Media Priming Theory

Media Priming Theory

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  MEDIA PRIMING Shanto Lyengar,Mark Peters & Donald Kinder (1982)
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  INTRODUCTION Media effects referto how mass media affects its audience in decision making. Priming is considered as the extension of Agenda setting. Priming has its base in cognitive psychology which relates to Associative network model of human memory.
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  ASSOCIATIVE NETWORK MODEL OFHUMAN MEMORY An idea or concept is stored as a node in the network and is related to other ideas or concepts by semantic paths. Priming refers to the activation of a node in this network, which may serve as a filter, an interpretive frame, or a premise for further information processing or judgment formation.
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  THEORETICAL FORMULATION When peoplewitness, read or hear of an event via the mass media, ideas having a similar meaning are activate in them for a short time afterwards, and that these thoughts in turn can active other semantically related ideas and action tendencies.
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  DEFINITION The priming theorystates that “Media images stimulate related thoughts in the minds of audience members.” Priming is an important concept in media effects. As agenda setting brings out only the importance of the issue, Priming offers explanation on how the information from the media are stored in the human mind and how it influences in making decisions.
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  CONTINUE…. Priming enables theaudience to evaluate the situation and to conclude how effective the media have been in order to make a decision by providing a frame of reference. Priming provides basic perception and relative comparison, which makes judgment easier and quicker. The preconceptions are used for as frame of reference for decision making.
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  ORIGIN In Iyengar, Peters,and Kinder's 1982 study of priming, they set out to determine what effect intentional priming might have on the public's evaluation of president Jimmy Carter. Their hypothesis stated that “Making certain political topics salient through prime time media, such as defense or spending, would cause viewers to evaluate president Carter based on said topics.”
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  PRIMING & POLITICS Priminghas been particularly evaluated during the elections and while choosing the right candidate. Particularly when it comes to politics where people lack the knowledge concerning political matters, they base their decisions on the information from the media which actually influences their decision making on whom to elect.
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  EXAMPLES OF PRIMINGTHEORY Children tend to mimic what they see on television, which is how the process of priming takes place. Jacobs and Shapiro analyzed Kennedy presidential campaign in 1960 extensively. The study found that people based their voting opinions on their views of Kennedy formed through media before the election with the help of public opinion surveys. The campaign managers used media as a tool to influence people.
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  EXAMPLES OF PRIMINGTHEORY Such studies were conducted during the presidency election during the time of Carter as well as Bush. Not only in U.S., but the theory has been tested in other countries like Israel, Germany and Denmark too. Big events like Olympics and World Cup are reported so much that people find it difficult to ignore such events. But media doesn’t provide people with all the information to make a good judgment.
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  ASSUMPTION OF THETHEORY Media has very strong effect on its viewers. People do not have elaborate knowledge about political matters and do not take into account all of what they do know when making political decisions. They must consider what more readily comes to mind.
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  TYPES OF PRIMING ViolencePriming People who watch television programs with more violence, are more violent. Political Priming Media can influence public opinion on many important issues and change evaluation criteria. Stereotype Priming Media can prime gender, race, religion and ethnicity stereotype which can influence perception and political judgments accordingly.
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  CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMING Recentprime creates greater effect. More frequent or longer prime causes more effect. Prime decreases with time, starting from 15 to 20 minutes.
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  CRITICISMS OF PRIMINGTHEORY Government or powerful people can bend information to their favor by priming. It can be used to establish false or distorted reality. People are influenced unknowingly. Priming can even affect the voting patterns of people in elections or establish opinions on any issue. Priming degrades with time.