Mary Jackson Pitts, Ph.D.

mpitts@astate.edu

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Hodgepodge of theories you should have come in contact with and their Basic Concepts

•      Knowledge Gap Theory

•      Diffusion of innovation

•      Framing

•      Media Dependency Theory

•       Equilibrium Theory

Knowledge Gap Theory

•      Tichenor, Donohue and Olien (1970)

–  Gaps happen

•   1)   communication skills

•   2)   store information 

•  3)   relevant social contact

•   4)   selective exposure, acceptance and retention.

•   5)  nature of the mass media 

Diffusion of Innovation theory (Rogers, 1983)

•       (1) Innovators

•       (2) Early Adoptors

•       (3) Early Majority

•       (4) Late Majority

•       (5) Laggards 

Framing  (Erving Goffman, 1974)

•      a systematic account of how we use expectations to make sense of every day life situations and the people in them

•      Experiences constantly shift

Framing (Erving Goffman, 1974)

•      Significant actions

Media Dependency Theory

•      Aassumes that the more a person depends on having his or her needs gratified by media use, the more important will be the role that media play in the person’s life and, therefore, the more influence those media will have on that person.   

 Media Dependency Theory

•      Melvin DeFleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach 

•      Relationship between the larger social system, the media’s role in that system, and audience relationships to the media.” 

•      Second, “the degree of audience dependence on media information..” 

•      Third, “we are becoming increasingly dependent on the media

–      to understand the social world,

–      to act meaningfully and effectively in society

–      for fantasy and escape

Equilibrium Theory

•   People have the ability to process a finite amount of information.  When the information load goes beyond that finite limit, people’s attention will begin to drop.