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Media have effects. People may disagree about what those effects might be, but media do have effects. Advertisers would not spend billions of dollars a year to place their messages in the media if they did not have effects, nor would our Constitution, in the form of the First Amendment, seek to protect the freedoms of the media if the media did not have important consequences. We attempt to understand and explain these effects through mass communication theory. After studying this chapter you should
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| 1. be familiar with the history and development of mass communication theory. |
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| 2. understand what is meant by theory, why it is important, and how it is used. |
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| 3. be familiar with some of the most influential traditional and contemporary mass communication theories. |
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| 4. be conversant in a number of controversial effects issues, such as violence, media's impact on drug and alcohol consumption, media's contribution to racial and gender stereotyping, and the media's impact on the electoral process. |
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| 5. possess improved skill at applying mass communication theory to your own use of media. |