Download Media and communication

Lecture 1
What do I mean by ‘communication’?
Clip 1
Skimming through definitions
Communication takes place when
one mind
so acts upon its environment that
another mind is influenced,
and in that other mind an experience occurs
which is like the experience in the first mind,
and is caused in part by that experience
(I.A. Richards 1928, Britannica)
… we have communication wherever one system,
a source, influences another, the destination, by
manipulation of alternative symbols, which can
be transmitted over the channel connecting
them.
(Osgood et. al. 1959 )
The transmission
of information, ideas, attitudes, or emotion
from one person or group to another (or others)
primarily through symbols.
(Theodorson and Theodorson 1969)
Communication may be defined as social
interaction through messages.
(Gerbner 1967)
Summing up: the components of
communication process
Communication implies
a sender,
a channel,
a receiver,
a relationship between sender and receiver,
an effect,
a context in which communication occurs
and a range of things to which messages refer.
Sometimes, but not always:
an intention, or purpose to communicate or to receive.
Communication can be any or all of the following: an action on others; an
interaction with others and a reaction to others.
(McQuail&Windahl 1993, Communication Models, 2nd ed, p. 5)
(McQuail, p. 18)
Mass media?
The mass media refer to the organized means of
communicating openly, at a distance, and to
many in a short space of time. (McQuail, p. 4)
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Blurring definitional borders:
new media and Internet
narrowcasting
network society
Media in relation to society & culture
A social history of media development:
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from the church monopoly on word to a new
‘balance of power’
four magic words: globalisation, concentration,
convergence, deregulation
Researching media & (mass)
communication
Four perspectives:
media-culturalist
b) media-materialist
c) social-culturalist
d) social-materialist
a)