mass media research paper topics

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180 Media Research Paper Topics You Can Use To Make an Excellent Paperwork

Media paper topics are important for students as they are a basic component of mass communication. The digital space encompasses many aspects to write about. That is why research work is a very important stage for a student. Besides the fact that you need to adhere to strict rules, you need to be well versed in the chosen topic. It will be the stage in assessing the competence of each student.

Media research topics is a good stage for those who want to understand mass communications and provide expert material that will be well appreciated. Research papers like these are supposed to adhere to technical requirements for presentation, presentation of information, and facts presentation. Any media research topic should be based on reliable data. If you give statistics or any statements, then this must be supported by facts.

All media studies topics require detailed data collection. You need to focus on the main postulates in your work and adhere to the created plan. Each of your statements should be supported by real facts and statistics where necessary. It is best if the topic you choose will correspond to the level of your knowledge and competence. Let's take a look at media research topics that might be of interest to you.

History of Media

Such media research topics for college students are especially popular, as they allow you to choose any period during preparation. You can touch upon the period of formation of journalism and information space in a particular country or worldwide. You can also focus on the differences in the media space of different countries.

History of media culture in the late fifties in the United States.
How did the media space develop in the early 18th century in England?
History of the Chinese media industry.
The process of the emergence of media culture as the main factor in the delivery of information.
The media culture of Israel in the context of opposition to Palestine.
Historical aspects of the development of media culture in Yugoslavia.
The historical context as a symbol of the development of media culture.
The main bases of the historical development of media.
History of the North Korean media industry.
The media industry of the Netherlands.
Historical prerequisites for the creation of mass media.
The role of contemporary mass media in American history.
The major failures in the history of mass media.
Political information as the main institution of historical mass media.

Media Psychology

Such research topics in mass media are also popular because they offer many opportunities for exploring the psychological aspects and nuances of influence on the world community. You can focus on certain aspects of mass management or the techniques that news sites practice to retain audiences.

Influence of media psychology on the development of consciousness.
Managing the masses using media psychology.
What is propaganda, and how is it related to Media Psychology?
Nuances of manipulation using psychological factors.
How does the media industry influence modern trends in psychology?
The crowd power and media industry.
How does media psychology affect the manipulation of consciousness?
New trends in media psychology.
Psychological aspects when creating news on TV channels.
Methods of manipulating psychological factors.
Psychological aspects of interviews for mass media.
The influence of the media space.
The nuances of the modern media channels.
The analysis of psychological activity on the example of mass media.
Modern psychological challenges in the context of mass media.

Politics and Mass Media

Such research topics in media and communication allow you to choose a niche related to politics and even individuals. For example, you can focus on collecting information about politicians and their impact on the digital information field. A research paper on contemporary dictators and media manipulation techniques can be especially interesting.

Mass media as a subject of political speculation.
Why is political debate a way to influence the masses?
Disadvantages of mass media during political elections.
New trends in propaganda in the political environment.
The popularization of politicians through the mass media.
Political change through the lens of news channels.
Does the mass media influence the rating of politicians?
The importance of mass media in the lives of voters.
The role of mass media in the formation of the political image.
The ethereal debate of politicians.

Entertainment and Education

This section of mass media research topics will allow you to focus on educational and entertainment topics. For example, you can create your paperwork based on a show. Any media project with an educational or entertainment bias is suitable for this. You can also focus on what impact a particular digital product has had on the public.

The impact of National Geographic on the education of an entire generation.
Entertainment programs as a method of attracting an audience.
Basic methods of education through mass media.
The influence of entertainment shows on the formation of TV channel ratings.
Main factors of popularization of entertainment shows on TV.
Modern talk shows and their impact on social culture to new trends in educational television programs.
How has television changed in the context of educational programs?
New trends in entertainment channels during the quarantine period.
The main entertainment show of the last decade.
The secret to the success of the Oprah show.
Entertainment aspects of modern TV channels.
The role of mass media in modern entertainment trends.
Analysis of information and entertainment TV programs.
The means and modern trends and TV shows with educational content.
The role of education in modern mass media.

Teenagers and The Media

Media essay topics like these are especially relevant as they show the relationship between teenagers and the digital space. For example, you can choose modern information resources or social networks in the context of influencing a young audience. Research like this can reveal trends and patterns that are especially relevant to teenagers.

Children bloggers and the media space.
The impact of social culture on teenagers.
Modern music trends in the media space.
Analysis of teenagers' dependence on media popularity.
New Instagram trends and stages of mass media promotion.
Media culture and its impact on teenage preferences.
Teenage preference in media culture.
Does mass media influence the development of modern children?
Nuances of Media broadcasts for teenagers.
The daily media marathons for teenagers.
The impact of adolescent culture on social media.
New journalistic staff among teenagers.
Main factors of using teenagers in mass media.
The nuances of creating a positive image of teenagers in the mass media.
Analysis of modern youth TV channels.

Mass Communications Law

When choosing media research paper topics, you must be prepared to rely on legal facts and legislation. The fact is that mass communications law allows us to consider any aspect of journalism and telecommunications through the prism of legislation. You can choose a narrow topic to cover all aspects and details in your research work.

Legislative aspects of cigarette advertising regulation.
The influence of advertising on the popularization of products.
Legislative loopholes and their application in the media.
Legal formalities in the context of mass media.
Influence of mass media on amendments to the constitution.
Journalistic ethics and law.
Legal aspects of television censorship.
Legal opportunities to create exclusive news.
Freedom and journalistic ethics.
Legal collection of information.
Legislative aspects of communication technologies.
The impact of social media on the US legislative framework.
The main reasons for the modern divergence in journalism.
Legitimate aspects of the existence of a journalistic agency.
Formalities and legal norms of mass media.
Major aspects of legal news channels.
The selection of legal topics for informational publications.
The analysis of the legal framework in journalistic investigations.

Media Bias Research Paper

These media research paper topics are especially relevant because bias is very common in news sources worldwide. You can choose any information precedent that relates to bias towards a certain topic or event in the world. A lot of news outlets have published false or biased facts so that you can concentrate on that.

The BBC's role in shaping public opinion about certain news.
The impact of American representation in contemporary culture.
The provocation and shock content in modern mass media.
The responsibility of the media for bias on the air.
The reputation he had for her loss of TV channels during political elections.
Ecology and events as a major factor in misinformation.
The media and their impact on public opinion about migrants.
Political bias as an element of political struggle in the mass media.
The philosophy of television news.
The major social warnings during terrorist attacks.
The bias as the main problem of modern TV channels.
The role of politics in media bias.
Analysis of bias and aggressiveness of modern TV channels.
Sociological polls as a method of prejudice against certain political persons.

Media Violence Research Paper

These media research paper topics are very relevant, as you can find many examples of violence in today's information space. One of the areas for your research may be the media's attitude to the violence and a specific approach to public awareness. There are many examples when the media space deliberately promoted the topic of violence, so it should not be difficult for you to find it.

Violence as the main topic in the mass media.
Cultivating violence in the context of contemporary news.
The role of TV news channels in the influence of social intolerance and.
Racism and preconditions of information bias and.
How do TV channels influence the formation of social opinion?
The main aspects of disinformation in the social space.
The main nuances of creating a wrong opinion about certain aspects.
Modern trends of media violence in the context of the epidemic.
Nuances of social movements in the mass media.
Reasons for increased cruelty in the media.
The main reasons we carried in the information environment.
Investigative reporting of violence and press releases.
The main factors of increasing violence in news stories.
The street violence as a source for news publications.

Journalism and News Research Topics

These digital media research topics are suitable for those who want to focus on journalism and news agency research. You can compare approaches to shaping media news or on the nuances of journalism. There are many TV channels, web resources, or radio stations with news, so choosing a topic will not be difficult.

The influence of journalists on the news coverage of the event.
The main trends of the modern information space.
Research on the influence of journalists on news bias.
Information blocks in modern TV channels.
Reasons and popularization of disinformation in the mass media.
Journalists and their influence on many factors of the social environment in the mass media.
Technical nuances and main features of the profession of a journalist.
Relevant news in the context of journalistic ethics.
The main nuances of the study of journalistic disinformation.
The main factors of journalistic ethics and news sources.
Analysis of news in the context of modern trends.
The main norms of journalistic ethics point research structure of the interview.
Journalism as a factor in the development of society.
Correct aspects of social media interviews.

Social Media Research Topic

Media analysis essay topics like these allow you to delve deeper into the digital space's social nuances. For example, you can write about social media and its impact on modern life. This can be especially relevant in the context of modern media search.

Stages of creating news stories.
Social media and their role in modern society.
The nuances of the development of information channels.
The main factors for the identification of social media.
Nuances of methodical work in the media sphere.
The main parameters of social activity for creating informational reasons.
Social media research methodology.
Data analysis and formation of news publications.
Social media as the main tuning fork of modern society.
Nuances of analytical aspects of social media.
The influence of social trends on the specifics of the information space.
The main trends in social inequality.
Social news analysis and terminology.

Social Media Marketing

Such media studies research topics allow you to write about modern marketing gimmicks and their impact on society. You can choose a specific topic related to a specific site, TV channel, or general media space. Be sure to include real examples detailing your overall media marketing strategy.

The role of marketing in the modern information space.
Social media, as the main economic factor in the United States.
Stages in the evolution of television marketing campaigns.
Modern advertising as an engine of mass culture.
Mass media and technical aspects of marketing.
Analysis of social media in the context of advertising campaigns.
Identification of mass media as a source of information.
Marketing prerequisites for the development of social media.
Analysis of the overall popularity of mass media in the context of marketing campaigns.
Nuances of modern marketing using the example of mass media.
Marketing realities of modern information stands.
The role of the information space on the formation of social activity.

Journalism Ethics

Very often, the media forget about moral norms and publish false information. Journalistic ethics can be a good topic for your research paper. There are many examples of deliberately false information and examples of substitution of facts. This can be extremely interesting for detailed research.

The importance of journalistic ethics in modern society.
The basic aspects of honest media.
What are journalistic ethics and honest research?
Basic tenets of journalistic ethics in modern media
The need to create an institution of journalistic ethics
Disinformation as the main problem of journalistic investigations.
Honest news and journalistic ethics.
Foundations of social equality and ethical standards of journalism.
The main nuances of the ethics of journalistic interviews.
The main advantage of journalistic ethics in local news sites.

How to Write a Research Paper on Media Topics?

Any research paper should start by choosing a topic that is relevant to you. You should choose the media area where your competence can manifest itself the most. You have to create a complex paper with statistical data and concrete confirmation of your statements. This is especially true when you choose a biased research paper.

The second aspect is the technical requirements for the design and structuring of data. You should adhere to the general guidelines, provide links to information sources, and confirm all your statements. Then your research paper will have weight and will bring you high marks.

If you are not sure about the expertise of your data, then you can use our services. We'll help you create the research paper that gets the highest marks. Thanks to our extensive experience in this area, we can guarantee expert work and high results.

An Inspiration List

CNN Politics
Media Bias Ratings
Media Bias/Fact Check
Social media - Statistics & Facts
Social Media Stats Worldwide
Business Media

100 Media Analysis Essay Topics & Examples

Welcome to our list of media analysis essay topics! Here, you will find plenty of content analysis topic ideas. Use them to write a critical paper, a literary analysis, or a mass-media related project. As a bonus, we’ve included media analysis example essays!

🔝 Top 10 Media Analysis Topics for 2024

🏆 best media analysis topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ interesting topics to write about media analysis, ✅ simple & easy media analysis essay titles, 🔥 content analysis topic ideas.

Portrayal of Women in Ads
Media Bias in Political Reporting
Representation and Diversity on TV
Social Media’s Impact on Self-Esteem
Media Coverage of Humanitarian Crises
How Are News on Climate Change Framed?
Consequences of Fake News and Misinformation
How Gender Roles Are portrayed in Children’s Media
Does Violence in Video Games Lead to Aggressive Behavior?
The Relationship of Media and Public Opinion in Elections
The Media Economics Analysis In addition, the assessment of the economics of media reveals crucial information about the production, distribution, and consumption patterns of the media services and products.
Media Analysis of 13 Reasons Why According to the laws of the genre, the atmosphere is intensified, the pace accelerates, and the turns in the plot become more and more abrupt.
Analysis of Media Strategies This is because it uses a reverse marketing strategy which states that the less the advertisement, the higher the pricing and the harder it becomes to find it, the higher the chances that people will […]
“Super Bowl LVI Today: Day 1” Media Analysis Hence, it is essential to consider the priorities of the mass communication organization, namely the tone, look and advertising in the show.
Sociological Media Analysis: “The Bachelor” and “One Day at a Time” The show is misogynistic, with the male protagonist playing the role of the pursuer and the female protagonist assuming the role of the pursued.
Historical Components of Media Analysis In the case of Mumford and McLuhan, Carey observes that the writing and interpretation of media can result in the reconstruction of wider arguments and even the selection of an antagonistic agent.
Analysis of Social Media Tools in Business The last item, the detailed analytics of the content and activity, allows for the development of the more efficient business strategy based on the subscribers’ preferences.
Media Literacy Research: Analysis of the Issue In the process of research, I have significantly expanded my ability to access and analyze media messages as well as to use the power of information to communicate and make a difference in the world.
Media Influences Learning: Analysis The use of media in learning leads to the achievement of positive outcomes if the medium used is interrelated and confounding.
Media Analysis: Abuse Over Vaccine Passports The article uses the direct quotations of the restaurant owners, thus making the most of the story based in the first person.
Media Analysis: Ageism in Advertisement In addition to the idea of saving communicated in E-trade’s ad, the commercial also seems to convey the hope of work among the old population.
Media Bias Fact Check: Website Analysis For instance, Fact Check relies on the evidence provided by the person or organization making a claim to substantiate the accuracy of the source.
Social Media Presence Analysis I think it expresses engagement within my workplace and willingness to learn more to either explore new ideas, be a part of the discussion, and make sure the information I am gathering is accurate and […]
The HopeLine: Website and Social Media Analysis The organization’s social media and the site contain a body of knowledge that might be also informative or important to revise for the current employees, for instance types and signs of abuse.
Media Analysis: Gideon’s Trumpet As it has been mentioned above, the purpose of the movie was to show that even a criminal has the right to have someone to represent him in the courtroom.
Acute Otitis Media Analysis The peak of acute ear infections, which precedes otitis media, is prior to the age of 2 years, and during school entry.
Modern Mass Media and Tools for Their Analysis A sender is a person who originates the message, a message is the content that is communicated, a channel is a medium used to transmit it, and a recipient is a person to whom the […]
Covering a Pandemic: Critical Media Analysis A lot of work over the past decades has been devoted to the study of media analysis, which has led to the formation of a new area of knowledge, concepts, and categories.
Analysis of Media Representation Patterns In fact, studies show that the DNA of any given human being is ninety-nine percent identical in comparison to the rest of the population, regardless of their origin.
News and Media Reliability: Social Analysis At the same time, given the apparent trend to use the Internet as the primary source of news, mobile devices still seem to arouse suspicion among the adult and the older adult population. The most […]
Analysis Representations of Britishness in Different Media Texts Although it is clear to me that facts of Britishness exist in all three media sources listed above, I understand that it has different sides and is shown as a mixture of cultural peculiarities, breathtaking […]
On Stereotyping in the Media Viewers watch shows regularly and do not understand the content that is biased while the media is able to attract the attention of the audience by way of drama, comedy and action.
Media and Injustice: Issues Analysis This paper will high light relations among media and the Injustice, discuss media in it’s past and current perspective and it’s possible role in future challenges by means of special importance on the media management […]
Media Coverage of Issues Analysis The main arguments that the authors suggest are: Inconsistent use of labels for the alternative plans minimized the likelihood that the public would understand the details of any of them; The conflicts frame narrowed public […]
Mass Media Communication: Personal Analysis Finally, when I do the same in the kitchen in the morning, I am occupied with preparing and eating my breakfast; therefore, television serves as a background and I cannot be focused on the information […]
Mass Media Law’s Analysis Indeed, the existing regulations show that the specified action is defined as flag desecration can be interpreted as an affront of the citizen of the United States, as well as the disdain for the law.
“The New Yorker” and “National Geographic” Media Analysis What finds most interesting about Surowiecki’s article is that he manages to counter the politics of the USA government, whereas, in Alexander’s article, the secret of the buried treasure and the historical events are the […]
Media Analysis: Jacob’s Cross In the Jacob’s Cross episode that was watched the following scenes that apply to the social justice theme were observed: This episode begins in the morning by Jacob calling his attorney and some other close […]
Social Media Data Analysis For the company storage purposes, information in wikis is stored in a chronological order and may be used to build the company’s knowledge.
Fairfax Media Limited Situational Analysis While it has generally taken Fairfax a longer time than expected to identify and adapt to the shift brought about by the rise of technology in market- specifically the internet and social media- the company […]
Media Industry News Analysis: Gasland May Take the Oscar To learn more about the world of media, it is better to focus on the news and the main themes of the articles offered to the reader.
Fairfax Media Industrial Environmental Analysis When the rights are granted, they come with a cost to the company; there has been challenges of print media from free press media in Australia thus Fairfax faces the challenge to handle the situation.
Media Analysis: Women and Men in Media Against this background the paper attempts to probe the way in which the press and especially the print journalism help to produce and to reproduce specific ways of knowing the third world.
Content Analysis of Two Different Forms of Media Although the first one uses television and the second uses the Internet and the World-Wide-Web to deliver content to consumers it must be pointed out that these two are rivals and basically has the same […]
Analysis of Gender Issues in the Media The message in the advertisement simply showed that women are able to control men by using their bodies in a certain way.
The Focus on the Importance of Symbols in Media Analysis
Visual Media Analysis for Social Media and Other Online Platforms
Research Methodologies for the Media Analysis
Communications and Media Analysis
Television Media Analysis
Media Analysis: Leadership
Predicting Stock Market Using Social Media Analysis
Media Analysis: Television and New Media
Media Analysis and Feminism
Television Media Analysis: Authors and Producers
How the Media Places Responsibility for the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Australian Media Analysis
Media Analysis: Political and Social Bias in the USA
Collecting Data in Social Media Analysis
The Jurisprudence and Qualitative Media Analysis
Media Analysis: Banning Beauty and the Beast in Malaysia
Media Analysis and Understanding the Meaning of Islam
Symbolic Interactionism and Social Networks: Media Analysis
Television Media Analysis: The Cosby Show
Marketing and Business Communication: Media Analysis
The Difference Between the Quantitative and Qualitative Media Analysis
Structuring and Media Analysis
Media Analysis: Audiences and Consumers
Managing the News and Media Analysis
Comparative and Critical Media Analysis
Media Analysis: Rose Petal Cottage
Video Installation and Media Analysis
Philosophical and Social Media Analysis
Critical and Interdisciplinary Research in Media Analysis
Public Relations and Media Analysis: Semantic and Social Aspects
Functionalist Perspective for Media Analysis
Media Analysis of Traditional Primary Documents
Responsibility for the COVID-19 Pandemic: Media Analysis
Qualitative Research Methods in Media Analysis
A Visual Analytics System for Television Ratings
Food Chain Actors’ Perceptions of and Adaptations to Volatile Markets: Results of a Media Analysis
Religion and the Media Analysis
Symbolic Interactionist Perspective for Media Analysis
Employer Relation: Industrial Conflict Media Analysis
Symbolic Interactionist Perspective Media Analysis
Media Analysis: Overview of Media Research Methodologies and Audiences
Patterns of Emotional Expression in Social Media Posts
A Comparative Content Analysis of Television Shows and Gender Representation
Environmental Sustainability Messaging in Advertisements
Patterns of Persuasive Language in Political Debates
News Coverage during COVID-19: Media Framing and Public Perception
The Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Behavior
Analysis of Unrealistic Standards in Video Game Characters
How Portrayal of Violence in Movies Leads to Desensitization
Diversity of Characters and Themes in Children’s Literature
How Fashion Magazines Affect Beauty Ideals
Effectiveness of Educational Apps for Children
Do Food Advertisements Promote Healthy Nutritional Choices?
Representation of LGBTQ+ Characters in TV Series
Environmental Messaging in Corporate Social Responsibility Reports
Representations and Perspectives on Climate Change
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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Mass Communication Essay Topics

Media Research Paper Topics

Three main concepts of media inform communication research. The first is Harold D. Lasswell’s paradigm – “who says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect” – which approaches media as neutral conduits of information. The second conception is the mathematical theory of communication by Claude Shannon that emphasizes technical aspects of communication systems. The third concept represents humanistic perspectives on media as cultural carriers of meaning. In this last respect, Roman Jakobson has made an important distinction between channels or contacts (concrete entities such as books, newspapers, or the internet) and codes (forms of expression such as speech, writing, music, or images).

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Much media and communication research is characterized by efforts at integrating these concepts theoretically as well as analytically. Studies commonly identify three aspects of any medium: Media are physical materials in a particular social shape that enable communication. Such materials are the vehicles of modalities – language, music, moving images, etc. Finally, media are institutions through which individuals and collectives can reflect upon themselves and the rest of society.

Digital media have stimulated renewed interest in the relationship between technologically mediated communication and face-to-face communication, and in the reshaping – remediation (Bolter & Grusin 1999) – of older media. One may distinguish between media of three degrees (Jensen 2010). Media of the first degree are humans – biologically based and culturally shaped resources of communication. Media of the second degree are mass media – from the printing press to television. Media of the third degree are digital media that recombine all previous media on single platforms.

Media Economics Research Paper Topics

Media economics is the study of economic theories and concepts applied to the media industries. Media economics is diverse and includes such topics as policy and ownership, market concentration, performance of firms, and political economy of the media. Media research paper topics related to media economics include:

Antitrust Regulation
Audience Commodity
Circulation
Commercialization of the Media
Commodification of the Media
Competition in Media Systems
Concentration in Media Systems
Consolidation of Media Markets
Consumers in Media Markets
Cost and Revenue Structures in the Media
Cross-Media Marketing
Distribution
Diversification of Media Markets
Economics of Advertising
Economies of Scale in Media Markets
Globalization of the Media
Labor in the Media
Labor Unions in the Media
Markets of the Media
Media Conglomerates
Media Corporations, Forms of
Media Management
Media Marketing
Ownership in the Media
Political Economy of the Media
Privatization of the Media
Public Goods

The Development of Media Economics

The origins of media economics began with the study of economics. The classical school of economics centered on the interplay of economic forces, operation of markets, and the cost of production. The classical school would later be challenged by ‘marginalist’ economics and Marxism. The marginalists introduced demand and supply, and consumer utility. Marxism identified labor as the source of production. Marxism rejected the capitalist system and the exploitation of the working class.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, neoclassical economics was introduced, differed by its use of analytical tools and mathematics to examine market behavior and price. Later the development of macroeconomics shifted the focus to aggregate economics, encompassing the entire range of market activity. Economic theories are constantly changing and evolving. By the 1970s new approaches included monetarist theories, which re-emphasized growth in the money supply; and rational expectations, which argues that the market’s ability to anticipate government policy actions limits their effectiveness.

As the study of economics evolved, scholars began to investigate different markets and industries. Media economics emerged during the 1950s. The media industries featured all of the elements necessary for studying the economic process. Content providers represented suppliers, with consumers and advertisers forming the demand side of the market. Regulatory agencies (e.g., Federal Communications Commission (FCC)) in the US, the Federal Trade Commission, and other entities) affected macroeconomic market conditions, while the relationship among suppliers in various industries created microeconomic market conditions.

Concentration of ownership emerged as a critical topic as it impacts both regulatory and social policy. Other studies examined media competition, consumer expenditures, barriers to entry for new firms, advertiser/ownership demand, and consumer utility.

Theoretical Dimensions and Methods

Media economics utilizes many theoretical approaches: microeconomic theories, macroeconomic theories, and political economy of the media. Microeconomic studies center on specific industry and market conditions. Macroeconomic studies take a broader focus, examining such topics as labor, capital markets, and gross domestic product. Political economy emerged as a critical response to positivist approaches.

The industrial organization (IO) model offers a systematic means of analyzing a market. The model consists of market structure, conduct, and performance. The model is also called the SCP model. The model posits that if the structure of a market is known, it helps explain the likely conduct and performance among firms. Each area can be further analyzed by considering specific variables within each part of the SCP model. Critics contend that the IO model does not capture the nuances associated with new technologies. However, the model remains a key theory in microeconomics.

The theory of the firm examines the most common types of market structure: monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, and perfect competition. Defining market structure is complicated due to consolidation across the media industries. Media concentration is examined in one of two ways. Researchers gather data on firm/ industry revenues to measure concentration by applying tools such as concentration ratios. Another method tracks concentration of ownership among the media industries. Research has shown there are a limited number of firms which control media markets. Globalization has contributed to media concentration. Competition studies draw upon niche theory, which originated in the field of biology. These studies consider competition within an industry or across industries. Indices are used to measure the breadth, overlap, and superiority of one competitor over another. Finally, macroeconomic analysis in media economics includes policy and regulatory analysis, labor and employment trends, and advertising revenues and expenditures at the national level.

Media economics embraces different methods. Many include trend studies, financial analysis, econometrics, and case studies. Trend studies are used to compare data over time for topics such as concentration and performance. Financial analysis utilizes different types of financial statements and ratios to measure performance of firms and industries. Econometric analysis uses statistical models to address its research questions. Case studies embrace different methodologies as well as data. Case studies in media economics research tend to be very targeted examinations.

Critics of media economics research contend research is too descriptive in nature, and that methodological approaches are limited. There are also concerns researchers would study only major companies, and not pay sufficient attention to new media enterprises.

Future Directions for the Study of Media Economics

There are a number of steps researchers need to address to further develop media economics. In terms of research, media economics must address how to define a media market given the convergence and consolidation across the media industries. Most media companies are now multimedia enterprises, generating content across a variety of platforms.

In addition to refining key concepts, media economics research must also expand into new arenas. Among the areas where new understanding and investigation are required are social media, and mobile markets. Media economics scholars should consider new inquiries that draw upon multiple methods of investigation. The interplay of regulation, technology, and social policy presents new opportunities for scholars to generate new theories. Scholars need to examine variables that describe evolving market structures. Improvements in methodological tools are needed to complement expansion in research and theory. New measures are needed to assess within-industry concentration and competition.

Media economics helps to understand the activities and functions of media companies as economic institutions. Media economics research continues to evolve as it analyzes and evaluates the complex and changing world in which the media industries operate.

References:

Albarran, A. B. (2010a). The media economy. London: Routledge.
Albarran, A. B. (2010b). The transformation of the media and communication industries. Pamplona: EUNSA.
Albarran, A. B., Chan-Olmsted, S. M., & Wirth, M. O. (2006). Handbook of media management and economics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Croteau, D. & Hoynes, W. (2006). The business of media: Corporate media and the public interest, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge.
Dimmick, J. W. (2003). Media competition and coexistence: The theory of the niche. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Gershon, R. A. (2013). Telecommunications and business strategy, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.
Napoli, P. M. (2003). Audience economics. New York: Columbia University Press.
Noam, E. M. (2009). Media ownership and concentration in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Picard, R. G. (2011). The economics and financing of media firms, 2nd edn. New York: Fordham University Press.

Media Effects Research Paper Topics

Mass media can produce a broad spectrum of effects – on knowledge, attitudes, emotions, social behavior, reputation of people covered by the media, etc. Effects may be the consequences of media use, but also a result of interactions with people who have used the media. Explanations are usually based on two types of theories. Learning-theory approaches address the correct reproduction of information. Therefore, divergences between beliefs and information provided by media are considered learning deficits that may also be interpreted as a lack of media effects. Cognitive-theory approaches address the processing of information triggered by media reports. Beliefs and opinions are not regarded as copies of media presentation but indicate the type of information processing. Media research paper topics related to media effects include:

Agenda-Setting Effects
Albert Bandura
Appraisal Theory
Carl I. Hovland
Catharsis Theory
Cognitive Availability
Credibility Effects
Cumulative Media Effects
Desensitization
Diffusion of Information and Innovation
Direct and Indirect Media Effects
Effects of Entertainment
Effects of Exemplification and Exemplars
Effects of Nonverbal Signals
Effects of Sex and Pornography as Media Content
Effects of Violence as Media Content
Elaborated Models of Media Effects
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
Emotional Arousal Theory
Excitation Transfer Theory
Fear Induction through Media Content
Framing Effects
Frustration Aggression Theory
George Gerbner
History of Media Effects
Intercultural Media Effects
Knowledge Gap Effects
Latitude of Acceptance
Leon Festinger
Linear and Nonlinear Models of Causal Analysis
Mainstreaming
Media Effects Duration
Media Effects on Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs
Media Effects on Emotions
Media Effects on Public Opinion
Media Effects on Social Behavior
Media Effects on Social Capital
Media System Dependency Theory
Mediating Factors
Mediatization of Society
Observational Learning
Opinion Leader
Order of Presentation
Physical Effects of Media Content
Priming Theory
Reciprocal Effects
Schemas and Media Effects
Secondary Victimization
Sleeper Effect
Social Judgment Theory
Steven H. Chaffee
Stimulus–Response Model
Strength of Media Effects
Structure of Message Effects
Trap Effect
Two-Step Flow of Communication

Effects on Reality Perception

Media coverage of current affairs has an influence on the public’s assessment of the significance of social problems and the urgency for solving those problems. Comparison of all issues on the media’s agenda with the population’s agenda over a short period of time, as well as comparison of the development of media coverage on single issues with the development of the population’s beliefs over a longer period of time, may indicate media effects.

The media – and above all TV – are also an important factor in cultural and political socialization. Through both information and entertainment TV conveys ideas of the state of society in which people live. The more frequently and intensely people watch TV, the stronger the influence of its presentation of reality.

Individuals generally have good judgment concerning the relative frequency of causes of death, but they typically overestimate the occurrence of rare fatalities and underestimate the occurrence of frequent causes of death. The concept of availability heuristic explains how this is related to media coverage.

Effects on Social Perception

People tend to overestimate negative media effects (perceptual hypothesis) on other people and take action (behavioral hypothesis) to prevent these negative effects. In addition, a general correlation between presumed media effects and behavior is assumed. The perceptional hypothesis has been often tested and confirmed. The behavioral hypothesis has seldom been tested and if so, subjects have been uninvolved bystanders instead of decision makers who are protagonists of media messages (Sun et al. 2009).

As ‘social beings’ people depend on the society of others. Therefore, they constantly monitor their environment in order to avoid social isolation. They draw on their interactions with other people and personal observation as well as media presentations. Each of these resources can incidentally stimulate correct or incorrect ideas about the distribution of opinions. People who consider themselves in the minority tend to withhold their opinions in public. In the process, the presumed majority opinion is artificially inflated, which in turn increases the pressure on the actual or alleged minority.

Cognitive and Emotional Effects

Citizen assessments about politicians and voting intentions are based in part on beliefs about politicians’ competence. Repeated coverage of issues sensitizes recipients to some issues and makes solutions to the issues seem especially urgent. Thus, the presumed ability of politicians to deal with the issues becomes more significant, contributing to a positive or negative image of them. Accordingly priming effects are based on agenda-setting effects.

Framing theory is based on the assumption that media recipients do not take up individual pieces of information independently of one another and derive meaning from them, but interpret them consistently according to a predetermined frame (or schema). Frame-induced information processing can be controlled by media reports that present events from a certain perspective (Entman 1991).

In the 1940s it was already known that there was a positive correlation between education and the use of information presented by the media. As consequence, in the course of time existing differences in the distribution of information can increase.

Descriptions of events trigger predictable emotional reactions. If the damage is attributed to uncontrollable natural forces, the event evokes sadness; if it is attributed to a person acting in a controlled way, it evokes anger. The extent of reactions is enforced or diminished by the interaction of emotions and cognitions. Appraisal theory combines elements of attribution theory and emotional arousal theory (Nerb & Spada 2001).

Axioms of Media-Effects Research

Most studies in the effects of mass media are based on three, mostly unspoken, axioms. The first is ‘events happen, media cover.’ According to this axiom, current events on which the media report happen independently of the media. This is doubtful because a number of events on which the media report are the result of previous coverage. Some events would happen without media coverage, but their character is modified by media coverage (mediated events). Some events happen only in order to generate media coverage (staged or pseudoevents).

The second assumption is ‘no effect without change.’ The axiom holds true only under two conditions. First, if the media did not support the existing beliefs, opinions, and behaviors of its audience, these characteristics and attributes would still exist. Second, beliefs, opinions, and behaviors have developed independently from previous media use. There is evidence that the mass media have at least partly established the information and opinions which are already held and used to interpret news on current events.

The third axiom is: ‘no effect without contact.’ This axiom is only acceptable if at least one of two conditions is fulfilled: first, existing attitudes largely prevent the reception of dissonant information; second, dissonant information will be reinterpreted according to existing attitudes. As far as conveyors or opinion leaders pass on information and opinion from the mass media unchanged, their effects have to be attributed to the media. Therefore, opinion leaders and other interlocutors do not necessarily restrain the influence of media reports, but rather extend them to those who lack direct contact with media coverage.

Bennett, W. L. & Iyengar, S. (2008). A new era of minimal effects? The changing foundations of political communication. Journal of Communication, 58, 707–731.
Bryant, J. & Zillmann, D. (2002). Media effects: Advances in theory and research, 2nd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Entman, R. M. (1991). Framing U.S. coverage of international news: Contrasts in narratives of the KAL and Iran air incidents. Journal of Communication, 41(2), 6–27.
Nerb, J. & Spada, H. (2001). Evaluation of environmental problems: A coherence model of cognition and emotion. Cognition & Emotion, 15(4) 521–551.
Perloff, R. M. (2003). The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the twenty-first century, 2nd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sun, Y., Pan, Z., & Shen, L. (2009). Understanding the third-person perception: Evidence from a metaanalysis. Journal of Communication, 58, 280–300.

Media History Research Paper Topics

Media history as a concept in its own right possesses a relatively recent lineage. In the early decades of the twentieth century, when references to ‘the media’ – newspapers, magazines, cinema, radio, and the like – were entering popular parlance, university academics tended to be rather skeptical about whether these institutions were important enough to warrant scholarly attention. Traditional historians, in particular, were inclined to be dismissive. Matters would gradually improve over the course of the century, but even today, media history continues to occupy a contested terrain between the principal disciplines informing its development, namely media studies (broadly inclusive of communication, cultural, and journalism studies) and history. Media research paper topics related to media history include:

Academy Awards
Antecedents of Newspaper
Cable Television
Civil Rights Movement and the Media
Coffee Houses as Public Sphere
Collective Memory and the Media
Electronic Mail
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Fleet Street
Fourth Estate
Freedom of Communication
Historic Key Events and the Media
History of Advertising
History of Censorship
History of Cinematography
History of Citizen Journalism
History of Digital Media
History of Documentary Film
History of Elections and Media
History of Magazine
History of News Agencies
History of News Magazine
History of Newspaper
History of Postal Service
History of Printing
History of Public Broadcasting
History of Sports and the Media
History of Telegraph
History of Violence and the Media
Illustrated Newspapers
Literary Journalism
Music Videos
Newscast, 24-Hour
Nineteenth-Century Journalism
Paperback Fiction
Penny Press
Propaganda in World War II
Radical Media
Radio Networks
Radio Technology
Satellite Television
Social History of Radio
Social History of Television
Television Networks
Television Technology
Underground Press
Virtual Reality
Watergate Scandal
Women’s Movement and the Media

Early conceptions of media history frequently accorded the commercial press a central role in promoting social change, one especially worthy of close scrutiny. These days much of this research tends to be criticized for being celebratory, however, even romanticizing the press as the pre-eminent catalyst for advancing the cause of freedom in the face of fierce government opposition. In order to overcome the limitations of this ‘Whig interpretation,’ as it has been described, media historians have begun to diversify their sources and methods. For some this has entailed looking beyond the views of the powerful and privileged so as to recover and interpret the experiences of those typically marginalized – on the basis of class, gender, ethnicity or sexuality – where the making of media history is concerned.

Serious reservations have been expressed by some historians about the very legitimacy of media history as a proper academic subject when it encompasses ostensibly trivial, ephemeral media items (advertisements, comics, graffiti, soap operas, paperback fiction, music videos, computer games, and the like) within its purview. Others have challenged this perspective, insisting that such value judgments be avoided so as to engage with the whole spectrum of emergent media in all of their complexity.

Defining Media History

Depending on how one chooses to define ‘the media,’ a case can be made that media history properly begins in the earliest days of human social life and communication. For researchers interested in the emergence of media in oral or pre-literate communities thousands of years ago, for example, the insights of archaeologists and anthropologists have proven invaluable. The advent of reading and writing is of particular significance, enabling the dissemination of news or information at a distance, and thereby helping to sustain a shared sense of social order. Studies have examined the emergence and use of various media facilitating communication, ranging from pictographs written on clay tablets, to papyrus, paper, and eventually the movable type of the printing press (Briggs and Burke 2010).

For many media historians, it is the connection between emergent media of communication and the creation of democratic society that is particularly fascinating. In this context, Anderson’s (1983) analysis of the rise of print as commodity in western Europe illuminates the emergence of nationality – “the personal and cultural feeling of belonging to a nation” – toward the end of the eighteenth century. He singles out for attention in this regard the fictional novel and the newspaper, arguing that the corresponding print languages helped to engender national consciousness in important ways.

Complementing this line of inquiry into how print enriched the ability of people to relate to themselves and to others in new ways have been efforts to understand how these media shaped the formation of public opinion. Here researchers have found the notion of a public sphere, as theorized by Jürgen Habermas (1989), to be useful, especially when investigating how spaces for public discussion and debate were initiated and sustained. Habermas identifies a range of institutions facilitating this process, with special attention devoted to coffee houses and the newspaper press (Mulhmann 2008).

Related studies have elucidated the ways in which various media forms and practices helped to give shape to new kinds of public sociability. Such studies include examinations of advertising, art, music, street literature, exhibitions in museums and galleries, as well as reading and language societies, lending libraries, and the postal system, among other concerns. Historiographies continue to rehearse contrary views on the extent to which the normative ideals of a public sphere have been realized in actual terms, a debate that continues to percolate. Nevertheless, there is general agreement that a consideration of the relative freedoms espoused by these ideals throw into sharp relief many of the factors that have acted to constrain public discussion over time.

Researching Media History

For media historians, the rationale for their craft is often expressed as a commitment to interdisciplinarity so as to situate the evolution of media forms, practices, institutions, and audiences within broader processes of societal change. Compounding this challenge, however, is the recognition that media processes can be ephemeral, and thereby elusive in conceptual and methodological terms. Often their very normality, that is, the extent to which they are simply taken for granted as a part of everyday life, means efforts to de-normalize them require considerable effort.

Media historians, it follows, must strive to be sufficiently self-reflexive about their chosen strategies when gathering source material and interpreting evidence, especially where questions related to ‘effects’ or causation are being addressed. Pertinent in this regard is the status of electronic media, for example, which may pose particular problems for the historian seeking to establish relations of significance. Not only are the actual texts under scrutiny – e.g., an early radio play or television broadcast – unlikely to be amenable to more traditional, print-based methods, but issues with regard to such logistical considerations as access, physical artifacts (microphones, receiver sets, and the like), and format-compatibility (changes in formats can make playback difficult) may surface.

The advent of digital technologies is already engendering similar types of issues for media historians. Scholarship increasingly entails finding alternative ways to manage, interpret, and preserve the extensive array of materials available across different storage systems. The sheer volume and range of these materials, coupled with continuing innovation in hardware and software (the obsolescence of technology rendering some types of data difficult to retrieve), can make for challenging decisions about how to maintain libraries, archives, databases, and other repositories of information. New questions are being posed in this regard by electronic records, including items such as electronic mail, voicemail messages, word-processing documents, Internet websites, message boards, blogs, Facebook accounts, Tweets and the like, all of which are highly perishable.

Precisely how media history research will evolve invites thoughtful consideration. Current efforts to build on the foundations set down by the press histories of the nineteenth century are making progress in enriching these traditions, while also pursuing new directions that recast familiar assumptions – sometimes in unexpected ways. The types of criticisms of ‘standard’ media history identified by Carey, namely that its arguments were based on “nothing more than speculation, conjecture, anecdotal evidence, and ideological ax grinding” (and where conclusions were not “theoretically or empirically grounded; none was supported by systematic research”), no longer aptly characterize the field (1996, 15–16). Indeed, it is reasonable to suggest that there is every indication media history will continue to develop in ever more methodologically rigorous – and intellectually exciting – directions.

Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities. London: Verso.
Briggs, A. & Burke, P. (2010). A social history of the media, 3rd edn, Cambridge: Polity.
Carey, J. W. (1996). The Chicago School and the history of mass communication research. Repr. in James Carey: A critical reader (eds. E. S. Munson & C. A. Warren). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 14–33.
Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Mulhmann, G. (2008). A political history of journalism. Cambridge: Polity.

Media and Perceptions of Reality Research Paper Topics

Perceptions of reality, or social reality, can be conceptualized as an individual’s conception of the world (Hawkins & Pingree 1982). What intrigues many social scientists is the exploration of the specifics of these perceptions and the ways in which they are developed. Social perception has been considered from both individual- and social-level perspectives.

The individual-level conception of social reality – or, as McLeod and Chaffee (1972) refer to it, social reality – suggests that others exist in one’s mind as imaginations, and it is only in these imaginations that others have an effect on the individual. The perspective of social reality defines the social system as the unit of analysis. These scholars focus on understanding commonly held perceptions shared in society. They often base their exploration on individuals’ perceptions of what others think, or whether an individual believes that an opinion or attitude is shared by others. Because the media, in particular, provide individuals with indirect representations of reality, communication scholars have been particularly interested in how individuals develop cognitions of social reality based upon their use of and attention to the media. Media research paper topics related to perceptions of reality include:

Behavioral Norms Perception through the Media
Body Images in the Media Climate of Opinion
Computer Games and Reality Perception
Cultivation Effects
Disowning Projection
Entertainment Content and Reality Perception
Extra-Media Data
False Consensus
False Uniqueness
Hostile Media Phenomenon
Media and Perceptions of Reality
Media Campaigns and Perceptions of Reality
Media Content and Social Networks
Media Content in Interpersonal Communication
Media Messages and Family Communication
Perceived Realism as a Decision Process
Perceived Reality as a Communication Process
Perceived Reality as a Social Process
Perceived Reality Meta-Analyses
Pluralistic Ignorance
Pluralistic Ignorance and Ideological Biases
Social Perception
Social Perception and Impersonal Impact
Social Perception and Unrealistic Optimism
Socialization by the Media
Spiral of Silence
Stereotyping and the Media
Third-Person Effects
Video Malaise

General Perception Effects

Several phenomena describing perceptions (and misperceptions) of social reality have been outlined in the literature. The term pluralistic ignorance is often used as an umbrella to describe all misperceptions of others’ opinions. Research in this area is primarily concerned with the factors that lead to individuals being more or less accurate about reality, focusing on the discrepancy between individual perceptions and actual reality.

Consensus occurs when homogeneous opinions exist across a group of individuals. Some research has suggested that an overestimate of consensus occurs when individuals perceive greater consensus on their own opinion than exists in reality. In this way, overestimation of consensus is ‘absolute’ because it is objectively false. The concept of false consensus describes the tendency to see one’s own behaviors and opinions as normal and those of others as deviant or inappropriate, which results in exaggerating the prominence of one’s own opinions.

Social projection is generally defined as the psychological phenomenon that drives several other inaccurate perceptions, including the silent majority or false idiosyncrasy effect, which occurs when some individuals support a position on an issue vocally and prominently, while those opposed to the issue – even if they are in the majority – remain silent. The disowning projection refers to the tendency toward attributing selfish motives, evil intent, or ignorance to others and denying these characteristics of oneself. The looking-glass perception occurs when people see others as holding the same view as they themselves hold.

Media-Specific Perception Effects

Another group of theories focuses on individuals’ perceptions about media content or its influence on others. The third-person effect predicts that individuals exposed to a persuasive message will perceive greater effects on others than on themselves (Davison 1981). Impersonal influence describes the influence derived from anonymous others’ attitudes, experiences, and beliefs. From this perspective, media do not need to be universally consonant or even personally persuasive in order to impact individuals’ perceptions of media influence (Mutz 1998).

The hostile media phenomenon suggests that partisans see news media coverage of controversial events as portraying a biased slant, even in news coverage that most nonpartisans label as unbiased (Vallone et al. 1985). An underlying assumption of this phenomenon is that media coverage is essentially unbiased. The persuasive press inference hypothesis draws from the hostile media phenomenon and third-person effect and places the effects into one process, i.e., people overestimate the impact of news coverage on public opinion and because of this misperception, estimates of public opinion are inaccurate (Gunther 1998).

Causal Mechanisms for Social-Reality Perceptions and Misperceptions

Some research on perceptions of social reality has emphasized mass media as the primary causal mechanism explaining perceptions of social reality. Because few people have direct personal experience with politics, mediated information has the ability to influence individuals’ perceptions of social reality at the collective level. That is, media enhance the salience of social-level judgments, in addition to influencing perceptions of public opinion.

First, spiral of silence theory suggests that because the climate of opinion is always vacillating, individuals are “scanning” their social environment for cues of what constitutes majority and minority opinion (Noelle-Neumann 1993). The media are one such source, but often present biased viewpoints. As a result of this individuals perceive a majority perspective, and this perception either promotes or prevents them from speaking out (see Schulz and Roessler 2012).

Second, cultivation implies that, over time, people are influenced by the content on television so that their perceptions of reality come to reflect those presented on television. This theory also purports that media content displays distorted estimates of social reality, e.g., the rates of crime and violence which in turn lead to the overestimation of personal risks (Shrum & Bischak 2001).

Effects of social reality perceptions can also be attributed to other causal mechanisms in three broader categories: individual, individual–other, and social explanations.

Individual explanations include cognitions and motivations. One possible mechanism in this category of cognitive explanations is the accessibility bias, or the tendency to derive estimates of others’ views based upon that information that is most accessible in one’s memory. The third-person effect also is explained by cognitive ‘errors.’ The actor– observer attributional error occurs when individuals underestimate the extent to which others account for situational factors, and overestimate their own attention to these factors. Motivational explanations can also be applied to those theories that claim media as the primary causal mechanism. For instance, Noelle-Neumann cites fear of isolation, or a motivation not to be in the minority, as a driving force behind the spiral of silence.

Social harmony and public expression mechanisms belong in the category of individual–other explanations. Because conflict is not palatable to many people, there may exist motivations to see others’ positions on issues as more like their own in order to avoid argument or dissonance (social harmony). Misperceptions of social reality at the individual–other level also can arise from either intentional or unintentional misrepresentation of one’s opinions in public. The differential interpretation hypothesis describes a conscious decision to publicly misrepresent one’s opinion, while the differential encoding hypothesis suggests that some individuals suffer from an “illusion of transparency,” mistakenly believing that their own and others’ opinions are accurately expressed publicly (Prentice and Miller 1993).

The social explanations are based upon what McLeod and Chaffee (1972) referred to as social reality, wherein a context or situation serves as the causal mechanism underlying perceptions of social reality. For instance, if an issue is particularly divisive, individuals are prone to the false consensus effect because they see one side as more similar to themselves and the other side as deviant or uncommon.

Davison, W. P. (1981). The third-person effect in communication. Public Opinion Quarterly, 47, 1–15.
Eveland, W. P., Jr. (2002). The impact of news and entertainment media on perceptions of social reality. In J. P. Dillard & M. Pfau (eds.), The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 691–727.
Glynn, C. J., Ostman, R. E., & McDonald, D. G. (1995). Opinions, perception, and social reality. In T. L. Glasser & C. T. Salmon (eds.), Public opinion and the communication of consent. New York: Guilford, pp. 249–277.
Gunther, A. C. (1998). The persuasive press inference: Effects of mass media on perceived public opinion. Communication Research, 25(5), 486–504.
Hawkins, R. P. & Pingree, S. (1982). Television’s influence on social reality. In L. B. D. Pearl & J. Lazar (eds.), Television and behavior: Ten years of scientific progress and implications for the eighties. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, pp. 224–247.
McLeod, J. M. & Chaffee, S. R. (1972). The construction of social reality. In J. T. Tedeschi (ed.), The social influence processes. Chicago, IL: Aldine-Atherton, pp. 50–99.
Mutz, D. C. (1998). Impersonal influence: How perceptions of mass collectives affect political attitudes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Noelle-Neumann, E. (1993). The spiral of silence: Public opinion, our social skin. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Prentice, D. A. & Miller, D. T. (1993). Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(2), 243–256.
Schulz, A. & Roessler, P. (2012). The spiral of silence and the Internet: Selection of online content and the perception of the public opinion climate in computer- mediated communication environments. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 24(3), 346–367.
Shrum, L. J. & Bischak, V. D. (2001). Mainstreaming, resonance, and impersonal impact: Testing moderators of the cultivation effect for estimates of crime risk. Human Communication Research, 27(2), 187–215.
Vallone, R. P., Ross, L., & Lepper, M. R. (1985). The hostile media phenomenon: Biased perceptions and perceptions of media bias in coverage of the Beirut massacre. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(3), 577–585.

Media Production and Content Research Paper Topics

Research in the sub-field of media production and content seeks to describe and explain the symbolic world of the media with reference to a variety of contributing societal, institutional, organizational, and normative factors. It draws boundaries around a large and diverse body of research efforts, predominantly social science, but also including more interpretive cultural analysis. Media research paper topics related to media production and content include:

Accountability of the Media
Accountability of the News
Bias in the News
Commercialization Impact on Media Content
Conflict as Media Content
Consonance of Media Content
Construction of Reality through the News
Credibility of Content
Crime Reporting
Endorsement
Ethics of Media Content
Fairness Doctrine
Fictional Media Content
Framing of the News
Infotainment
Instrumental Actualization
Internet News
Media Performance
Morality and Taste in Media Content
Narrative News Story
News Factors
News Production and Technology
News Values
Objectivity in Reporting
Quality of the News
Quality Press
Reality and Media Reality
Scandalization in the News
Sensationalism
Separation of News and Comments
Soap Operas
Sound Bites
Stereotypes
Synchronization of the News
Tabloid Press
Tabloidization
Truth and Media Content
Violence as Media Content

Scope of the Research Area

If much of the communication field has concerned itself with the effects of media, and the process by which they are produced, this more recently emerging area has treated the media map of the world itself as problematic, something to be understood and predicted through an awareness of underlying forces. These forces provide the context of ‘media production,’ which is examined for its systematic ties to ‘content’ – particularly news and information. Given the multitude of factors influencing the media, this conceptual framework has led the field of communication to devote the same sustained research to the creation, control, and shape of the mediated environment as it has to the effects on audiences of that environment. The objects of study in this area, however, have undergone profound changes, particularly with communication technology, making it more problematic to identify ‘the media,’ ‘the profession,’ and the site of ‘production.’

This research area is often broadly referred to as ‘media sociology’ (reviewed in Berkowitz 1997). Certainly, many of the participant observation ethnographies of newsrooms and other media are so labeled, particularly given their use of traditional sociological fieldwork methods (e.g., Tuchman 1978; Gans 1979). The technology of distributed online production makes identifying the ‘sites’ where news is produced more difficult now, but the ethnography approach continues to be used. The area also encompasses studies of individual media workers, and how their personal traits affect their decisions (e.g., Weaver & Wilnat 2012). Many media critics lodge the blame for press bias squarely with individual journalists, or find fault with the entertainment industry because of ‘out-of-touch Hollywood producers, but important explanations for these communication products lie in structural bias, beyond individual prejudice. Although media organizations – including those supported by the state – employ many creative professionals, the work of those individuals is routinized and structured to yield a predictable product. Even the ‘news’ must be controlled, anticipated, and packaged to allow the organization to manage its task effectively: in Tuchman’s (1978) phrase, “routinizing the unexpected.”

Beginning in the 1950s Warren Breed (1955) and David Manning White (1950) were among the first scholars to examine the influences on content directly, with their examinations of social control in the newsroom and the story selections of an editor, described as the news ‘gatekeeper’. Reese and Ballinger (2001) observed that the gatekeepers in these studies were deemed representatives of the larger culture, and news policies were assumed to help identify as news those events of interest to the community – rendering the production and control issues unthreatening to the public interest and, as a result, of less interest to researchers. Eventually, however, these questions returned to the fore.

The hierarchy of influences model describes the multiple levels of influences – individual, routines, organizational, extra-media (social institutional), and ideological (socio system) – that impinge on media simultaneously and suggests how influence at one level may interact with that at another (Shoemaker & Reese 2014). Within the realm of newsmaking, for example, the individual- level bias of particular journalists may affect their reporting, but journalists of a particular leaning often self-select an organization because of its pre-existing policies, history, and organizational culture (routines). The news organization and its employees, in turn, must function within other institutional relationships and ideological boundaries set by the larger society. Thus, the individual functions within a web of constraints.

The compelling point of departure for this subfield is the idea that media content provides a map of the world that differs from the way that world really is, making the research task one of explaining those discrepancies. Media representations can be tied to objects in the real world, but viewed another way media content is fundamentally a ‘construction,’ and, as such, can never find its analog in some external benchmark, a ‘mirror’ of reality. This perspective directs research to understanding the construction process. Journalists, for example, ‘see’ things because their ‘news net’ is set up to allow them to be seen.

Research Findings

Given the wide variation among media round the world, generalizations about production and content must be made with caution. Now that more comparative research has begun to emerge, it is easier to distinguish between those practices common across countries and those peculiar to one or the other. Certainly, changes in technology have had widespread cross-national effects, blurring craft distinctions in the convergence of media forms.

Although broad generalizations can be made, there are also important differences across the various media. These more organizational issues involve the technological imperatives, audience considerations, economic and other dictates, as well as the regulatory environment that they all face. Each medium, whether radio, television, newspapers, or magazines, has its own unique problems to solve in providing a product to a reader, viewer, or listener. The highest level of the hierarchy of influences model, the ideological or social system, considers how the media function within a society by virtue of there being a certain kind of system – which necessarily binds them to the prevailing social order usually associated with nation-states.

Research Methods

These considerations often require a more interpretive analysis, which considers how the media reinforce the definitions of the powerful and linked to media production practices that support them. A macro level of analysis directs attention to cross-national comparisons of media production, where important patterns can be found. Shoemaker and Cohen (2006) find that news has a number of common patterns across nations, even if these are filtered through specific national cultures.

Global changes in media ownership, new ways of carrying out gatekeeping across national boundaries, and emerging shared norms of professionalism all give greater emphasis to this perspective. So, under the continuing processes of globalization, this area of research faces the challenge of identifying the universal aspects of media and social representation, the enduring particularities of individual national contexts, and the increasing interactions between these levels.

Berkowitz, D. (1997). Social meanings of news. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Breed, W. (1955). Social control in the newsroom: A functional analysis. Social Forces, 33, 326–355.
Gans, H. (1979). Deciding what’s news. New York: Pantheon.
Reese, S. & Ballinger, J. (2001). The roots of a sociology of news: Remembering Mr Gates and social control in the newsroom. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 78(4), 641–658.
Shoemaker, P. & Cohen, A. (2006). News around the world. London: Routledge.
Shoemaker, P. & Reese, S. (2014). Mediating the message in the 21st Century: A media sociology perspective. London: Routledge.
Tuchman, G. (1978). Making news. New York: Free Press.
Weaver, D. & Wilnat, L. (2012). The global journalist in the 21st century. London: Routledge.
White, D. (1950). The “gatekeeper”: A case study in the selection of news. Journalism Quarterly, 27, 383–396.

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