Download Lecture 1, Intro to Mass Comm

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I. Three kinds of communication:
1. Face-to-face interpersonal communication
2. Mediated interpersonal communication
• comm creator   media (middle)   comm receiver
3. Mass mediated communication
• the process by which someone or some organization
with the aid of one or more technological channels
produces and transmits public messages that are
directed at large, heterogeneous, and scattered
audiences.
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A few notes: “Communication” vs. “Language”
1. This is a course about communication, not language
2. Language is the fundamental medium for communication
3. In this course we are interested in communication that requires a
second channel/medium to occur
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II. Why we communicate, reason 1: To “transmit” information
a. Focus is on information flowing in a linear way between
people.
b. “Transmission” definition:
“Communication is a process whereby bits of
information are transmitted and distributed across
space for the control of distance and people.”
c. Communication involves the “exchange,” “transfer,”
“sending,” or “transmission” of information
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III. Why we communicate, reason 2: To “construct” normalcy
a. Focus is on how communication suggests and affirms certain
things as normal (that is, right or good)
b. “Constructionist” definition:
“Communication is a process whereby particular norms
(moral positions about what is, or what should be) about
the world are constructed and reinforced.”
c. Communication involves the “sharing,” “construction,”
“affirmation,” and “reinforcing” of certain ideas about
normalcy
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Transmission and Constructionist reasons for communication
 Each of these is a broad, general reason that helps to explain
what communication is and why we do it.
 Neither reason is sufficient, alone, to explain why we engage in
communication and how we are influenced by communication.
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Applying these perspectives to mass mediated communication:
The mass media’s influence lies in their ability to shape our
understandings of the world by simultaneously . . .
• providing and emphasizing selected information
(transmission)
AND
• presenting and affirming certain definitions of normalcy
(constructionist)
AND
• doing this with large, heterogeneous, and scattered
audiences