User:Prof.bgreg/Mass communication

This page will serve as the draft space for Mass Communication Fall 2018.

Article evaluation: Post your evaluations here on what you think needs to be improved with the Mass Communication article. Please use this format to post:

• Prof. Gregory evaluation: Use bullet points to type your evaluations below.
• Rachel Dumay evaluation: The Mass Communication page is not well balanced. The Journalism and Public Relations sections are small and vague while the rest of the article is is more detailed within the other subtitles. In addition, The different methods of mass communication, internet, news, radio, magazines, etc., could be expanded to better understand the concept and evolution of mass media. I think that understanding the history of mass media will allow readers grasp the concept better. There were various grammatical errors as well.
• Austin Pearce evaluation: This page needs to have a lot more information, and the formatting needs to be corrected on a lot of it. I spotted a grammar mistake that needs to be taken out, specifically a "the" in front of the word "attitude". Each form of mass communication should have its own section of the page, rather than just being listed off. There should be details about film and television. In the notes section towards the bottom, notes 2 and 3 are duplicated. In the "talk page", the Pearce 2009 reference is being questioned, by saying "what kind of reference is this?".
• Marina Esparza evaluation: The Mass Communication page needs more examples of Field Studies. As of now, it only has two examples of studies: Journalism and Public Relations. Based on what we have learned through class and the textbook, we know that mass comm has more studies such as film, video games, social media, radio, print and tv. Adding that could give the reader more insight into what defines mass communications. The first section could also use some tuning up, specifically defining what mass communication is. Most of these need their own section and a bit of background history.
• Carly Berk evaluation: The Mass Communications page seems to be lacking a lot of information, such as fields of study. There are more fields of study besides the two listed: Journalism and Public Relations. Even within those two fields of study more can be written about. There needs to be information about audio media added such as; music recording and radio and what goes into the field of audio media.
• Amanda Hunter: This page is only list a few areas of study within mass communication studies and the areas that it does cover, doesn't seem to have enough information to open the reader's eyes about the field. There should be a section on visual media that focuses on photography, movies and television. This section should explore in depth how visual media came to what it is today.
• Alana Lynch: Reading this Mass communication page and learning what we did in the class these pass months I can clearly tell that there is not enough information about this topic at all. there is a brief summary about what Mass commutation entails but there is so much more to do with mass commutation. they overlook a lot of what audio media has to do with mass communication.
• Sal Gallaro: The Mass Communication page needs to include more details and more information to start based off f what we have learned from the book. This page needs to go more in dept and give more examples of forms of mass communication. You can probably add some history of mass communication and how it became what it is today.
• Michael Joyce evaluation: What needs to be improved in the article is that every section needs more depth. There needs to be an explanation of how mass communications has evolved over time and with the growth of technology. There also needs to be more methods of study and more studies in the field of study section.
• Joshua Lynch: The Mass Communication page certainly lacks vitality to it. The whole page is in need of more samples to it. When you take a look at it, there’s only a couple of examples that aren’t even strong enough examples in Journalism and Public Relations. The examples should be much more clearer -- considering that there is only two of them. In terms of what we learn in the course required textbook, it’s certain that we are aware of the many more elements involved in the realm of mass communication that could possibly be used for more examples on this page. These additional examples could range from TV to social media outlets like instagram, radio -- I mean, the list can go on. Overall, the page needs more life into utilizing other facets of mass communication in transformation for examples like radio and social media. More information is needed!
• Kiara Cortes evaluation: This mass communications page is missing various things, such as detail and more areas of Field Studies. For example, it only has two areas which are Journalism and Public Relations which are very helpful in understanding the areas, but I believe that there should be more Field Studies. There needs to be information about interactive media such as; the internet, video games and augmented reality.
• Gillian Cornell evaluation: The Mass Communication page lacks various things. It lacks details on the more modern types of communications such as social media and its role in communications in todays world. The roles of Youtube and other newer forms pf communications are not spoken about in any depth at all and are an extremely important topic as the use of social media now has changed the way journalism and advertising and PR is gone about completely.
• Gabriella Gannascoli evaluation: This Mass Communication page lacks depth and should go more into detail about what we have learned so far during the semester. There are many topics and ideas linked to Mass Communication, there is television, social media, and other outlets that are parallel to the topic of Mass Communication. The page should focus more on what is going on today in technology and social media along with a little background history on the topic as a whole just so that there is reliability to the page.
• Asmerling Rodriguez evaluation: This page is short of concept about the subject, it needs more explanation, focuses more on explaining what mass communication is than developing its content, it is repetitive in its explanation that provide to the readers and lacks information about the area of studies. This topic needs more depth to be able to have credibility.
• Mary Jane Anderson evaluation: This mass communication page could benefit from having a lot more detail on the intricacies of the subject. Along with the aforementioned details in which the page could improve, another factor that would be appropriate to discuss is mergers and consolidation within mass communication.
• Sean Mullins evaluation: This page lacks a lot of information and details of the topic as a whole. There must be more subsections within the page because mass communication is such a huge topic. I think adding a section on convergence and how it has shaped the way we use technology today.
• Teiresias Alvarez evaluation: This mass communication page lacks information regarding the field of video games. The role video games has played on mass communication needs to be more fleshed out. I will write about the multiple types of video games .

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Mass Communication Article: Class Draft

Vacuum Tube Radio

Mass communication is the study of how people exchange their information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time with an amazing speed. In other words, mass communication refers to the imparting and exchanging of information on a large scale to a wide range of people. It is usually understood for relating newspaper, magazine, and book publishing, as well as radio, television and film, even via internet as these mediums are used for disseminating information, news and advertising. Mass communication differs from the studies of other forms of communication, such as interpersonal communication or organizational communication, in that it focuses on a single source transmitting information to a large number of receivers. The study of mass communication is chiefly concerned with how the content of mass communication persuades or otherwise affects the behavior, the attitude, opinion, or emotion of the person or people receiving the information.

Definition

Normally, transmission of messages to many persons at a time is called Mass Communication. But in complete sense, mass communication can be defined as the process through which a message is circulated extensively among people nearby & also throughout far extending areas such as entire countries or the globe.

What is Mass Communication?

• Mass communication is the process of transmitting messages to a large number of scattered audiences.

• Through mass communication, information can be transmitted quickly to a large number of people who generally stay far away from the sources of information. Mass communication is being done through many mediums, such as radio, television, social networking, billboards, and newspapers.

Field of study

Mass communication is "the process by which a person, group of people, or organization creates a message and transmits it through some type of medium to a large, anonymous, heterogeneous audience." This implies that the audience of mass communication are mostly made up of different cultures, behavior and belief systems. Mass communication is regularly associated with media influence or media effects, and media studies. Mass communication is a branch of social science and a sub field of communication studies or communication.

The history of communication stretches from prehistoric forms of art and writing through modern communication methods such as the Internet. Mass communication began when humans could transmit messages from a single source to multiple receivers. Mass communication has moved from theories such as the hypodermic needle model (or magic bullet theory) through more modern theories such as computer-mediated communication.

In the United States, the study of mass communication is often associated with the practical applications of journalism (Print media), television and radio broadcasting, film, public relations, or advertising. With the diversification of media options, the study of communication has extended to include social media and new media, which have stronger feedback models than traditional media sources. While the field of mass communication is continually evolving, the following four fields are generally considered the major areas of study within mass communication. They exist in different forms and configurations at different schools or universities, but are (in some form) practiced at most institutions that study mass communication.

Characteristics or Features of Mass Communication

Mass Communication has all the features of general communication. In addition, it offers some unique characteristics because of its specialty in nature.

Audience numbers

The foremost feature of mass communication is that it has large number of audience. No other communication gets as many receivers as it gets. Heterogeneous Audience Mass Communication is not only composed of a large number of audiences but also aims to heterogeneous audience. The heterogeneity here means that the audience may belong to different races, groups, section, cultures etc. Scattered Audience The audiences of Mass Communication are not organized in a certain area rather they are highly scattered in different geographical areas. The receivers of message of mass communication may stay any place of the country and even any place of the world.

Wide Area

The area of Mass Communication is wider than any other communication systems. In case of mass communication system, the message is structured, formal and standardized and that’s why it has acceptance all over the world. Use of Channel Mass Communication system uses various types of mass media channels such as-radio, television, newspapers, magazines etc. Use of Common Message Another unique characteristic of mass communication is that it sends the same message simultaneously to a large number of audiences staying far away from each other. If the audiences have the proper access to the media used by the sender they can easily get message wherever they stay in the world. No Direct Feedback Mass Communication does not produce any direct feedback. The reaction of audience cannot be known quickly here. Outward Flow The flow of message in mass communication is outward, not inward. The basic objective of mass communication is also to send message to the people outside the organization who say far away. Use of Technology Mass Communication system uses modern technology in the process of production and dissemination of the message to be sent.

Types of mass communication

Advertising

Main article: Advertising

Advertising, in relation to mass communication, is marketing a product or service in a persuasive manner that encourages the audience to buy the product or use the service. Because advertising generally takes place through some form of mass media, such as television, studying the effects and methods of advertising is relevant to the study of mass communication. Advertising is the paid, impersonal, one-way marketing of persuasive information from a sponsor. Through mass communication channels, the sponsor promotes the adoption of goods, services or ideas. Advertisers have full control of the message being sent to their audience.

Journalism

Main article: Journalism

Journalism, is the collection, verification, presentation, and editing of news for presentation through the media, in this sense, refers to the study of the product and production of news. The study of journalism involves looking at how news is produced, and how it is disseminated to the public through mass media outlets such as newspapers, news channel, radio station, television station, and more recently, e-readers and smartphones. The information provided pertains to current events, trends, issues, and people.

Alternative Journalism deals more with objective reporting. It deviates from traditional and accepted sorts of media in ways of content, manufacture, and supply. Alternative Journalism conveys many structures of audio, internet, print, radio, etc. In addition to this, Alternative Journalism alludes to several methods of web-based sources of analytical news and radical news in the form of online news or a blog.

Public Journalism, also referred to as civic journalism, mainly deals with the means of fusing journalism into the area of a democratic operation. The media tries in making sure to notify the public as much as possible while also making sure to absorb and engross the Public, making a full effort to attract the public.

Citizen Journalism all based upon the public through their citizenship. It’s where public citizens play a primary role through the operation of accumulating, detailing, and examining certain types of information found in news. Citizen Journalism is a notion among public citizens playing their significant roles in circulating information in news. All there is to citizen journalism is that is deals with the distributing of news by affiliates of the public utilizing the internet to proliferate that information in news.

Public relations

Main article: Public relations

Public relations is the process of providing information to the public in order to present a specific view of a product or organization. Public relations differs from advertising in that it is less obtrusive, and aimed at providing a more comprehensive opinion to a large audience in order to shape public opinion. Unlike advertising, public relations professionals only have control until the message is related to media gatekeepers who decide where to pass the information on to the audience.

Social Media

Main article: Social media

Social media, in its modern use, refers to platforms used on both mobile devices and home computers that allow users to interact through the use of words, images, sounds, and video. Social media includes popular sites such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as sites that can aid in business networking such as LinkedIn.The use and importance of social media in communications and public relations has grown drastically throughout the years and is now a staple in advertisements to mass audiences. For many newer companies and businesses geared towards young people social media is a tool for advertising purposes and growing the brand. Social Media provides additional ways to connect and reach out to ones targeted audience.

There are multiple social-networking sites that have the ability to visualize and share ones personal social life. Even though the first social networking sites were created several years ago, the rise of both MySpace and Facebook took over and cancelled out the previous social media sites. Facebook has the ability for people to view your personal life with you posting picture, videos and updating your status. As of today Facebook is one of the most popular social media websites for multiple types of communication. Generally Facebook is used for communication with relatives and friends along with people who share interests.

Social media have introduced new difficulties into relationships. One way this has occurred is through catfishing. The term catfish refers to a person who uses a false online profile on a social media platform. Most commonly, a catfish communicates with another online profile to get them to fall in love with the false persona they created. The MTV reality show Catfish: The TV Show has brought mainstream attention to this issue. The goal of these episodes is to keep track of people who have fallen in love with someone they interacted with online, but never met in person. As catfishing has become a mainstream term, people have wondered how and why it continues to happen. Nev Schulman, host of the show, has said "I think people will always be looking to fall in love. People will always hope for things to get better. For better, or worse, there will always be people who may or may not look to take advantage of that."

Audio Media

Recorded Music

Recordings, developed in the 1870s, became the first non-print form of mass communication. The invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in the late 19^th century, the graphophone by Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Tainter, and the gramophone by The Victor Talking Machine Company were the first competing mass media forms that brought recorded music to the masses. Recording changed again in the 1950’s with the invention of the LP (long play) vinyl record, then eight track-tapes, followed by vinyl, and cassettes in 1965. Compact discs (CDs) followed and were seen as the biggest invention in recorded arts since Edison.

Radio

Radio is considered the most widely accessible form of mass communication in the world and the medium used to greatest degree in the United States.

Convergence

Convergence refers to the coming together of telecommunications as forms of mass communication in a digital media environment. There is no clear definition of Convergence and its effects. However, it can be viewed through three lenses: technological convergence, cultural convergence, and economic convergence. Technological convergence is the action of two or more media companies merging in a digital platform and can lead companies to develop new commodities or become part of new sectors and/or economies. Cultural convergence deals with the blending of different beliefs, values, and traditions between groups of people and may occur through the globalization of content. Sex and the City, an American show set in New York City, was viewed internationally and became popular among female workers in Thailand. A study on the consumption of YouTube, conducted by the Information Technology Department and Sociology Department at Cornell University, concluded that cultural convergence occurs more frequently in advanced cosmopolitan areas.

Film and television

Film

Main article: Film

The film industry began with the invention of the Kinetoscope by Thomas Edison. His failure to patent it resulted in two brothers, Louis and Auguste Lumiere creating a portable camera that could process film and project images. The invention quickly gained notoriety when the Lumiere brothers debuted a series of 60 second clips screened outdoors to a Parisian audience. Despite the ever-growing popularity of moving images, the Lumiere Brothers did not seek to revolutionize the style of film, but stuck to documenting daily life in France. This set the grounds for future film revolutionaries, including George Melies, who sought to create narrative sequences in his films through the use of special effects.

Television

Main article: Television

In the 1970s, television began to change to include more complicated and three-dimensional characters and plots. PBS launched in 1970, and was the home for programming that would not be suitable for network television. It operates on donations and little government funding, rather than having commercials. On January 12, 1971, the sitcom All in the Family premiered on CBS, and covered the issues of the day and portrayed a bigot named Archie Bunker. By 1972, the sales of color television sets surpassed that of black-and-white sets. In the 1980s, television became geared towards what has become known as the MTV Generation, with a surge in the number of cable channels.

Photography

Main article: Photography

Photography

Main article: Photography

Photography plays a role in the field of technology and mass communication by demonstrating facts or reinforcing ideas.  Although the photos are altered digitally, it is still considered a proof to expose and communicate.

History of Photography

Camera Obscura one of the first techniques that lead to creating photos. It could create an image on a wall or piece of paper.  Joseph Niepce was a French inventor that took the first photo in the 1827 that required 8 hours of exposure. In 1839, Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype that reduced exposure time to about thirty minutes. As the years progressed so did photography techniques, including creating better image quality, adding color to an imagine and reduced exposure time.

Photography Today

The modern industry has dramatically changed with the development of digital, as phones and digital cameras have made film-based cameras a niche product. Kodak discounted making color film in 1999 and declared Bankruptcy in 2012. Other companies like Fujifilm adapted despite a downturn in sales.

Interactive Media

Types of Video Games

Main article: List of video game genres

Video game genres are a classification assigned to a video game based on its game play rather than a visual or storytelling differences. A video game genre is defined by a set of game play challenges and are classified independently of when and where the game takes place.

Ethics in Interactive Media

Interactive Media is a form of communication technique that refers to services on digital computer-based systems. This requires two or more parties who respond to each other through text, moving images, animation, video, audio, and video games. The ethics in interactive media mainly focus on the violence of video games, advertising being influenced in different ways and behavioral targeting.

The violence of video games relates to ethics in interactive media because it brings on aggressive attitude and behavior that impacts the social lives of the people playing these video games. Furthermore, behavioral targeting ties into the ethics of interactive media because these websites and apps on our phones contain our personal information which allow the owners or the ones running the companies to receive it and use them for themselves. Interactive media influences advertising because by society using social media or any websites, we are able to see that there's advertising in everything we view especially when your scrolling through Instagram or those pop up ads that come up on your screen reading an article on your computer.

E-books

Main article: E-book

E-books have changed how people read. People are able to download books onto their devices. This allows consumers to track what they read, to annotate, and to search for definitions of words on the internet. With e-books in education, the increased demand for mobile access to course materials and ebooks for students corresponds with the increased number of smartphones. E- readers such as the Amazon Kindle have advanced over the years. Since its launch in 2007, the Kindle has expanded its memory from 4GB to 8 GB. In addition, the Kindle has added accessories including games, movies, and music.

Major theories

Communication researchers have identified several major theories associated with the study of mass communication. Communication theory addresses the processes and mechanisms that allow communication to take place.

• Cultivation theory, developed by George Gerbner and Marshall McLuhan, discusses the long-term effects of watching television, and hypothesizes that the more television an individual consumes, the more likely that person is to believe the real world is similar to what they have seen on television. Cultivation is closely related to the idea of the mean world syndrome.
• Agenda setting theory centers around the idea that media outlets tell the public "not what to think, but what to think about." Agenda setting hypothesizes that media have the power to influence the public discourse, and tell people what are important issues facing society.
• The spiral of silence, developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, hypothesizes that people are more likely to reveal their opinion in public if they believe that they are of the majority opinion, for fear that revealing an unpopular opinion would subject them to being a social outcast. This theory is relevant to mass communication because it hypothesizes that mass media have the power to shape people's opinions, as well as relay the opinion that is believed to be the majority opinion.
• Media ecology hypothesizes that individuals are shaped by their interaction with media, and that communication and media profoundly affect how individuals view and interact with their environment.
• According to the Semiotic theory, communication characteristics such as words, images, gestures, and situations are always interpretive. All sign systems, entitled to be “read” or interpreted, regardless of form, may be referred to as “texts.” In the study of Semiotics, there is no such thing as a literal reading.

Methods of study

Communication researchers study communication through various methods that have been verified through repetitive, cumulative processes. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in the study of mass communication. The main focus of mass communication research is to learn how the content of mass communication affects the attitudes, opinions, emotions, and ultimately behaviors of the people who receive the message. Several prominent methods of study are as follows:

• Studying cause and effect relationships in communication can only be done through an experiment. This quantitative method regularly involves exposing participants to various media content and recording their reactions. To show causation, mass communication researchers must isolate the variable they are studying, show that it occurs before the observed effect, and that it is the only variable that could cause the observed effect.
• Survey, another quantitative method, involves asking individuals to respond to a set of questions in order to generalize their responses to a larger population.
• Content analysis (sometimes known as textual analysis) refers to the process of identifying categorial properties of a piece of communication, such as a newspaper article, book, television program, film, or broadcast news script. This process allows researchers to see what the content of communication looks like.
• A qualitative method known as ethnography allows a researcher to immerse themselves into a culture to observe and record the qualities of communication that exist there.

Professional organizations

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is the major membership organization for academics in the field, offering regional and national conferences and refereed publications. The International Communication Association and National Communication Association (formerly the Speech Communication Association) are also prominent professional organizations. Each of these organizations publishes a different refereed academic journal that reflects the research that is being performed in the field of mass communication.

See also

• Communication
• Communication studies
• Communication Theory as a Field
• History of communication
• Media influence
• Media studies
• Social science
• Journalism

References

• Pearce, K.J. (2009). Media and Mass Communication Theories. In Encyclopedia of Communication Theory (p. 624-628). SAGE Publications.
• Hartley, J.: "Mass communication", in O'Sullivan; Fiske (eds): Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies (Routledge, 1997).
• Mitchell, S. (2005). Alternative Media in Present Day. The Canadian Journalism Project
• Mackay, H.; O'Sullivan T.: The Media Reader: Continuity and Transformation (Sage, 1999).
• McQuail, D.: McQuail's Mass Communication Theory (fifth edition) (Sage, 2005). *Thompson, John B.: The Media and Modernity (Polity, 1995).
• Earl, D. (2003). A brief history into public journalism. Wiley Online Library.
• Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory. McGraw Hill: New York, NY.
• Babbie, E. (2007). The practice of social research. Thomas Higher Education: Belmont, California.
• Braison agesa E'[2013] study of mass communication