In S. Iyengar & R. Reeves (Eds.). Do the Media Govern?: Politicians, Voters, and Reporters in America (pp. 225-236). Thousand Oaks: CA, Sage Publications. Could you tell the paradigmatic history of agenda-setting research? What would be on that list or timeline?
Now, let's look at media theories that operate at the more sociological level.
First, let's look at cultivation theory. "The central tenet [of cultivation theory] is that heavy viewing literally cultivates a common view of the world" (Rosenberry & Vicker, p. 105). According to George Gerbner, when using cultivation theory, we are looking at the long-term effects of repeated viewing has on an audience. Here we are not looking at the immediate, one-time effect of a single media program, like the War of the Worlds broadcast.
Everyday definition of cultivate: "to prepare or prepare and use for the raising of crops... also: to loosen or break up the soil about (growing plants)" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
Compare Gerbner's use of the term with how a farmer uses the term. Similarities?
Entertainment education is based on a variety of theoretical frameworks. One of those is Albert Bandura's social learning theory.
If you are interested, I would also suggest this video for some more background on Bandura and social learning theory.
Below is another example of entertainment education. Tim Reid, noted Norfolk State University alumnus and actor/director/producer, and NSU students (Maryna Kariuk and Shimira Cole) were involved in the making of "Hear My Son". How exactly is this an example of entertainment education? How is social learning theory relevant here?
Hear My Son from Legacy Media Institute on Vimeo. One of the key originators of the entertainment education concept is Miguel Sabido. He used entertainment education strategies in television, specifically soap operas in Mexico and other countries. Sabido developed a theory for the construction of successful entertainment education projects. It was perhaps more a meta-theory in that it brought together a variety of theories from a variety of fields into one meta-theory. One theory that Sabido drew upon was that of Bandura's social learning theory. Two key concepts in social learning theory are imitation and identification. imitation: "The direct reproduction of observed behavior" (Baran & Davis, p. 170). identification: "A special form of imitation that springs from wanting to be and trying to be like an observed model relative to some broader characteristics or qualities" (Baran & Davis, p. 170). Do you see how Bandura's concepts of imitation and identification fit in the videos above? If you were to create a development communication project that was entertainment education media project, how would you use social learning theory and the other theories used in E-E?
Entertainment education (EE) is part of a larger concept called development communication. With this type of development, we are working with the development of nations. As such, it can be argued that EE theories are more sociological theories and not individual level theories. However, given the EE set of theories includes Bandura's social learning theory and other psychological theories, EE can fit in the individual level theories as well.
Development: "purposive changes undertaken in a society to achieve what may be regarded generally as a different ('improved') state of social and economic affairs"(Hernández-Ramos & Schramm, 1989).
Development projects typically focus on certain areas/issues of a society (e.g. agriculture, health, nutrition, family planning, women's empowerment, etc.)
Development communication: the use of communication technology and principles to aid in the development of a society. The idea of presenting a development message within a fictional program is the type of development communication that is called entertainment education.
Entertainment Education is "the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message both to entertain and educate" (Singhal & Rogers, 1999, p. 9).
Entertainment education is "the intentional placement of educational content in entertainment messages" (Singhal & Rogers, 2002, p. 117).
"Entertainment-education (E-E) is the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience members’ knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, shift social norms, and change overt behavior (Singhal & Rogers, 1999; Singhal & Rogers, 2002)" (Singhal, Cody, Rogers & Sabido, 2003, p. 5).
Before looking more closely at the theoretical frameworks behind EE, let's first see some examples.
The World Bank is a multinational organization that uses entertainment education in their work. See the video below for examples and background information.
If you are interested in seeing other examples of entertainment education media projects from around the world, I'd recommend Entertainment-Education Inspirations. Now, let's gets some history and insight on the founding father of entertainment education, Miguel Sabido. Miguel Sabido is the person on the left in the video still image below. Who is the person on the right? Play the following video from 0:00-2:43.
Uses and gratifications theory shifts things around. Instead of looking at the effect of mass media on individuals (e.g. hypodermic needle theory), it looks at how individuals use media. The individual takes a more active role.
So, what are some ways, according to the theory, that we use media? The above video states the 5 following uses: (1) Information and education, (2) entertainment, (3) personal identity, (4) integration & social interaction and (5) escapism.
Yes, much of uses and gratifications theory was developed before the advent of social media, but is it still applicable? So how could uses and gratification theory be applied to social media?
Let's take a look at this student YouTube video that explores this question.
Let's focus now on media theories that focus on individuals and theories that are rooted, to some degree, in psychology. Uses and gratifications theory and entertainment education theory can be put into this category.
Recall the idea that study of media began as an interdiscipline and thus borrowed from a variety of different academic disciplines? Psychology was one of those disciplines, yes?
Before we get into uses and gratifications theory, let's go back a bit further in time. Let's go back to one of the early mass media theories, the hypodermic needle theory.
So, according to the video what is the hypodermic need theory? How does it focus on individual media audience members?
Rosenberry & Vicker (2017) define a paradigm as "a predominant way of conceiving a situation. A number of specific theories call all be seen as valid within a paradigm." In this sense, a paradigm can be seen as a meta-theory.
The video above ends with pointing out media scholar eventually came to the conclusion that the hypodermic needle theory "just doesn't work." According to Kuhn what happens when a theory doesn't work anymore? Does that mean other theories came in and took its place? What does this have to do with a paradigm shift? What is a paradigm shift? What did we shift to?
