Examination of Social Context Effects upon Affective Responses to “Hot” and “Cool” Communications Media

Abstract

60 male Grade 9 students were exposed to a motion picture, a television program, or a radio play alone and in small groups. Thus, there were six experimental conditions, (i.e., TV alone vs group; movies alone vs group; radio alone vs group). The contents were designed specifically for each medium and were selected to produce positive affective changes. The Mood Adjective Check List (MACL) was administered 1 wk. before and immediately after exposure to each medium condition. (1) Over-all changes were in the predicted direction and significant, and (2) statistical examination of mean changes for each group yielded significant changes only for the radio and TV alone groups. The present results lend support to Boulding's (1967) view that the “social context” in which one is exposed to a medium is perhaps more important than the “actual form of the medium itself.”