ABSTRACT
In his seminal work The Effects of Mass Communication, Klapper (1960) reviewed decades of research on mass communication to conclude that fi rst, the mass media appear to have less power than the average citizen, second, that media effects are of a minor nature, and third, that the actual process of media effects is far more complex and a function of many factors. Klapper’s conclusions were not dismissive of all media effects. Rather, they were directed toward effects of an indirect, long term, and complex texture, which could vary based on a combination of psychological and social factors. The work marked a departure from hypodermic effect assumptions, World War II propaganda research, and short term effect studies that had considered direct and immediate media effects. Uses and gratifi cations emerged as an alternative perspective that could study and understand media effects as a result of more complex processes.
