Examine The History Of Mass Communication Effects Research

This study is focused on the intellectual history of the research of effects of mass communication. "Research of effects of mass communication", as defined in this paper, is a unique approach in the field of communication studies. It holds major common characteristics including primary focus on audiences, specification of influence, attribution of the source of influence or effect to a particular aspect, and a tendency to formulate propositions about effects in ways accessible to empirical testing. It is now called "dominant paradigm" in the field of mass communication, while it is criticized by critical studies and cultural studies.There is a received history about media effects research, which is known as the model of "powerful-limited-powerful" effects. This well-known model is easy to understand, while it does not reflect the actual development of effects research in deed. In this study, we will supply a "new" intellectual history with the "new" aspect about how the researchers understand and perceive "audiences" during their studies.On the basis of first-hand literatures, we divide the history of mass communication effects research into five stages: the first stage refers to the first mass communication effects research—Pane Fund Studies, which treat the "audience" as "isolated" and examine how movies influence knowledge, attitude and behavior of young people; communication studies in the second stage are focused on the media effects on the audiences' attitude and behavior, which mean to examine whether the persuasive goal from the communicator will be achieved, then researchers find important variables including personal differences, and selective exposure, perception and retention as results of "predisposition"; in the third stage, scholars from Columbia School introduce the variables of personal influence and social structure into media effects research and look for their interaction with media effects; the "audience activity" such as "information selection", "information utilization", "information processing" and "discussing" are the key variables in the fourth stage; and in the last and recent stage, researchers focus on cognitive effects of mass communication. They propose a series of theories or hypotheses on issues significance (e.g. agenda-setting), image of the world outside (e.g. cultivation; framing) and knowledge gap, which are the most cited theories in recent effects studies. We do not mean that the ideas on "audiences" in every stage replace its former. On the contrary, all ideas on "audiences" will be integrated into the recent effects research of mass communication.Effects of mass communication approach sees "structural functionalism" as its "grand theory" and follows Merton's suggestion about building "middle-range theories". It makes commitment to democracy as foundational value behind empirical studies.Finally, we discuss the issues of the future of media effects research, effects research in China and the study on the intellectual history of media effects thoughts, which means not limited in the field of empirical media effects research.