Abstract

Chances are if you have ever purchased a good or service, you have been affected by the concepts of media psychology whether you are aware of it or not. Broadly speaking, media psychology pursues an understanding of how people perceive, interpret, use and respond to a media-rich world in which we are living in today. Media psychology is a field of psychology that explores the psychological impact on people caused by a wide range of media such as advertising, celebrity endorsement, product placement, etc. By understanding the expansive concepts of media psychology, I will explain how these ideas alter the consumer mind.
Media unravels itself into many different forms such as print media, broadcast media, and the Internet. These types of media and the information they transmit influence the way we perceive our values, and beliefs about the world. The quick introduction of new technology is troubling and has triggered many different reactions from consumers, from eagerness to disbelief. We all come to commands in our ways to change and adapt to new surroundings such as technology in this case. As technology progresses, we are forced to change how we assess the world. Us as human beings we are troubled by the ever-changing technology and integrating it within our lives. Media psychology is a response to this problem. Media psychology uses concepts such as advertising techniques, and celebrity endorsements, which cause us to conform to the change in technology, which in result alters the consumer mind.
Advertising is the key component of media psychology because through advertising the consumers will get an initial appeal and persuasion towards the product or service based on how the company portrays the product through their advertising techniques. Advertising techniques intend to persuade and appeal to the consumer into investing into a product or service. There are two major types of advertising, logical persuasion and non-rational influence. Logical persuasion has to do more with facts and credibility of the product or service being advertised whereas non-rational influence has to do more with the emotional and impulsive appeal of a product or service. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion and appeals into three categories: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Ethos is basically ethical appeal and credibility of a product. Consumers will invest in the product or service that is credible and dependable. This type of advertisement can be called logical persuasion advertising because it has to do more with the ethical appeal of the product rather than the emotional appeal. An example of ethical appeal or logical persuasion advertising is how medicine advertisements state the uses of medication, and the benefits of the medicine along with the side effects. All the information in the advertisement is stated by a credible source, which is usually a doctor who has experience with the medication on hand. In result, the consumer will be ethically appealed to this product based off its credibility and facts given in the advertisement. The next type of category is Pathos, which persuades the consumer into investing in a product or service by using emotional appeal. This type of advertisement is called non-rational influence because it has to do more with emotion rather than credibility and how the advertisement can trigger an emotional response to the potential consumer to buy the product or service. An example of emotional appeal or non-rational advertising is how jewelry advertisements show romance and love which triggers an emotional response to the consumer to make them emotionally connected to the advertisement and attracts the consumer to buy the product for their significant other. A specific example for this can be Kay Jewelers where they use the slogan “Every kiss begins with Kay” and show a kiss to trigger an emotional response