The contributions of psychological science to media research: A historical outline

This paper throws insight into integration of two academicdisciplines and endeavours to identify the psychological inputs tocommunication theorizing and media research. Communication researchbecame a major preoccupation of psychologists from the beginning of20th century, when psychology had almost established itself as a scientificdiscipline and communication was making its beginning as a subjectworthy of academic consideration. The early application of psychologyfor the understanding of communication behavior can be traced backto the field of advertising. A synthesis of behavioral and cognitivepsychology provided a basic framework. It is in the area of study ofattitude formation and change that psychologists have made significantcontributions to media studies—the role of media in formation andchange of attitudes, opinions and beliefs. Besides persuasion researchanother area of media research which has greatly attractedpsychologists is media violence. These research initiatives culminatedin the emergence of new branch of psychology, namely MediaPsychology, which in India has great potential for research andplacements, and introduction of courses in the Universities must begiven an academic priority