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MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY:Media System Dependency Theory

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Theories of Communication ­ MCM 511
VU
LESSON 38
MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY
The knowledge gap findings are somewhat reassuring; they imply that all segments of community will
become informed when:
(a) The relevancy of that knowledge has been increased by an escalating social conflict and (b)
increased news coverage from either local or outside sources provides better access to information,
closing the knowledge gap should increase the likelihood that a solution will be negotiated based on the
best information available, these findings also indicate that news media can help close these gaps, as
systems, communities appear to be capable of adapting the roles played by parts (population segments)
so that the system as a whole changes it stability to adapt to the environment.
But these optimistic conclusions were tempered by other findings. The researchers also found evidence
that within the larger social system, the smaller, rural communities were dominated by large urban
centers. Most conflicts were not resolved through local negotiations. Rather, solutions were imposed by
outside elites who found ways to control local negotiations and direct them toward conclusion favored
by urban elites.
And in their more recent research, the team found that outside media, most notably major urban
newspapers have `pulled back' from their long-standing mission of serving a regional or statewide
audience. This might be making it harder for less knowledgeable people in small communities to get
access to the information they need to effectively address conflicts in their communities. So the
knowledge gap research demonstrates the potential for using systems for using systems theory to guide
and interpret empirical research.
Summary
The researchers demonstrated that knowledge gaps decreased when conflicts escalated, this should have
facilitated informed, democratic, and decision-making at local levels.
But this didn't happen because elite's from the larger social system intervene.
These findings imply that social conflict might be functional within smaller social system because it can
improve the flow and use of information.
But the escalation of conflict also motivates elites form the larger social system to intervene, and they
ultimately control the conflict by imposing a solution.
Media System Dependency Theory
In its simplest terms, media system dependency theory assumes that the more a person depends on
having his or her needs gratified by media use, the more important will be the role that media play in the
person's life and therefore the more influence those media will have on that person.
From a macroscopic, societal perspective, if more and more people become dependent on media, then
the overall influence of media will rise and media's role in society will become more central, thus, there
should be a direct relationship between the amount of overall dependency and the degree of media
influence or centrality at any given pointing time.
Melvin DeFleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach have provided a fuller explanation in several assertions in
1975.
First, the "basis of media influence lays in the relationship between the larger social system, the media's
role in that system, and audience relationships to the media."
Effects occur, not because all-powerful media or omnipotent sources will that occurrence, but because
the media operate in a given way in a given social system to meet given audience wants and needs.
Second, "the degree of audience dependence on media information is the key variable in understanding
when and why media messages alter audience beliefs, feelings, or behavior." the ultimate occurrence
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Theories of Communication ­ MCM 511
VU
and shape of media effects rests with the audience members and is related to how necessary a given
medium or media message is to them, the uses people make of media determine their influence.
Third, in our industrial society, we are becoming increasingly dependent on the media:
1. to understand the social world
2. to act meaningfully and effectively in society
3. for fantasy and escape
As our world becomes more complex we not only need the media to a greater degree to help us make
sense, to help us understand what our best responses might, be and to help us relax and cope, but also
we ultimately come to know that world largely through those media . Note the emphasis on sense
making in this assertion. As we use media to make sense of the social world, we permit media to shape
our expectations.
Finally, fourth, "the greater the need and consequently the stronger the dependency...the greater the
likelihood" that the media and their messages will have an effect. Not everyone will be equally
influenced by media. Those who have greater needs and thus greater dependency on media will be most
influenced.
These assertions can be illustrated by an example in involving use during a crisis situation. Think of
your own media use the last time you found your self in a natural crisis, in other words, in a time of
change or conflict (earthquake, tornado, hurricane or serious rain or tsunami). You probably spent more
time watching television news than you did watching comedy shows. But what if electricity fails, the
number and centrality of television information delivery functions instantly would be reduced to a level
below than of your radio. And as the crisis deepens your dependence would increase. And so also might
your attentiveness and willingness to respond as directed by that medium and its messages.
DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach developed a model to show how the media dependency process works for
individual audience members in relation to media. the model tries to show a logical connection between
overt media content and the motives for attention. Here media user chooses a particular content based
on a pr-existing dependency (need)
A non-selective, casual member of the audience may be caught up and have
·  either motives activated or
·  may leave the process
At step two the more intense the need or dependency experienced, the more cognitive arousal (attention)
and affective arousal (liking and disliking) the greater the arousal, the greater involvement in
information processing. The greater the involvement, there after the probability of cognitive, affective
and behavioral effects from the media.
This model relates only to effects from particular media contents on individuals.
Merits
1. It avoids the claim of media effects as having all or none. it says that any given effect is
dependent on a more or less unique set of circumstances which hold in a given situation
2. It directs attention to structural conditions historical circumstances rather than individual
variables.
3. It takes into account that effects on audience may also lead to effects on the social system and
other media system itself.
Summary
So media dependency theory assumes that individuals in modern society become increasingly dependent
upon mass media as a source of news and information. The level of dependency relationship and the
strength of the media effects hinge on the stability or instability of the society and the degree of societal
importance placed upon mass media as an information source. Relationships and interactions among
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Theories of Communication ­ MCM 511
VU
media, society and audience are demonstrated, along with media effects. News in time of crisis serves as
a good example of dependency theory in action.
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Table of Contents:
  1. COMMUNICATION:Nature of communication, Transactional approach, Communication is symbolic:
  2. THEORY, PARADIGM AND MODEL (I):Positivistic Perspective, Critical Perspective
  3. THEORY, PARADIGM AND MODEL (II):Empirical problems, Conceptual problems
  4. FROM COMMUNICATION TO MASS COMMUNICATION MODELS:Channel
  5. NORMATIVE THEORIES:Authoritarian Theory, Libertarian Theory, Limitations
  6. HUTCHINS COMMISSION ON FREEDOM, CHICAGO SCHOOL & BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY
  7. CIVIC JOURNALISM, DEVELOPMENT MEDIA THEORY & DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPANT THEORY
  8. LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESS THEORY:Concentration and monopoly, Commercialism
  9. MCQUAIL’S FOUR KINDS OF THEORIES:Social scientific theory, Critical theory
  10. PROPAGANDA THEORIES:Origin of Propaganda, Engineering of Consent, Behaviorism
  11. PARADIGM SHIFT & TWO STEP FLOW OF INFORMATION
  12. MIDDLE RANGE THEORIES:Background, Functional Analysis Approach, Elite Pluralism
  13. KLAPPER’S PHENOMENSITIC THEORY:Klapper’s Generalizations, Criticism
  14. DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THEORY:Innovators, Early adopters
  15. CHALLENGING THE DOMINANT PARADIGM:Catharsis Social learning Social cognitive theory
  16. SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEROY:Symbolizing Capacity, MODELLING
  17. MODELING FROM MASS MEDIA:Recent research, Summary, PRIMING EFFECTS
  18. PRIMING EFFECT:Conceptual Roots, Perceived meaning, Percieved justifiability
  19. CULTIVATION OF PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL REALITY:History
  20. SYSTEMS THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION PROCESSES:System
  21. EMERGENCE OF CRITICAL & CULTURAL THEORIES OF MASS COMMUNICATION
  22. REVISION:Positivistic perspective, Interpretive Perspective, Inductive approach
  23. CRITICAL THEORIES & ROLE OF MASS COMMUNICATION IN A SOCIETY -THE MEDIATION OF SOCIAL RELATIONS
  24. ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIAL ORDER & MARXIST THEORY:Positive View
  25. KEY PRINCIPLES USED IN MARXISM:Materialism, Class Struggle, Superstructure
  26. CONSUMER SOCIETY:Role of mass media in alienation, Summary of Marxism
  27. COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE:Neo Marxism, Characteristics of Culture
  28. HEGEMONY:What exactly is the meaning of "hegemony"?
  29. CULTURE INDUSTRY:Gramscianism on Communications Matters
  30. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY I:Internationalization, Vertical Integration
  31. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY II:Diversification, Instrumental
  32. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY III:Criticism, Power of Advertising
  33. AGENDA SETTING THEORY:A change in thinking, First empirical test
  34. FRAMING & SPIRAL OF SILENCE:Spiral of Silence, Assessing public opinion
  35. SPIRAL OF SILENCE:Fear of isolation, Assessing public opinion, Micro-level
  36. MARSHALL MCLUHAN: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE AND MASSAGE
  37. KNOWLEDGE GAP THEORY:Criticism on Marshal McLuhan
  38. MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY:Media System Dependency Theory
  39. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY:Methods
  40. RECEPTION THEORY
  41. FRAMING AND FRAME ANALYSIS:Information Processing Theory, Summing up
  42. TRENDS IN MASS COMMUNICATION I:Communication Science, Direct channels
  43. TRENDS IN MASS COMMUNICATION II:Communication Maxims, Emotions
  44. GLOBALIZATION AND MEDIA:Mediated Communication, Post Modernism
  45. REVISION:Microscopic Theories, Mediation of Social Relations