Just How Effective Is the Media?

Not all mass communication is equally effective. There are at least five qualities determining the impact of a message:

1) The medium or combination of media used

Some media attract more attention that others. Some media have greater impact. For example, a carefully read book will have greater impact than a casually viewed TV show. But a single TV show can have a far, far, greater reach than a book. Advertisers know, to have the greatest impact on sales, you use a mix of media.

2) How the message is presented

It takes hard work to make a message attractive enough to receive, powerful enough to remember, and influential enough to make an impact. And a successful message must be received, be remembered, and also create an action. Without the action part, the message is a failure.

Memorable presentations don't mean much without results. One of the most popular media icons of 1999-2000 was the Taco Bell Chihuahua. But in August of 2001, the dog was fired. Why? Sales were down. This version links phone sex, dogs, and gordidtas.

A successful presentation, however, can add millions of dollars in income to a company. "Can you hear me now?"

3) The impact of the medium

Some media are more powerful than others. For example, films have a greater impact than TV because we become more psychologically involved with the action on the screen. Radio can have a greater impact than TV because we can use our imaginations to become involved with the radio ad. TV can have a greater impact because of the number of times we can be exposed to a message. Matching the nature of the message to the power of the medium used is both a science and an art. We'll discuss this in more detail later.

As we noted in Module 2, blaming the media for tragedy is as old as media itself.

"In April 1999, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, gunned down 12 of their class-mates and a teacher and then killed them-selves. Like earlier ghastly and seemingly inexplicable crimes, this one generated a frenzied search for explanations. But instead of talking about the easy availability of firearms, the mean social pecking order at Columbine High School or the personal demons that drove the two young criminals, many politicians and media pundits focused on violent entertainment."

©Reuters Newmedia, Inc.

Click here to read Media Studies Journal - "Blaming the Media"

"Why does the conviction persist that there is a causal link between the media and children's behaviour? As both Goldstein and Freedman point out, a critical survey of the research indicates that there is virtually nothing to show that the media cause bad behaviour or obesity. But because the media are so prevalent in our lives - and increasingly so with the advent of digital media, the internet, mobile phones, etc - the fear is that they must be doing something to us, particularly to children and ‘vulnerable’ people. In a society where risk consciousness dominates, the risk of harm, however minute or uncertain, outweighs the evidence of non-harm. This sense of risk is imbued with the conception of the mass of human beings as victims of media messages, passive recipients who can't be trusted to make rational choices."

Click here to read Spiked Online - "Can TV remote-control our kids?"

You will have to decide for yourself if the ideas in "The Other Parent" are realistic or exaggerated.

4) Timing is everything

No matter how powerful the message, I have to be in a receptive mood for it to influence me. I might hear a thousand messages for shoes, but if I'm not in the market for new shoes, the messages are wasted on me. The day I decide to buy shoes, though, even a poorly constructed message might have a great impact.

A message about the need to conserve water has little impact in the middle of a flood. But I will be much more receptive to that message in a drought as I watch my lawn die.

The events of September 11 caused havoc among the mass media. Movies in planning or production were postponed, advertising was pulled, songs were taken off radio stations, all because of "bad timing".

5) Match the message to the audience

A message on feminine hygiene products is wasted on me. No matter how many times I hear it, no matter how well constructed it is, I don't anticipate it influencing me to action.

A Senior Center would not be a good place to give a message attacking Social Security. The NRA would not be a good place to deliver a message supporting gun control. People who are trying to influence you spend large sums of money analyzing the potential audience. They want to match the nature of the message with the correct demographics/ psychographics/ sociographics of the receiver.

Marketers are trying new ways to match their message to the audience. One technique having mixes success is to have the audience create the advertisement. Click here to read "Road to Digital Dialogue Filled with Potholes."

Does this ad appeal to women? Only a focus group study could answer that question.