ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces mass media theories that affect society as a whole. It considers the impact of agenda-setting. The chapter traces the development of diffusion of innovation. It reviews the issues associated with the knowledge-gap hypothesis. The chapter examines the effect of the spiral of silence. It distinguishes a variety of cultivation effects, including the effects of television violence. Agenda setting is one of the pivotal theories from the sociological perspective, that is, theories that examine the ways in which the media have been shown to be influential on large groups or society in general. While the theories of media violence may not be considered sociological theories in the strict sense that they affect populations as a whole, they are considered an extension of cultivation theory. The effects theories, however, are not the only way in which researchers seek to explain the influence of the media on modern society.
