Analyzing Mass Media's Influence on Individual Behavior - PSY4200

This discussion post, stemming from a PSY4200 assignment, explores the extensive influence of mass media on individual behavior and cognition. It begins by illustrating the pervasive impact of mass media through specific examples, emphasizing its role in shaping opinions and disseminating information. The post then delves into psychological perspectives, including behavioral and cognitive approaches, to understand how mass media affects the human mind. It highlights the importance of recognizing and mitigating personal biases as consumers of mass media, ensuring a balanced and objective analysis. Furthermore, the post examines key theories such as social cognitive theory and cultivation theory, offering insights into how media exposure influences perceptions of reality and social behavior. The discussion also provides an overview of how researchers can limit their own biases. The assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of the media's influence from various psychological standpoints.

Running head: MASS MEDIA
Mass Media
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1
MASS MEDIA
Mass Media has a great influence on an individual as it influences the mind of an
individual. Mass media helps in keeping the people informed regarding various news, social
activities along with the events. Mass media helps the people in getting the latest news from
various parts of the world that makes the people knowledgeable (McCombs, 2018). It helps
in educating the people regarding the new revelations of the present age. For example, in the
event of selection of the presidents a large number of candidates are publicized on the
platform of the mass media like the Television or the World Wide Web.
The researchers can limit the bias as the consumers of the mass media by scrutinizing
the news that are released over the platform. The bias can be removed in the event of a person
staying informed about the news. They can get information from various kinds of sources that
can help them in forming a clear idea about it. An individual can look for links in relation to a
particular article in the newspaper that can help people in getting abundant information in
relation to an event. The mainstream news sources should be carefully looked into that can
help the people in getting an unbiased point of view.
The mass media can be studied from the behavioural perspective that can help people
in understanding the influence of the mass media on the human mind. The mass media can
mobilize the attitudes along with the behaviour of the people and it can help in suppressing
the response of the audience (Katz, Lazarsfeld & Roper, 2017). The receiver of the news can
be manipulated by organizations that makes use of media for attracting the people to the
various psychological levels. The mass media can be studied from the cognitive perspective
and it can help in strengthening the knowledge of the people. It can help in moulding the real
world beliefs of the people that can have a great amount of influence on the mind of an
individual. The studying of the mass media can help in revealing the attitudes of the people
and it can show the varying perspectives of the people.

2
MASS MEDIA
The social cognitive theory helps in analysing the social diffusion of the various styles
of the behaviour in relation to the psychosocial factors. The social cognitive theory can be
said to be founded on the agentic perspective. The cultivation theory talks about the fact that
exposure to that of media can help in cultivating the viewer’s perception of the reality
(McQuail & Windahl, 2015). Socialization theory of the mass communication talks about the
fact that being exposed to the mediated messages can help in teaching the individuals
regarding the world.
The social cognitive theory provides the human beings with the tools that can help in
the comprehension of the events and the regulation of the environmental events. On the other
hand, the cultivation theory talks about the fact that being exposed to television can have
long-term effect on that of the audience.

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MASS MEDIA
References
Katz, E., Lazarsfeld, P. F., & Roper, E. (2017). Personal influence: The part played by
people in the flow of mass communications. Routledge.
McCombs, M. (2018). Setting the agenda: Mass media and public opinion. John Wiley &
Sons.
McQuail, D., & Windahl, S. (2015). Communication models for the study of mass
communications. Routledge.