Group 3's Theories

Group 3’s EOTO was on these different theories: illusory truth effect, confirmation bias, gatekeeping, agenda setting, overton window and spiral of science. These theories have to do with the media and how it communicates to the people.

The illusory truth effect is a theory where people are most likely to believe statements that are repeated are the truth while statements that aren’t repeated are untruthful. This theory has come back to relevance within this era of fake news. Many believe this theory is the reason behind people believing fake news on social media. Once people hear this news over and over again, they are prone to believe it no matter where it came from.

Confirmation bias is a theory where people only seek information that aligns with that person’s views. This theory shows how people only want to hear what they want to hear and won’t give other opinions a listening ear. This is relevant today, especially in politics. We see this all the time all over social media. Some people are so determined to defend their favorite politician, only listening to information that goes along with their opinion without hearing the opinions of those opposing that politician. Yes, that referred to *you know who*.

The gatekeeping theory is the idea of media outlets filtering information, deciding what the audience should know. This is basically the job of a journalist, but they have been under fire lately for doing this. Gatekeeping in journalism has also been difficult due to the increase of sharing/reporting news on social media by non-journalists. There have been many times that I go on social media and see people reporting news that they say the media doesn’t show.

Agenda setting is a theory where whatever issues the media decides to focus on, the people perceives those issues as important. The media influences how the public sees an issue. According to this agenda setting theory source, the OJ Simpson case is a great example of the role of agenda setting. Think about it, that case has been all over the news and still is talked about today. The more they reported on it, the more the public saw how important it was and that’s why it’s still a part of society today.

The overton window theory is the understanding of how political opinions change over time. At one point in history, these opinions were looked down upon but now are widely accepted (and vice versa). The example group 3 used in their presentation was same-sex marriages. Same-sex marriages are now legal but at first were denied.

The spiral of silence theory is a theory that people’s will to discuss their opinions normally decrease once they find out it’s an unpopular opinion. This leads to people staying silent and not expressing how they truly feel. Staying silent comes from the natural fear of feeling left out or misunderstood. It’s important that people feel welcome to voice their opinion because we can learn from our mistakes. Everyone’s opinion makes the world go around.

These theories of how we communicate are all very interesting. I really enjoyed this presentation not only because they were interesting, but because as an aspiring journalist, I have to keep some of these theories in mind as I’m spreading news around the world.

Image Source