Media psychology

Media psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the relationships between human behavior and the media. This branch is a relatively new field of study because of advancement in technology. It uses various methods of critical analysis and investigation to develop a working model of a user's perception on media experience. These methods are used for society as a whole and on an individual basis. Media psychologists are able to perform activities that include consulting, design, and production in various media like television, video games, films, and news broadcasting. It is important to understand that media psychologists are not considered to be those who are featured in media (such counselors-psychotherapists, clinicians etc.) rather than those who research, work or contribute to the field.

The field of media psychology started in the 1950s when television was becoming popular in American households. The psychologists were concerned about the children and their television viewing. For example, researchers began to study the impact of television viewing on children's reading skills. Later, they began to study the impact of violent television viewing on children's behavior, for example if they were likely to exhibit anti-social behavior or to copy the violent behaviors that they were seeing. These events led up to the creation of a new division of the American Psychological Association in 1987. Division 46, the Media Psychology Division (now the APA Society for Media Psychology and Technology), is one of the fastest growing in the American Psychological Association. Today's media psychologists are concerned with the new media forms that have risen in recent years such as cellular phone technology, the internet, and new genres of television.

Media psychology's theories are based upon the user's perception, cognition, and humanistic components in regards to their experience to their surroundings. These theories in psychology are used as the backbone of media psychology and guide the discipline itself. Theories in psychology applied to media, i.e., pictures, graphics and sound are fundamental. Sensory psychology, semiotics and semantics for visual and language communication are central in the study of media psychology. Forensic media psychology is a specialty now emerging.

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