Groupthink

CHP. 14

Assumptions

• Conditions in groups promote high cohesiveness
• Group problem solving is primarily a unified process
• Groups and decision making are frequently complex

• Group members minimize personal doubts and counterarguments

• Group similiarity (groups whose members are similar to one another are groups that are more conducive to groupthink)

• Group Insulation
  • A groups ability to remain unaffected by outside influences
• Lack of Impartial Leadership
  
  • when groups are led by individuals who put their personal agenda first
• Lack of Decision-making Procedures
  • failure to provide norms for solving group issues
• Homogeneity (of group members backgrounds)
  

Organizational Culture Theory

CHP. 16

Assumptions

• Organizational members create and maintain a shared sense of organizational reality, resulting in a better understanding of the values of an organization.
• The use and interpretation of symbols are critical to an organization's culture
• Cultures vary across organizations, and the interpretations of actions within these cultures are diverse
  

• Physical Symbols:
  • art/design/logo/buildings/dress
    
• Behavioral Symbols:
  • ceremonies/rituals/traditions/customs/punishments
• Verbal Symbols:
  • anecdotes/jokes/jargon/names/stories/myths
    

• the standards and principles within a culture that have intrinsic worth to a culture.
  
• inform org. members about what is important
• derive from "moral knowledge"

The Rhetoric

CHP. 18

Syllogism

• A set of propositions that are related to one another and draw a conclusion from the major and minor premise
  Major premise: All people are mortal.
  Minor premise: Aristotle is a person.
  Conclusion: Therefore, Aristotle is mortal.

• Ethos: (ethics/credibility)
  • the perceived character, intelligence, and goodwill of a speaker
    
• Pathos: (emotion)
  • emotional proof; emotions drawn from audience members
    
• Logos: (logic)
  • logical proof; the use of arguments and evidence in a speech
    

• The assessment and evaluation of listeners
  • the process of evaluating an audience and its background (age, sex, edu level) and tailoring one's speech so that listeners respond as the speaker hopes they will
    

Narrative Paradigm

CHP. 20

Assertions

• Humans are naturally storytellers
• Decisions about a story's worth are based on "good reasons"
  
• Good reasons are determined by history, biography, culture, and character
• Rationality is based on people's judgements of a story's consistency and truthfulness
• We experience the world as filled with stories, and we must choose among them
  

• "A set of values for accepting a story as true and worthy of acceptance; provides a method for assessing fidelity"
• Primary method for assessing narrative fidelity

• Narration: an account to which listeners assign meaning
• Narrative Rationality: a standard for judging which stories to believe and which to disregard
  
• Coherence: a principle of narrative rationality judging the internal consistency of a story
  

• a significant change in the way most people see the world and its meanings

Cultural Studies

CHP. 21

Alienation

• Perception that one has little control over his or her future

• Unlike Marx, those in cultural studies have integrated a variety of perspectives into their thinking, arts, humanities, and social sciences
• Theorists in CS expand the subordinate group to include additional powerless and marginalized people, not just laborers
• Everyday life for Marx was centered on work and the family. Writers in CS have also studied recreational activities, hobbies, and sporting events, in seeking to understand how individuals function in society.
  

• the influence, power, or dominance of one social group over another.

• the use of the same strategies and resources as the dominant group to challenge that domination

• Gramsci's belief that people are unaware of the domination in their lives
  • he contended that audiences can be exploited be the same social system they support
    

Cultivation Analysis

CHP. 22

Violence Index

• A yearly content analysis of prime-time network programming to assess the amount of violence represented

• Television is essentially and fundamentally different from other forms of mass media
• TV shapes our society's way of thinking and relating.
  
• The influence of TV is limited
  

• Most people are just looking out for themselves
• You cant be too careful in dealing with people
• Most people would take advantage of you if they got the chance
• PREDICTS: heavy viewers see the world as meaner than light viewers
  • the amount of TV viewing is the best predictor of people's answers
    

• Most people get their information from mediated sources rather than through direct experience.
• Mediated sources cna shape a person's sense of reality
  

• - 98% of U.S. homes have a television
  - Requires no literacy
  - Free and ageless
  - U.S. culture's primary storyteller

Uses and Gratificcations

CHP. 23

Foundation

• The Former (Mass Society Theory) suggests that people simply are not smart enough to protect themselves against unwatned media-effects
  
• The latter (limited effects theory) suggested that people have relatively little personal choice in interpreting the meaning of messages they consume
  
• Eventually in 1974 theorists presented a systematic and comprehensive articulation of audience members' role in the mass co/m process
  

• The audience is active and its media use is goal oriented
  
• the initiative in linking need gratification to a specific medium choice rests witht he audience member
• the media compete with other sources for need satisfaction
• People have enough self-awareness of their media use, interests, and motives to be able to provide researchers with an accurate picture of that use
• Value judgements of media content can only be assessed by the audience
  

• Utility: using the media to accomplish specific tasks
• Intentionality: occurs when people's prior motives determine use of media
• Selectivity: audience members' use of media reflects their existing interests
  

• Activeness: refers to how much freedom the audience really has in the face of mass media 
• Activity: refers to what the media consumer does

• People use the internet most importantly for Information Seeking.
• People who feel less secure in their f2f interactions use the internet for social motives
• Found that people expect that using the internet will improve their lot in life
• people may enhance their social-status by finding like-minded others
  

Spiral of Science

CHP. 24

Assumptions

• Society threatens deviant individuals with isolation; fear of isolation is pervasive
• This fear of isolation causes individuals to try to assess the climate of opinion at all times
• Public behavior is affected by public opinio`n assessment
  

• When people agree on a common set of values, then fear of isolation decreases.
  
• When there is a difference in values, FOI sets in
  

• refers to the process of the media repeating themselves across programs and across time

• mistaken observation of how most people feel

Media Ecology

CHP. 25

Why it has this name...

• Because it centralizes the many types of media and views media as an environment unto itself
  • the study of how media and co/m processes affect human perception, feeling, emotion, and value
    

• Media infuse every act and action in society
• Media fix our perceptions and organize our experiences
  
• Media tie the world together
  

• seeing, hearing, and touching
  
• "age in which electronic media pervades our senses, allowing for people across the world to be connected