The Effects of News Coverage on the Cognitive Structure of the Audience
: A Semantic Network Analysis for Comparing Online Discussion with News Coverage
Abstract
This study focuses on the cognitive effect of media, based on the knowledge activation model proposed
by Vincent Price. Repetitive and cumulative news coverage changes accessibility of the concepts within
the knowledge structure of the audience, i.e. the structure of the associative network, and eventually
changes the way the audience recognize certain issues.
The results suggested that as certain concepts were reported cumulatively and repetitively, the
accessibility of such concepts within the associative network increased, showing relatively more chances
of being activated than those less reported concepts. Same results were drawn from both the qualitative
(frequency) and qualitative (pattern of usage) aspects of accessibility. It suggested that the media plays
significant roles in the first step of the knowledge activation process, increasing the accessibility by the
recency and frequency of the concept, implying the significant role of media effect in cognitive level.
Introduction
The grand effect theory of mass media, so called the “Bullet Theory,” was questioned with its
reliability after the 1940s, when the effect of interpersonal communication, such as the role of opinion
leaders, was considered to filter and eventually minimize the actual effects of mass media. As the focus of
media studies shifted from the media towards the audience, the ‘active audience’ concept was newly
introduced. Studies of ‘activeness’ concluded that the effect of mass media was limited and selective.
Both the ‘active audience’ and the ‘obstinate audience’ perspective led to studying the dispositions and
the conditions of the audience, counterbalancing with the uniform and direct effect of the media, finally
1
Page 1 of 22 
Convention