Intro to Mass

Communication
Episode 1
 Communication
• Definition: The transmission of a
message from a source to a receiver.
• Harold Lasswell (1948) political
scientist description:
• Who?
• Says What?
• Through Which channel?
• To whom?
• With what effects?
In fact, it is misleading to
think of the communication
process as starting
somewhere and ending
somewhere. It is really
endless. We are little
switchboard centers
handling and rerouting the
great endless current of
information.... (Schramm W.
1954)
 NOISE

• Physical noise:
• Semantic noise
 Physical Noise
3. A loud motorbike roaring down the road
while you're trying to hold a
conversation
2. Your little brother standing in front of
the TV set
3. Mist on the inside of the car
windscreen
4. Smudges on a printed page
5. ‘Snow' on analog TV set
 Semantic Noise
1. Semantic noise is difficult to
define.
5. It may be related to
people's:
a) Knowledge level,
b) Communication skills,
 Examples of Semantic Noise

4. Distraction
5. Differences in the use of the
code
6. Emphasizing the wrong part of
the message
7. Attitude towards the sender
1.Distraction:
There is no physical noise which
prevents the message from reaching you.
You hear it, but you don't decode it.

You are physically very attracted to the

person who is talking to you. As a result,
your attention is directed to their deep blue
eyes rather than what they are saying.
Equally, your attention could be distracted
by the other person's peculiar twitch and so
on. Or think of when you watched the TV
news: the reporter was standing outside
Hamra Street, but behind him a woman was
yelling at her husband. As soon as the
2. Differences in the use of
the code:
There is nothing which
physically prevents the
elements of the message from
reaching you, you simply can't
understand it. 

A person is blabbing on about

fishes and loaves in Swedish. A
Jag är mycket
lycklig.
3. Emphasizing the wrong part of
the message:

Maybe you can think of an advertising

campaign which has been so successful with
some new style or gimmick that everyone is
talking about it. However, no one has
4. Attitude towards the
sender:
You're talking to someone a lot older
than you. On the basis of their age, you
make a lot of assumptions about the
kind of code appropriate to them - and
the conversation goes wrong because
5. Attitude towards the message:

I may have a very positive attitude to the

Aramaic-speaking bearded chap in the
flowing robes. But, despite that, I'd be
unlikely to find him very persuasive even if
he were talking to me in English about his
fishes and his loaves. He believes in
transcendent beings and I don't. Whilst I may
respect his right to hold to what I consider to
be silly convictions, I can find little respect
for the beliefs themselves. So, unless he can
find what I consider a more convincing
explanation of this particular trick, he's
 The mass
audience

Many receivers,
Organizati each
on Decoding,
interpreting,
En Encoding
co
In de Each connected
te r with
rp
te re
De r
co Many
de
r identic
al
messag

Delayed Inferential
feedback
Input from News sources, art
sources, etc.
 Definition of Mass
Communication
1. It is the process of creating shared
meaning between the mass media
and their audiences.
2. Communication by means of mass
media which reaches all or most
people in society.
 Culture
• Culture is the learned, socially
acquired traditions and lifestyles of
the members of a society, including
their patterned, repetitive ways of
thinking, felling and acting...
(Harris, 1983).
 Culture
• Culture lends significance to human
experience by selecting from and
organizing it. It refers broadly to the
forms through which people make
sense of their lives, rather than more
narrowly to the opera or art of
museums.
(Rosaldo, 1989)
 Culture
• Culture is the medium evolved by
humans to survive. Nothing is free
from cultural influences. It is the
keystone in civilization’s arch and is
the medium through which all of life’s
events must flow. We are culture.
(Hall, 1976)
 Culture
• Culture is an historically transmitted
pattern of meanings embodied in
symbolic forms by means of which
people communicate, perpetuate,
and develop their knowledge about
and attitudes toward life.
(Geertz, 1973)
 Culture
• Culture is learned.
• Culture is shared within a group.
• Creation and maintenance of
common culture occurs through
communication/mass
communication.
 Functions & Effects of
Culture
• Culture provides information that
helps us make meaningful
distinctions about right-wrong,
appropriate - inappropriate, good-
bad, attractive – unattractive…
• How does it do this?
• Example, thinness and beauty?
• Mass Comm imapcts your perception
through messages disseminated by
media:
– movie heriones
– Mean guys fat
– Thieves black
– Fathers The simpsons
– Brothers mean to sisters
– Sisters mean to brothers
• (Mainstream / Dominant culture)
challanged
Dietin
g
&
Body
Imag
Hollywood star
Lindsey Lohan
Just My Luck (2006)
$7,500,000
Mean Girls (2004)
$1,000,000
Confessions of a Teenage
Drama Queen (2004)
$1,000,000
The Simpsons
 Defining differentiating
Dividing & Uniting of Culture
• National Culture versus bounded
culture
• Whale: fish in water or mammal?
• Lebanese and stereotyping, labeling:
• When we travel, fits us partially or
maybe not at all
• Categorizing people within the same
culture
• Italian, Asian, black neighborhoods:
what do we expect to find?
• Smaller cultures help us differentiate
 Division Problems?
• Differentiation leads to division:
• 911 challenged American Muslims’
patriotism
• CAIR reported 25% increase in anti-
Muslim bias
2005-2006
• Communication/miscommunication
serves to maintain and divide
• Culture: collective experience
Seven years
later
 Defining
• Culture is the world made
meaningful; iot is socially
constructed and maintained through
communication. It limits as well as
liberates us; it differentness as well
as unites us. It defines our realities
and thereby shapes the ways we
think, feel, and act.
 Mass Communication &
Culture
• Mass communication composes the
audience.
• Contributes to the making of culture
• Contributes to the maintenance of
culture
• Mass media acts as
– cultural storyteller (values, truths,
behavior)
– Cultural forum (a debate forum of
Looting vs. finding
 Technological Determinism
• Technology is the predominant agent
of social and cultural change.
• What drives culture is the way people
use technology.
• Example, family interaction changed
by TV.
 Impact of Money
• Money shapes mass communication.
• People can be either consumers or
products.
 Characteristics of Oral
Culture
• No written language.
• Face-to-face communication.
• Helps define culture, it structure and
operation.
• Meaning is specific & local.
• Knowledge is passed orally.
• Memory is crucial.
• Myth & history are intertwined.
(storyteller)
 Literate culture
• Literacy: the ability to effectively &
efficiently understand and use
written symbols.
• Meaning & language unified.
• Knowledge is communicated over
long distance & time.
• Culture, memory history & myth
recorded on paper.
 Impact of Literate Culture
• Culture is not local.
• Expansion: commercial, political &
military.
• Empires replaced local communities.
• Power & influence in the hands of the
literate.
 Media Literacy
• The ability to effectively & efficiently
comprehend and use any form of
mediated communication.
• Components?
 Components of Media Literacy

1. Critical thinking skills; independent

judgment.
2. Understanding of the process of mass
com.
3. Awareness of media impact on society.
4. Strategies for analyzing media
messages.
5. Awareness of media content as cultural
reflection
6. Cultivation of enjoyment,
understanding, appreciation.
Family The
Guy Simpsons
 Media Literacy Skills
1. Understand content & filter out noise.
2. Understand the power of media
messages.
3. Distinguish emotional vs. reasoned
reaction.
4. Develop heightened expectation of
media content.
5. Knowledge of genre conventions &
style.
6. Thinking critically of content regardless
of source credibility.
The Daily Show: A mix of news & comedy genres
The Daily Show: A mix of news & comedy genres