ABSTRACT
As early as 1922, Walter Lippmann’s Public Opinion suggested that the news constructs a pseudo-environment for the public, bridging “the world outside and pictures in our heads.” In the following decades, communication scholars developed a number of media effects theories and models, and empirically examined the impact of news media on individuals’ cognitive understanding of the world, as well as on their motivations, attitudes and behaviors. As one communication textbook notes, “The entire study of mass communication is based on the premise that the media have significant effects” on the public (McQuail, 1994, p. 327).
