Media Beliefs: Concept and Measurement.

• In Event: Laymen’s Media Beliefs in Communication: Theoretical Concept and Empirical Perspectives

Abstract

People have multiple ideas about the mechanics behind mass media and media effects. Previous research on, e.g., presumed influence, imagined audience, and journalistic co-orientation demonstrated that media beliefs have considerable consequences for individual’s media related attitudes and behavior. We argue that subjective media theories are developed from both derivatives of fundamental beliefs about the world and conclusions from everyday observations based on lay rationalities. We, thus, conceptualize media beliefs as clusters of schemata that cognitively map an argumentative context. These clusters enable laymen to describe, explain and predict their media environment by theory application and cognitive simulation. Although laymen repeatedly temper their media beliefs in everyday life, they may express their media beliefs most often by describing typical manifestations of a phenomenon rather than providing exact definitions. We outline possible empirical strategies to cope with this problem and discuss their implementation within established approaches.

Authors

• Thorsten Naab, Augsburg University

• Philipp Müller, Johannes Gutenberg U