Chapter 1 Lecture Notes PDF

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Chapter 1 Lecture Notes...

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Introduction to Mass Media 1/16/18 Communication: the process of creating shared meaning ➢ The transmission of a message from a source to a receiver ➢ An act of communication is: Source, Message, Receiver, Channel ➢ A source sends a message through a medium to a receiver producing some effect ➢ Media=Communication ●

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Models of Communication: Harold Laswell’s (1948) one-way model of communication ○ Who? Says What? Through Which channel? To whom? With what effect? ■ Communicator, Message, Medium, Receiver, Effect Problems with Laswell’s model ○ There must be a sharing (correspondence/feedback) of meaning for communication to take place ○ Laswell’s model makes it seem like we are giving away information, as well as that it does not account for any interferences with the communication process ○ It does not include and explain non-verbal communication (head nods) ○ Another problem is that it suggests that the receiver passively accepts the source’s message

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Communication is a reciprocal and ongoing process with all involved parties more or less engaged in creating shared meaning ○ Better defined as the process of creating shared meaning ○ Communication researcher Wilbur Schramm developed a better, more graphic representation of the reciprocal nature of communication ○ Schramm’s model depicts interpersonal communication -- communication between two or a few people -- shows that there is no clearly identifiable source or receiver

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Interpersonal Communication Components ○ Since communication is an ongoing process, all the participants/interpreters are working to create meaning by encoding and decoding messages ○ A message is first encoded ■ Transforming ideas into an understandable sign/symbol system ○ Once received, the message is decoded ■ Interpreting sign/symbol systems ○ Not every model can show all aspects of a process as complex as communication. Noise is missing from this representation. ■ Anything that interferes with successful communication ○ Encoded messages are carried by a medium ■ Vehicle by which messages are conveyed ■ Sound waves are the medium that carries our voice

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Mass Mediums:

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When the medium is a technology that carries messages to a group of people Mass media we use regularly include radio, TV, books, magazines, papers, movies, phones, computer networks, etc. Inferential feedback: in the mass communication process, feedback is typically indirect rather than direct; inferential ○ Twitter provides delayed inferential feedback for shows like GOT Personal - Mass spectrum on Schramm’s model of mass communication ○ Communication process changes over continuum ■ Messages - more generalized; less personalized ■ Audience - more remote; less involved; more diverse ■ Channel - more tech driven; more costly Culture ○ Since culture can limit and divide or liberate and unite, it offers us infinite opportunities to use communication for good if we choose ○ We are the people involved in mass media industries and the people who compose their audiences ○ Together we allow mass communication to contribute to the creation and maintenance of culture Culture: Learned behavior of members of a social group ○ Lens through which we make the world meaningful ○ Communication produces, maintains, repairs, and transforms culture ○ Media create culture by serving as cultural storytellers ○ Mass communication can transform how we think about things in our culture ■ Audiences have opportunities and responsibilities ○ Media also creates culture by serving as Cultural Forum: ■ Establish “important” topics and shape the way we discuss them ■ Give us platform to debate them/ see them debated (ex: Twitter) ■ The most powerful voices in the forum have the most power to shape our definitions and understandings...