Stanley J. Baran
| aggressive cues model | of media violence; media portrayals can indicate that certain classes of people are acceptable targets for real-world aggression
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| catharsis | theory that watching mediated violence reduces peopleís inclination to behave aggressively
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| causal relationships | the direct impact of one or more variables on one or more other variables
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| content analysis | the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the content of communication
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| control group | subjects in an experiment who do not encounter the independent variable
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| correlation | the strength of relationship between two or more variables
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| dependent variable | phenomenon whose change as a result of manipulation of the independent variable is measured
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| desensitization | the idea that viewers become more accepting of real-world violence because of its constant presence in television fare
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| early window | the idea that media give children a window on the world before they have the critical and intellectual ability to judge what they see
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| environmental incentives | in social learning theory, the notion that real-world incentives can lead observers to ignore negative vicarious reinforcement
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| error term | see margin of error
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| estimated sampling error | see margin of error
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| ethnographic research | naturalistic examinations of audiences in specific and natural places
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| experimental conditions | the groups in an experiment who are confronted with variations in the independent variable
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| experiments | a research method where the manipulation of variables is employed to demonstrate the presence of causal relationships
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| field experiment | experiment conducted in subjectsí actual environments in the course of normal social events
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| generalizability | the question of applying demonstrated causal relationships to the larger, real-world environment
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| Hawthorne effect | when participation per se in an experiment alters subjectsí behavior
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| historical research | objective examination of phenomena in their own time
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| independent variable | the phenomenon that is altered or varied in an experiment
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| margin of error | the predictable and built-in level of error that accompanies all samples of a given size
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| natural experiment | see field experiment
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| oppositional decoding | interpreting media content in a manner counter to its apparent intent
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| participant-observer research | studies where the researcher ìjoinsî a group or enters a setting and, while participating in its ongoing activities, chronicles those activities and the interactions surrounding them
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| participants | the subjects in an experiment
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| phenomenology | study of media content as it is, as it exists
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| population | in survey research, the group under scrutiny to which the results obtained from a sample are generalized
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| primary sources | in historical research, material contemporary to the object under investigation
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| qualitative research | research that examines aspects of the mass communication process in their natural contexts
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| random sample | a sample in which each member of a group has an equal chance of inclusion
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| research | the objective search for knowledge
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| respondents | participants in a survey
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| sample | in survey research, respondents drawn from the population who are considered representative of that population
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| secondary sources | in historical research, reports and material produced after the period in question that bear on it
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| stereotyping | application of a standardized image or conception applied to members of certain groups, usually based on limited information
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| stimulation model | of media violence; viewing mediated violence can increase the likelihood of subsequent aggressive behavior
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| stratified random sample | in survey research, dividing a population according to some important characteristic before each division is randomly sampled
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| survey | a research method used to describe phenomena and their relationships in the actual environment at a given time
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| unobtrusive observer | in ethnomethodological research, a researcher who is present at and observing a situation but who does not intrude on it
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| vicarious reinforcement | in social learning theory, the observation of reinforcement operates in the same manner as actual reinforcement
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| willing suspension of disbelief | audience practice of willingly accepting the content before them as real
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education