Media influence The many ways the media work in a continuous ongoing manner within a
constellation of many factors to shape micro and macro effects on baseline and
fluctuations.
Baseline
pattern effect: The best estimate of a person’s degree of effect at any given
time. It is formed over the long term by the continual interaction of three
types of factors psychological traits of the person, sociological experiences
of the person. And media exposure patterns
Reinforcement
pattern effect: Through repeated exposures of the same type of messages, a
person’s baseline position is made more weighty; that is, it becomes over time
much more resistant to change and it loses its elasticity, thus rendering
fluctuations more minor and rarer
Fluctuation
pattern effect: Observed in research studies in which there is a change between
a person’s pre-exposure and post-exposure effect level scores. The larger the
difference, the larger the influence of the media exposure on the effect level.
Fluctuation changes can be in the direction of increasing the level of an
effect or decreasing the level, in either case, fluctuation changes are usually
temporary. They are typically traceable to particular interpretations that the
person made about the message.
Manifest
effects Spontaneous observables; evidence of an effect s easy
to observe and to link to media exposures.
Process
effects Changes in the level of elasticity of a person’s
baseline; because these things occur below the manifestation level, they cannot
be directly observed.
