Monday, August 10, 2026 Strategy, technology, media, and social systems

I Think

Sorin Adam Matei

Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.

Tag: Mass media

What is a theory of mass communication?

What qualifies as a mass communication theory? Typically, the phrase is connected with the idea of “media effects.” Mass communication theories are typically imagined as ways to explain how mass communication affects us. How does mass communication influence our political or shopping choices, how…

Com 559 Syllabus – Current Trends in Mass Communication Research – From Mass Media to Social Media

Purdue University Fall 2017 Meeting time: Tuesday – Thursday, 12 – 1:20 PM, BRNG 2275 Office hours: BRNG 2140, 2:15 – 4 PM T-Th and by appointment Instructor: Sorin Adam Matei, smatei  at purdue edu According to the site Alexa.com, which tracks…

Cultivation Theory and Mass Communication Research, From Left to Right

This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei Cultivation theory suggests that heavy television exposure generates a world of ideas and mental content that is homogeneous and biased toward “reality” as…

Are social media or Web 2.0 definitions in the eye of the beholder?

  This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University bySorin Adam Matei Web 2.0 and social media core assumptions The popular concepts of social media and Web 2.0 hinge on the assumption that the…

The origins of media research: the effects paradigm

This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei INTRODUCTION: Mass media has become a research issue during the 1930s and 1940s. This has imprinted it with an early concern with psychological…

Is two-step flow theory still relevant for social media research?

This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei Elihu Katz, Paul Lazarsfeld, and Gabriel Tarde have already said that media are profoundly social. Newspapers have been read at breakfast for almost…

What can uses and gratifications theory tell us about social media?

This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University bySorin Adam Matei Of the couple dozen theories that aim to explain how mass media impact society, how many of them are still valid today, when…

Does agenda setting theory still apply to social media?

Does the old fashioned newsroom still matter? Image via Wikipedia This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei Agenda setting theory was proposed in the early 1970s by Maxwell McCombs and…

Can media system dependency account for social media? Or should communication infrastructure theory take care of it?

This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei Media System Dependency Theory Core principles MSD proposes that media and its audiences co-exist in a state of ecological dependency. They establish relationships…

The social impact of social media: creator or destroyer of social capital?

This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei Social Capital Theory proposes that effective social action and the wellbeing of social groups, from the smallest voluntary organization to entire societies, is…

Social media and identity: From Goffman to Sherry Turkle, Meyrowitz and beyond

This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei Identity theories and social media What cultural and intellectual forces account for the social and intellectual ethos that fuels the social media revolution?…

Cripps, Bloods, Dragons, other gangs tweet and payback

Gang Signs on the Web creative commons image by JL! via Flickr Gang members use social media to organize payback missions or to snuff out snitches. A Washington Post article cited by Gawker and dugg 172 times reports that gangs regularly use…