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The SAGE Handbook of Media Processes and Effects
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The SAGE Handbook of Media Processes and Effects

Edited by:

September 2009 | 656 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

The study of media processes and effects is one of the most central to the discipline of communication and encompasses a vast array of theoretical perspectives, methodological tools, and applications to important social contexts. In light of this importance—as well as the rapid changes in the media environment that have occurred during the past 20 years—this Handbook explores where media effects research has been over the past several decades, and, equally important, contemplates where it should go in the years ahead.

COVERAGE

  • Part I offers an overview of the field and conceptualizations of media effects, along with a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies used in the study of media effects.
  • Part II focuses on prominent theoretical approaches to the study of media effects from a more societal perspective, tracing their historical contexts, theoretical developments, criticisms and controversies, and the impact of the new media environment on current and future research.
  • Part III emphasizes the various factors that influence the critical functions of message selection and processing central to a host of mass media application contexts.
  • Part IV reflects a dominant trend in the media effects literature—that of persuasion and learning—and traces related theoretical perspectives through the various contexts in which media may have such effects.
  • Part V explores the contexts and audiences that have been traditional foci of media effects research, such as children, violence, body image, and race, addressing the theories most applicable to those contexts.
  • Part VI highlights a concern central and unique to the communication discipline—message medium—and how it influences effects ranging from what messages are attended to, how we spend our time, and even how we think.

 
PART I. CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
Jennings Bryant, Dolf Zillmann
1. A Retrospective and Prospective Look at Media Effects
W. James Potter
2. Conceptualizing the Audience
Itzhak Yanovitzky, Kathryn Greene
3. Quantitative Methods and Causal Inference in Media Effects Research
Thomas R. Lindlof
4. Qualitative Methods
 
PART II. SOCIETY, POLITICS, AND CULTURE
Michael Morgan
5. Cultivation Analysis and Media Effects
Dhavan V. Shah, Douglas M. McLeod, Melissa R. Gotlieb, Nam-Jin Lee
6. Framing and Agenda Setting
Nurit Tal Or, Yariv Tsfati, Albert C. Gunther
7. The Influence of Presumed Media Influence: Origins and Implications of the Third-Person Perception
Vincent Price, Lauren Feldman
8. News and Poliltics
Toby Miller
9. Media Effects and Cultural Studies: A Contentious Relationship
 
PART III. MESSAGE SELECTION AND PROCESSING
Alan M. Rubin
10. Uses and Gratifications: An Evolving Perspective of Media Effects
Mary Beth Oliver
11. Entertainment
David R. Roskos-Ewoldsen, Beverly Roskos-Ewoldsen
12. Current Research in Media Priming
Annie Lang
13. The Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing
Robin L. Nabi
14. Emotion and Media Effects
Jonathan Cohen
15. Mediated Relationships and Media Effects: Parasocial Interaction and Identification
Marina Krcmar
16. Individual Differences in Media Effects
Daniel G. McDonald
17. Media Use and the Social Environment
 
PART IV. PERSUASION AND LEARNING
Daniel J. O'Keefe
18. Theories of Persuasion
Frank Pajares, Abby Prestin, Jason Chen, Robin L. Nabi
19. Social Cognitive Theory and Media Effects
L.J. Shrum, Tina M. Lowrey, Yuping Liu
20. Emerging Issue in Advertising Research
K. Viswanath, Sherri Flynt Wallington, Kelly D. Blake
21. Media Effects and Population Health
Marie-Louise Mares
22. Educational Television
W. James Potter, Sahara Byrne
23. Media Literacy
 
PART V. CONTENT AND AUDIENCES
Brad J. Bushman, L. Rowell Huesmann, Jodi L. Whitaker
24. Violent Media Effects
Dana E. Mastro
25. Racial/Ethnic Stereotyping and the Media
Kristen Harrison
26. Media and the Body
Jane D. Brown
27. Media and Sexuality
Alice E. Hall
28. Perceptions of Media Realism and Reality TV
Arthur A. Raney
29. The Effects of Viewing Televised Sports
Peter Vorderer, Ute Ritterfeld
30. Digital Games
Barbara J. Wilson, Kristin L. Drogos
31. Children and Adolescents: Distinctive Audiences of Media Content
 
PART VI. MEDIUM ISSUES
Ronald E. Rice
32. Diffusion of Innovations: Theoretical Extensions
Jennings Bryant, Wes Fondren
33. Displacement Effects
Joshua Meyrowitz
34. Medium Theory: An Alternative to the Dominant Paradigm of Media Effects
Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach, Joo-Young Jung
35. The Evolution of Media System Dependency Theory
S. Shyam Sundar
36. Media Effects 2.0: Social and Psychological Effects of Communication Technologies
Miriam J. Metzger
37. The Study of Media Effects in the Era of Internet Communication

"Nabi and Oliver organize their book more categorically and provide what they call a bird's-eye view of the field, chapters put the various theories into historical perspective. The emphasis on new media also sets this volume apart from the others and makes it a worthy addition to the literature."

P. J. Kurtz
Minot State University

Sample Materials & Chapters

Introduction