Summary of Blogs

These blogs have all been about theories of media exposure and theories of media impacts and their relationship to the BP oil spill that happened in April of 2010. There are quite a bit examples that can be drawn from the oil spill and related back to both theories. But more importantly, all of these examples are relevant and give perfect instances of how these theories really do relate to our everyday lives. I believe that people do not realize how much of an impact the media has on us, and it’s to our determent. Without understanding how what we watch and read everyday affects us, how is it possible for us to make educated and informed decisions about real life issues, like offshore drilling? However, it should be said that it is hard for us to understand exactly how the media impacts us without taking a class like this. I would not realize this if I weren’t in this class, but I am most certainly glad that I am. I feel as though after completing this project and studying, in depth, theories of media exposure and impacts I can now view media without being as affected by some of these models that I learned about. 

How Media Users Used Selective Processes When Viewing Content on the BP Oil Spill

                People who were for offshore drilling before the oil spill are the ones most likely affected by selective processes. The idea of selective processes is that if a person who is for something views some sort of media that is against that same thing, that person will being even more for that thing, only thinking up more reasons why said thing is good because of the media.

So people who were for offshore drilling, after watching television on the impact that it caused, would be even more for it. They would get more reasons why offshore drilling is good from these programs or websites, despite their opposite message. These people would be able to find proof and evidence supporting offshore drilling from media that is against it.

                What people retain is also similar to how they selectively process things. This means that people’s memories are also distorted, so when they recall certain events they are very likely to remember it how they want to and now how it actually happened. If someone who was against offshore drilling was asked to recap what had happened when the BP oil rig exploded, selective retention tells us that that person would most likely give a very negative recount of the events that took place which may even include some factual errors. More about selective retention and selective processes can be found here: http://www.communicationencyclopedia.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405131995_yr2010_chunk_g978140513199524_ss28-1. 

How Media May Have Deterred Some of its Users after the BP Oil Spill

                As discussed in the previous blog, the media not only portrayed the oil spill in a negative manner (although the spill was an admittedly horrific accident), but it also portrayed all the cities and towns nearby, affected or not, negatively. It is very likely that the people living in these cities that were being labeled as toxic or contaminated also had access to this media and saw, heard, or read what the media was saying about them. On one hand, some of these people may have stopped returning to these different types of media who were down talking their cities. On the other hand, some may have returned to media sources to find out more information about how the oil spill is being repaired or how much oil has spilled out. This choosing to or not too return to different sources of media based on a specific outcome expectation is part of the social learning theory.

                The social learning theory, in relation to media, states that our expectations of the media are said to form around outcomes of behavior rather than the gratification of needs. It was first theorized by Albert Bandura, shown below:

                So, if someone from the Panhandle reads a newspaper, say the FSView, and sees an article about how the Gulf Coast is still a beautiful place to vacation and experience a feeling of joy, chances are they will pick up that newspaper again expecting to read something that will give them the same feeling. Similarly, if someone who works for BP were to turn on the television to Fox News Network and see the anchors showing photos of the oil spill and blaming the entire company for the accident, then that person is less likely to watch that channel again because they expect to see something that turns them off.

                This happened a lot when the oil spill first happened. People who were planning on vacationing to the Gulf Coast watched certain news channels, like http://www.cnn.com/, or frequently visited certain websites such as, http://abcnews.go.com/, because they knew they would be able to find the information they needed therefore receiving a feeling of joy. The same could be said for those who watched networks who still supported tourism along the Gulf Coast.  Also, people who are eco friendly and want to switch to alternative sources of energy were also pleased when they turned on the television or went online and saw that offshore drilling was being postponed and possibly made illegal. The social learning theory is the explanation why they kept returning to these websites and news channels.

Theories of Media Impacts: The Bullet Model

The media can have a very powerful effect on the thoughts and behaviors of others. The bullet model posits powerful, direct effects of the mass media and this became especially apparent when the media started covering the events and happenings of the BP Oil Spill. There were an abundance of photographs, videos, and reporters who exaggerated the effects of the oil spill. Although the spill was a tragedy and was horrible for the Northwest Coast economy, this is in part to how the media depicted the coastal communities that were effected. The media was telling people that the oil had completely covered the beaches of the Gulf Coast and had contaminated fish and seafood for miles, causing people to cancel their vacations and for seafood companies to lose a lot of their business. Media sources showed the most dramatic and disgusting pictures of the oil to try to draw in and keep viewers. Pictures such as these

 were shown on television news shows, in newspapers, and on websites. However, in all reality, only a small portion of beaches were actually affected by the oil and looked like this. But because only pictures like these were shown and not ones such as these

which were taken the same time as the previous photo. The negativity the media was spreading about the effects of the oil spill were causing a drop in Florida tourism and therefore a pretty steep decline for Gulf Coast economy. Things got so bad that President Obama even took a trip to Pensacola to see if the effects of the oil spill were as bad as the media made them out to be. And when he went to a nearby Pensacola beach this picture

was taken, and no oil or tar balls were visible. But, once again, because this was just one picture out of hundreds that were being viewed by people all across the nation through media sources, it was forgotten or even brushed off despite the fact that the President of the United States was in it. The horrid pictures of the tar balls and the oil covered ocean drew more people in than the stories and pictures of the accident that portrayed it as a horrible event, but not one that caused too much damage to coastal communities. This is just one example of how the bullet model can come into play and how the media can be a very powerful thing.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

The uses and gratifications theory is based on an active audience, and states that users actively seek out media that meet their needs for new knowledge, social interaction, and diversion. Basically, the theory is that the media are actively selected to satisfy our needs. The theory focuses on the match between the gratifications we seek out through the media and the gratifications we actually obtain from the media. You may find examples and a full explanation of the theory here http://www.uky.edu/~drlane/capstone/mass/uses.htm  if you’re interested.  If a certain type of newspaper or new channel continuously gives one the gratifications of the type of news that they seek, the more likely it is for that user to return to once again seek gratification. Gratification can come in numerous forms such as information, entertainment, or a need for a specific emotion like fear or humor.

When discussing the uses and gratifications theory and how it relates to the BP Oil Spill, it is important to keep in mind the type of gratification that people went to the media for, and how they received gratification from those different types of media. Some people wanted information about the Oil Spill and how such a disaster could have happened. They wanted to know who was in charge of the oil rig when it exploded and if this accident could have been prevented. For awhile, there was very little about the oil spill as BP was trying to lessen the blow to their company. But after the oil kept spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico, people were becoming more and more anxious for answers and starting looking all over for the specific type of media that would give them a high level of gratification. Websites became a popular place to seek out gratification because television was not covering the oil spill as detailed as websites were at first.  Some websites were based off of newspapers, like http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2010-06-09-1Aoilhowbad09_CV_N.htm , which is just an electronic version of their newspaper, and some were completely web based, like http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com/ which was made specifically because of the oil spill. People also were interested in seeing pictures of the spill. They went to sources of the media, mostly television and websites, to seek out real time photographs of what the oil rig looked like underwater.  Videos were become more and more readily available every day, like this one here showing how the oil gushed out from the broken rig. 

 

People were eager to gain information and pictures and videos after the BP oil spill took place. Users of media did actively seek out this information by constantly watching news television, reading newspapers to find out information, and looking on websites to find out what they wanted to know about the spill.

Theories of Media Exposure and Impact Concerning the BP Oil Spill

This first blog post is just an introductory post summarizing what I will be discussing in the rest of my blogs here and how theories of media exposure and impact relate to the BP oil spill. As the title might indicate, this blog will be discussing theories of media exposure and impact when it comes to the BP oil spill that happened April 20, 2010. 140 million barrels of oil were leaked into the Gulf of Mexico during the 10 months prior to the leak being repaired. These two topics are related by how the media portrayed the oil spill, and how this, in turn, affected people's decisions to consume different types of media. Keep in mind that the purpose of theories of media exposure make attempts to explain the processes we use to make our daily media consumption decisions, and the way media is depicted. During the oil spill, news channels, magazines, newspapers, and radio stations were all covering the oil spill pretty heavily while is was happening because so many people were being affected. In the news, negative connotation was often used, and there was quite a bit of action being taken by the locals because the oil spill was effecting tourism rates. Because the news was covering such heaving hitting topics, people may have been more inclined to watch the news or to buy newspapers in order to keep up with what was happening with the oil spill. Also, if anyone was planning on vacationing somewhere on the Panhandle, Texas, or in Louisiana, they probably kept an especially close eye on the events taking place through varying sources of media, to weigh whether or not it was worth it to still vacation.

Whether or not all of the media covering the oil spill, which will be discussed in a later blog, was correct, it was still being put out there. And because it was still being discussed in the media, people all over were consuming this information and it was having an impact on people, companies, cities, and entire states. One example of this is how all the negative attention the media was giving the oil spill impacted less foreseeable jobs. The lack of tourism and decline of the economy in the states that were affected not only had an impact on the obvious jobs, like fishing companies and those looking to rent their houses on the coast, but it also had an detrimental impact on other individualsa and jobs, like cable companies who not longer need to instal cable in beach homes.