Psychology and the New Media - Week 2 summary [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]

People react in a similar way to the social and mediated environment. The media can provide models like the real world can (i.e. theory of social learning). There are four general principles through which the mediated environment functions in the social learning theory:

1. Attention
   The models that are given attention depends on contextual factors (e.g. relevance).
2. Retention
   The modelled behaviour is encoded as symbolic representations.
3. Production
   The representations are translated into behaviour by means of contextual cues.
4. Motivation
   The positively enforced behaviour is adopted earlier.

Immersion into a story leads to less awareness of the body and immediate surroundings (1) and leads to less inclination to critically think about what we see (2).

Parasocial interaction refers to interaction with media figures (e.g. Donald Duck) as if they were real people. A parasocial relationship can be established with repeated interaction. It provides the same psychological benefits as a real relationship but is different from a normal relationship (e.g. no mutual exclusivity). The presence of a parasocial relationship contributes to social facilitation (1), increase in self-disclosure (2), increase in empathy (3) and matching in language (4).

There are several differences between the genders in television representation:

1. Number of characters
   In the media, women are underrepresented. Women are overrepresented in advertisements for household and beauty products. In addition to this, women are more often portrayed as lust objects than men.
2. Physical appearance
   In the media, characters are thinner than individuals in the actual population. This especially holds for women. Female characters are often younger than male characters and white women are objectified more than other characters. Attention is called to attractiveness and sexuality for women.
3. Domestic roles
   In the media, women put more emphasis on marriage (1), women have lower-status occupational roles (2), women are more often associated with interpersonal relationships (3) and a maternal role is emphasized (4). The media emphasizes traditional gender roles and males are portrayed as more appropriate recipients of affectionate expressions.
4. Occupational roles
   Women are just as likely as men to be portrayed in professional roles. However, women are more likely to be portrayed as having low-skill occupational roles (1), less likely to have a job outside of the home (2) and more likely to cross gender-boundaries in occupational roles. Male characters are associated with ICT and are more restricted to the professional scene.

The impact of reality as depicted in the media differs from the actual relationships in the immediate social environment. This influences and distorts social and self-perception. Women (on television) are portrayed in a rather stereotyped role. A-stereotypical characteristics of women in one dimension (e.g. occupation) are congruent with stereotype in another dimension (e.g. relationship).

Media exposure can distort the image people have of reality in terms of gender differences in occupational roles, domestic roles, physical appearance and duties.

There is a thin ideal in the media (i.e. associating thin with good). The exposure to idealized images has a detrimental effect on self-perception (e.g. exposure to thin media is related to the perception of thin-ideal as desirable and achievable). However, there are some contradictory results and there are potential methodological flaws.

Body dissatisfaction, weight concerns and disordered eating behaviours can potentially result from the thin ideal through internalization of this ideal (1), upward social comparison (2), a thinness schema (3) and the activation of weight-shape-related self-ideal discrepancy (4). These effects are influenced by ethnicity (1), self-esteem (2), age (3), social influences (4) and the media type (5).

The effect of female-objectivating videos on ideal body weight and actual-ideal discrepancy only occurs in women who score low on self-esteem. More knowledge about the influence of the thin ideal leads to a weaker impact of idealized images. However, warning messages have no effect.

In the past, African-Americans were underrepresented and ridiculed in the media. Nowadays, they are more portray positions of regulation or respect. However, prejudice related information is more often mentioned if a suspect is black than if the suspect is white.

People’s cognitions about minority groups are influenced by the media. People engage in social categorization and often use stereotypes for people who do not share similar social group membership to reinforce the status quo.

There is a link between news consumption and reaction to a stereotyped perpetrator. The black perpetrator is better remembered. This may be because stereotype activation is automatic and media exposure leads to temporary and chronic accessibility. Exposure to media stereotypes may increase individuals’ propensity to making prejudicial real-world judgements of these groups.

The influence of media stereotypes of minority groups is more impactful the less real-world contact an individual has with this group. The priming effect of media on stereotypes of minority groups may be aided by heuristic processing and illusory correlation.

Media portrayals can influence behaviour with stereotypes leading to more negative behaviour regarding that stereotype. If ethnicity is not salient for the person viewing the media image, then people are more likely to act in line with the primed stereotype. If it is salient, people are less likely to act in line with the primed stereotype. The exposure to stereotyped image of one’s group leads to lower self-esteem while exposure to a proper image of one’s group leads to higher self-esteem.

Exposure to media also shapes the content of the stereotypes. The media shapes the prototypes of a group and prototypes provide information for generalization about members of a stereotyped group. The consequences of exposure to the media can be more flexible (e.g. updating prototypes).

The intergroup contact theory states that greater interpersonal contact with members of a minority group and the more positive that contact, the less influence negative media stereotypes will have on one’s judgement.

Different minority groups are represented in different ways in the media:

There are five factors that make events more newsworthy:

1. Events that are personalized rather than abstract.
2. Events that have drama and conflict.
3. Events that contain action.
4. Events that are novel and deviating.
5. Events that are linked to an ongoing theme.

There are subfactors that determine whether an event receives coverage:

1. Events that are inoffensive.
2. Events that are credible.
3. Events that can be packaged as sound bites.
4. Events that have a local hook.  

The news filter refers to the fact that personal events (1), events including drama, conflict or action (2), novel events (3) and events with a connection to an important theme (4) are more likely to become news. News is influential through the way it is framed. There is a stronger effect with strong existing associations and there is a stronger affective response with vivid descriptions.

Filter bubbles are the result of biased information processing resulting in exposure to a tailored selection of information that is in-line with pre-existing attitudes. Echo chambers are a social phenomenon where the filter bubbles of interacting individuals strongly overlap resulting in the confirmation of and polarisation on ideological topics. Modern filters are the filter bubbles and the echo chambers.

These filters operate on three levels:

1. Individual-level
   At this level, cognitive and motivational processes play a role (e.g. confirmation bias).
2. Social
   At this level, there is a preference for similar individuals and forming a hard social identity.
3. Technological
   At this level, there are algorithms designed to maximize screen time, thus resulting in less varied information.

The depiction of crime in the media leads to crime being seen as a more important problem than it possibly is. The media can also create crime waves. Media depiction of crime also leads to more fear of becoming a victim. The more random and sensational crime stories, the more fear of becoming a victim. However, this only holds if the crime is local. If the crime is not local, the opposite pattern holds. This is due to social comparisons. The standard of comparison is far away thus there is contrast rather than assimilation.

There is a focus on negative news in the media and there can be secondary victims (i.e. people experiencing more stress after reporting an extreme event in the media). The open-access of the internet can lead to an increase in fake news.

The minimal effects theory emphasizes the roles of selective exposure and selective retention in determining the effects of media messages. The pre-existing attitudes of the viewer guide what is attended to and what is retained. Media messages serve to reinforce pre-existing ideas and attitudes.

The agenda-setting theory states that people are not influenced by the content of media messages but the media determines what people think about. Media primarily influences people who do not already have an opinion (1), are poor (2) and have little education (3).