Contribution of psychologist in effective usage of

mass communication
Communication is the movement of information from one place to another place. This can
happen in a personal or a public manner. The communication methods that happen in a
public manner are called as mass media. In mass media, information can be delivered to the
correct receivers at most of the time, but sometimes it does not happen. Therefore,
senders always use psychological theories and practices to target the most effective
audience among the public audience using demographics. Furthermore, psychology is used
to make the information more attractive to the receivers. Some sectors in mass media are
continuously integrating to psychological theories namely, Advertising, Politics,
Entertainment, Journalism, and Culture.

Mass media is the circulatory system of the body that is called as Advertising or
Marketing. Marketing is a very strategic process for business as compared to its other
operations. To be more strategic, marketers use psychology and target most ideal audience
to their business by preparing their ads more interactive with their consumers.
“Understanding the often unconscious psychological processes that affect every consumer
and play such an important role in marketing communication” (Balalle, 2016). The facts that
are collected from consumers can drive business to choose the most suitable mass media
for their promotional campaigns and those facts also help to make marketable concepts
for business promotions.

Journalism is another perfect example that influences the psychological behavior of

people through mass media. According to a survey, Harris (2004) mentioned that 37% of
children who are between kindergarten and Grade 6 in the United States have been
frightened or mentally upset by hearing or watching to news stories on television. This can
be due to the violation and unauthorized activities in the society. It is evident that
Journalism which is happening through mass media is affecting the psychological soul of
humans.

Psychology and mass media are the keys to promote the cultural perspective of a
civilization. This fact has been proved by Sheehan (2003) using an incident that happened
in Chinese communist revolution. The new communist government in China wanted to
instigate women to become economically productive. Thus, encouraging businesses to do
ads that are centralized to women and economy was a policy of that government. This
attempt was able to increase the women employment rate of China and a significant growth
had been indicated to the overall economy of the country. Cultural changes that happen
through mass media are always inter-related with Psychology.

In short, mass media is the most advanced medium of the communication. It can be
television, social media, newspaper, website or even a poster on a wall. However, the
communication which happens through mass media also starts with a human as the sender
and ends with another human as the receiver. In other words, communication is mass media
which is also a reaction between two human parties. Therefore psychology, the scientific
study field of the human mind is unconditionally effecting on mass media. Day by day this
bond is advancing with the technological revolutions. This will drive marketers and
journalists who manage mass media to be more inter-related with psychological theories
and best practices.

The mass media serves several general and many specific functions by following the
effective perspectives by psychologist. In general, the mass media serves information,
interpretation, instructive, bonding, and diversion functions:

1. Information function. We have a need for information to satisfy curiosity, reduce

uncertainty, and better understand how we fit into the world. The amount and
availability of information is now overwhelming compared to forty years ago when a
few television networks, local radio stations, and newspapers competed to keep us
informed. The media saturation has led to increased competition to provide
information, which creates the potential for news media outlets, for example, to
report information prematurely, inaccurately, or partially.
2. Interpretation function. Media outlets interpret messages in more or less explicit
and ethical ways. Newspaper editorials have long been explicit interpretations of
current events, and now cable television and radio personalities offer social,
cultural, and political commentary that is full of subjective interpretations.
Although some of them operate in ethical gray areas because they use formats that
make them seem like traditional news programs, most are open about their motives.
3. Instructive function. Some media outlets exist to cultivate knowledge by teaching
instead of just relaying information. Major news networks like CNN and BBC
primarily serve the information function, while cable news networks like Fox News
and MSNBC serve a mixture of informational and interpretation functions. The in-
depth coverage on National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, and
the more dramatized but still educational content of the History Channel, the
National Geographic Channel, and the Discovery Channel, serve more instructive
functions.
4. Bonding function. Media outlets can bring people closer together, which serves the
bonding function. For example, people who share common values and interests can
gather on online forums, and masses of people can be brought together while
watching coverage of a tragic event like 9/11 or a deadly tornado outbreak.
5. Diversion function. We all use the media to escape our day-to-day lives, to distract
us from our upcoming exam, or to help us relax. When we are being distracted,
amused, or relaxed, the media is performing the diversion function.

There are certain media effects that are fairly obvious and most of us would agree are
common (even for ourselves). For example, we change our clothes and our plans because we
watch the forecast on the Weather Channel, look up information about a band and sample
their music after we see them perform on a television show, or stop eating melons after
we hear about a salmonella outbreak. Other effects are more difficult to study and more
difficult for people to accept because they are long term and/or more personal. For
example, media may influence our personal sense of style, views on sex, perceptions of
other races, or values just as our own free will, parents, or friends do. It is difficult,
however, to determine in any specific case how much influence the media has on a belief or
behavior in proportion to other factors that influence us.
Recognizing the interactive and dynamic relationship between humans and media is key to a
more accurate and useful understanding of the human-media experience that is at the root
of effective assessment, development, and production of media that can make a positive
contribution to life and society. Psychology provides a robust set of tools that allow us to
consider the implications of individual differences, group behaviors, identity formation,
developmental pathways, cognitive styles, visual processing, persuasion, attention, social
cognition, sense of place, self-efficacy, and a whole bunch of other really cool stuff. The
tools of media psychology can only help us, though, if we are also willing, as individuals, to
take responsibility for our part in the system. It is the only way we can develop better
technologies and use them well.

Why psychology is effective tool for mass communication

1. You Learn Why People Can Act Strangely

2. You Gain Insight Into People's Behavior

What drives people? And how can you influence human behavior? These two questions are
central to the practice. Examples of questions psychologists address include:

 How do people react to stress?

 Do athletes perform better after mental training?
 What is love, anyway?
 Why does one child perform better in school than the other?
 How is it that some of us are friendly and relaxed while others are often tense or
stressed out?
3. Critical thinking.
4. More Effective in the Workplace
5. Understanding of Relationships and Well-Being.

Because businesses need to understand their consumers in order to develop products and
marketing campaigns that appeal to their target audience, consumer psychologists often
spend a great deal of time learning more about what makes shoppers tick. This often
involves first figuring out the target audience for a particular product including the
gender, age, and socioeconomic status of the typical shopper. Next, the consumer
psychologist might begin researching the types of products and marketing messages that
appeal to these types of buyers. Consumer Psychologists Help Develop Marketing Messages
Other consumer psychologists might focus on social marketing, or how ideas and messages
spread among groups.

Researchers might be interested in getting out information about a product or an

important public health message. Learning how beliefs and attitudes spread among groups
can help organizations learn how to better get their message out and encourage word-of-
mouth marketing. Consumer Psychologists Conduct Research on Consumer Attitudes and
Behaviors Consumer psychologists often conduct research to learn more about buyer
behavior. Common research methods used by these professionals include experiments,
phone surveys, focus groups, direct observations, and questionnaires.

Advertising with effective ways of psychologists, the techniques and practices used to
bring products, services, opinions, or causes to public notice for the purpose of persuading
the public to respond in a certain way toward what is advertised. Most advertising involves
promoting a good that is for sale, but similar methods are used to encourage people to
drive safely, to support various charities, or to vote for political candidates, among many
other examples. In many countries advertising is the most important source of income for
the media (e.g., newspapers, magazines, or television stations) through which it is
conducted. In the non-communist world advertising has become a large and important
service industry.

We are a media-centric society today, many of us thrive on and need media in our live in
one form or another. No matter how much some people hate to admit it, the media really
does affect all of us, in some way or another. In fact, it would be unusual if we weren't
affected by the media, considering we're surrounded by it most of the time.

The question that media psychologists are trying to answer is just how it affects us. Some
types of media - like newscasts reporting violent events - often affect most of us
negatively. The field of media psychology can be used to help lessen the negative impact of
some types of media, making it less stressful. Media psychology studies can also be used to
help create more positive media experiences as well, such as enjoyable television shows.
Marketing and advertising companies can also use media psychology studies to help create
more powerful ads, which can help keep the economy chugging along.

Today's society is spending more time in front of televisions and surfing the internet,
partly because of the increased availability of these types of technology. Something that
prominent is bound to affect us. Media psychology is necessary for more than a few
different reasons. First of all, it helps people adjust to the rapidly growing technological
world. It can also help us wrap our heads around the fact that all of this technology does
affect us, and it's not always the harmless information tool we tend to think it is.

_______________________________________________________

Name: Sadaf Rani

Class: M.Sc-2
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