INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY

Mass Media
The term mass is usually taken to refer to the size of the potential audience of a
communication medium, typically 10%- 20% of the given population (Morris & Organ,
1996).

Mass media is communicationwhether written, broadcast, or spokenthat reaches a

large audience. Mass media is a significant force in modern culture.Mass media means
technology that is intended to reach a mass audience. It is the primary means of
communication used to reach the vast majority of the general public. The most common
platforms for mass media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet.
The general public typically relies on the mass media to provide information regarding
political issues, social issues, entertainment, and news in pop culture

Mass media is the means used to communicate to the general public. Media are effectively
ciphers (i.e. empty of meaning) until we perceive some form of content which is then
treated as a message

Mass media-the kind of media that could be seen as the intersection of mass
communication, culture, and technology. This would incorporate all media that rely on
electricity, such as television, but exclude media that have a solely communicative function,
such as the telephone. Newspapers and magazines are included, even though they require
no technological input from their readers.

Media Psychology
Media psychology looks at the whole system. There is no beginning and no end. It is a
continual loop including the technology developer, content producer, content perceptions,
and user response. Media psychology uses the lens of psychology to understand human
interaction with technology.

Media psychology found its inspirational roots more than 90 years ago within the discipline
of social psychology and in the early work of social psychologist Hugo Munsterberg
concerning the psychology and the psychological impact of film.

It is concerned with the inter-and intra- personal psychological dimensions underlying the
impact and use of any medium of communication, irrespective of the nature of the subject
matter being communicated. Media psychology is concerned with social and psychological
parameters of communication between people (or people and other organisms) that are
mediated by some technology or conduit other than simply air.
In today's world, Media psychology is a force in social media, telehealth and teletherapy,
online education, in and out of the classroom and virtual classroom, in entertainment
consulting , traditional media interviews ,in providing on camera expertise, virtual and
augmented reality therapies ,consumer products, brand development, marketing, advertising,
product placement and game theory.

Media psychology in our segmented society is easier to explain when categorizing social
segments as "verticals, e.g., "global silos. The silos are commerce, education, healthcare,
entertainment, telecommunications, public policy and govt. Each of these silos has its own
constituencies, organizations and associations. Media psychology has become clearly defined
and what all has been learnt on the recent period has become conventional wisdom.

Media psychology is central in cinema, including film analysis, media assisted rehabilitating,
telecommuting communications, effective public health, public service and public policy
including political campaigns. Media psychology is applied in medical education and practice
and in all forms of media publishing. Theories in psychology are formed from the synthesis
of philosophy and physiology. Media psychology flows from the application of theories in
psychology to media. Specifically included are the use of pictures, graphics and sound in all
forms of new communications technology. Media psychology is the interface between media
and the human response. Media psychology represents the convergence of psychology
applied to media, technology, communication and is an art and science.

Need of Media psychology

We need media psychology because media technologies are proliferating at the speed of light
with new toys and gadgets on the market every day. These technologies are introducing
capabilities that are redefining the way we work, play, and communicate. As i see it, a media
psychologist can add value in 5 ways:

1. Helping people adjust to the rapid pace of technological process.

2. Holding authors and journalists accountable to professional standards when new research
reports make headlines by actually reading the ports.

3. Explain the difference between correlation and causality.

4. Remind everyone that the experience of media technologies varies by person, culture,
context, and what you are trying to achieve.

5. helping people understand that the sky is not falling.

Issues in Media psychology

CONSTRUCTION REALITY
Media content is based on the happenings in the physical world but also it highlights certain
elements over others. Reality is necessarily manipulated when events and people are
relocated into news or prime time stories. One of the most obvious ways in which media
content structures a symbolic environment is simply by giving greater attention to certain
events, people, groups and places than others. The media can thus be used to manufacture
consent, legitimise political positions or cultivate a particular world view. This is defined as
the CNN effect- the ability of television pictures to influence people so powerfully that
important military and political decisions are driven by those pictures rather than by policies
(Robinson, 1999).

Lippman's important point was that we must distinguish between reality (the outside world of
actual events) and social reality (our mediated knowledge of those events) because we think
and behave based not only on what truly is but on what is perceived to be.

Following the work of Lippman, scholars now largely accept that reality is socially
constructed, understood and mediated. While reality incorporates the notion of having an
objective independent existence or occurring in fact, the social construction of reality accepts
at its very nature a subjective "experience" with reality.

Specifically, three theories can directly be linked to social construction of reality.

First, Bandura's (1977) social learning theory states about how mass media consumers can
learn appropriate societal actions. Social modeling and social expectancy study a lot of TV
exposure and consider he degree to which viewers

(a) act according to what they view, and

(b) come to hold the roles of individuals and norms of society that television portrays. Many
of these studies also focus on the media's effects on children.

Second, cultivation theory (Gerbner,1973) demonstrates how people line their views of the
world with those presented in the media. Cultivation researchers attempt to study the
contributions that the media make to viewers' conceptions of society. Basically, they seek to
understand if TV viewers revert their images, opinions and beliefs of society to that of
television's. Typical cultivation studies focus on the differences between heavy and light
viewers and their judgements of violence in the world.

Finally, agenda setting (McCombs & Shaw, 1972) presents the motion of how the media
dictate importance of issues and events to the public. Agenda setting typically deals with the
news media's ability to tell the audience what issues are important or more specifically what
to think about. The rationale is that the media provide cues to which issues are important; and
consequently, audience members accept those cues regarding salient issues and then adopt
them as their own (Becker, 1982).

While the media performs an agenda setting function in setting up a pop culture , the
audience can do what it wants with the elements of the pop culture. It may be easier to
"passively" accept what the media focus on, but what the individual needs to remember is
that in so doing this, it was his or her choice to accept this content for there is other non
mainstream content available, but it dies take a more "active" audience member to attain it.
However, audience is not passive.

MEDIA AND CULTURE

Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing

language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Culture is the expressed and shared
values, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of a social group, organization, or institution.

There are instances in which values of a culture have shaped the manner in which the media
operates. For e.g., in American culture a key value is free speech. The value of free speech is
central to American mass communication. The U.S. Constitution's first amendment
guarantees the freedom of speech and of the press. Copyright law also puts limits on free
speech. Works under copyright can't be reproduced without the authorization of the creator,
nor can anyone else use them to make a profit. Inventions, novels, musical tunes, and even
phrases can all be covered by copyright law. In recent years, an Internet culture that enables
file sharing, mixing, mash-ups, and Youtube parodies has raised questions about copyright.

While mass media draw from culture and existing social concerns they too effect cultural
institutions and values in several ways by strengthening or shaping certain political views;
ideologies; and notions of gender and minorities.

Popular culture or pop culture which refers to the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes,
images and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture are seen to be
heavily influenced by mass media. The media and the audience establish a self-fulfilling
prophecy in regards to media content.

In terms of political influence, news broadcasters have often demonstrated their power to
influence viewers, either consciously or through slanted political commentary. In terms of
social influence, the media has at times reinforced traditional values.

Media coverage has brought about positive social changes towards a more egalitarian and just
society. Ex; the media played a crucial and integral role in shaping public opinion and
mobilising public action after the Nirbhaya rape case in 2012.

MEDIA AND ETHICS

Media is mandated to follow certain ethics in collecting and disseminating information.

Ethics is the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. It is a system of notions
about right and wrong that guides a persons actions. Media ensures authenticity of the news,
use of restrained and socially and acceptable language for ensuring objectivity and fairness in
reporting and keeping in mind its casting effect on the society and on the individuals and
concerned institutions.
In the context of press, Ethics are described as a set of moral principles or values, which
guide the conduct of journalism. The media all over the world has voluntarily accepted that
code of ethics should cover at least the following areas of conduct :-

* honesty and fairness; duty to correct factual errors; duty not to falsify pictures or to use
them in misleading fashion.

* duty to provide an opportunity to reply to critical opinions as well as to critical factual

reportage

* appearance as well as reality of objectivity

* respect for privacy

* duty to distinguish between facts and opinions

* duty not to discriminate or to inflame hatred on grounds such as race, nationality, religion,
or gender

* duty not to use dishonest means to obtain information

* duty not to endanger people,

* general standards of decency and taste

* duty not to prejudice the guilt of an accused and to publish the dismissal charges against or
acquittal of anyone about whom the paper previously had reported that charges had been
filled or that a trial had commended.

REGULATION

Media in India is mostly self-regulated. The existing bodies for regulation of media such as
the Press Council of India (PCI) which is a statutory body and the News Broadcasting
Standards Authority, a self-regulatory organization, issue standards which are more in the
nature of guidelines.

The functions of the PCI include among others

i) helping newspapers maintain their independence;

ii) build a code of conduct for journalists and news agencies;
iii) help maintain "high standards of public taste" and foster responsibility among
citizens; and
iv) review developments likely to restrict flow of news.

The powers of the PCI are restricted in two ways.

1) The PCI has limited powers of enforcing the guidelines issued.

2) The PCI only overviews the functioning of press media.That is, it can enforce standards
upon newspapers, journals, magazines and other forms of print media. It does not have the
power to review the functioning of the electronic media like radio, television and internet
media.

Program and Advertisement Codes for regulating content broadcast on the television, are
issued under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.Radio Channels have to
follow the same Programme and Advertisement Code as followed by All India Radio. The
NBA has devised a Code of Ethics to regulate television content. The News Broadcasting
Standards Authority (NBSA), of the NBA, is empowered to warn, admonish, censure,
express disapproval and fine the broadcaster a sum upto Rs.1 Lakh for violation of the Code.
Another such organization is the Broadcast Editor's Association.

MEDIA AND ADVERTISING

Advertising is a powerful communication force and a vital marketing tool helping to sell
goods, services, images and ideas (or ideals) through channels of information and persuasion.
It is a forever interwined with the social psychological needs, wants, and backgrounds of
consumers.

AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA
Audio-Visual media means possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-
tape presentations, films, television programs, church services and live theatre production.
Advances in television broadcasting have created changes in the sleep habits, meal
arrangements ,leisure time pursuits and conversation pattern of million of families. The rapid
spread of other cultural forms, such as fashion hairstyles, and types of music or sports, can be
stimulated by the media.

REALITY AND FANTASIES:-

Some people believe fantasy on television can lead to imaginative and creative expression; it
also permits children to retreat from real- life situations and can encourage them to seek
immediate gratification of their impulses or instant solution to problem. As children get older
and have more experience with different type of TV programming as well as reality, they
learn to recognize form and content cues denoting fact and fiction on TV. By about age 7 or
8, children can distinguish between things that are real and those that are make-believe on
television.

According to Piaget (1962), young children thinks very differently from adults. Pre school
children believe that the cartoon characters and the actual people they see on television are
equally real and live inside the television set. This is because they have difficulty
conceptualizing the distinction between a pictorial representation and actual one. They also
have difficulty understanding false claims.

For pre schoolers, reality and fantasy tend to be interchangeable. They are unable to
understand that advertisements are intended to sell products rather than entertain them.
Number of children each month are brought to hospital emergency rooms with broken bones
from leaping from the tops of building or smashing objects with bare hands the sad way to
find out one is not superman.

PREVALENCE OF VIOLENCE

Violence is defined as the overt expression of physical force against others or self or
compelling action against ones will and pain of being hurt or killed or actually hurting or
killing.

Television and movies, by their very nature, have the ability to introduce children to
frightening images, events and idea , many of which they would not encounter in their entire
lives without the mass media. Violence is concern because, over the years , there has been
increase in violence on childrens Saturday morning programs as well as on prime-time
television. When violence is justified, goes unpunished, or causes no harm or pain to victims,
it is also more likely to influence viewer behavior.

The NTVS demonstrated that the context in which the most violence is presented on TV
poses certain risks for viewers :

1. Learning to behave violently.

2. Becoming more desensitized to violence

3. Becoming more fearful of being attacked.

Also the age of child, real life experiences. Temperament and cognitive developmental level
influence the impact of viewing violence.

STEREOTYPES:-

They are oversimplified representations of members of a group, they generally conform to a

pattern of dress or behavior that is easily recognized and understood. Stereotypes are less
real, more perfect or imperfect or more predictable than their real-life counterparts. Females
represented the majority of characters in commercials for cleaning and hygiene/beauty
products , apparel, and toys and males dominated in ads for alcohol, cars , leisure/ travel, and
financial services. Comedies or action dramas, ethnic minorities are most often associated
with violence. Gender stereotypes have decreased on TV but are still common in depictions
of behavior, relationships and occupational roles.

SOCIALIZATION:-

Comstock and colleagues concluded that television is indeed a major socializer of children. It
is difficult to pinpoint the exact effects of television on behavior because of other mediating
or intervening influences such as, viewers cognitive developmental level, attitudes, interests,
values , experiences.

Our senses enable us to respond to stimuli in the environment. However, it is impossible to

pay attention to everything going on , thus we select or consciously attend to only some of the
available stimuli. Selective attention is crucial to learning because childrens perceptions and
concepts of the world depend on which aspects of it get their attention.

Television programmers may be able to manipulate the level of oustandingness, novelty or to

attract the audience attention by controlling the input. It is up to viewers to decide whether
those messages belong in their frame of reference by being aware of the mediating
influences,

Parents can mediate television viewing by:-

1. Controlling the number of hours of television exposure

2. Checking ratings and evaluating what kind of programs may be viewed

3. Viewing television with their children and discussing the programs.

4. Arranging family activities other than television viewing.

Interactive and emerging technologies in media

Interactive media and multimedia are those which enable the users to participate and/or
change such as computers, video games and cell phones.

Computers and the Internet -. The Internet created public space and remove barriers to
communication, such as time and space. The Internet is an international network and so
represents many different cultures. Websites, shopping and trading, email, instant messaging,
chat rooms and newsgroups make for what McLuhan called the "Global Village." Because
websites are not categorised, search engines emerged as a means to locate, sort through and
index the sites. Websites sometimes provide means for feedback from visitors and forums can
be created wherein collaborations can take place. The Internet formerly known as the Arapnet
and created by the US department of Defence, was first established to provide a
Communications Network that would always be operable under any form of attack because
there was no Central distribution point. This network soon was being used by universities to
share information with each other and then by the private sector.

Some of the problems with Internet technology are:

(1) piracy issues related to the illegal transfer of copyrighted material,

(2) privacy issues regarding the ability to track online usage patterns and gain access to
personal data,

(3) access issues related to the capacity to hack into authorised information,

(4) viruses and worms, which can destroy data on computers and (5) unsolicited "junk mail".

Computers enhance instruction by presenting information, enabling students to practice skills,

promoting creativity by reducing the time spent on Mechanics, and allowing for assessment.
The interactive capabilities of computers with CD-ROMs and modems allow for practically
unlimited access to information. Computers are also and excellent medium for learning. One
concern is that children who have home computers will become social isolates and choose
solitary activities over interactive ones. Another concern is that children will access
information that negates their family's values. Individuals can easily connect to banks,
businesses, government agencies, stores, libraries, universities, people with certain interests
and so on.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) set privacy rules to protect children from Data-
gathering online marketers, requiring them to obtain parental permission prior to soliciting
information.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1997) and the Centre for Media
Education (1997) suggest the following Internet safety rules for children:

1. Never give a name, address, phone number, or school name to anyone met online.

2. Never go into a new online area that will cost extra without parental permission.

3. Never give out a credit card number online.

4. Always tell parents or a trusted adult if someone online is scary or confusing.

5. Never arrange to meet anyone in person met online.