Media Psychology Research Center

Draft created on February 28, 2009 at 5:28 pm

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Media Navigator

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The Media Navigator is a media literacy program under development for grades 3 through 12 that integrates technology training with critical thinking skills about media content.

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Contact Us

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Media Psychology Research Center Mailing: 848 N. Rainbow Blvd. #1768 Las Vegas, NV 89107 info@mprcenter.org

Projects

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Tara's Kids in China

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Inspired by a statue of Tara, the Goddess of Compassion, Dr. John Rutledge started Tara's Kids to help school age children who do not have the books or writing materials necessary to learn to read and write. Tara's Kids works with friends in the U.S. and in China to identify elementary-age children, schools and orphanages in rural areas of China and Tibet where they can establish libraries full of books, writing materials and give small scholarships to pay for school fees. Many children are unable to attend school because their families do not have the resources to send them. The first library was established in an orphanage for handicapped children in Tibet. A group of student volunteers from the Agricultural University in Beijing selected and packed the books and then carried them personally on the 47 hours train ride to Tibet so that they would not have to spend any of the money on shipping. The students stayed with the children in the orphanage for a month, organizing the books, setting up the library and spending time teaching the children. After spending a month with the students, the children and the students were very sad to say goodbye. A donation of $5,000 created the library for these children with 3,000 books and provided several $50 scholarships for children to cover school fees for an entire year. For more information about Tara's Kids: TarasKids@rutledgecapital.com. Come join us.

"We just want the children to know that someone loves them."

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About Us

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Dr. Erik M. Gregory

Dr. Gregory is Executive Director of the Media Psychology Research Center. He specializes in positive psychology, a field that examines healthy human functioning such as courage, hope, optimism, and happiness. He has worked internationally with children and adolescents as a psychotherapist and has consulted with leaders in higher education, media, and business to improve personal and professional functioning. Erik received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has held appointments with the National Cancer Institute in Hawaii, the Spencer Foundation, and the University of Chicago. He completed his clinical internship at the Tavistock Institute in London where he worked as a consultant to the entertainment industry and a leader in the treatment of refugee children suffering from trauma. Erik is Director of Continuing Education at the New England Conservatory of Music, a program in collaboration with Harvard University and Tufts University. Erik can be reached at egregory@mprcenter.org

Dr. Pamela Rutledge

Dr. Rutledge is the Director of the Media Psychology Research Center. She comes from a background of communication, business management, and media psychology. Pam teaches Media Psychology as an instructor in the UCLA Extension program and social media marketing as an instructor in the UC Irvine Extension Business School’s new social media certificate proram. She is also a partner at Rutledge Capital, LLC, where she manages and develops financial, economic and investment media. Dr. Rutledge is a trained Redecision therapist and with several years experience working with eating disorders, mood disorders, and weight control. She also developed and presented a series of seminars in cross-cultural communication skills for American dorm residents in a Japanese school. Dr. Rutledge received a BA from Pomona College in Studio Art, an MBA from the Drucker School of Business at Claremont Graduate University, and a MA and PhD in Psychology with a concentration in Media from Fielding Graduate University. Her current research interest is the user-experience, meaning,and identity development in digital and social media. Recent research involved the impact of media on measures of cooperation and conflict between the U.S. and China using the Olympics as a focal point. When not working to achieve world peace, she focuses on a Positive Psychology framework to develop media that promotes personal strength and positive identity development. Dr. Rutledge can be reached at prutledge@mprcenter.org or on Twitter at pamelarutledge

Defining Media Psychology

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Media Psychology is the interaction of Human Experience with Media

Neither media nor psychology are new. Both have made major contributions to western culture throughout the 20th century. The proliferation of media, however, has reached a tipping point in the collective consciousness and society is clamoring for a new level of understanding. The infiltration of media forms and information technologies into nearly every aspect of our lives demands an expertise that combines an understanding of human behavior, cognition, and emotions with an equal understanding of media systems and development. This is relevant across multiple fields and industries, from education, healthcare, science, business, and public policy to entertainment. Media psychology can answer this need through the study of the reciprocal relationship of human experience and media. In spite of the obvious need, and perhaps because it is a new field, there is no consensus among academicians and practitioners as to the definition or scope of media psychology. We need a definition that is representative of not only the work currently being done, but the work that needs to be done. Contributing to the definitional confusion is the fact that both the words 'media' and 'psychology' are themselves broad and prone to misconception. Does 'media' mean television or does 'media' include computer interfaces that facilitate information management and distribution? Does 'psychology' evoke images of Freud and Dr. Phil, or the study of human behavior? It does not help that much of the research in media psychology has been published in academic and applied disciplines beyond psychology, such as sociology, communications and media studies, education, computer and information sciences, and even business management and marketing, although without much intellectual cross-pollination. Because, however, communication is a fundamental human experience, all media-related theories have, by definition, foundations in psychological thought. Other confounding factors to establishing a clear definition for 'media psychology' include the popular image of a 'media psychologist' as a psychologist who appears in the media. This is due in part to the fact that many of the founding members of the first division (46) for Media Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA) were psychologists with media venues and the emphasis of Division 46 initially focused on training psychologists to effectively appear in the media or as a watchdog for the accurate portrayal of psychologists in the media. And the word 'media' itself often conjures up pejorative images of persuasion, manipulation, bias, 'dangerous' content, or, worst of all to the western Judeo-Christian work ethic, leisure entertainment. Nevertheless, the last 50 years have produced valuable and interesting work in media-related research. Much of the focus has come from social anxiety over the impact of media on individuals and society. This has stimulated a mixed bag of research--some very important well-done and, unfortunately, a few politically-driven research agendas with less rigorous academic integrity. The theory has progressed from viewing media consumers as a homogeneous and passive audience to one driven by individual differences and motivations. However, in spite arguments for reciprocity between individuals and the media-influenced cultural environment (e.g. Baudrillard, McLuhan, and Vygotsky), few psychological or media theories actually focus on media as a by-product of a dynamic interactive system from media content providers to media consumers, co-evolving in a social environment. Vygotsky and Freud were not alone in emphasizing the role of social interaction to the formation of internal structures. However recent work in neurobiology and evolutionary psychology have clarified these mechanisms by identifying the variations of human brain plasticity in response to the environment and variations in cognitive processing over the lifespan to achieve psychological consonance. From birth to early adulthood is a period of high plasticity in terms of brain maturation and is subject to shaping by the environment. Once past early adulthood, change in the human brain derives from cognitive intervention--which is, as we all know, a lot more difficult. Thus, from adulthood onward, humans find it "easier" to alter the environment to suit their cognitive structures than the other way around. Human alterations include physical structures, laws, codes of behavior, language and the arts. Every generation will make their mark on the environment to support their mental models and with the vast changes in technologies and media today, this goes a long way toward describing the discrepancy in the attitudes toward media use between generations. This is a biological description of Prensky's excellent metaphor of the young as “digital natives” versus older generations of “digital immigrants.” Because the media survives only by the attendance of the audience, these alterations will be reflected in delivering technology and content that the viewers want. As media psychologists, we must recognize the evolving media environment. Part of our job will be to take up Postman’s challenge of training the next generation to engage positively and productively with media; part will be easing the fears of the digital immigrants about the new media world. We also need to place the study of psychological processes within the context of mediated communications and recognize the dynamic role of these processes in interpersonal relations, social interaction and social structures. We need, in other words, to acknowledge the reciprocal relationship between individuals and media. The Media Psychology Research Center views media psychology as the interaction between human experience and media. We apply a conceptual model, informed by psychological theory, that recognizes that the interactive and dynamic relationship between humans and media is key to a more accurate and useful understanding of the human-media experience. We use this model to establish domains of assessment throughout the continuum of human-media experience. This allow us to more effectively assess, develop and produce positive media.

What We Do

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MPRC closes the gap that between research and practice.

What does technology mean for society and the individual?
- Attitudes and perceptions about technology and technology use
Cultural sharing
- Digital storytelling systems
- Sharing narrative, have a voice and sharing experience across communities
Emotions, moods, and attitudes
- The use of technology to promote positive experiences through cognitive and emotional engagement: positive mood inducement, sense of self-efficacy, social connectedness
Virtual worlds
- New arena for expression and social modeling of new attitudes, skills, social roles, and personal identity
Connecting
- Human relationships mediated by technology
Learning
- Tools and environments for learning across the lifespan
Usability
- Psychological, perceptual and cognitive aspects of using technology

Home

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Pamela Rutledge

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