1
Q
Word of Mouth (Berger Reading)
A
- word of mouth comm=interpersonal communication (written or oral)
- 5 functions of word of mouth=5 proximate factors (though he calls them functions) of word of mouth comm as it applies to spreading information about consumer products-this could apply to gossip or any kind of content
- article geared towards people interested in consumer psychology
- people talking informally-information that spreads socially about goods
- informal communication directed at other consumers about the ownership, usage, or characteristics of particular goods and services or their sellers
2
Q
Berger-2 important moderators and their impact on word of mouth motivations
A
(motivations here means what kinds of factors cause you to spread information about consumer products or anything in general)
- structure of audience
- communication channel
3
Q
Berger-Audience
A
- tie strength (weak vs strong)
- audience size (review on yelp is to the world, private conversation with friend is just an audience of 1)
- tie status (everyone has relative status-in reading, talks about prestige-high and low status-but there’s also dominance, physical formidability too, which he doesn’t really mention)
4
Q
Berger-channel
A
- written vs oral
- identifiability (whether or not you are known as a source-can people see your face, know it’s you-non identifiable often in online comm)
- audience salience (are you aware of who’s in your audience/if you have an audience, can you see it)
5
Q
Berger-What interactions are considered word of mouth?
A
- literal world of mouth
- not just looking at ad-but person posting ad on fb wall and someone comments
- has to be interaction between people-not just ad company to person
- direct person to person conversation-online conversation counts-face to face discussions, and online mentions and reviews-Yelp
6
Q
Berger-what’s our average, natural conversation group size?
A
4
7
Q
Berger-the 5 functions of word of mouth
A
1) Emotional Regulation
2) Impressions Management
3) Persuasion
4) Information Acquisition
5) Social Bonding
8
Q
Berger-Emotional Regulation
A
The ways people manage which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them
6 ways that word of mouth can facilitate emotional regulation:
Generating social support, venting, facilitating sense-making, reducing dissonance, taking vengeance (like angry yelp reviews-not necessarily helpful), and encouraging rehearsal (talking about past positive experiences, that brings you to a positive place in the present, strengthens social bonds with people)
-emotion regulation should (a) drive people to share more emotional content (except not things ashamed of), (b) influence the valence of the content shared, and (c) lead people to share more emotionally arousing content (excitement or anger vs sadness/contentedness)
-valence: people tend to share negative things because it makes them feel better-but also want to avoid being seen as negative-depends on context
9
Q
Berger-why is venting helpful?
A
It’s cathartic, easier to let go after, social bond associated with it-verbalizing it helps you realize it’s not as dire as it seems
Talking about something helps reduce its emotional impact
Word of mouth enables this-ability to talk out emotions and recover from hema and do something productive about them
10
Q
Berger-Impressions Management
A
-to shape the impressions others have of them (and they have of themselves)
making people think you’re a good person
conscious and unconscious
-impression management should encourage
people to talk about (1) entertaining content, (2) useful information, (3) self-concept relevant things, (4) things that convey status, (5) unique and special things, (6) common
ground, and (7) accessible or publicly visible things while also (8) leading incidental arousal to boost sharing and (9) affecting
the valence of the content shared
-incidental arousal (like running in place): sometimes if we’re nervous or active, we share more than would otherwise, something that may not be related
-accessibility: impression management should encourage small talk, and, as a result, lead more accessible products to be
discussed-products talked about more when visible
-valence: evidence for pos and neg things to be shared more, so unsure-seems people generate positive word of mouth when talking about their own experiences (because it makes them look good), but
transmit negative word of mouth when talking about others’ experiences (because it makes them look relatively better).
11
Q
Berger-3 ways word of mouth facilitates impression management:
A
1) Self enhancement
2) identity signaling
3) filling conversation space
12
Q
Berger-self enhancement
A
Talking yourself up
Make good impressions on people first time we meet them-disclose things that will make them look at us favorably
13
Q
Berger-identity signaling
A
Sharing information that represents a bigger part of your identity
14
Q
Berger-filling conversation space (why?)
A
why do we tend to fill conversation space?
social expectations when we interact with people-if we fail to conform with them, people will think poorly of you-if disengaged when talk to someone, they’ll think you’re rude or standoffish-so we fill conversation space to adhere to social norms, so that people won’t think we’re abnormal
15
Q
Berger-Persuasion
A
What does persuading others drive people to share?
1) Polarized valence
content shared in these situations is polarized-really positive or negative-because trying to persuade-”this movie is SO GREAT” not “this movie is okay” if want to persuade someone to see it
2) Arousing content
eliciting a reaction-anxiety, anger, joy, excitement
In persuasive interactions, conversation is unlikely to be neutral
16
Q
Berger-Information Acquisition
A
- seeking advice and resolving problems
- for a consumer: advice on what brand to buy, what to do when receive faulty product
- When do we turn to word of mouth for information acquisition? If really 1) complex/risky/uncertain/important decision, or 2) have a lack of trustworthy info
17
Q
Berger-Social Bonding
A
-talking to connect with others and build social bonds
-Phatic communication: talking to built rapport instead of specifically conveying information-small talk
-social bonding should drive people to talk about things that are (a) common ground or (b) more emotional in
nature
-sharing deepens social bonds because it
1) reinforces shared views
2) reduces loneliness and social exclusion
18
Q
Berger reading-Proximate means for ultimate functions of word of mouth
A
Prof. Bryant’s issue with his use of the word “function”: used as proximate explanation in this reading, but should be more ultimate-these 5 categories are more mechanisms for social interaction, word of mouth than ultimate explanations-so not their evolutionary function
- the listed “functions” of word of mouth may be better understood as proximate mechanisms fulfilling ultimate functions of facilitating the development of cooperative interactions between individuals
- the content can variable culturally, but the underlying suite of evolved interpersonal communicative behaviors can incorporate these proximate mechanisms
- the content is given by the culture, varies widely depending on where you come from, the mechanisms that are in place that are facilitating this communicative behavior are probably reasonable well described by Berger’s proximate mechanisms he describes
19
Q
Berger-What does content valence refer to?
A
-The overall positivity or negative of the content that’s being shared
20
Q
Berger-What serves as a form of observational learning?
A
gossip
21
Q
Berger-Synchrony vs Asynchrony
A
- has to do with time
- talking in person is synchronized conversation-don’t have time to think of what to say-spontaneous
- asynchronized is something like email-have time to proofread, plan sentences, make sure communicating effectively
22
Q
Berger-How does audience size change the use of word of mouth for emotion regulation?
A
-moderates it-less likely to put ourselves out there irl, online we can lean on whole network for support instead of burdening a couple people
23
Q
Berger-what are weak and strong ties?
A
-based on how well you know someone, how often you talk to them, how much you trust them-at high level=strong tie, at low level=weak tie
24
Q
Berger-what is audience tuning?
A
- tailoring the content that you share to the people that you’re interacting with
- knowing your crowd-talk about information that is relevant to those people
25
Berger chart
- shows how these 5 functions relate to these moderators
- +s and -s and 0s and +/-s
- + means increase, - means decrease, 0 means no change, and +/- means both directions
- for example, impression management has +s for all (except stronger ties which is +/-)-obvious, because trying to make yourself seem positive in all cases
- some tricky relationships among these-like in chart, says whether or not you can be identified won’t have big effect on emotion regulation in interaction-seems wrong, wouldn’t you regulate emotions more if people know it’s you? Like, not reveal secret emotions if they know it's you? Yes, that does happen-but he’s saying that actually falls under impression management, not your emotion regulation
- little empirical work on any of this stuff
26
Berger-Signaling cultural capital
- word of mouth is a means by which people signal their cultural capital
- you have to create honest signal that you’ve invested in, say, punk music scene-don’t be a poser or you’ll be beat up
- have to understand another person’s cultural background-need to know who is in your group-so we have psychological mechanisms to figure this out-who is a cooperation partner-so cultural capital is a way we can acquire a culture and then signal to others that we’re honestly a part of that culture
- Culture becomes the content by which these mechanism we’re using to sort socially to know what capital to gain and how to signal it
- gossip, consumer information, and aesthetics (among others) commute content that motivates people's communicative behaviors
- we need things to talk about-consumer information is one thing to talk about-but the 5 functions are actually driving the spread of information-what actually gets spread sometimes is secondary, superfluous
- memes fit in here to - advertiser try to come up with jingle, meme, spokesperson, whatever to become mechanism by which their information/brand spreads
27
cultural capital
- a form of knowledge that equips social agents with empathy towards, appreciation, for, or competence in deciphering cultural relations and cultural artifacts
- cultural capital is the acquisition and appreciation and knowledge about all of these cultural things-and then you can signal that to other people
28
Social Networks-What is a network?
- a network, in its simplest forms, is a collection points joined together in pairs by lines
- points are vertices or nodes, and lines are edges
- many things in the world can be described as a network-many systems of interest to scientists are composed of individual parts or components linked together in some way
- the internet
- a collection of computers linked by data connections
- neural systems
- human and nonhuman animal societies
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what are networks used to study?
- the patterns of connections between individual components
- a form of modeling, networks can be constructed that strip away all but essential information about the object of study
30
properties of networks
1) visualization
- allows for the recognition of patterns
- not viable with larger datasets
2) quantifiable network measures
- e.g., measures of centrality: quantify how important vertices or edges are in a networked system
31
the structure of the internet
- Web vs internet
- we don't know the exact structure of the internet because of all the different people who have contributed to its design
- information data packets travel from vertex to vertex until they reach their destination
- traffic flow can be studied
- weaknesses can be identified
- direct product of Shannon
32
the structure of the internet: web vs internet
- internet is the physical connection between all the comps-the vertices are the physical comps-the physical lines between are the edges-sometimes wireless, but often physical wires connect them
- web-network of the webpages and hyperlinks
33
internet history
-ARPANET: first message sent over the ARPANET from computer scientist Professor Leonard Kleinrock’s lab at UCLA to the second network node at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in 1969
34
What is a social network?
- networks in which vertices are people, or groups of people, and the edges represent some form of social interaction between them
- vertices→ people→ actors
- edges→ ties
- sociologists have been studying social networks long before online social networking services were introduced
- e.g., Morno’s sociogram of schoolchildren-name 3 best friends-gives good example of how you can see something maybe wouldn’t have noticed before-all the girls hang out together, all the boys hang out together-only 1 pair of boy-girl friends-and then 2 girls just on their own
- What is an edge?
- can be lots of different things depending on what want to study-friendships, professor relationships, social exchanges, communication patterns, romantic or sexual relationships, etc.
35
social network methods
1) interviews/questionnaires
2) direct observation
3) archival/third party records
36
social network methods: interviews/questionnaires
- e.g., name generators (ask kids who friends are, look at social arrangement and have people list people they know in that group-get web that shows how interconnected the group is)
- sociometric vs ego-centered networks
- ask everyone vs. looking at network fro perspective of 1 individual and how connected are they
- limitations-people aren’t always honest, embarrassed about things, stigmas
37
social network methods: direct observation
- good because can see what’s going on, but limited because not everything is observable-you don’t see everything that happens-miss stuff-can’t always know what happened in past
- labor intensive/small groups
- the only real option with animal studies
- people will put trackers on them, other tech, to be able to see everything-see how connected they are to the others, who interact with
- example: dolphins-mapped out through tech and observation-found that they’re very connected, have best friends, have names (signature whistles that identify them)
38
social network methods: archival/third party records
- allows for analyzing massive databases
- Facebook, Twitter, Google etc. - they have massive amounts of data about all of us-analyzing the hell out of it-but they won’t release it usually, sometimes will to scientists without identifying specific people
- much easier with internet now!
- but there’s also lots of data on paper that’s just available to everyone-example) Census data-there’s a lot of data after that
- the issue is have to put it in some digital form-type it in-to use algorithms on it/analyze it
39
the small-world experiment (Milgram, 1967)
- sent out 96 packages to random people in Omaha, NE containing a booklet/passport, and instructed them to get it to a man in Boston-they could only send it to people they know on a first name basis (who they think would be best able to help) and then that person must follow the same directions
- 18 passports made it back (19%) with a 5.9 average chain length
- massive email version received 1.5% return rate (so not as effective)
- vertex pairs in social networks tend on average to be connected by short paths
- origins of the idea of “6 degrees of separation”
40
Evolutionary Cyberpsychology
| Piazza and Bering
- when thinking about how people act on the internet-researchers who have looked at this have gone with traditional social science account-what they do but not why they do it
- about using evolution psychology approaches to explain how people are acting online
- evolutionary psychology is an integration of cognitive science and evolution biology
- researchers studying cyberpsych have relied on standard social science theories
- proximal versus distal causes of behavior
- proximate/ultimate
41
What do cyber psychologists study that Evol Psych can address?
(Piazza and Bering)
1) mating and sexual competition
2) parenting and kinship
3) trust and social exchange
4) personal info management
- explored ways of applying both general and specific evolution theories to internet behavior, and presented several testable hypotheses motivated directly by these theories
42
How is cyberspace similar to “real life”?
| Piazza and Bering
1) Relationships which form online are often just as “deep” and “stable” as relationships formed offline
- can still transmit emotional/nonverbal content (emojis)
- online relationships becoming much more common and normalized
- different kinds of relationships online
2) CMC (computer mediated communication) technologies (such as email and instant messaging) help people maintain their current relationships as well as help people maintain larger overall social networks
- strong and weak ties online
3) there is no simple relationship between internet use and health outcomes although controversies still remain-potential benefits and harms of internet (enables shy people more social contacts, or keeps you from going to outside world)
43
How does cyberspace differ from “real life”?
- internet users often interact with a greater degree of visual anonymity-reveal things, act differently than would in real life-greater control over when and how they disclose personally identifying info
- geographic distance is largely immaterial online
- there are fewer time constraints when communicating online-greater editorial control over their self presentation-can lead to idealized impression of someone
- archival: (content uploaded to the internet often persists indefinitely) and retrievable (info is often easily recalled by an online search engine)-has psychological and social implications
44
How does our psychology, which is adapted to environment and face to face interactions, help us understand how people interact online?
Degree to which they’re the same will allow us to make predictions about it
45
Domain specificity and input conditions: general
- evolution psychology frames the interaction between human cognition and new media in terms of domain-specific psychology mechanisms responding to computer-mediated information (CMI)
- problems we have to solve-solution is information-processing mechanisms-remember Marr’s levels? -such traits that are computational in nature that are designed to solve certain kinds of problems in our ecology, which is rapidly changing
- domain-specific psychological mechanisms evolved to process input from a specific domain that was invariant across human evolution, and generate functional responses to that input
- a domain is a selection pressure or (equivalently) a reproductive problem
- such a perspective would predict no significant differences in human behavior (online or off) to the extent that CMI satisfies the input criteria for a given evolved psychology mechanism
- basically: we would expect online interactions to be like the real world to the extent that CMI acts like real world
46
Domain specificity and input conditions: input criteria
- the type and range of information a psychology mechanism evolved to process
- e.g., perceiving a potential partner’s facial symmetry in an online dating profile
- example: input criteria in a coin sorter is coin size
- but sometimes we perceive things wrong, sort things into places they don't belong!
- the input criteria/input conditions to be met are wider than just the correct stimulus
- we see faces everywhere-in all kinds of stuff-people said face processing isn’t special, applies to lots of things-but only things that look like faces that activate face processors-so is specific to faces or things that look like them-but we still make mistakes
- everything interacts-what we see affects what we hear
- proper vs actual domain
- built into the algorithm is this flexibility for letting certain things into the processor that aren’t quite in the proper domain of the processor-so the actual domain includes those things that aren’t necessarily people
47
Domain specificity and input conditions: proper vs actual domain
- proper domain: what a device is designed to process (i.e.e, shaped by selection)
- Actual domain: what the device will actually process
48
applying online behavior to Domain specificity and input conditions
- built into the algorithm is this flexibility for letting certain things into the processor that aren’t quite in the proper domain of the processor-so the actual domain includes those things that aren’t necessarily people
- many of these adaptive problems evolved offline, because online is new, and many of these problems are old (i.e., getting away from predators)-but some still useful, still face-selecting mates, figuring out if something is safe to eat-these are all offline problems-but then these can manifest themselves online
- we saw these evolution predictions in reading for how you expect certain kinds of problems to manifest themselves online and your response
- hypothesis from reading: in a resource rich, environment, you should invest more in sons-in resource poor environment, invest more in daughters
- can make predictions on online behavior based on this-in resource rich environment, monitor sons online behavior more
- haven’t been tested much
49
-what’s different in online and offline in regard to that proper domain?
-proper and actual domain are one dimension, and online and offline are another dimension in interacting-so it’s not like proper domain corresponds with online activity and actual domain with offline, or vice versa-they are separate, interact
50
why? why do we perceive things that aren’t faces as faces (and similar errors)?
- error management: better safe than sorry! Better to think a thing is there and it’s not there than to think it’s not there and it is
- Plasticity by design: flexibility can be useful!
51
Media Effects
- one of the biggest topics in communication
- communication studies is in part born out of the fact that we have media
- a lot of theories developed in communication that are designed to think about media
- 50 years of communication research on media effects-post WW2-spread of TV really launched empirical study of media effects in communication
52
Media Effects-has any progress been made?
- not really
- is there evidence of accumulative theoretical progress, scientific convergence on key findings and improved methods of measurement and analysis? not that much
- people are complicated-media even more so
- hard to build on existing knowledge if can’t agree on effects, create agreed upon base on which can base new discoveries and observations
- areas of media studies often separate-no canon of general theory to which they all refer-ignore each other
- content analysis of 7 prominent communication theory textbooks identified 249 distinct “theories”
- 22% of these theories appeared in more than 1 of the seven books, and only 7% were included in more than 3 books
53
Media Effects-why hasn't much progress been made?
- making up own name for some effect you’ve discovered and going from there is more profitable than building on another's idea
- and if no one knows what’s true, then carving your own path to what you think is true is more profitable
- if haven’t figured out any truths, can pretty much just disregard all other theories
- in physics and many other sciences, don’t have this problem-know some things that are true-you have to build on that knowledge
54
Media Effects-Minimal vs significant effects
- Does media affect people directly or indirectly?
- Direct Effects
- Minimal Effects
- Not-so-minimal effects
55
Media Effects-Direct Effects
- Hypodermic Effects Theory: persuasive effects would be immediate and evident-like injecting someone with information-hypodermic needle
- Let’s blame Shannon? it really has nothing to do with Shannon (his theories were not about communication)-but seems like his theories if applied to communication-content encoded in tv message, travels through air to satellite to tv, you get content in your brain-seems like a direct thing-from 1 head into another head
- did anybody really believe this? ”direct effects” term probably come up with by minimal effects people-called them that-but no one actually believed in a complete direct effect
56
Media Effects-Minimal Effects
- Lazarsfeld and Klapper
| - no effect-some studies show persuaded, some show not persuaded at all-depends on how you do the study
57
Media Effects-Not-so minimal effects
- ”not what to think-just what to think about”
| - can affect your viewpoint down the road-what topics you are thinking about, that are on your mind
58
Meta-analyses of media effects
- Meta-analysis is the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies. When the treatment effect (or effect size) is consistent from one study to the next, meta-analysis can be used to identify this common effect.
- Meta-analyses of media effects typically focus on main effects or group-level moderator effects. As a result, they do not highlight more subtle yet potent individual differences.
59
-Five Features of Media Effects Theories
- Certain features seem to specify the boundary conditions of media effects
- to what extent can a theory explain some given effect in the world/explain the variable in people’s behavior as to how they interact with media? Limitations to this
- these 5 features are overlapping, but also have distinct features
1. Selectivity of Media Use
2. Media Properties as Predictors
3. Media Effects are Indirect
4. Media Effects are Conditional
5. Media Effects are Transactional
60
Five Features of Media Effects Theories: 1. Selectivity of Media Use
- People only attend to a limited number of messages out of the constellation of messages that can potentially attract their attention
- People don’t choose media at random
- Especially true now-much more choice-used to have limited options for news, tv channels/shows-now have many options, more choice in what to watch, even less random
- Only the media/messages they actually select will have an effect on them
61
Five Features of Media Effects Theories: 2. Media Properties as Predictors
- 3 types of media properties may influence media effects: Modality: text, auditory, visual, audiovisual
- Content properties: Violence, fearfulness, type of character, argument strength
- Structural properties: Special effects, space, visual surprises-To attract viewers and get advertisers
- Structural properties as an arms race: structural features (e.g. visuals and sound) have evolved to grab attention, and a competition between media producers for people’s attention has resulted in an arms race where exaggerated features proliferate in an endless one-upmanship
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Five Features of Media Effects Theories: 3. Media Effects are Indirect
An indirect effect is one in which the influence of an independent variable (e.g., media use) on other variables (e.g., outcomes of media use) works via its influence on 1 or more intervening (mediating) variables
There are all sorts of variables between content and your reaction to it
What are the proximate mechanisms of some media effect?
We are not biologically evolved to take in media content-that’s why we’re so bad at it-we’re not well equipped to handle it-so most of the media theories are proximate
63
Five Features of Media Effects Theories: 4. Media Effects are Conditional
Dispositional, developmental and social context factors have a double role in the media effects process: they not only predict media use, but in interaction with media properties they influence the way in which media content is processed
64
Five Features of Media Effects Theories: 5. Media Effects are Transactional
- Transactional theories assume reciprocal causal relationships between characteristics of the media users, their selective media use, factors in their environment, and outcomes of media
- Elaborates on feature 1 (selectivity)
65
Political Communication
- related to media effects theories, many of which are about political communication
- elements of political comm: political organizers, media, citizens
66
how the elements of political communication interact-chart
- Political organizationsmediacitizens
- political organizations are using the media to communicate with citizens-media is also feeding information back to them
- media filters the information from political organizations through various means-ideal version is just get information and pass on-but that isn’t the way it works-provide information based on their own agendas
- citizens feed back into media through polls, letters, etc
- this is the traditional model
- does this still work?
- in traditional media setup, no real communication straight from political organizations to citizens-except maybe flyers and meetings/rallies-now, easier for political organizations to communicate directly with citizens-through the internet-Twitter and Trump-before social media, could call your senator, go to their office, etc., so even some before Twitter
- so this model may be becoming obsolete
67
Is there a mass media anymore?
| Are we looking at a new era of minimal effects created by the internet?
-media doesn’t have any objective effect on people-people are selectively choosing news that confirms their view, then makes it a stronger view
-so has an effect, but chances of media changing your mind are slim
-television was the first to really change the situation-term “mass media” came into play
-the idea that there’s mass communication is still part of our thinking in communication-and there is increase certain forms of media-but not the same now-not big audience with 1 message
-earlier minimal effects era (40s and 50s) consisted of a pre-mass communication media system and relatively dense memberships in a group-based society networked through political parties, churches, unions, and service organizations
-scholars concluded that media messages were filtered through social reference processes as described in the two-step flow model
(copy model from online)
-it wasn't that media was affecting people directly-it was that media messages were filtered through your social networks-you have these opinion leaders, and it’s these opinion leaders that’ll affect people
-agenda-setting theory
-As receivers exercise greater choice over both the content of messages and media sources, effect become increasingly difficult to produce or measure in the aggregate while creating new challenges for theory and research
-basically: you need to understand the way that this new internet tech is affecting people's processing of information-how it’s affecting their beliefs, diffused further-all these new phenomenon that are happening-these things need to be taken into consideration when we try to understand any kind of study looking at the way people handle media at all-it's a whole new world, we need new theories
68
Agenda setting theory
(get chart online)
- real world indicator-often coming from the media-we often don’t experience political events in real life, usually not really there, hear about through media
- but are affected by the people you talk to
- people are resistant to arguing in a lot of cases
- media agenda: issues discussed in the media (newspapers, tv, radio)
- public agenda: issues discussed and personally relevant to members of the public
- policy agenda: issues that policy makers consider important (legislators-and other political orgs)
- corporate agenda: issues that big business and corporations consider important
- is this model still viable? Maybe not
69
State of political communication
-political communication is less about political science and more about how sociology, psychology, and economics have helped illuminate the role of communication in shaping the conduct of politics
-changing social psychological, technological, and economic conditions require new theoretical perspectives to guide research
-contemporary work typically gives only passing thought to necessary theoretical, conceptual and methodological adjustments
-need to reconcile the paradox between the growing centrality of media in governance processes and its shrinking credibility and attention focus in the lives of citizens, particularly give the waning of mass media influence in the lives of most citizens
-election cycle messages may have far different (and bigger) effects than the ones currently being measured
-mistrust of politicians in general
-as sense that the electoral process is overly manipulated by consultants and handlers leading to feelings of being manipulated rather than empowered
-the sense of being left out of the democratic process altogether among demographics excluded from targeting comms
The resulting political dissatisfaction among younger generations
-diminishing effects and spiraling costs of producing them
(get graph from online)
70
A new agenda for studying political communication in changing social and technological contexts (things to think about when it comes to media today)
- the impact of audience structure and communication tech
- News across the spectrum
- the fragmented audience in an era of selective exposure
- the demise of the inadvertent audience
- partisan selective exposure among information seekers
71
A new agenda for studying political communication in changing social and technological contexts: the impact of audience structure and communication tech
- theories need to deal with the problem that information is consumed in multiple formats, and identity development is more complex than before
- how do people sort through it?
- media comes in so many different forms now
72
A new agenda for studying political communication in changing social and technological contexts: News across the spectrum
(chart online)
- hyper partisan news
- fake news
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A new agenda for studying political communication in changing social and technological contexts: the fragmented audience in an era of selective exposure
- the offerings of all news organizations were sufficiently homogenous and standardized to represents an “info commons”
- new media has transformed the supply of information
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A new agenda for studying political communication in changing social and technological contexts: the demise of the inadvertent audience
- people were exposed to the news as a simple byproduct of their loyalty to the medium
- would count on you not changing channel after popular program-launch new program after popular one-people stuck with channel-brand loyalty
- cable-> local news -> internet
- cultural norms and psychological incentives
- so much choice-we are more dissatisfied when we have more options-fatigue-it’s likely that there’s a better choice, and you know it
- people want their information immediately-won’t wait
75
A new agenda for studying political communication in changing social and technological contexts: partisan selective exposure among information seekers
- hard to select partisan information in old media
- the effect was through social means
- new partisan selectivity started with Fox-that’s where the money is-larger audience
- dislike of other party’s candidate has grown over time with this partisan media
- distrust of “unbiased” media-started by conservatives but spread
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Detecting political alliances
- people often maintain internally inconsistent sets of beliefs because they are normative for a particular political affiliation
- pro-life/pro capital punishment
- inconsistencies that people don’t realize, or rationally
- we accept inconsistencies because it helps you better identify with group you identify with because of this coalition psychology-want to belong to group
- judges will use any available physical characteristic if it correlates with states alliances
- race, clothing, accent
- need to use cue of coalition
- whatever cue predicts coalitions, that’s the one you’ll actually use-the best one
- we have a strong tendency to categorize people according to coalitions, and we’ll use any cue that’s available
- proximately, we convince ourselves that our beliefs are internally consistent because ultimately we want to convincingly signal our affiliation
- you might adopt beliefs associated with your party even if it’s not actually relevant to other issues you believe in of that party
77
Big Data intro
-situation we’re in now where because of tech, we are afforded a wealth of information, and also the computational power to process all the information-this is connected to the internet and the technology we have currently-why we need to reformulate our theories about media effects, political communication
-huge scientific value
-have been using bigger amounts of data for decades-as get new kinds of technology-the internet is the biggest one
-the US bureau of census deployed the world’s first automated processing equipment in 1890-the punch card machine
(look at slides later-not that important-history of new techs helping create big data)
-Computing is accelerating technology
78
What is big data?
- big data refers to an epistemic condition wherein the data are so large (volume), complex (variety), and/or variable (velocity) that the tools required to understand it must be invented
- Data that’s so large, complex, constantly changing that the tools required to understand it must be invented-humans can’t process it
- volume: quantity of generated and stored data
- variety: the type and nature of the data
- velocity: the speed at which the data is processed
79
Sources of big data
- a fuzzy topology of big data sources, based on the loci of data collection:
- digital life: capturing of digitally mediated social behaviors
- digital trace data: the archival exhaust of the modern bureaucratic organization
- digitized life data: the movement of intrinsically analog behavior into digital form
80
digital life
-Capturing of digitally mediated social behaviors.
-Digital platform data may be viewed in two ways:
1) Generalizable microcosms of society
• Email and social networks
• Twitter and political mobilization
• Google flu trends
2) Distinctive realms in which much of the human experience now resides
• Does Facebook creates or accentuate an
informational filter?
81
Digital trace data
-The archival exhaust of the modern bureaucratic organization.
-The modern complex organization creates a steady output of records of transactions but unlike “digital life” data, the record of the transaction is not the transaction itself.
-ex)
• Call detail records (CDRs) for social network info
• Government records
• Mobile phones and malaria spread
82
Digitalized life data
-The movement of intrinsically analog behavior (i.e., most of life) into digital form.
-ex)
• Video recording of major modern cities creates
ongoing records of human interaction.
• Informational objects that predate computers
can be easily scanned into manipulable digital
form (e.g., Google books)
83
Limitations and vulnerabilities of Big Data
1) Generalizability: Data do not have a systematic sampling frame so you
can have many biases and errors-Easy to overstate findings
2) Too many Big Data: Technology keeps providing more sources which creates a data glut without solid theories to guide analyses.
3) Data must be interpreted: Design decisions and data cleaning, data errors interpreting results.
- section notes:
- human error, bias
- It's dangerous-to get all this information and make generalizations from it-ignoring specific use cases, specific communities
- So much of it-how do you choose what you can make meaning from? Are we making assumptions? Mistaking correlation for causation?
84
The 3 vs in big data?
Volume, velocity, variety
85
Moore’s law
- the amount of information is exponentially growing as technology grows
- nonstop exponential growth
86
What are some currently undertheorized potential effect of election cycle messages?
Mistrust in politicians in general, process manipulated by handlers/consultants, being left out when communication isn’t targeted at your group, political dissatisfaction in younger generations
87
2 step flow model
How people traditionally received their political information
When we were in a time when people went to church a lot, or bowling clubs, etc-opinion leaders in these groups-they get information from mass media-and pass along through their filter/framing to the people in their social group
88
Political communication-main groups
- media
- government
- people
89
Input criteria
The range the mechanism can respond and react to
90
5 functions that word of mouth can serve
```
impression management
Persuasion
Emotion Regulation
Information acquisition
Social bonding
```
91
Tie strength?
Weak tie-acquaintance
Strong tie-close friend
No need to make yourself look cool if you’re already around people who think you’re cool-so cultural capital less important with strong ties
Tie strength affects when we engage in certain types of word of mouth behavior
92
Cultural capital?
Signal it through things display-wearing, own
Shows you know about something-this cultural artifact, or subculture, or relationship between different things in culture
Can leverage that to look cool
Wearing chance the rapper tee from 2012 to show went to his show before he was cool
the knowledge of the references is the capital
Your ability to pull those references out signal something about you
93
how do we study social networks?
direct observation
Surveys (who are your closest friends?)
archival data (facebook)
94
differences between online and in person behavior/comm-class answers
- time to reply-asynchrony
| - can curate your response more-edit-we choose our posts carefully-make lives look better than are
95
differences between online and in person behavior/comm-3 categories in reading
- greater levels of visual anonymity
- geographic distance is largely immaterial online
- fewer time constraints online (Asynchrony)
96
domain specific psychological mechanism
- book definition: evolved to process input from a specific domain, same across human race, that generates functional response to this input
- our own definition: we have parts of our brain to handle specific functions
- think of an example in your body and in a computer
- in body: recognizing facial symmetry-tells you someone is attractive-attracted to them
- computer: Mac can only recognize its software?
- any mechanism that takes in input and generates a response
- basic idea: there are particular parts of brain that are designed to perform particular functions and responds to specific input-outside of the range of/without that specific input, that mechanism will not be triggers
- example from class: recognizing faces
- part of our brain-when see something that looks like a face-gets sorted here
- example from computer: don’t try to open a word doc in powerpoint-that’s not within the input criteria
- input criteria for word is docx, or any file extension that has to do with text
- no significant different in human behavior, online or off, as long as the input criteria for a given mechanism is satisfied by the computer-mediated information
97
Who controls the story rules?
- public figures
- people who own news organizations
- 1984: those who control the sapt control the future-the one who controls the present controls the past
- it’s the stories that control what you believe (example: Bible)
- those stories influence the way we live our lives
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin-another story that was very influential in our history-about slavery-you identify with character in the story-white readers identifying with black characters-changed the way they thought about slavery itself
98
The non-narrative
- how effective can cinema be in behavior?
- specifically for women at risk for cancer-get pap smear
- made 2 movies-1 was non-narrative, informational documentary, other was a narrative drama
- got exact same facts in both
- social scientists tested this-showed 1 group non-narrative film, 1 group narrative film
- people who saw the drama got as much information as in documentary
- in terms of actually going to get the test-the percentage was 10-15% higher among people who saw the drama
- can create change through stories
99
entertainment education
- soap about family that’s illiterate-in Mexico City
- Miguel Sabido
- through the story, they became literate-and positive things happened
- around 90,000 people a year took literacy classes in Mexico City-changed to 900,000 after this soap
- this kind of education has spread to many other countries-tell stories that are meant to change behavior
- example: South Africa-domestic abuse-SOUL CITY
- example: India-music video-treat women equally
100
What qualities work best to change behavior?
- perceived similarity
- liking
- feeling like you know a character
- strongemotional response
- repetition
- explicit modeling of behavior
101
3 types of characters
- 1 who is doing good behavior
- 1 who is not
- 1 who is on the fence/in between
102
Music in entertainment education
- great tool in storytelling and emphasizing message
| - overused today
103
James Joyce on Aristotle
- Aristotle: pity and drama are the 2 things in fiction that’ll grab you
- we are constant in human suffering-pity unites us with other humans
- art arrests your mind-brings you right into the now
- playing off your fears and desires
104
What to consider when creating your entertainment education
```
What is your message?
Who is your audience?
-3 groups:
-choir
-enemy
-in between
-can’t get to everyone-there are people who don't like the same types of entertainment as others
How will you get to them?
-VoD, on your facebook page
```
105
84 lumber commercial about wall
- told a persuasive message through a story
- don’t know what’s going to happen-that’s an element of a good story
- identify with them
- aired during Super Bowl-to people of all political views
- lots of people talking about it-because good piece of storytelling
106
Who controls the video?
- relationship between the artist (wants to tell the story) and the financier (the one who wants to do the good work)
- one can control the information (financier)
- the other can control the from (artist)
- group in SF actually do “prenups” between NGO and artist
- final edit-who signs off-individual or committee
- testing the results
107
Media Effects
1) Direct Effects: Persuasive effects will be immediate and evident
2) Minimal Effects: Not influenced by media, but instead by social networks (before mass media)
3) Not-so-Minimal Effects: “Not what to think, but what to think about”
108
five features of media effects theories
- Selectivity of Media Use
- Media Properties as Predictors
- Media Effects are Indirect
- Media Effects are Conditional
- Media Effects are Transactional
109
Selectivity of Media Use
-There are many messages out in the universe, and we only have the ability to attend to a certain number.
-We don’t choose them randomly; we pick the messages that reinforce our own beliefs
The only messages that have the potential to influence us are those which we pick and choose.
-Back in the 80’s, there weren’t competing networks- there were only a couple networks that said the same thing (ABC, NBC, etc) -So it didn't matter what you watched-Less selectivity because we didn’t have many options-But today because of the Internet and Cable, we get more fragmentation within the population depending on what news we listen to. This makes it harder for us to study media effects.
-Selective Exposure vs. Uses and Gratifications Theory: Some media users are rational beings and they aren’t aware of why they pick the content they do
-Dispositional, Developmental and Social Context all influence the media content we select
110
Media Properties as Predictors
1) Modality: Medium through which the content is presented has an affect on the impact on the viewer-e.g. Text, auditory, visual, audiovisual-If you see something traumatic on tv it will have more of an effect than reading about it.
2) Content Properties: The content within the message has a substantial effect on the psychological reaction of the viewers-e.g Violence, fearfulness, type of character, argument strength-you may remember violent stories better
3) Structural Properties: Content doesn’t matter, how it’s presented matters-e.g. Special effects, space, visual surprises-think of the flashy text in the newscast stories.
- Predictor of the effects on individuals
- “Flashy, audiovisual, violent stories will have a greater affect on you than just reading about a boring story in the newspaper because of the presentation”
111
Media Effects are Indirect
-“An indirect effect is one in which the influence of an independent variable (e.g., media use) on other variables (e.g., outcomes of media use) works via its influence on 1 or more intervening (mediating) variables”
-basically: you are affected by media, but there are a lot of other variables here, such as prior beliefs
-conservatives reading about an increase in terrorist activity would become more conservative-media affects you, but can only really reinforce your beliefs rather than change
3 types:
1) media use acts as an intervening variable between pre-media-use variables (development, dispositions, and social context factors) and outcome variables
2) the cognitive, emotional, and physiological processes that occur during and shortly after exposure act as mediators-the way in which individuals process media forms the route to media effects-Example: general aggression model predicts indirect effects of exposure to media violence on aggression through three response states: cognition, emotion, and arousal
3) conceptualizes postexposure variables that may themselves be dependent variables (e.g., attitudes and beliefs) as mediators of other postexposure variables-Ex: Like in political comm, relationship between news media & voting behavior is indirect mediated through political beliefs/attitudes
- basically:
1) Disposition affects what type of media you use
2) Emotions will play a role on your media use
3) E.g. Political beliefs can affect how you consume media
- When factors can be both independant and dependant variables ex political views
112
Media Effects are Conditional
- Dispositional, developmental, and social context factors have a double role in the media effects process: They not only predict media use, but in interaction with media properties they influence the way in which media content is processed
1) Dispositional
- Your emotions/bodily needs affect how you interpret media through cognitive processing
- (misinterpretation of ambiguous nonviolent acts)
- ex: when you’re hungry, you attend to ads about food more so than you would if you weren't
2) Developmental:
- How your cognitive effort coincides with your developmental level and reaction to stimuli like. violence, etc.
- Children are less effective in investing cognitive effort during media use
3) Social Context:
- Cognitive and emotional processing depending on social environment
- Because media users are sensitive to others' attitudes, moods, and emotional reactions, their own cognitive and emotional responses can be intensified or dampened during shared media use.
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Media Effects are Transactional
- Def in book: Transactional effects assume reciprocal causal relationships between characteristics of the media users, their selective media use, factors in their environment, and outcomes of media.
- Our def: There is a direct reciprocal relationship between what users choose to view in the media and how it affects them. Users can change their attitudes/behaviors/beliefs based on their selection of the media they consume. Media caters to its users by providing what they believe their audience will be likely to consume.
- Ex: Violent media predicts violent behavior (Transaction cycle between user and media-How user interacts and makes sense of their media-Intrapersonal), which predicts more violent media produced (Transaction cycle between user and media producer-how media user impacts media production-Interpersonal)
114
why do we talk?
```
Has gossip taken over the
social function of grooming in
humans?
Using language to maintain
ties and manage trust, people
can form and manage more
complex and extensive social
networks.
```
115
the social cortex
as brain size increases, so does group size-human group size as predicted by Dunbar's model comes out to about 150
116
Human conversational behavior
Conversation: Small interacting group whose members engage in carefully ordered sequences of exchanges that follow well established rules.
• e.g., turn taking
-Serves at least two functions in the social
domain:
• Allows speakers to convey to other
individuals information about themselves.
• Facilitates the acquisition of knowledge
about other individuals within the social
group.
-Without language, such knowledge can be
acquired only by direct observation;
suitable opportunities to observe crucial
events may be very rare.
• This is a significant improvement over
what nonhuman primates can achieve,
especially when it comes to predicting
how another individual might behave
under circumstances which, although
rare, may have a crucial impact on
fitness.
117
Human conversational behavior: Dunbar, Duncan, & Nettle, 1995
```
-Looked at freely forming conversational
groups.
-Distinguished between groups (individuals
present in an interacting group) and
cliques (individuals participating in a
particular conversation as evidenced by
speaking or obviously attending to the
speaker).
-Analyzed over 800 cliques—95% had four
or fewer individuals
```
118
Human conversational behavior-cliques
```
Clique size increased with increasing
group size until it reached asymptote at
around four individuals, after which
further increases in group size had little
effect.
Cliques per group increased as group
size increased—but it appeared that
groups try to initially maintain one
clique, but eventually settle into groups
of 4 or so.
```
119
Why 4-5 in a clique?
```
-Signal to noise issues (voices, faces,
body posture—all things that help
regulate the flow of conversation).
-Mean proportion of speaking time
declines as clique size increases making
the benefits of participating decline
similarly
-Theory of mind: Ability to attribute beliefs to others is limited to about 4th order.
```
120
Why do we talk?
-What do people talk about and why?
-How much could be described as
gossip?
-Word of mouth
-Word of mouth is important in business
and marketing – and the underlying reason
is rooted in our interpersonal psychology.
Why do some stories, rumors, or brands get
talked about more than others? And
how does who people are talking to (e.g.,
friends vs. acquaintances) and the channel
they are communicating through (e.g.,
face-to face or online) impact what gets
discussed?
-word of mouth signals cultural capital
121
Word of mouth
Informal communications directed at other consumers about the ownership,
usage, or characteristics of particular
goods and services or their sellers
122
Signaling cultural capital
```
-Word of mouth is a means by which
people signal their cultural capital.
-A form of knowledge that equips
social agents with empathy towards,
appreciation for, or competence in
deciphering cultural relations and
cultural artifacts.
-Gossip, consumer information, and
aesthetics (among others) constitute
content that motivates people’s
communicative behaviors.
```
123
Functions of word of mouth (Berger, 2014)
-Impression-management
-Emotion regulation
-Information acquisition
-Social bonding
-Persuasion
-These functions are self-serving
even when apparently altruistic
-(charts)
124
Traditional definition of art
-the expressive or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual from such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power
125
aesthetics
a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art
126
art-pragmatics
- first reading on art-if someone says something is art, it’s art-the act of displaying it and calling it art makes it art
- think about this in terms of pragmatics; how people use words strategically-a route to communicate whatever you’re trying to communicate/affect the world-we are presenting some sort of representation, or action, or sound, and it affords interpretations, which are potentially unlimited-there may be an interpretive goal for the artist, or not
- you should think of art as pragmatic
- it has to do with ostension
127
ostension
- the quality in some behavior that makes it apparent to an intended audience that the behavior is an act of communication
- we can communicate our intention to communicate (sound to get cat/dog’s attention-lift cup to waiter to communicate want refill-communicating that want to communicate)-art is just a case of ostensive behavior using certain types of meaning
128
art as ostensive behavior
-traditional art is inherently recognizable as intentional expression behavior-you can tell someone is making it to be looked at as art-but can’t always tell now, with modern art-but still, generally you can recognize something is intentionally being communicated-sometimes, being in a gallery is enough-putting it in a gallery is saying this is art
129
art as something that's cultural evolved
-art addresses our evolved sensibilities, feelings, emotions, and perceptual faculties in a fairly direct manner-one of the best pure examples of cultural evolution-exploits all our modalities
130
so what is art exactly
Ostensive expressive behavior in any form
131
Carrol reading-what does art do? why is it helpful?
- Artworks coordinate community sentiment
- artworks coordinate feelings and have the power to build communities of sentiment in their audiences and/or participants. Art is communication
- art has the capacity-at a fairly elemental level-to promote cohesion among groups leading to better coalitions
- e.g. Religion ritual, images, and architecture; folk songs; patriotic songs; oral traditions and fictional narratives; identity making; hunting rituals, etc.
- it's culturally evolved to do that
- it helps us signal our identity-it's very helpful
- in the past, it was really fundamental-pointed to the exact group you belong to, where your loyalties lie-identify who you are as a person-was really good cue of actual identity-now it’s more of a social identity, doesn’t tie you to a group of people as much, more to aesthetic principles that suggest what else you like
132
Carroll-Art is functional
-not just for enjoyment
-sepik shields from New Guinea (pics)
-shuar pottery designs in ecuador
-traditional tattooing (Philippines, Taiwan)
-have to earn the tattoo-can’t fake
-Haka War dance-coordinated dance display by Haka warriors
-can possibly decide who will win battle based on dance
-like animals before attack-showing off their strength-bare teeth, fur stands up
-those signals are designed to prevent a conflict-functional display that can help groups assess one another-if other side is too scary, may get scared and avoid fight
-
133
art as sensory exploitation
- we’re proximately developed to appreciate art, beauty
- many of the arts are technologies that “pick the locks” that safeguard the brain's pleasure circuits
- integrating visual and auditory information, understanding language, or negotiating the social world
- example: speech
- each psychological adaptation, from the language faculty to the auditory system, should come equipped with its own aesthetic, designed to help develop, calibrate, or tune the appropriate cognitive system
- ex: babbling/post babbling word games (“I Spy”-like to see if others perceive what they do); play behavior (e.g., fighting, chasing, social-tag); music games/rituals
- there is a proximate motivation that causes you to feel you and gets you to act in certain ways that is really to calibrate a developmental system you’ll need later
- art takes advantage of these
- example: imagined worlds (i.e. fiction)
134
art as sensory exploitation: ex) speech
- like hearing voices-can measure how much babies will suck on a pacifier-play them speech and similar sounds-and they start sucking when hear speech-they want to hear speech-that’s true for a good part of life, we like hearing speech-proximate motivation, it feels good to hear speech-that drives motivation to hear more-it’s because there’s a developmental part of brain that motivates kids to learn speech-language learning
- art exploits that sensory apparatus
- music-much like speech
- the way we like speech drives the way our music sounds
135
art as sensory exploitation: imagined worlds
- involvement in fictional, imagined worlds appears to be a cross-culturally universal, species-typical phenomenon-and intrinsically rewarding
- fictional worlds engage emotion systems while disengaging action systems (like dreams)
- we engage in emotions without actually having to do anything
- humans have evolved specialized cognitive machinery that allows us to enter and participate in imagined worlds
- ex: pretense (we engage in all the time-when we talk-when mock people, use voices to say what someone said-but also when playing-make believe)
- ex: fiction
136
does beauty build adapted minds?
- beauty is what we interpret aesthetically as being pleasurable to experience-tracking those features that we feel are beautiful are actually functionally helping us develop various kinds of adaptations
- the adaptations hare causing us to pay attention to certain things-proximate rewards to them-so we interpret them as beautiful-but there is no beauty in the world that is objective-it’s all up to us subjectively-and our subjective bias comes from this proximate mechanism of us paying attention to certain things because we find them rewarding because they serve some function
- we’re paying attention to certain kinds of information in the world because it's related to the development of adaptations-we’re proximately rewarded by paying attention to that-that rewards system becomes reinforced through conditioning-that’s part of the way the mechanism was designed-cultural evolution can exploit that sensitivity
- why we like flashy new graphics on news channels: we are proximately motivate to pay attention to novel visual stimuli-the media exploits this
137
Media exploit our evolved senses (our input criteria)
- cognitive and perceptual adaptations have input criteria
- for each adaption there is some kind of physical feature of cognitive or information processing feature in the world that will satisfy the input criteria for that mechanism to process it
- actual domain wider than proper domain
- media forms culturally evolve to exploit those specific criteria-example: storytelling strategy exploits our evolved sense of storytelling
- visual, auditory: basics of perception
- fiction, mindreading: more complex- recognizing agents, goals can’t see, but infer
- emotion: we respond when things are communicating emotions
- group identity: how we divide up the world-coalitionary psychology-media exploits that too
138
Berger-audience: tie strength
- impression management: more w acquaintances (But some w strong ties, which are more important for your self concept)
- emotion regulation: more w strong ties
- info acquisition: more w strong ties-but ppl have more weak ties than strong, see them more, may end up getting more info from them
- social bonding: strong ties-esp for reinforcing shared views
- persuasion: stronger w strong ties-interact more w individual strong ties, and make joint consumption decisions
139
Berger-audience: audience size
- broadcasting (talking to large audience) vs narrowcasting (talking to small audience/just 1 person)
- impression management: more w larger groups-broadcasting encourages self focus
- emotion regulation: more w small audience-but if taking vengeance may want to broadcast-on social media sometimes broadcast so not burdening just 1 person-more responses
- info acquisition: narrowcasting better for detailed info-broadcasting better for greater volume of advice/solutions
- social bonding: narrowcasting-more opinions w large audience, so harder to reinforce shared views-scarier for lonely person to reach out to large group-small group allows for deeper convos which bolsters social bonding
- persuasion: usually narrowcasting cuz easier to change just 1 person's opinion-but online, w anonymity, may try to change opinion of many
140
Berger-audience: tie status
- impression management: people may share more positive info w those that are higher int eh social hierarchy-this may be due to people's greater desire to associate w or impress high status others
- social bonding: harder to bond w higher status ppl
- emotion regulation: people might be more reticent to use high status others for emotion regulation
- persuasion: may attempt to persuade low status others more often
- info acquisition: not clear
141
Berger-channel: written vs oral
- impression management: written comm's asynchronicity should encourage impression management-leads ppl to talk about more interesting products and brands-written comm may mean less negative things share, more useful things shared-oral comm should encourage ppl to talk about accessible things-more permanent nature of writing bolsters impression management concerns
- persuasion: asynchronicity provides time to devise a more persuasive pitch-synchronicity affects negotiation outcomes
- emotion regulation and social bonding: synchrony facilitates both-immediate feedback, so can have deeper convo
- info acquisition: asynchrony make it harder to acquire info about complex topics-but can be beneficial in some ways because allow respondents more time to collect the most useful info before sharing
- effortful and formal nature of writing discourages sharing of trivial matters
- voice provides dimension of richness that facilitates emotion regulation and social bonding
142
Berger-channel: identifiability
- impression management: more if identifiable
- social bonding and persuading others: identifiability bolsters both-more depth, easier to bond when know who others are-and more credibility
- emotion regulation and info acquisition: little impact-venting, seeking info, vengeance all just as easy if ppl know who you are or not
143
Berger-channel: audience salience
- similar effects from identifiability
- impression management: the more ppl are aware of their audience, the more they should recognize that what they are sharing acts as a signal of the self-should lead impression management to play a larger role
- emotion regulation, social bonding, and info acquisition: salience provides richness that deepens social connections, facilitates emotion regulation and info acquisition
- persuasion: audience being physically present increases persuasive aspect of comm-but may be easier to make difficult requests when one's convo partner is not present
- other effects: easier to exit convos where others are not physically present, so less need to fill convo space-monitoring the nonverbal signals of one's convo partner should also reduce cognitive resources, which may make it harder for ppl to consciously monitor what they're saying
144
Berger: content vs context driven
- context driven: context imposed-channel and audience already set, the communicator must now decide what to share in that situation-depend more on accessibility-audience and other factors act as triggers to bring up certain things to discuss-main q for person is given something is accessible, should it be talked about or held back?
- content driven: people actively choose who tehy talk to and the channel tehy communicate through-the content itself drives ppl to share-the key q is whether the content is above a certain threshold of interest, utility, emotion, or other factor-accessibility could shape who people share with-more likely to choose strong ties to share with-but situational factors should make particular social ties temporarily accessible-content activates related individuals-who may find that content interesting
145
Berger: evolution of conversation
- how do convos evolve?
- accessibility plays large role-convo moves from 1 cued topic to next-related concepts
- topics may becoming more personal, revealing, and abstract as the convo evolves
- some info (weighty, important, embarrassing) only brought up late in convo-reduces likelihood of discussion and likelihood that such info diffuses widely
146
Berger: not just what people talk about but how they talk
- variety of ways ppl could talk about an event: they could....
1) use diff words
2) be more or less assertive
3) express varying degrees of certainty
4) talk about it for a longer or shorter period
5) involve more or less conversational truns
- what shapes how people talk about a particular product of brand
- the more involved w a product or experience, the closer tied to identity, the longer they'll talk
- strong emotion should lead ppl to talk longer
- controversy/more room for debate extends convos
147
Berger: tech and word of mouth
- most online comm involves 1) written comm to share with, 2) a large audience of 3) weak ties-4) the audience is not physically present
- these should all lead impression management to have a greater impact
- online convos often involve people communicating in relative privacy-the lack of social presence may weaken self-enhancement concerns because it feels more private
- the "cost" of CMC may be higher-writing is more effortful so convos should be shorter and willingness to talk about important issues may decrease
- not all CMC is the same though-audience size, written vs oral comm, and directedness (to person or just post?) of the communication all vary
- technological changes have also made it easier to study word of mouth itself-big data sources
148
Carroll
- artwork has biological aspect-part of human nature-art is a response to elements of our evolved cognitive, perceptual, and emotive architectur that are either necessary for social life, or conductive to it, or that are side-effects from features that are
- art is global-and globally recognized as art (even if significance/meaning not always known)
- differences in art across diff cultures similar to lang-doesn't point to art not being universal
- even if cultures lack word for "art", still have it
- saying other cultures don't have art is problematic-are we using western def of art?
- art can be practical-even if we often don't see it that way in west-other cultures don't share our concept of art
- other cultures actually not that diff from ours in art-recurring features-typically product of the application of skills, acquired from a tradition, and they address both feeling and cognition, often affording pleasure-this type is found in all cultures
- some deny that there is human nature-but there is-we start from somewhere
- much art addresses our evolved sensibilities, feelings, emotions, and perceptual faculties in a fairly direct manner, while depending on activating relatively basic cognitive and imaginative capabilities, such as the ability to follow narratives and entertain fictions
- 2 reasons art has to do w human nature
- 11) certain of the recurring features of art may serve universal adaptive purposes that account for the emergence and continuance of art-art helps transmit religion, ritual, social and political values, reinforces cultural identities
- art is taxing-why would we do it if not useful?-adaptive advantages
- art sprung up independently in many places
- art elicits shared feelings among viewers-build communities of sentiment-promote group cohesion
- art trains us to detect emotions and intentions of others
- art trains imagination-teaches us to think counterfactually out what to do-augments range of our imagination and empathy
- Neanderthals didn't have art-didn't survive-animals don't, lesser
- art inspires us to accomplish
- art is diff cuz of culture
- art transmits cultural values-brings you into a culture
- 2) certain forms of historically specific art, such as film and TV, have become mass art forms because of the ways in which they engage our evolved cognitive, perceptual, and emotive architecture
- rise of film in tv in response to history
- art take advantage of mechanisms-tap into our common human nature
- ex: ability to perceive moving image-and human faces and their emotions-empathy to them-we have evolved to have this ability to recognize faces and emotions
- why close up so popular
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cultural evolution
-culture evolves in a Darwinian manner—that
is, through a process of variation,
competition, and inheritance.
-Relative importance of different factors varies
between biological and cultural evolution, but
they can both be described as Darwinian.
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How are cultural traits changed
| during transmission?
-Traits change simply through the process of learning, or copying, on the part of
a naive individual-The ‘transmission chain’ method (Bartlett, 1932)
-Social information in stories was transmitted more accurately and lost less
frequently than nonsocial information (mutations aren’t random)-Social brain theories
-Models build in priors (Bayes)
-Open diffusion methods (e.g., danger learning)
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The ‘transmission chain’ method (Bartlett, 1932)
• As they were transmitted, traits tended to lose detail and increasingly
resemble the individuals’ preconceived notions (e.g., War of the Ghosts
memory experiment)
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social brain theories
posit that human cognition evolved primarily
| to deal with social information
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How and why do cultural traits accumulate over time?
- Cumulative cultural evolution
- Transmission chain method
- mechanisms of social learning
- cultural traits can be altered through transmission
- cumulative cultural transmission can create more advanced artifacts
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Cumulative cultural evolution
- the presence of traits that have been gradually modified and built upon over successive generations
- standing on the shoulders of giants
- take existing idea-build upon it gradually
- beyond the capabilities of an individual to invent in 1 lifetime
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Transmission chain method
- individuals solve some task with clear goals and measures of success
- onlookers then try to solve asme problem
- quality of solutions improved over time
- getting the benefit of earlier people’s trials and errors
- selection of good and bad approaches to some problem
- people aren't even aware what went into their solution once solved-how many other people have tried to solve that brought you here-just work with what have and solve it-but that’s from other people
- solutions evolve from pre-existing structure-gradual selection of variance of pre-existing structure
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theory of mind
Theory of mind (often abbreviated ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own.
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2 aspects of big data
scale and complexity
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opportunities w big data
- fill in gaps from/more accurate than self reports
- can make big data small by finding special populations within it
- "nowcasting": a tool for detecting trends faster than possible w traditional methods-in principle such approaches should allow the detection of the state of the world w greater temporal and spatial granularity than currently possible
- can study human systems systematically-as composed of subsystems and individuals who are connected in articular ways, locations, and w events tied to time sand locations
- digitally mediated social system (FB) capture data irrespective of events in the environment-all kinds of natural experiments hidden in data-big data offers opp to study effect of external events on ongoing social processes
- big data can capture the effects of field and lab experiments through data linkage
- systems change-researchers can use changes to policies, designs, or algorithms as experimental manipulations
- can do very large exps
- can generate robust estimates for narrow samples-robust estimation of heterogenous effects-intersectionality
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vulnerabilities w big data
- generalizability-can leave out groups-and have illusion since so big, representing everyone-convenience samples-no systematic sampling frame
- too many big data: data about, say, who ppl interact w, exist in a variety of diff data-data fragments-scientifically relevant behavior spans mult platforms-can be hard to measure certain things online, like love, deceit-not as behavioral-to fix this, we must fuse emerging computational w existing social science methods-could compare use of particular platform relative to pop averages to understand the potential limits of the platform
- artifacts and reactivity: lots of error in big data
- artifacts: the errors and anomalies that systems produce
- reactivity: the changes in data which result from technical changes rather than underlying changes in behavior
- the ideal user assumption: we often assume data generated by a specific type of user-average honest person-but there are bots, liars w fake profiles, and accounts not run by humans, ppl have multiple accounts-many ppl attempt to rig system-try to inflate their own positions and influence-social media easy to manipulate
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big data-institutional issues
- data access: most data (like from Twitter) not public
- ethics: subject consent, privacy-no precedent, consensus, rules vary-role of uni critical here (won't ask about)
- training: big data brings many new quantitative and computational methods-courses for which are rare-need more training
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future trends
1. More Data is coming: big data will continue to grow, continue to reach into past, more things digitized
2. Different Data is coming: most of the data created on big data platforms is still unusable for social scientific research-images, audio, video-tools to interpret and code still being invented, more difficult-need publicly accessible models to utilize these data
3. Models will become more generic: models will be made available to the public-being published in a variety of methods-the goal is to make the models themselves the focus of the research rather than just the methods which create them-thus over time the models become more generic-but need generic and specialized models
4. Data from multiple platforms will become standard: as big data systems proliferate and multiple systems offer similar services, it will become easier for researchers to perform studies on diff platforms
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affiliation network
- a network in which actors are connected via comembership of groups of some kind
- the most complete representation of an affiliation network is as a network w 2 types of vertex representing the actors and the groups, w edges connecting actors to the groups to which they belong-2 mod network
- ex of large affiliation network: coauthorship network of academics
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techniques for studying hidden pops
- snowball sampling-biased
- contract tracing: a form of snowball sampling applies to disease incidence-some diseases are considered sufficiently serious that when someone is discovered to be carrying them, an effort must be made to track down all those who might also have been infected-question person w disease, trace all contacts-not main purpose, but gives data that would be hard to come by-biased in same way as snowball, plus probably only for those that test pos, others aren't pursued
- random walks: once again starts w a single member of the target community, and interviews them and determined their contacts-then instead of interviewing all, randomly choose 1, then ask them and randomly choose-less biased-but relatively slow
- when unethical to ask for names-can use variant of this called respondent-driven sampling-participants usually paid-give tickets to interviewees to give to friends to bring back if want to participate-if single ticket, similar to random walk-but new bias because person won't always choose who to give ticket to randomly-plus ppl decline or ticket gets lost, so usually must hand out more than 1 ticket, which complicates sampling process
Comm 100
flashcards
Decks in class (2)
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