Media and Intergroup Relations: Research on Media and Social Change

This publication is the result of a 2-year research effort by the non-profit Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund (AOCMF, re-named Soliya as of October 2009) to better understand the impact that media has - and could have - on cross-cultural understanding and intergroup relations. The publication is intended to: inform and support those already using media for social change; contribute to the growing field of media literacy education; and inform the debate over whether and where to draw limits around the freedom of expression in the media. The research report was published in cooperation with the Dubai International Film Festival, which featured a panel on December 13 2009 at which Soliya presented and discussed the findings.

The introduction to the report provides context and motivation for the research that Soliya undertook, describing debates that have arisen over the decades about the impact that media - print, radio, silent film, "talkies", television, and, now, the internet and new media technologies - has on society. "Often this interest has been driven by fears that media may have an inflammatory, polarizing, radicalizing, or even violence-inducing effect on those who consume it....News media agencies often react to criticism by noting that they merely report the news - they do not make it....For their part, entertainment media agencies often react to criticisms that they feed simplistic and negative stereotypes or feature too much sex and violence in their productions by noting that they merely cater to the interests of their audiences..."

Along these lines, the next section, "Key Concepts for Group Affiliation and Inter-Group Relations: Social Identity and Self-Esteem", further explores examples that illustrate the power of media to bring the realities of brutality and violence into people's homes, to amplify them and, in some cases, to sensationalise them - arguing that the impact this has on media consumers needs to be better understood.

Subsequent sections detail the results of a literature review covering the past 60 years of research into the impact of media on attitudes and behaviour, as well as a brief presentation of the preliminary findings of neuroscience research exploring the media's impact on intergroup relations. The latter research, which was funded by the AOCMF in 2008-2009, is being conducted and written up at neuro-imaging and psycho-physiology labs at these United States (US)-based institutions: Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the New School for Social Research.

An excerpt from the Conclusion section follows:

"This report has highlighted several important findings.

First, it highlights the central importance of personal self-esteem....In response to media's portrayal of harm or perceived slights against identity-groups to which we belong, we are likely to cling even more tightly to our social identities and defend them in the small or large ways available to us. Under certain conditions, this can lead to increased tension or even violence between groups.

In terms of media mechanisms, we have learned...that media depictions of other social groups (be they factual or fictional) inform our beliefs about social reality and intergroup norms, i.e. how the 'other' thinks and feels and how we should interact, especially in the absence of substantial real-world experience or interaction with those depicted groups.

We have learned that media's ability to change attitudes and stereotypes is often indirect - media consumers are vigilant against explicit attempts to persuade them. Instead, they are more likely to be influenced implicitly, via emotions and via media that influences their views of social norms.

This report dedicated substantial attention to past research on media violence, particularly in terms of the priming and desensitizing effects of repeated media messaging. New research...demonstrates that such effects extend to intergroup attitudes and behavior. For instance, when...Dutch participants were exposed to more news stories about acts of extremism and terrorism committed by Arab perpetrators, and when they felt it resonated with their political realities at home, they exhibited greater stereotypes against Arabs.

Although still in progress, the new research covered toward the end of this report has already furthered our understanding of media and intergroup relations in some important ways. First, using state of the art brain imaging technology, the Saxe Lab at MIT has shown that individuals process group-related information in emotion-centers of the brain. That is, group-related reasoning and perception may well be implicit, emotional, and untouchable via traditional cognitive or rational approaches. If true, we would expect groups to respond very differently to the same media stimuli. We would also expect that cognitive, fact-based efforts to influence intergroup attitudes would be less successful than less explicit approaches that influence emotions, including virtual character experiences of outgroup members of the kind that new-media technologies make possible at a previously impossible scale and reduced cost.

Another finding highlights the powerful implicit impact that media has on individuals. The Mendes Lab [at Harvard University] showed that participants were more likely to hold an implicit bias against whichever racial group they had just read about as perpetrating a hate crime - even if it was their own.

Lastly, the social context within which one experiences media appears central to how it will affect them....That is, radio or television programs about positive intergroup relations appear to have a stronger effect when listeners or viewers perceive that other community members and society at-large accept the behavior and values being portrayed.

Implications for Media Industry Leaders, Media-for-Social-Change Advocates, and Media Literacy Educators, and Donors and Policy-Makers in these Fields:

1. ...Persistent media depictions of identity groups or situations in a particular way - especially groups or situations with which media consumers have little direct experience - establish 'scripts' in the minds of media consumers....When they then encounter these situations or members of these groups in real-life, they may be primed to understand and judge them (and to act accordingly) based on these scripts....This happens largely on a subconscious and emotional level...
2. ...[E]motion plays a central role in forming our judgments, worldview, & values...
3. ...Who we consume media with and with whom we interact following our exposure to media has a determinative effect on the degree to which we become emotionally invested in it....Given that new media technologies expand the possibilities for media exposure followed by interaction with affected communities, this appears to be an exciting new frontier for the field of media-for-social-change.
4. ...[W]hen we witness, through the media, friends or fellow-members of groups with whom we identify being slighted, harmed or victimized, we experience and process their pain in a similar fashion to how we would experience it if it were happening to us directly. In some, exposure to such experiences through the media fosters a greater urge for retaliation than they would feel even if it were happening to them directly...
5. ...[W]hen it comes to our behavior, we are likely to act in ways that take into account what we believe others will do. Media campaigns that attempt to influence behavior (i.e. anti-smoking campaigns, efforts to reduce inter-communal violence, etc.) by directly addressing the attitudes or beliefs of a given individual may therefore not be as effective as those that convince that individual that other people's attitudes and behaviors have changed...
6. ...Viewers are wary of attempts to persuade them. As long as they perceive an effort to emotionally influence them, they are likely to...'shut down' emotionally....[I]t seems that when media is most effective at shifting attitudes, it is usually not trying, or at least not perceived by the media consumer to be trying..."