Theories and Evidence: Mass Media Effects and Fertility Change

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2001

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Abstract

We develop four major hypotheses for why mass media might affect fertility. These include economic and time use effects of the medium, effects of ideas on policy actions of members of the elite, general effects on population basic values and fertility—specific cognitions, and effects of deliberate mass media—based interventions on fertility—related behavior. The paper examines correlational and some longitudinal evidence at the cross—national, intranational, and individual levels, as well as the evidence for effects of deliberate interventions. The correlational evidence is consistent with a mass media effect on fertility. However, the evidence about discrete program effects, which reveals short—lived increases in demand for clinic services, is less consistent. We speculate that, if the spread of mass media has effects on fertility, it reflects a complex social process rather than a medium effect or a discrete learning process: multiple channels, providing reinforcing messages, over time, producing interpersonal discussion and a slow change in values, and working at a level of social aggregation higher than the individual.

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