Limited Effects Theory

Limited effects theory is an approach to mass media effects that claims the media have limited effects on their audiences and/or on society. This theoretical approach emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s in large part because of a team of researchers at Columbia University (Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet) who conducted a series of studies in Erie County, Ohio, to learn how and why people decided to vote as they did. The Erie County Study employed a longitudinal research design interviewing the same 600 participants seven times during the 1940 presidential campaign.

The results of the study indicated limited effects with regard to the influence of media exposure leading to a change in vote intention from one candidate to the other. Rather, they concluded that media exposure led to a reinforcement of voting choice as “correct” among participants instead of a change in vote intention. The media messages over the course of the campaign, instead of serving to move voters toward a decision, were mostly valuable to support a voter's decision regarding for whom to vote. Additionally, the study conclusions indicated that people tend to seek out communication messages that are in line with their personal opinions and perspective, while those messages that are in contrast with one's opinion are discarded or avoided. This notion of selective exposure was further explained by Joseph T. Klapper, an influential author in support of the limited effects theory.

Klapper's book, The Effects of Mass Communication (1960), brought together the various writings and studies conducted on the effects of the mass [Page 408]media and argued that they supported the limited effects perspective. In his book, Klapper claims that persuasive messages in the mass media tend to function more frequently as an agent of reinforcement rather than an agent of change. Among the effects of the mass media noted, Klapper also discusses the “self-protective” measures taken by people in their exposure to the mass media. He notes that people will have selective exposure to mass communication that supports their opinions and interests, selective perception in how they process the messages from mass media, and selective retention in choosing to remember those messages that support their opinions. This notion of selective exposure to communication is one of the most important ideas to emerge from the limited effects perspective.

While Lazarsfeld and his colleagues conducted their study in 1940, during the presidential election between the Republican Wendell Willkie and the Democratic incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt, it would take several years for them to publish their results due to the large amount of data they had to synthesize by hand. During this time, several other studies took place that supported and expounded upon the limited effects theory.

The limited effects approach contrasted with the then-dominant theoretical approaches of the “magic bullet” model or the “hypodermic needle” model of mass communication. These approaches claimed that when a message reached its audience, it would exert powerful and uniform effects on each person who processed the message. The “strong effects” approach had generally been advocated by researchers in their approach to studying the mass media, and many researchers continued with this approach throughout the 1950s, as the limited effects approach was gaining popularity among researchers.

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