| Digital media increasingly provide individuals with the ability to monitor the opinion of other viewers through a range of cues such as comments, "likes," or the number of times a page has been shared by others. Such audience metrics are ubiquitous to the experience of the contemporary media consumer, but are often unaccounted for by traditional media effects theory. Does the strength of media effects vary when the opinion of other viewers accompany media content? Will the effects be stronger when others' opinion are mostly positive rather than negative, generated by a large audience rather than a small audience, or from an audience that is nearby rather than distant? The present dissertation investigates these possibilities by examining the role played by valence, size, and location of the online crowd in shaping the effects of media. It tests two theoretical mechanisms by which these effect may occur: through heightening the presumed influence of media content on other audience members or by evoking higher levels of attention during media.;To test the effect of audience metrics on media effects, a between-subjects laboratory experiment was conducted using media violence as the context for the investigation. Study findings reveal that negative comments decrease bandwagon perceptions, while a high number of viewers increases the presumed reach of media. A series of indirect effects were also found--- crowd size decreased hostile expectations but increased social reality perceptions, via presumed influence and issue importance. Study findings offer multiple theoretical implications for the study of media effects, including the introduction of a novel typology of audience cues, an understanding of how comments and page views affect presumed influence and attention, and a demonstration of how media accompanied by a large audience can affect the psychological effects of media. |
