Normative Media

Researchers have frequently considered the role performed by communications media in the maintenance and, at times, revision of societal norms. To the extent that the media either dictate or influence social consensus in behavior, opinion, or speech, they may be regarded as normative. However, the actual influence of normative media is far from certain.

Psychological research has illustrated that individual persons in situations of uncertainty tend to be swayed by group opinion. Studies have even demonstrated that some people will go along with a group even when doing so contradicts the clear evidence of their senses (Asch 1955, 1956). It has therefore been theorized that the mass media, with their power to communicate focused messages to huge audiences, possess the ability to influence individual behavior by stimulating public opinion for or against a given behavior. This assumption has inspired advertising campaigns with slogans such as “I bet a lot of your friends are using it and you don't even know it” (Severin 1988). It has also been the basis for public awareness campaigns in relation to public health issues, which have sought to inhibit hazardous behaviors by causing them to appear unpopular. Overall, however, there is little and inconclusive evidence of the association between individual exposure to public health communication campaigns and health behavior change. Whereas many public health communication campaigns have been found to increase public awareness to related health risks, only a few demonstrated behavioral change in response to campaign messages. There is also the possibility that the intended normative message may be misunderstood by the audience. For instance, television programs such as All in the Family, whose creators hoped that it might function normatively to diminish racial bigotry, actually tended to reinforce prejudices among those viewers who were already disposed to harbor racial bias. Research has also shown that the power of mass media to influence the outcomes of elections is less considerable than we are likely to assume; indeed, the influence of mass media on voters may be weak compared with the influence of people with whom the voter is personally acquainted. One reason for this diminished effect may be that consumers of mass media do not tend to actively regard themselves as part of the “group” defined by the audience of mass media messages, since they do not receive these messages with the rest of the group physically present.

Rather, mass media attempts to alter social norms are often more effective when they are combined with interpersonal communication. This has been shown to be true both with regard to well-organized charitable drives and with respect to many elections. For more information, see Asch (1955, 1956), Berelson, Lazarsfeld, [Page 354]and McPhee (1954), Severin (1988), and Yanovitzky and Stryker (2001).