Effects Research:Relationship Between The Type Of Information And The History Of Communicational Effects

In the history of media, the only changeless factor is human needs. This article combine Marx Engels’s theory of spirit communication, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Uses and Gratifications theory to classify information under three types:information about physiological urgent needs, information about physiological non-urgent needs and immaterial needs. To different people, the importance of different types of information is so different that the effect is different. Thus, when we talk about the effects of mass communication, we should consider the type of information because different types of information conduces different communicational effects. When we review the history of mass communicational effects from the standpoint of information types, we will find that The Magic Bullet Theory, The Limited Effects Theory and The Strong Effects Theory are correct. They do not replace each other but complement each other. This classify of information types can also apply in researches of effects of mass communication in web.