Download Intro to Mass Communication

Yohanes Widodo
Semester Genap 2016/2017
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Dominick, J.R. (2013). The
dynamics of mass
communication: Media in
Transition, (12th ed.);
McGraw-Hill; Boston.
Let’s look at these cases…
1912 NYT report of
the sinking of Titanic
Boston Marathon
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Bombing in April 2013
#KamiKereLippoMall.
March 2013 – Bangsar dessert shop FB fiasco
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Transmission of a message from a source to a receiver.
One way communication–effect added (Harold Lasswell
1948).
"RIP Madonna.
You aren't
dead, but you're
career is.”
SENDER
Message Sender
Medium
Message receiver
Person who understands
(analyses, perceives)
•Process of encoding, interpret and decoding is simultaneously happening.
•Each person acts as both sender and receiver and hence use interpretation.
•Semantic noise occurs when sender and receiver apply different meaning
to the same message.
Communication is the process of sending and
receiving a message with another person
through a medium/channel.
Transmitting the Message
•Source: the initiator of a thought or idea who
starts the process.
the activities that a source goes
through to translate thoughts and ideas in a
perceivable form.
•Encoding:
the actual physical product that the
source encodes.
•Message:
•Channels:
receiver.
the ways the message travels to the
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Receiving the Message
consists of activities that translate or
interpret physical messages.
•Decoding:
•Receiver:
the target of the message
•Feedback:
responses of the receiver that
shape/alter the subsequent messages of the
source.
•Noise:
interference of message delivery
– Semantic
– Mechanical
– Environmental
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•
Individual or group communication,
without the aid of a mechanical device
–
–
–
–
–
–
Physical presence required
Variety of channels are available for use
Messages hard for receiver to terminate
Private or public
Immediate feedback
Noise: semantic or environmental
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SOURCE

Time
Space
-- machine -
RECEIVER
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•
Source and receiver
– May be individuals or groups; may be machine
•
Encoding
– Stage 1: Thoughts/ ideas from source
– Stage 2: Machine encodes it for transmission
•
Channel
– One or two only; eg. email-sight
•
Messages
– Customised; eg. info on blog-text or podcast
– Private or public
– Inexpensive to send
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•
•
Decoding similar to encoding
– Machines: electrical energy  light patterns
– Receiver: words or symbols  thoughts
Feedback
– Immediate or delayed; may be impossible
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Occurs when a complex
organization, with
machine aid, produces
and transmits public
messages to large,
heterogeneous, scattered
audiences.
The process of creating
shared meaning between
mass media and their
audiences
(Baran 2006, p.6).
(Dominick 2010, p.10).
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•
Source
– Pre-Internet: Source was typically a group of
individuals who acted in predetermined roles in
an organizational structure (eg. the product of a
group’s effort, Oprah Winfrey’s talk show)
– Internet: Source can be one person, who
becomes a mass communicator (eg. a blogger to
his readers, an organisation’s FB page to their
customers/fans)
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•
Encoding/ sending
– Involves many stages
– More than one machine is sending message; eg. satellitetv
•
Decoding/ Receiving
– Message is public
– Multiple decoding stages; eg. tv decodes sight & sound
waves
•
Receiver
– Large audience & ananoymous to each other
– Self-defined audience (choose to consume media)
– Heterogenous
– Spread over a wide geographic area
•
Feedback
– Delayed/ immediate
•
Noise
Schramm’s Model of Mass Communication
Source: From The Process and Effects of Mass Communication. Copyright (c)
1954
Organisation owns tv,
newspapers & radio entities.
Eg. Tv executives obtaining
ratings a week after a tv
program was aired and they
must infer what to do next.
•
•
•
Schramm’s mass communication model represents
feedback by inferential feedback—indirect rather
than direct.
It may take long periods for a mass medium to
discover whether it has been effective.
Imposed by technology (then, there was no
internet)
– communication conservatism (message
constraints); feedback too late for alterations.
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•
Medium is channel through which message
travels from source to receiver.
– “Medium” is singular; “Media” is plural
– Print; Internet; Broadcast
•
•
Mass media are channels for mass
communication, and the institutions that
transmit the messages.
Media vehicle: single component of mass
media; newspaper, radio station, magazine.
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Technology
Economics
Social Trends
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•
Websites:
– The Web will become more important for interpersonal
and social functions, e.g. the proliferation of social
media.
– Interpersonal & machine-assisted communication on
the Web (blogs, Wikipedia, Skype, FB, etc) facilitates
communication of individuals/ small groups
(communities).
– Mass media content will be distributed over the Net
(eg. online papers, video downloads, e-books, etc).
– The Internet has necessitated fresh models to describe
the communication process.
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•
•
The traditional model of mass communication
was a “one-to-many” model.
Media organizations encoded information
from the environment, and reproduced it
many times over using the appropriate
channel.
– Little direct interaction between sources and
receivers
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-content by organisations &
individuals
-communication flows
inwards (computer-mediated
environment); not a one
way model
-Message that flows to
individuals are not identical
(pull model).
-Feedback is easy.
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•
•
A new arrangement, allowing multiple levels of
communication:
– One-to-one (email)
– One-to-many (CNN.com)
– Few-to-few (chatrooms, blogs)
– Many-to-many (YouTube, eBay)
– Audience competition not always a factor
Messages not linear; content provided by
organizations and users.
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Mass communication is
produced by complex and
formal organizations based
on business models.
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These organizations have
multiple gatekeepers.
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Need a great deal of money
to operate.
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Exist to make a profit.
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Highly competitive
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Mass media typically have welldefined organizational structure.
◦ Generally involves specialization
and division of labor.
◦ Generally a bureaucracy.
Channels of communication with
organization are generally formal.
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Gatekeeper: Any person/group controlling what
material eventually reaches the public.
•
More complex organizations = more gatekeepers.
•
Gatekeepers are far less numerous on the Web, but
that doesn’t mean they’re nonexistent e.g.
YouTube has several people who screen videos for
copyright violations or that are deemed
inappropriate.
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•
•
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Costs millions of dollars to buy and maintain a
mass media organization e.g. News Corp’s
purchase of Dow Jones & Co. for $5 billion.
The Internet has reduced start-up and operating
costs, however Web operations need cash in order
to grow and prosper.
Current trend: consolidation of media ownership.
– Time Warner, Walt Disney Company, Sony, News
Corporation, Vivendi, Comcast, Bertelsmann
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•
•
•
•
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Most mass communication organizations in US exist to make a
profit.
Profit usually made by selling audiences to advertisers.
Mass communication organizations compete to attract
audiences.
Web sites, too, mostly exist to make a profit.
The Internet has forced us to reexamine the way we traditionally
think about mass communication and mass communicators.
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As media continue to evolve, several trends
have become apparent
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Media audiences: less mass, more
selective.
◦ Audience fractionalization or segmentation
◦ Reduced audience for any single media vehicle
◦ Definition of mass communication still
applies; audiences still large, organizations
still complex.
◦ Specialization is evident, but potential to reach
mass audience still exists.
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Convergence means coming together or uniting
in common theme or focus.
◦ Corporate Convergence: Companies acquire
assets extending range of activities.
◦ Operational Convergence: Owners of several
media properties combine operations.
◦ Device Convergence: One mechanism
contains functions of two or more devices e.g.
the iPhone .
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•
Audience members can control what they see
and hear, and when.
•
Technological advances (VCR, DVR, VOD) give
more power to consumers.
•
More sources of information, including blogs
•
More flexibility in consuming products
(download single track vs. buy full album)
•
Create own classifieds/ ads -Craigslist
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A strategy making content available via a
number of different delivery methods to a
number of different receiving devices.
◦ Example: Music videos started on cable/satellite
networks, went to websites, to iPods, to cell
phones.
◦ Television content, newspaper content, magazine
content, all are repackaged for multiple devices.
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User-generated content (peer production):
people share and collaborate on content.
◦ YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Wikipedia
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Reflects Web 2.0
◦ Web 2.0 = communities, people, uploading
◦ Web 1.0 = companies, pages, downloading
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Small screen devices allow media to become
increasingly mobile
◦ iPads & tablets
◦ Cell phones
◦ Laptop computers
◦ iPods
Significant milestone in development of
communication
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Online communications that use special
techniques that involve participation,
conversation, sharing, collaboration, and
linkage.
At the start of 2011, Facebook had more than
500 million users; that would rank the Website
third largest in the world if it were a country.
Businesses & politicians are turning to social
media to market their products.
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Cultural definition of communication
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Communication is foundation of our culture.
James W. Carey: “Communication is a symbolic
process whereby reality is produced, maintained,
repaired and transformed.”
•
•
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Socially acquired traditions and lifestyles
Culture is learned behaviour of members of a given social
group.
Culture is the world made meaningful; it is socially
constructed and maintained through communication. It
limits and also liberates us; it differentiates and also unites
us. It defines our realities and thereby shapes the ways we
think, feel and act (Baran 2013, p.14).
Function:
Helps us categorise & classify our experiences.
Helps us define our world & our place in it.
Storytellers (Mass media)
Story (eg. content of a tv drama;
newspaper article)
Media practitioners (journalists, editors,
film directors, advertisers)-must be
ethical and professional in telling a
“story.”
TV viewers, newspaper readers-besides
being entertained, we must:
•question the interpretation of the
storytellers.
Audience
•interpret “stories” in relation to important
cultural values & truths.
•reflect on the stories’ meaning & relate
to our society’s behaviour & culture.
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It is the primary forum for
the debate about our
culture.
The most powerful voice
shapes our definition &
understanding.
Newspapers/ magazines:
op-ed columns, reviews,
cartoons.
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TV/ Radio: Talk shows,
documentaries.
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Internet: blogs, FB, Twitters
Positives:
– Repetitive ways of thinking, feeling and acting
– Limits our options and provides guidelines.
{eg. no vulgar words on national tv}
Negatives:
– Culture’s limiting effects can be negative
through dominant culture/mainstream
culture.
{eg. thin beautiful models=ideal; how about
plus-size?}
– BUT…the dominant culture can be challenged;
we create our opinion to challenge existing
patterns.
– Eg. there are positive ideals of beauty; i.e.
Jennifer Lopez, Susan Boyle, Drew Barrymore,
et cetera.
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•
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We are defined by our own cultures (eg.
Malaysian)
Within large, national culture (eg. Malaysian),
there are smaller, bounded cultures (cocultures)-eg. Malaysian Chinese.
Pluralism/ diversity. Shared in media products.
When we are defined differently by othersstereotyping happens. This is not good.
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Ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend
and utilize any form of mass media content
(Baran 2004, p.51).
Media literacy is about understanding the
sources and technologies of communication, the
codes that are used, the messages that are
produced, and the selection, the interpretation,
and impact of those messages (Rubin cited by
Baran 2004, p.51).

The process of interacting with media content and
critically analyzing it by considering its particular:
 Presentation
 Technological assets and limitations
 Underlying political or social messages
 Ownership
 Regulation
 Other social expectations/ values

Possessing the knowledge to be competent in
assessing messages carried by the mass media
(Vivian 2010, p.6).
 Being able to read (traditional
literacy).
 Understanding how to navigate a
web site or send an email
attachment (computer literacy).
 Realizing a scary part of a movie
is coming up when the
background music changes (visual
literacy).
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Media consumer should question what they see, hear
or experience when receiving or interacting with
mediated communication.
Some of the questions that a critical media consumer
should ask:
 Developing media literacy is an ongoing process,
not a goal.
 It is always possible to improve your level of media
literacy and thus be a wiser consumer.
 Critical thinking in their consumption of media
content so they can better control their actions and
not be controlled by media messages.
What characteristics must an individual have?
1. An awareness of the impact of media.
2. An understanding of the process of
mass communication.
◦ How do the various media industries operate?
◦ What are their obligations to us?
◦ What are the obligations of audience?
3.
Strategies for analyzing and discussing media
messages.
◦
Eg. understand the intent and impact of film and
video conventions like camera angles and lighting,
or the strategy behind the placement of photos on
a newspaper page.
An understanding of media content as a text that
provides insight into our culture and our lives.
◦
4.
Need a foundation (eg. knowledge-media
grammar/ concepts) to base our thought &
reflection.
5.
The ability to enjoy,
understand and
appreciate media
content.
•
6.
Use multi points of access
to approach media
content from a variety of
perspectives and derive
from it many levels of
meaning.
An understanding of
the ethical and moral
obligations of media
practitioners.
7.
Development of
appropriate and effective
production skills.
•
Media literate
individuals must develop
production skills to
create useful media
messages (eg. creating
websites/ blogs).
Media literate consumption requires
specific skills:
1. Ability & willingness to make an
effort to understand content, to
pay attention & filter noise.
2. An understanding of and respect
for the power of media messages.
◦ Don’t assume it has no power on
yourself, only on others! (Third
person effect)
3. Ability to distinguish emotional
from reasoned reactions when
responding to content and act
accordingly.
4. Development of heightened
expectations of media content.
5. Know genre conventions &
recognise when they are being
mixed.
6. Ability to think about media
messages despite of their source
credibility.
7. Knowledge of various media
grammar & understand its effects.