Theory of selectivity based on social relationship

The main ideas can be summarized as follows

• The media present message to members of the mass society but they are received an interpreted selectively
• An important basis of the selectivity lies in distinctive patterns of social influence on people from others with whom they have meaningful ties
• Such social influence is brought to bear when an individual decision regarding behavior towards mass communication are modify by family, friends, acquaintance or others
• Pattern of media attention and response uniquely reflect the network of meaningful social ties of each individual in the society
• Thus, the effect of the media are neither uniform, powerful nor direct they are greatly limited and shaped by the person’s social interactions.