Presentation Transcript
Mass Media Content: Mass Media Content Milburn
Psychology 335
W. L. Bennett Components of media content: W. L. Bennett Components of media content Personalization
Dramatization
Fragmentation
Normalization
Effects:
Limits range of acceptable political action
Limits critical thinking capacities
Stories—Rome Airport: Stories—Rome Airport Ibraham Mohammed Khaled—how would you explain his behavior?
“It was supposed to be a suicide mission”
“He has memories, but no regrets”
“No emotion, no hint of remorse”
Attribution Theory:
Crazy (internal)
Khaled: “I’m not the cause of anything—I was just doing what any young Palestinian would do” (external)
Continual struggle among political actors and media to explain causality of actions
Stories—Libya bombing: Stories—Libya bombing Reaction to bombing of Berlin discothèque
Pilot:
“I was assigned three targets and I hit three targets; complete mission success”
Bob Zelnick:
“Political success as well as a military success”
Omitted events from news story:
Khadafi’s adopted infant daughter killed in attack
French Consulate bombed
Could you say of the pilot that:
“He had memories, but no regrets”?
Actor/Observer difference on international scale
Stories—Sri Lanka: Stories—Sri Lanka Historical context provided:
Tamils brought to Sri Lanka in 1800’s to work in the rubber and coconut plantations
Because of discrimination, they have desperate economic life
“There have been these kinds of atrocities by both sides”
What is the difference from the first two stories?
Lack of U.S. interest allows media to have a different perspective