Reinforcement Theory

Reinforcement theory was proposed in 1960 by Joseph T. Klapper to challenge the dominant media effects theory. Reinforcement theory argued that media do not have a dominant effect on readers', viewers', or listeners’ attitudes, beliefs, and motives. The effect is limited or minimal, largely because people filter life experiences selectively and prefer to maintain rather than change them. Klapper's work acknowledged that some mediated campaigns work powerfully to reach audiences and form opinions in ways predicted by propaganda experts; however, in other cases campaigns are notorious failures, achieving very little if any effect on opinions and behavior. At best, reinforcement theory reasons, mass-mediated messages can situationally and functionally have varying effects, but for the most part, effects are limited because of myriad countervailing factors. People, according to this theory, are not sponges that take in messages like water.

For the better part of the 20th century, supporters of dominant effects theory described mass-mediated messages as magic bullets. The advertiser or program developer, according to this theory, loads the message into ads or news program content and fires the bullet into the minds of viewers, who accept it uncritically, especially if audiences are exposed repeatedly to the same message content. Out of dominant effects research came the axiom “Scholars are interested in who says what through which media to effect changes in targeted audiences.” The assumption of this propaganda research was that strategic effects would always occur.

Many studies conducted by the time Klapper's 1960 book, The Effects of Mass Communication, was published had demonstrated that mediated messages were likely to be only partially effective, or even substantial failures, in achieving specific targeted goals. Thus, reinforcement theory postulated that audiences of mass-mediated communication are likely to engage messages selectively and to have multiple influences, including interpersonal communication, that must be acknowledged to explain how much impact the media have on people's opinions. The theory reasons that changing opinions requires substantial cognitive effort. People do not change capriciously. They are exposed to a wide array of themes, arguments, and conclusions in the media to which they attend. They tend to consolidate or reinforce existing opinions rather than change them each time they are exposed to a new set of opinions presented through the media.

Klapper's work was a sound review of a substantial body of social science research. He argued that five mediating factors or conditions need to be considered by investigators and media critics who seek to explore and explain media effects: (a) the clusters of predispositions that result in selective exposure (which messages to receive), selective perception, and selective retention; (b) the groups and their norms, which influence media use, predisposition, and impact; (c) the information, content, and predisposition that is disseminated via interpersonal communication; (d) opinion leadership; and (e) the nature and role of the mass media in a society with an operating disposition to freedom of speech.

Selectivity occurs at many points in the communication process. Since people cannot consume all of what media offer, they choose to read, listen, and view some materials and not others. Children watch television shows tailored to them and are quickly bored by entertainment and news intended for adults. Likewise, parents may watch programming with children but do so for reasons other than sheer entertainment or opinion formation.

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