Defining Mass Media Effect

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar VII

Abstract

The mass media research literature lacks of a formal definition for media effects that conceptualizes what this phenomenon is and provides classification rules to help delineate its boundaries. This essay proposes a new conceptualization of media effects that can help organize the existing literature as well as guide the design of more powerful research studies that can generate answers to practical questions about mass media effects.

Author

• W. James Potter, University of California, Santa Barbara