I first became aware of media psychology in 2024 when I kept seeing media psychology training courses being advertised in The Psychologist magazine by the British Psychology Society. I had never heard of media psychology before but I checked out the courses and £100 wasn’t a bad price. In the future, I might take one of the courses so I can deepen my understanding of what is media psychology, what do media psychologists do and the various roles that media psychologists play on production sets. However, until that time, in this cyberpsychology podcast episode, you’ll explore what is media psychology, what topics do media psychologists study and more. If you’re interested in the intersection between applied psychology, careers in psychology and technology then this will be a brilliant podcast episode for you.
Today’s psychology podcast episode is sponsored by Careers In Psychology: A Guide To Careers In Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Business Psychology and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
What is Media Psychology?
As you might be aware because media psychology isn’t well-known, it is certainly a newer branch of psychology compared to others, like cognitive psychology and behaviourism. Media psychology focuses on investigating how people are impacted by technology as well as the media.
In addition, media psychology is important because we are constantly surrounded by media. Even now surround me as I write this episode, I have my wireless earphones in my ears blasting some Demonslayer music as I struggle to keep some my anxiety out of my head about telling my partner tomorrow that I am a rape survivor. I have my laptop to one side with my monitor with this Word Document and my research on another screen. As well as I have my phone next to my mouse, so even though I am working right now. I am still surrounded by technology. And even beforehand I picked today’s topic, I was reading some short stories on my tablet.
We are surrounded by technology.
As a result, it’s important that psychology understands the impact that technology has on. Also, media psychology is very interdisciplinary because the constant changes in how people interact with technology which makes this particular area of study difficult to define. In my opinion, this is even more relevant because we are seeing how people change their search and digital consumption patterns with the rise of artificial intelligence. As well as how the artificial intelligence is revolutionising and changing companies and the workplace.
Building upon this, media psychology is heavily influenced by obviously psychology, but academia focusing on communication too. Like, sociology, anthropology, fan studies and media studies. Because of this, a lot of media psychology researchers don’t consider psychology to be their main area of research because they believe their main research area is media’s influence on individuals rather than a subtopic within a larger subject of expertise.
Interestingly, last month I went to a postgraduate talk on Taylor Swift and feminism, and looking back, I suppose this is largely about how individuals interact with her music, her messages and her as a fan culture. The lecturer giving the talk was a Doctor of English Literature and she gave a brilliant talk. Yet it is interesting to think about how English Literature in this situation could fall under the umbrella of psychology because she was studying texts and lyrics to see why Taylor Swift has the impact she does on individuals.
Ultimately, according to The Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology, the discipline is defined as “Media psychology is the scientific study of human behaviour, thoughts and feelings experienced in the context of media use and creation,”
What Does Media Psychology Study?
We already know media psychology focuses on investigating the interaction between people and technology, but here are some specific topics that media psychologists can study. Online learning is a topic of interest because it helps media psychologists to understand the impact of online teaching, for example, and how in-person lessons can be enhanced by technology or adapted for online teaching. As well as how media messages can be constructed to encourage someone to give to a charity or do another prosocial behaviour.
Media influence is another topic that media psychologists get excited by. They could investigate the impact of how exposure to media depictions of violence might or might not increase aggression, how depictions of gender roles impact sexist attitudes or perpetuates harmful gender stereotypes and so on.
In addition, media psychologists investigate audience involvement. Such as, why do we cry or laugh at certain moments in a TV programme or film? How do stories impact our sense of self, our identity and our social norms? As well as why do popular culture fans come together to form supportive or sometimes toxic communities?
Personally, given how I live with three people who flat out love Minecraft and I constantly hear about different things they’re doing in Minecraft, and streamers are popular in legal trouble and so on. I would be interested in knowing how Minecraft developed such a cult following.
One final topic of interest is the impact of social media. Media psychologists investigate how social media platforms could create more comprehensive view of the world instead of an echo-chamber that amplifies hate and toxic body image ideals. As well as researchers could investigate how different types of social media use can impact mental health conditions, like depression and anxiety. If you want to learn more about social media use definitely check out my book Social Media Psychology.
How Did Media Psychology Develop?
Interestingly, media psychology isn’t as new as everyone thinks it is because Hugo Munsterberg was the first person to look empirically at how an audience responded to film in his 1916 book The Photoplay: A Psychological Study. Then it came into the mainstream a little more in the 1950s when psychologists started to look more into how media impacted children.
Nonetheless, media psychology itself wasn’t brought into the mainstream until 1986 when the American Psychological Association established the Media Psychology division as the organisation’s 46th division. When it first started, it was focused on psychologists who appeared in the media as expert witnesses and sources of information. This is still somewhat the function of the division today but it has changed its name to the Society for Media Psychology and Technology in the United States. Its current modern focus is researching the effects and influence of media.
Finally, whilst in recent years the field has expanded to include various journals focusing on media psychology and there is an increase in universities dedicated modules, courses and research into media psychology. In 2003, the only APA-accredited (and this was still true as of 2023) media psychology PhD programme was at the Fielding Graduate University.
What Are Some Careers in Media Psychology?
It is certainly true that other areas of psychology have better defined career routes but media psychology has a few options for people. Media psychologists becoming an academic researcher is very normal and it is the standard career route. One reason why media psychology doesn’t have a lot of defined career routes at the moment is because it is still so new and the discipline is still defining its scope as well as purview.
However, the context I always see media psychologists being employed is on TV and Film production crews. This is important because in an ever-expanding world of technology, this represents a chance for a lot of opportunities to apply media psychology in a wide range of industries from TV to film to education as well as politics. Everyone wants to know about how technology impacts us so they can create better health and safety rules, laws and regulations that better protect people.
I’ll be surprised if people aren’t familiar with Love Island (and no before you ask, I do not watch it but it is impossible not to be aware of it in the UK). Yet I know reality TV programmes like Love Island are starting to employ media psychologists to better help them protect the mental health of their contestants.
Moreover, media psychologists are important for teaching children lessons in media as well as cyberliteracy from a young age. In these situations, media psychologists are very useful because they can be the experts in designing and implementing these programmes.
Conclusion: What Is The Future Of Media Psychology?
In this cyberpsychology podcast episode, we’ve learnt that media psychology investigates how people are impacted by technology as well as the media. Also, whilst early media psychology research focused on the negative impacts of media, it is important to recognise that modern media psychology recognises that media and technology isn’t all good nor all bad. What matters is how we use technology and with the constantly changing nature of technology and media, all of us as individuals and as a society, we must learn how to maximise the positives of technology whilst minimising the negatives.
Thankfully, this is where media psychologists come in because they play a critical role in helping our understanding of how to navigate these developments. Which in the current world because artificial intelligence, let alone other forms of technology and media, changes and advances weekly. The job of media psychologists is more important than ever.
Therefore, when it comes to the future of media psychology, I think the discipline will only grow in popularity and importance as we look to examine the positives and negatives of new forms of media and technology and how they impact individuals. Then as we race to catch up with technology in terms of laws, regulations and Acts of Parliament, we need to use media psychologists to advise us, production companies and governments about how best to protect people.
Because for me, that is the entire point of psychology, psychology is a force for good and I strongly believe media psychology is flat out critical for the future.
So if you’re interested in understanding how the media impacts people then maybe check out courses and careers in media psychology.
You never know what weird, wonderful and fascinating places it might lead you.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Careers In Psychology: A Guide To Careers In Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Business Psychology and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Cyberpsychology Psychology References and Further Reading
Brown Rutledge P. Arguing for Media Psychology as a Distinct Field. In: Dill KE, ed. The Oxford Handbook Of Media Psychology. 1st ed. Oxford University Press; 2012.
Cummings, J. J., & Bailenson, J. N. (2016). How immersive is enough? A meta-analysis of the effect of immersive technology on user presence. Media psychology, 19(2), 272-309.
Dill, KE. Introduction. In: Dill KE, ed. The Oxford Handbook Of Media Psychology. 1st ed. Oxford University Press; 2012.
Fischoff S. Media Psychology: A Personal Essay in Definition and Purview. J Media Psychol. 2005;10(1):1-21.
Kleemans, M., Daalmans, S., Carbaat, I., & Anschütz, D. (2018). Picture perfect: The direct effect of manipulated Instagram photos on body image in adolescent girls. Media Psychology, 21(1), 93-110.
Skowronski, M., Busching, R., & Krahé, B. (2021). Links between exposure to sexualized Instagram images and body image concerns in girls and boys. Journal of Media Psychology.
Stever GS. Media and Media Psychology. In: Stever GS, Giles DC, Cohen JD, Myers ME. Understanding Media Psychology. 1st ed. New York: Routledge; 2021:1-13.
Sundar, S. S., Jia, H., Waddell, T. F., & Huang, Y. (2015). Toward a theory of interactive media effects (TIME) four models for explaining how interface features affect user psychology. The handbook of the psychology of communication technology, 47-86.
Tuma RM. Media Psychology and Its History. In: Dill KE, ed. The Oxford Handbook Of Media Psychology. 1st ed. Oxford University Press; 2012.
Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., & Walther, J. B. (2016). Media effects: Theory and research. Annual review of psychology, 67(1), 315-338.
Wallace, P. (2015). The psychology of the Internet. Cambridge University Press.
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