Media Theories

A. Theories of Uniform Influence: The media has a direct effect on people. This theory says that everyone who watches something will react the same way. People share similar human natures and are alike in terms of their emotions and outlooks on things. If two different people watch the same scary movie, they both will be expected to react in a startled manner because of similar human natures.
B. Theories of Selective Uniform Influence: Based on this theory messages from the media are all interpreted differently. The selective part is due to how based on peoples different backgrounds, cultures etc, they may perceive things differently. Because people are perceiving things differently, then the uniform cant be "uniform." How a black person may react to something in the media could be different than how a white person would react. For example the reaction when Don Imiss said "Nappy headed hoes." From a black person perspective that could've been offensive, from a white person's point of view, they may not have cared because it didnt directly affect them.
C. Dis-inhibition Theory: Everyone has certain inhibitions that they've formed in life through culture, morals etc. If you see behavior of things you have an inhibition against portrayed in the media as being good, then overtime you become more likely to engage in the activity, despite your inhibition. For example, some people may have been taught growing up that pre-marital sex is a bad thing. However in the media pre-marital sex is often portayed as being acceptable with few consequences. Seeing that may influence the person to eventually loose their inhibition and be more likely to engage in the activity of pre-marital sex.
D. Desensitization Theory: Overtime, if the media depicts something long enough, eventually it can become less dangerous, less violent, less scary etc. Down below to the left is a picture of Kenny from Southpark. There have been numerous times Kenny has been killed in an episode. Once you have seen it a few times, you're less sensitive to his death and it just comes to be expected that Kenny might die during an episode.

Kenny (southpark)

E. Modeling Theory: There's a correlation between the crimes, car accidents, and suicides seen on the news and the actual occurrence of these events in society. People will model what they see in the media. For example if a person watches a tv show where gay people are constantly picked on and called names, to them it makes that behavior seem "acceptable." If the person thinks its acceptable, then most likely if the action is postively reinforced, they will model the behavior of the media by also harrassing gay people.
F. Cultivation Theory: Heavy viewers of the media use what they see in the media, to help created their own perception of reality. For example if someone spends a lot of time watching the CW's Gossip Girls, and other shows similar to it, they might start to believe that all young girls in society should be rich, spoiled and rude.
G. Socialization Theory:  The media influences the roles we play in society. For example, because of the media children are taking on the role of becoming adults sooner. They are exposed to sex, violence, cursing etc. very early through various TV shows, or certain songs etc, they may watch or hear. (Example taken from "A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communications" 2009)
H. Uses and Gratification Theory: Takes a look into why people use certain kinds of media. This theory is based on a series of assumptions: 1. The audience is active 2. people use the media to meet their needs 3. Other factors, such as social circumstances could be involved. 4. Media competes for our attention
There are 4 kinds of needs (areas of gratification): escapism, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. As an example a person may watch certain sitcoms because they feel as if they have formed some kind of personal relationship with one of the main characters. Viewers may watch One Tree Hill simply because they feel a connection to the main character Brooke.
I. Agenda Setting Theory:  Public opinion can be swayed by the media. If the media puts a lot of emphasis focus on a particular event, then most likely that's what the public will be talking about the most. The media putting emphasis on it, makes the public think it's more important to pay attention to. The more coverage an event gets, then the public will consider that event to be most important. However, the media can't tell us what to think about of the actual situation or events. For example, right now the news now does a lot of coverage about the war in Iraq. But there's nothing in the news telling the public how to feel about the war. Of course depending on how it's portrayed in a positive or negative manner, the public might be swayed to either side eventually.
J. Reinforcement Theory: Media content can reinforce people's attitudes that already exist. When people come into contact with media that agrees with certain attitudes or mindset they already have, it reinforces their attitude or mindset about that particular thing. For example, if a person has a strong dislike for black people, and then they see them being treated bad on TV by others who also don't like black people, then it reinforces the idea of not liking black people.
K. Schema Theory:  People all have certain ideas of things in their minds based on stereotypes.  Because of this there is a certain way we may expect people to act, or a certain way we may expect dogs to look etc. The media will use these stereotypes we have in mind, and use them in advertising and TV shows to cater to our thoughts.  The stereotyping allows us to fill in the gaps so the media doesn't have to do all the explaining. An example of this would be Saved by The Bell which had the typical pretty girl in highschool, the handsome jock, the ugly geek, etc. Each role portrayed was stereotypic.