Theories of Media Effects

	Strong/Weak Media Effects?	Effects	Problems	Political Implications
Hypodermic Model	Strong media; Vulnerable masses	Beliefs, values, behavior	Exaggerates effects	Propaganda is dangerous
Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory	Strong TV among heavy viewers	Beliefs, values, behavior	Exaggerates effects, association not causation	“Real” world is TV world
Minimal effects model	Weak media; Strong predispositions make for resistance and reinforcement	Attitude change	Narrow definitions of media effects, politics, media, and messages	Media’s impact limited to reinforcement
Political Information Processing	Mixed; both resistance and acceptance	All sorts of effects	Complex	Few attitudes are immutable; media and politicians matter (opinion leadership)
Attitude Change Thory (Hovland’s message learning model, updated with ELM)	Weak or strong, depends on source, message, audience,	Direct persuasion, Attitude change, other effects	Complex	Attitude change and media effects are conditional
Political Learning	Weak or strong, depends	Learning political knowledge and information		Political learning is conditional