Theories of communication

THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION
DrJBalamurugan,SSL,VIT,TN.

COMMUNICATION THEORIES
• Since the world war II several studies have
been conducted in the field of
communication.
• Most of such studies are based on the
impact of communication and media on the
human society.
• One of the earliest studies in this category is
• Hypodermic/Bullet Theory
• Two Step Flow Theory
• Gate keeping Theory

HYPODERMIC/BULLET THEORY
• The Bullet Theory holds that the mass media are so
powerful the they can ‘shoot’ or ‘inject’ their messages
straight into the viewer’s head.
• The passive viewers (referred to collectively as the
‘masses’) are immediately influenced by the message.
• According to this theory, there is only one way for the
audience to hear or read the message.
• This is the first communication theory, which was
developed at a time when the media was becoming a
force to be reckoned with.
• Essentially, this model holds that an intended message
is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.

HYPODERMIC/BULLET THEORY
• The Frankfurt School proposed the Bullet (sometimes
referred to as the Hypodermic Needle) Theory.
• The model emerged from the Marxist Frankfurt School
of intellectuals in the 1930s to explain the rise of
Nazism in Germany.
• This theory was based on the principle that media is all
powerful and its consumers are passive and naïve.
• It further stated messages channelized through media
are like MAGIC BULLETS which not only strikes the
audience immediately but also influences them to take
up the desired action immediately.

Med
ia
X5
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X1
Hypodermic/ Bullet Theory

TWO STEP FLOW THEORY
• The main authors of this theory were: Paul Lazaefleld ,
Elihu Katz, Berelson and Hazelduadet.
• This theory was the first to state that “perhaps mass
media did not exert the kind of influence on the audience
as was generally believed.”
• The audience arrived at decisions not directly under the
influence of mass media but more by means of
interaction among themselves.
• This was the finding of a study conducted way back in
the 1940’s during U.S. presidential elections.

Mass
Media
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
STEP 1
STEP 2
STEP 2
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
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U V
W
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Y Z
J
K
T

GATE KEEPING THEORY
• Kurt Lwein coins the word called “Gate Keeping”.
• It is noting but block unwanted or useless things by
using a gate.
• Here the person who make a decision is called
“Gate Keeper”.
• At first it is widely used in the field of psychology
and later it occupies the field of communication.
• Now it’s one of the essential theories in
communication studies.

CONCEPT OF GATE KEEPING THEORY
• The Gate keeper decides what information should move to
group or individual and what information should not.
• Here, the gatekeeper are the decision makers who letting
the whole social system.
• The gatekeeper is having its own influence like social,
cultural, ethical and political. Based on personal or social
influences they let the information to the group.
• Through this process the unwanted, sensible and
controversial information’s are removed by the gate keeper
which helps to control the society or a group and letting them
in a right path.
• In home mother plays the vital role and she has to decide
what their kid’s needs and what should avoid.

EXAMPLE OF GATE KEEPING THEORY
 Example:
 An international news channel receives numbers of
news items within day like international terror issues, UN
discussions, Texas bull fighting and religious abuse on
international community.
 A news channel can’t show all those news items to
audience because it may affect the channel reputation in
public and organizations policy. Here, editor decides the
news items especially he can’t show the Texas bull
fighting because it is not internationally popular story.
But the same time the news channel can’t show the
religious abuses also because it may hurt audience
directly and it may affect organizations policy also. But
international terror issues and UN discussions are
universal common news that won’t affect the channel
reputation in public and organizations policy.

GATE KEEPING THEORY
 Example
 News items: N1: Texas bull fighting,
N2: International terror issues, N3: UN
discussions, N4: religious abuse on
international community
 Gate keeper: Chief Editor
 Selected News Items:
 N2: International terror issues, N3: UN
discussions,
 Discarded News Items: (on
popularity)
 N1: Texas bull fighting
 Discarded News Items: (on policy)
 N4: Religious abuse on International
community

COMMUNICATION USES AND EFFECT
THEORIES
1. Agenda Setting Theory
2. Reinforcement Theory
3. Theory of Incidental Effects
4. Cultivation Theory
5. Spiral of silence theory
6. Social learning Theory
7. Uses and Gratification Theory

1. AGENDA SETTING THEORY
• The 1st systematic study of Agenda Setting was conducted by Malcom
Mc Comb and Donald Shaw during the American Presidential campaign
of 1968.
• The duo focused on the 100 undecided voters of Chapple Hill who were
susceptible to the media’s agenda.
• They made a content analysis of all the media channels used by
residents of Chapple Hill; and found an interlink between the priorities of
issues identified by the media and those identified by the group of
respondent.
• In another study conducted by G. Rayfunkhouse in the 1960’s , an
attempt was made to study the relationship between public rating of
important issues and media content. He also studied the relationship
between media coverage and reality.
• Rayfunkhouse found that the issues to which the public gave a high
ranking were also issues which media gave coverage. Similarity he
attributed that media coverage did not correspond to reality.

2. REINFORCEMENT THEORY
• This is also called limited effects model.
• Klapper who propounded this theory stated that
mass media has limited effects on its audience.
• It merely reinforces existing values and attitudes.
• Lazarsfeld and Merton further stated that the Mass
media cannot be relied upon to work for changes.

3. THEORY OF INCIDENTAL EFFECTS
• This theory was formulated by Aldous Huxley.
• He stated that media effects were limited to
copying of style, mannerism, etc.
• Huxley stated that television could be an effective
agent of incidental learning among children.

4. CULTIVATION THEORY / CULTURAL
INDICATORS THEORY
• This theory was formulated by George Gebner.
• Heavy TV viewing tends to induce audiences to
adopt perception and values which were constantly
portrayed in different programmes.
• This phenomenon was more dominant among
heavy TV watchers than those who watched less .
E.g: Soaps on TV include a picture of affluence all
around.

5. THE THIRD PERSON EFFECT
• The theory is propounded by W.Phillips Davison.
• The hypothesis suggests that people tend to over
estimate the impact of mass media on others rather
than themselves.
• Mass communication messages will have greater
impact on others than on themselves; due to this
perception they take action.
• Thus people are more influenced by media than
they really think they are..

6. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
• The theory is propounded by Albert Bandura.
• Many effects of Mass Media can happen through
the process of social learning.
• Human beings learn things by observation and
model behaviors.

7. USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY
• The theory is pronounced by Elihu Katz, Denis Mcquail and
Michale Gurewitch.
• This theory studied how the audience utilized the media.
• Based on Audience study a set of gratifications were
determined.
1. Cognitive Needs (Acquiring Information).
2. Affective Needs (Emotions, pleasure and asthetic experience)
3. Personal Integrative Needs (Strengthening credibility,
confidence, status )
4. Social Integrative Need (Strengthening contacts with family)
5. Tension release needs (Escape and Diversion)

THANK YOU

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