Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA04496 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 11 Jan 2001 15:39:28 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745BC1@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: priming Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 15:37:50 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hiya Paul,
I've just flicked through your piece on memetics and priming/framing. Very
interesting as this overlaps with my doctorate on media agendas.
I'm rather suspicious of priming as a plausible theory myself, but you make
a good case for the relationship to memetics, and offer a clear example of
how media theory can relate quite strongly to memetics.
Just in case you ask, my suspicions over priming and agenda-setting, stem
from the issue of multiple sources of media messages, the possibility of
differential attention by audiences to different kinds of media, the
possiblity of differential effects of different kinds of media, and the
third variable problem. Quite a lot of these studies focus only on one
particular media source, including a lot of the studies you cite, or
aggregate different media outlets' content into a composite agenda (or
frame, if you like) as McCombs & Shaw initially did with their Chapel Hill
study.
My own research into media coverage of the 1994 European election campaign,
suggested that whilst there was a high level of consonance in the agendas
offered by national/regional, and print and broadcast media, there were some
significant differences, and there were significant variances in the
distribution of coverage. In other words the media in the election, did not
concentrate on the same topics at the same time, so depending on which
papers you read or TV news you watched, at different points of the campaign
you would be receiving very different messages. My analysis concentrated on
the media agenda, mind you, and I didn't do any audience research. I was
concerned with conducting a far more detailed analysis of the media agenda
than most agenda-setting or priming studies normally bother with.
A colleague and I are hoping to do a comparative analysis of newspaper
agendas in scotland and england during the forthcoming general election
campaign, using these theoretical frameworks, again, partly, to try and see
if media agendas are as consensual as is often assumed. Personally, I
expect some significant variation in the way Scots and English papers frame
the campaign. I think such differences problematise the "real world"
application of priming models, because it is very difficult to weigh the
extent to which audiences value the content of different media outlets (i.e.
do they believe the newspaper they read more than the TV news they watch?),
or, for that matter, to isolate the media's role in issue salience from
other aspects of people's lives.
Having said that, I hadn't really considered the possible link to memetics
of such an exercise before reading your paper, so thanks for that. It gives
me more confidence that there is a connection between meme theory and media
theory worth pursuing.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Paul Marsden
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 2:39 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: RE: research seminar paper- any recommendations?
>
> Vincent - I've given a couple of short introductory papers on memetics,
> (one at the Edinburgh Science Festival - and the other at a
> inter-university conference on Diana.) Both are available at my site
> www.brandgenetics.com/news..htm : Maybe you'll find a creative stimulus
> within them - I've found building on the established sub-discipline of
> cultural contagion theory makes an intro. to memetics like pushing water
> down hill to social scientists.
>
> Regards
>
> Paul Marsden
> tel: +44 (0) 777 95 77 248
> email: paul@viralculture.com
>
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