Arthur Asa Berger

Media research techniques

PART ONE: RESEARCH PROJECTS Guided Research Projects Research Logs Content Analysis Newspaper Comics Pages Survey Interviews Media Utilization Social Roles Television Soap Opera Characters Depth Interviews Favorite Singers and Recordings Rhetorical Analysis Magazine Advertisements Library Research Audiences of Radio Talk Shows Focus Groups Reasons for Attending Films Experiments Humor Participant Observation Video Game Players Historical Research Images of Shopping Malls in the Popular Press Comparative Analysis Images of Disneyland (and Disneyworld) in the American Popular and Scholarly Press PART TWO: WRITING AND THINKING Writing with Style Avoiding Common Writing Errors Avoiding Common Reasoning Errors Writing a Research Report

Essentials of mass communication theory

This comprehensive resource on mass communication theory is structured around the key conceptual areas of text, audience, media, production and society. Using illustrations from popular genres - particularly film and television - Arthur Asa Berger combines his broad knowledge of the mass communications field with his unique ability to translate difficult theories and models into comprehensible terms and accessible language. He concludes with suggestions for further work and discussion plus an up-to-date bibliography, making this an excellent introduction for students of communication.

Blind Men and Elephants : Perspectives on Humor

In Blind Men and Elephants, Arthur Asa Berger uses case histories to show how scholars from different disciplines and scholarly domains have tried to describe and understand humor. He reveals not only the many approaches that are available to study humor, but also the many perspectives toward humor that characterize each discipline. Each case history sheds light on a particular aspect of humor, making the combination of approaches of considerable value in the study of social research. Among the various disciplines that Berger discusses in relation to humor are: communication theory, philosophy, semiotics, literary analysis, sociology, political science, and psychology. Berger deals with these particular disciplines and perspectives because they tend to be most commonly found in the scholarly literature about humor as well as being those that have the most to offer. Blind Men and Elephants covers a wide range of humor, from simple jokes to the uses of literary devices in films. Berger observes how humor often employs considerable ridicule directed at diverse groups of people: women, men, animals, politicians, African Americans, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, gay people, straight people, and so forth. The book also explains the risk factor in ridicule as a humorous device. Blind Men and Elephants depicts how one entity or one situation can be viewed in as many different ways as the number of people studying it. Berger also shows how those multiple perspectives, the Rashomon Effect, can be used together to create a clearer understanding of humor. Blind Men and Elephants is a valuable companion to Bergers recent effort about humor, An Anatomy of Humor, and will be enjoyed by communication and information studies scholars, sociologists, literary studies specialists, philosophers, and psychologists.

The Hero as Traveler, The Traveler as Hero

This article uses an insight from the French scholar Michel de Certeau to the effect that all stories are travel stories involving spatial transference and the theories of the Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp, as elaborated in his classic work Morphology of the Folktale, to argue all heroes are travelers of one sort or another. It suggests, that in addition to the fact that all heroes are travelers, all travelers are—broadly speaking—heroes and heroines.

Marketing to Millennials

The chapter begins with a discussion of the problem in defining millennials and of the different generations that are of interest to marketers. Millennials (also known as Generation Y) are held to be people born between 1980 and 1994 (some say 2000). This is followed by some statistics about the millennial generation, which represents about a quarter of the American population, and material from a Pew Report on Millennials, which provides insights into their interests and lifestyles. The problems marketers face in reaching millennials are discussed. A list of their top dozen brands and stores is then offered and reason for these being the choices of millennials is dealt with, since they are often held to be “marketing resistant.” Next, the ideas of a prominent psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson, are explored. He writes about the crises people face at different stages of their lives. This is followed by a chart listing Erikson’s crises and suggested coping mechanisms people use to deal with these crises. The chapter ends with a discussion of the problems marketers face in finding way ways to sell things to millennials.

Three Holy Men Get Haircuts: The Semiotic Analysis of a Joke

This article deals with a typology of 45 techniques of humor that I found when doing research on the mechanisms that generate humor in texts, lists the techniques and applies them to a Jewish joke. It references the work of Vladimir Propp on folktales as analogous in that both are concerned with mechanisms in text that generate meaning. It also deals with four theories about why people find texts humorous, defines the joke as a short narrative with a punch line that is meant to generate mirthful laughter and defines Jewish humor as being about Jewish people and culture as told by Jewish people. It offers a paradigmatic analysis of the joke, and offers some insights into why Jewish people developed their distinctive kind of humor. This article is an enhanced and expanded version of an article which was published in a Chinese semiotics journal (doi:10.1515/css-2015-0022).

A Sociology of Millennials

This chapter starts with a discussion of the relationship between individuals and society and with marketer/psychoanalyst Clotaire Rapaille’s theory about the way children are “imprinted” by their societies between the age of one and seven. Next I deal with the ideas of Karl Mannheim who focused attention on the social origins of thought. This is followed by a discussion of Gustave LeBon’s classic book The Crowd and how his ideas relate to our interest in Millennials. This leads to a discussion the Claritas typology which posits that there are sixty-six different kinds of Americans; this suggests there are different ways of thinking about people other than in terms of generations. Next, I discuss the economic status of Millennials and the fact that while many of them are financially stressed, some of them are quite wealthy.

A SociologySociology of Millennials

This chapter starts with a discussion of the relationship between individuals and society and with marketer/psychoanalyst Clotaire Rapaille’s theory about the way children are “imprinted” by their societies between the age of one and seven. Next I deal with the ideas of Karl Mannheim who focused attention on the social origins of thought. This is followed by a discussion of Gustave LeBon’s classic book The Crowd and how his ideas relate to our interest in Millennials. This leads to a discussion the Claritas typology which posits that there are sixty-six different kinds of Americans; this suggests there are different ways of thinking about people other than in terms of generations. Next, I discuss the economic status of Millennials and the fact that while many of them are financially stressed, some of them are quite wealthy.

Millennials and the Media

The subject of this chapter is how Millennials use the media and how the media attempt to use Millennials. It starts with a discussion of Millennials and social media and offers a discussion by a psychiatrist, David Brunskill, of the negative impact social media have on people, what he calls the “net effect.” Research suggests there may be a relationship between social networking and narcissism. An overview of Millennials and media is offered, and Millennials’ role as “digital natives” is discussed. This leads to a discussion of Millennials and “virtual communities.” Next, there is a description of theHikikomori problem—troubled Millennials—in Japan. Will American Millennials end up like them? A discussion of the “Generation C” segment of Millennials and their use of social media follows. The question of addiction to media is discussed, which is followed by a section on affluent Millennials and their use of social media and of the “overuse” of social media by Millennials of all kinds.

Millennials as Shoppers and Consumers

The focus shifts now from marketers to Millennials as shoppers and consumers. It turns out that they love diamonds and buy more diamonds than any other generation—perhaps because they are young and are getting engaged more than members of other generations. They are “core customers” of fast food restaurants but do not like Big Macs and are switching their allegiance to “fast casual” restaurants. They also like to clip coupons and show a preference for small grocery stores like Trader Joe’s instead of big box stores. They also like news but don’t wish to pay for it by purchasing newspapers. They keep up with the news by using the Internet, social media, and television news shows such as those found on CNN. They also like name brands such as Nike, Apple, Samsung and Sony. This discussion is followed by a list of their favorite brands. The preferences of Millennials are important since they spend so much money on products and services.