A Content Analysis of the Media Effects Literature

Potter, W. James; Riddle, Karyn

doi:10.1177/107769900708400107

Cited by 105 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This compares well with Sallot et al (2003) who found just under 20% of articles were theoretical and 22% found by both Zoch et al (2007) and Sisco et al (2011). The proportion of articles with theory prominent also compared well to related academic fields, for example, with Potter and Riddle's (2007) content analysis of journal articles concerned with mass media effects that found 35% of articles featured a theory prominently.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Everywhere and nowhere: Theorising and researching public affairs and lobbying within public relations scholarship

Davidson

2015

Public Relations Review

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Public affairs and lobbying is a high status and strategically vital public relations specialism. It is a field of PR practice that generates high levels of both scholarly and public concern in regard to its perceived role in supporting corporate power and the associated impact on the functional legitimacy of democratic institutions. For this paper a content analysis was conducted of academic journals (between 2000-2013) to provide insights into how public affairs and lobbying have been theorised and researched within public relations scholarship and to ascertain to what degree wider public concerns have been addressed. Findings include an empirical confirmation of the low level of research activity on public affairs; that stakeholder and rhetorical theories have been the most widely used theories, but are far from constituting dominant paradigms; that scholarship has privileged functional objectives over civic concerns; and that published work originates almost entirely from institutions in Europe and the US with the Global South invisible. The paper also discusses future directions for research in public affairs and advocates the placing of discourse into definitions of public affairs, and that academic public relations should assert responsibility for this field, but in a manner that more equitably balances organisational and societal concerns. BackgroundThe centrality of the public affairs function within public relations in combination with the ongoing concerns regarding impacts on democratic decision-making, as well as popular assumptions of routinely low ethical standards present a strong normative case for this field to be a priority for theorising and research. While definitions of public affairs may still be in a state of flux, scholars who have explored this function have tended to agree on its significance as a specialism. Zetter mischievously nominated public affairs as constituting "PR for grown-ups" because of the "huge rewards for getting it right -and major consequences for getting it wrong" (2008: p. :xiii). Public affairs has been observed as higher status strategic work (L'Etang, 2008), and that specialists are more than "mere technicians" but professionals who wield influence in Part of the difficulty in defining and conceptualising public affairs as a specialism of public relations is that a considerable proportion of public affairs practice is indistinguishable from public relations activity (Somerville and Ramsey, 2012). By way of example, in written evidence to a committee of the UK parliament that was investigating the regulation of lobbying, Ed Williams then CEO of Edelman UK argued that for large agencies such as his "…public affairs is just one of many public relations services we provide to clients. The boundaries between, for example, activity which influences the political environment and activity which influences a broader media and stakeholder environment is increasingly blurred." (Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, 2012: p. 67).In most definitions public a...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Everywhere and nowhere: Theorising and researching public affairs and lobbying within public relations scholarship

Davidson

2015

Public Relations Review

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“…Similarly, Potter, Cooper and Dupagne (1993) found that 91.9% of their analysed articles had no theoretical foundations. A study by Potter and Riddle (2007) found the same result for 57.1%. The result reported in Riffe and Freitag's study (1997) was also high: 72.4%.…”

Section: Theoretical Orientationssupporting

confidence: 61%

“…Similarly, some previous studies found low levels of theory use in Media and Communication Studies (Potter and Riddle 2007;Kamhawi and Weaver 1999). Furthermore, the statements of study objectives are based on meeting the interests of industrial needs for knowing and controlling the audience/consumers and media/knowledge workers.…”

Section: Reproduction Of Theoretical and Methodological Povertymentioning

confidence: 58%

“…However, the present study defines its study population as journals cited in the Social Sciences Citation Index that are accepted as "core journals", the "nerves of the discipline", "the barometer of the substantive focus of scholarship and research methods" most important to the communication field (Potter and Riddle 2007), and a measure of academic scholarship by universities throughout the world. There are also journals with critical and historical/dialectical materialist theoretical orientations, but we can hardly find such journals in the dominant control centres of the production and distribution channels.…”

Section: Scope Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Missing Marx: The Place of Marx in Current Communication Research and the Place of Communication in Marx’s Work

Erdoğan¹

2012

tripleC

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“…Many studies have shown that exposure to media violence is a significant risk factor for aggressive thoughts, emotions, attitudes and behavior in youth viewers and users (Potter & Riddle, 2007). It was found that exposure to violent content on television, video games and the Internet increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior among children and adolescents Bushman & Huesmann, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Moderating Role of Social Context on Media Violence Effect in the Case of Peer Aggression among Adolescents

Velki

Jagodić²

2017

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The main aim of the study was to examine a potential moderator role of social context in which children are exposed to media (alone, with peers, with parents) in the relationship between the frequency of media use and the frequency of committed peer aggression. The study included 880 elementary school students, which completed the following self-assessment measures: Peer violence among school children questionnaire (Velki, Kuterovac Jagodić, & Vrdoljak, 2012), and Exposure to the media scale (Velki & Kuterovac Jagodić, 2012). A moderation effect of parental and peer social context was found; e.g., social context had a positive effect on decreasing the correlation between watching TV and electronic peer aggression. Peers social context during playing computer games was associated with decrease in physical peer aggression. Browsing the Internet with parents or peers also decreased physical and/or electronic peer aggression. The importance of social context as a protective factor is highlighted in the discussion.

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A Content Analysis of the Media Effects Literature

Cited by 105 publications

References 14 publications

Everywhere and nowhere: Theorising and researching public affairs and lobbying within public relations scholarship

Everywhere and nowhere: Theorising and researching public affairs and lobbying within public relations scholarship

Missing Marx: The Place of Marx in Current Communication Research and the Place of Communication in Marx’s Work

Testing the Moderating Role of Social Context on Media Violence Effect in the Case of Peer Aggression among Adolescents

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