Priming (media)

Priming is a theory in which the activation of one thought may trigger related thoughts. The priming theory states that media images stimulate related thoughts in the minds of audience members.^[1] For example, if a person were to see a cartoon character play a trick that inflicts pain on another character, it could make that person more likely to repeat the violent action in real life.

Grounded in cognitive psychology, the theory of media priming is derived from the associative network model of human memory, in which an idea or concept is stored as a node in the network and is related to other ideas or concepts by semantic paths. Priming refers to the activation of a node in this network, which may serve as a filter, an interpretive frame, or a premise for further information processing or judgment formation.^[2]

General Aggression Model

The General Aggression Model (GAM) integrates the priming theory with the social learning theory to describe how previously learned violent behavior may be triggered by thoughts, emotions, or physiological states provoked by media exposure.^[1]

Political media priming

Political media priming is “the process in which the media attend to some issues and not others and thereby alter the standards by which people evaluate election candidates.”^[3] A number of studies have demonstrated that there is a dimension of powerful media effects that goes beyond agenda setting. In 1982, Iyengar, Peters, and Kinder first identified this added dimension as the “priming effect.”^[4] The theory is founded on the assumption that people do not have elaborate knowledge about political matters and do not take into account all of what they do know when making political decisions — they must consider what more readily comes to mind. Through drawing attention to some aspects of politics at the expense of others, the media might help to set the terms by which political judgments are reached, including evaluations of political figures.^[5]

Priming isn’t always unintentional, as Jacobs and Shapiro demonstrate in a quantitative and historical analysis of John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. Their research extends the application of priming theory from its original focus of how individuals form attitudes and make decisions to the study of candidate behavior. This new approach, they say, “changes the analytic focus from unintentional priming to intentional priming, namely, the deliberate strategies that candidates pursue to influence voters.” Priming can be an effective campaign strategy for presidential candidates, the authors indicate, by a process of carefully calculated uses of public opinion on policy issues to influence voters’ standards for assessing the candidates’ attributes. In this study, the authors focus on the 1960 election because innovative public opinion surveys were incorporated into Kennedy’s campaign strategy that enabled him to use position taking to shape his image. Their research was based on primary evidence drawn from archival records and interviews, as well as a combination of interpretative and quantitative analysis. They found that a relationship exists between Kennedy’s positions on policy matters and results from his private public opinion surveys. His campaign combined image building with position taking on issues that responded to perceived public opinion. Though this study does neglect questions concerning how and why real politicians use polling results to prime voters, Jacobs and Shapiro effectively demonstrate that the priming process is powerful enough to be used intentionally by political candidates as a tool to influence public opinion during election campaigns.^[6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Straubhaar, LaRose, Davenport.
2. ^ Pan, Z. & Kosicki, G.M. (1997). Priming and Media Impact on the Evaluations of the President's Performance. Communication Research.
3. ^ Severin & Tankard, 1997
4. ^ Iyengar, Peters, and Kinder, 1982
5. ^ Alger, D.E. (1989). The Media and Politics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
6. ^ Jacobs and Shapiro (1994)

Bruce, V., Carson, D., Burton, A.M., & Kelly, S. Prime time advertisements: repetition priming from faces seen on recruitment posters. Memory and Cognition, 26, 502-515.

Bushman, B.J. (1998). Priming effects of media violence on the accessibility of aggressive constructs in memory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 537-546.

Domke, D., Shah, D.V., & Wackman, D.B. (1998). Media priming effects: Accessibility, association, and activation. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 10, 51-75.

Goidel, R.K., Shields, T.G., & Peffley, M. (1997). Priming theory and RAS models: toward an integrated perspective of media influence. American Politics Quarterly, 25, 287-318.

Hetherington, M.J. (1996). The media’s role in forming voters’ national economic evaluations in 1992. American Journal of Political Science, 40, 372-395.