Media Systems Dependency Theory

Media systems dependency possibility (MSDT), or simply media dependency, was developed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur in 1976. 1 The theory is grounded in guiltless sociological literature positing that media and their interviews should be studied in the context of large affable systems. MSDT ties together the interrelations of broad kind systems, masses media, and the man-to-man into a comprehensive explanation of media effect.At its core, the basic dependency hypothesis states that the more a someone depends on media to relate inevitably, the more Coperni great deal media pull up stakes be in a persons life, and therefore the more ca work media will oblige on a person.The relationships surrounded by componentsDependency on media emerges from three relationships.1) The relationship surrounded by the purchase order and the media Within this relationship, media devil and availability be regarded as important antecedents to an individuals experience with the media. The nature of media dependence on societal systems varies across semipolitical, economic, and cultural system.2) The relationship among the media and the audience This relationship is the cardinal variable in this theory because it affects how stack qualification use a mass medium. This relationship as sound as varies across media systems. The more salient the teaching needs , the stronger ar the motivation to seek mediated in stampation and the dependency on the medium. In result, the alikelihood for the media to affect audiences becomes great. 3) The relationship amid the alliance and the audience. The societies allure consumers needs and motives for media use, and provide norms, protects, knowledge, and laws for their members.Social system notify consort an alternatives to the media by offering similar services of the media.Media needs and media dependencyThree types of needsAccording to Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, three media needs determine how import ant media is to a person at any given(p) moment 1) The need to understand ones social populace (surveillance) 2) The need to ferment meaningfully and effectively in that solid ground (social utility) 3) The need to es hoode from that world when tensions be high (fantasy-escape) When these needs for media be high, the more people turnto media to meet these needs, and therefore the media pick out a greater opportunity to effect them. That said, none of these media needs argon constant over long periods of time. They change found on aspects of our social environment.Two basic conditions for hightened media needsMedia dependency theory states two item conditions under which peoples media needs, and consequently peoples dependency on media and the potential for media effects, argon heightened. The startle condition of heightened media needs kick the buckets when the number of media and centrality of media functions in a society be high.For instance, in modernized countries like the United States, there are numerous media outlets and they serve highly centralized social functions. In the United States alone, the media make for as a fourth branch of government, an alarm system during study emergencies, and as a tool for entertainment and escape, whereas in the underdeveloped world the media are not as numerous and serve far less functions. As much(prenominal), the media save a greater opportunity to serve needs and exert effects in contemporary America than in a third world country.The second condition of heightened media needs occurs when a society is undergoing social change and conflict. When there is a war or large-scale public protests like during Vietnam or the Arab Spring, a national emergency like the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, or a natural disaster like Hurri foote Katrina, people turn to media to help understand these important events. Consequently, the media stomach a greater opportunity to exert effects during these time s of social change and conflict.The effects of media messageBall-Rokeach and DeFleur draw outs that the cognitive, behavioral and affective payoffs of media use are premised upon characteristics of some(prenominal) individuals and their social environment.CognitiveThere are five types of cognitive effects that will be exerted on audiences, the graduation exercise of which is the creation and resolution of ambiguity. Ambiguity occurs when audiences receive inadequate or incomplete training just about their social world.When there is high ambiguity, stress is framed, and audiences are more likely to turn to mass media to resolve ambiguity. Ambiguity efficacy be especially prevalent during times of social change or conflict. The second effect is agenda-setting. This is an some former(a) reason why we might holler out dependency a comprehensive theory of media effects it incorporates the entire theory of agenda-setting inside its theoretical framework. Like any other effect, m edia agenda-setting effects should be heightened during times when the audiences needs and therefore dependency on media are high.So, for instance, if our informational needs and dependency on media was high during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we would have been more susceptible to agenda-setting effects, and we would have therefore perceived the Iraq state of war as the around important problem (MIP) facing the United States. ordinal is attitude formation. Media exposes us to completely new people, such as political figures and celebrities, not to mention physical objects like birth catch pills or car safety mechanisms that we come to form attitudes about.Dependency does not suggest media are monolithic in their ability to turn attitudes, just the theory does suggest that media ferment a role in selecting objects and people for which people form attitudes about. If a person is experiencing greater media dependency, we would therefore expect that the person will form more (o r more complex) attitudes about these attitude-objects than people with low media dependency. Media also have the potential cognitive effect of expanding peoples belief systems.Media can create a kind of enlargement of citizens beliefs by disseminating information about other people, places, and things. Expansion of peoples belief systems refers to a broadening or enlarging of beliefs in a certain course. For example, a constant flow of information about global warming will expand peoples beliefs about pollution affecting the earths atmosphere, about cap and trade and other policies, and about personal contributions to global warming.These beliefs meet with and are incorporated into an existing value system regarding religion, free enterprise, work, ecology, patriotism, recreation, and the family. Last is value clarification and conflict. Media help citizens clarify values (equality, freedom, honesty, forgiveness) often by set up information about value conflicts. For instance, du ring the 1960s the mass media regularly inform on the activities of the CivilRights movement, presenting conflicts between individual freedoms (e. g., a businessmans place rights to deny blacks entrance) and equality (e. g. , human rights). When such conflicts play out in the mass media, the value conflicts are identified, resulting in audiences forming their own value positions. much(prenominal) a position can be painful to articulate because it can force a choice between mutually incompatible goals and the gist for obtaining them. However, in the process of trying to decide which is more important in a particular case, general value priorities can become clarified.AffectiveBall-Rokeach and DeFleur mentions several(prenominal) possible affective media effects that are more likely to occur during times of heightened dependency. 1314 First is desensitization, which states that prolonged exposure to violent content can have a numbing effect on audiences, promoting insensitivity or the lack of desire toward helping others when violent encounters happen in actually life. Second, exposure to news messages or TV dramas that portray crime-ridden cities can join on peoples fear or anxiety about living in or even traveling to a city. Media can also have effects on morale and feelings of alienation.The degree of positive or negative mass media depictions of social groups can cause fluctuations in peoples sense of morale in belonging to that group or in their sense of alienation from that group.BehavioralThere are two broad categories of behavioral effects that Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur refer. The first broad category is called activation effects, which refer to instances in which media audiences do something they would not otherwise have done as a consequence of receiving media messages. Behavioral effects are largely thought to work by means of cognitive and affective effects.For instance, a woman reading a news story about sexism in the workplace might form an attitude toward sexism that creates a negative worked up state, the culmination of which is joining a womens rights march in her local anesthetic community. The second broad category of behavioral effects is called deactivation, and refers to instances in which audiences would have otherwise done something, but dont do as a consequence of media messages. For example, the primary presidential campaign has become longer and increasingly use more media to target audiences.As such, primary campaigns might elicit negative attitudes toward the electoral process and negative affective states such as boredom or disgust that in turn might make a person not turn out to vote.The aims of media dependenceIn the MSD view, the media system has two-way resource-dependency relations with individuals (micro-level), groups and organizations (meso-level), and other social systems ( large-level).The microlevel(individual level) of dependencyMicrolevel, or individual level application focal point on th e relationship between individuals and media.The microlevel dependency, better known as individual level media system dependency(IMD)begins with an assessment of the types of motivation that bring individuals to use the media. In the sentiment of IMD, goals are preferred to needs to conceptualize the motivations that affect media behavior. According to Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, goals are the key dimension of individual motivation. While needs imply both rational and irrational motives, goals imply a problem-solving motivation more confiscate to a theory of media behavior based upon the dependency relation.Three types of motivational goalsThe IMD climb up provides a comprehensive conceptualization of three motivational goalsunderstanding, orientation, and play. 1) Understanding- needs for individuals to have a basic understanding of themselves and the world around them. 2) Orientation- needs for individuals to call for personal actions effectively and interact successfully with o thers. 3) play(or recreation)- a way through which one learns roles, norms, and values and its reflected in such activities as sport, dance, and celebration.The macrolevel of dependencyEvery countrys media system is mutually beneficial on the countrys other social systems (e. g. , its economy, its government) for resources, and vice-versa. At the macrolevel, dependency theory states these interrelationships influence what kinds of media products are disseminated to the public for consumption, and the range of possible uses people have for media.Media and frugal SystemThe media depend on a societys economic system for 1) inculcation and backup of free enterprise values, 2) establishing and maintaining linkages between producers and sellers, and 3) take holdling and winning internal conflicts, such as between management and unions. In turn, the media is dependent on a societys economic system for 1) profit from advertise revenue, 2) technological developments that reduce cost and compete effectively with other media outlets, and 3) expansion via access to banking and finance services, as well as international trade.Media and Political SystemA societys media and political system are also heavily interdependent.Political system rely on the media to 1) indoctrinate and reinforce political values and norm such as freedom, voting, or obedience to the law, 2) maintain order and social integration, 3) organize and mobilize citizens to scat out essential activities like waging war, and 4) controlling and winning conflicts that develop within political domains (e. g. , Watergate). Conversely, the media rely on a countrys political system for judicial, executive, and legislative protection, formal and informal resources required to cover the news, and revenue that comes from political advertising and subsidies.Media and Secondary SystemsTo a lesser extent, media has established interdependencies with several other social systems. The family is dependent on media fo r inculcation and reinforcement of family values, recreation and leisure, coping with fooling problems of child rearing, marriage, and financial crises. On the other hand, the media is dependent on the family for consume their media products. The same is true of media and spiritual systems. Religious systems rely on media for inculcation and reinforcement of spiritual values, transmitting religious messages to the masses, and successfully competing with other religious or nonreligious philosophies.In turn, the media relies on the religious system to attain profits from religious organizations who purchase space or air time. The educational system in a society relies on media for value inculcation and reinforcement, waging successful conflicts or struggles for scarce resources, and knowledge transmission such as in educational media programming. Media depends on the educational system for access to expert information and be able to hire personnel trained in the educational syste m.Finally, the troops system depends on the media for value inculcation and reinforcement, waging and winning conflicts, and specific organizational goals such as recruitment and mobilization. The media, in turn, depends on the military for access to insider or expert information. The consequences of all of these interdependencies, again, are alterations in media products that audiences consume. In this way, the system-level interdependencies control media products, the range of possible social uses for media, the extent to which audiences depend on the media to cope with needs, and ultimately media effects on audiences.Individual differences due to demographics or personality traits might change what people actually do with media messages or how they interpret media messages, but the messages always begin as the result of interdependent social systems.A comparing of use and gratification theory and media system dependency theoryBall-Rokeach summarized the major differences betw een uses and gratification (U&G)theory and media system dependency(MSD) theory.Conception of audience membersBoth U &G and MSD theorists view the audience member as active, but the basic conceptions of the audience member differ.U&G theorists focus on psychological and sociodemographic origins of differences in media use. In this perspective, the divergence of text interpretation suggests an audience member in charge of the text. MSD theorists focus on psychological, social, and sociological origins of differences in micro MSD relations as well as the macro MSD relations that constrain media text production and individuals MSD relations. The responsiveness of micro MSD relations to environmental conditions and the ecological constraints on media production and consumption are important features.In this perspective, the audience member is incomplete in charge of the text nor controlled by the text. The only way we can predict the effects is the audiences MSD relations in context o f the ecology of macro relations.Conception of interpersonal networks and communicationU&G theorists emphasize the role of interpersonal communication in the distortion of media messages and of networks as interpretive communities. In this conception, interpersonal networks are regarded as a safety way against the cultural apparatus of the media and its partners.They believe that the interpersonal network contributes to individual agency, and the networked individual is em positioned to manipulate media texts, not to be manipulated by them. The MSD conception is compatible with the U&G conception up to a point. Consistent with MSD conceptions of the individual member of the active media audience, the interpersonal networks play major roles in MSD theory. They link the individual to public and they link and influence the nature of the individuals relations with the media system.Conception of the Media system and of media powerU&G theorists in the psychological tradition think of the media system as creators of tentative texts musical theme to multiple re kinks. In this perspective, the media system is functional to the extent that it is useful or affords ways for individuals to gratify needs. The MSD conception is surrounding(prenominal) to a macro functionalist adaption of U&G. MSD shares the macro functionalists view of the medias interdependence with other social and cultural system. In this view, the function of media is seen as a key bodily structure for vertical and horizontal integration of society.The MSD viewpoints seem to be even closer to cultural studies traditions in that the central concern for structural relations of control over information resources that generate the power to create social realities and to do social conflict and social change.Methods of observation, analysis, and interpretationAlthough both U&G and MSD researchers invite similar questions of individuals, they do so for very different reasons. Those differences are reflect ed most clearly in (a) the logics of hypothesis formation (b) item and scale construction (c) modes of data analysis, and (d) interpretation of findings.The MSD researcher essentially wants to know the micro and macro determinants of stability and change in micro MSD relations to learn something about their cross-level consequences for individuals and their interpersonal networks-the dynamics of their inner worlds and how they live in their social worlds. The U&G theorist wants to learn something about the individuals attraction to media texts and the interaction between text and reader to better understand the contributions of reader characteristics to text processing.The differences between micro U&G and micro MSD are, thus, in their epistemological origins, assumptions, concepts, and missions. Criticismsedit Baran and Davis identify four primary criticisms of dependency theory 1) Variability in microlevel and macrolevel mensuration makes between-study comparability problematic. 2) The theory is often difficult to empirically verify. 3) The meaning and power of dependency is sometimes unclear. 4) Dependency theory lacks power in explaining semipermanent effects.