27 January 2009
Mass communication, mass media, and the culture that shapes us (and that we shape) are inseparable.
What is Mass Communication?
06 January 2009
“Does a fish know it’s wet?” influential cultural and media critic Marshal McLuhan would often ask. The answer, he would say, is “No”. The fish’s existence is so dominated by water that only when water is absent is the fish aware of its condition.
So it is with people and mass media. The media so fully saturate our everyday lives that we are often unconscious of their presence, not to mention their influence. Media inform us, entertain us, delight us, annoy us. They move our emotions, challenge our intellects, insult our intelligence. Media often reduce us to mere commodities for sale to the highest bidder. Media help define us; they shape our realities.
A fundamental theme of this page is that media do none of this alone. They do it with us as well as to us through mass communication, and they do it as a central – many critics and scholars say the central – cultural force in our society.
Mass Communication Defined
05 January 2009
We speak, too, of Mass Communication. Mass Communication is the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences. Schramm recast his and Osgood’s general model of communication to help as visualize the particular aspects of the mass communication process. The original Osgood and Schramm scheme have much in common – interpreters, encoding, decoding, and messages – but it is their differences that are most significant for our understanding of how mass communication differs from other forms of communication. For example, whereas the original model includes “message,” the mass communication model offers “many identical messages”.
In addition, the mass communication model specifies “feedback”, whereas the interpersonal model does not. When two or a few people communicate face-to-face, the participants can immediately and clearly recognize the feedback residing in the reciprocal messages.
What is Culture?
04 January 2009
Culture is the learned behavior of members of a given social group. Many writers and thinkers have offered interesting of this definition. Here are the definitions from four anthropologists:
Culture is the learned, socially acquired traditions and lifestyles of the members of the society, including their patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling and acting. (M. Harris, 1983)
Culture lends significance to human experience by selecting from and organizing it. It refers broadly to the forms to which people make sense of their lives, rather than more narrowly to the opera or art of museums. (R. Rosaldo,1989)
Culture is the medium evolved by humans to survive. Nothing is free from cultural influences. It is the key stone in civilization’s arch as the medium through which all of life’s events must flow. We are culture. (E.T.Hall,1976)
Culture is an historically transmitted patters of meanings embodied in symbolic forms by means of which [people] communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes towards life. (C.Geertz,as cited in Taylor,1991)
Mass Communication and Culture
03 January 2009
Because can limit can limit and divide or liberate and unite, it offers us infinite opportunities to use communication for good – if we choose to do so. James Carey wrote,
Because we have looked at each new advance in communication technology as opportunities for politics and economics, we have devoted them, almost exclusively, to government and trade. We have rarely seen them as opportunities to expand powers to learn and exchange ideas and experience. (1975)
Who are “we” in this quote? We are everyone involved in creating and maintaining the culture that defines us. We are people involved in mass media industries and the people who compose their audiences. Together we allow mass communication not only to occur but also to contribute to the creation and maintenance of culture.
Everyone involved has an obligation to participate responsibly. For people working in the media industries, this means professionally and ethically creating and transmitting content. For audience members, it means behaving as critical and thoughtful consumers at that content.
Because we have looked at each new advance in communication technology as opportunities for politics and economics, we have devoted them, almost exclusively, to government and trade. We have rarely seen them as opportunities to expand powers to learn and exchange ideas and experience. (1975)
Who are “we” in this quote? We are everyone involved in creating and maintaining the culture that defines us. We are people involved in mass media industries and the people who compose their audiences. Together we allow mass communication not only to occur but also to contribute to the creation and maintenance of culture.
Everyone involved has an obligation to participate responsibly. For people working in the media industries, this means professionally and ethically creating and transmitting content. For audience members, it means behaving as critical and thoughtful consumers at that content.
Scope and Nature of Mass Communication
02 January 2009
The Role of Technology
To some thinkers, it is machines and their development that drive economic and cultural changes. This idea is referred to is technological determinism. Those who believe in technological determinism would argue that these changes in the cultural landscape were the inevitable result of new technology.
But others see technology as more neutral and claim that the way people use technology is what gives it significance. This perspective accept technology as one of many factors that shape economic and cultural changes; technology’s influence is ultimately determined by how much power it is given by the people and culture that use it.
The Role of Money
Money, too, alters communication. It shifts the balance of power; it tend to make audiences products rather than consumers.
Media does not mean are of must slave to profit. It task s to understand the constraints placed in these industries by their economics and then demand that, within those limits, they perform ethically and responsibly.
To some thinkers, it is machines and their development that drive economic and cultural changes. This idea is referred to is technological determinism. Those who believe in technological determinism would argue that these changes in the cultural landscape were the inevitable result of new technology.
But others see technology as more neutral and claim that the way people use technology is what gives it significance. This perspective accept technology as one of many factors that shape economic and cultural changes; technology’s influence is ultimately determined by how much power it is given by the people and culture that use it.
The Role of Money
Money, too, alters communication. It shifts the balance of power; it tend to make audiences products rather than consumers.
Media does not mean are of must slave to profit. It task s to understand the constraints placed in these industries by their economics and then demand that, within those limits, they perform ethically and responsibly.
Mass Communication, Culture and Literacy
01 January 2009
Oral Culture
Oral or preliterate cultures are those without a written language. Virtually, all communication must be face-to-face, and this facts help to define the culture, its structure, and its operation.
The following are its characteristics;
• The meaning in language is specific and local
• Knowledge must be passed on orally.
• Memory is crucial.
• Myth and history are intertwined.
Literate Culture
With the coming of literacy – the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use written symbols – the social and cultural rules and structures of preliterate time began to change. People could accumulate a permanent body of knowledge and transmit that knowledge from generation to another. Among the changes that brought writing were these:
• Meaning and language became more uniform.
• Communication could occur over long distances and long periods of time.
• The culture’s memory, history, and myth could be recorded on paper.
Media Literacy
Television influences our culture in enumerable ways. One of its effects, according to many people, is that it encouraged violence in our society.
Media literacy is a skill we take for granted, but like all skills, it can be improved. And if we consider how important the mass media are in creating and maintaining the culture that helps define us and our lives, it is a skill that must be improved.
Elements of Media Literacy
Media scholar Art Silverblatt (1995) identified five fundamental element of media literacy. Media literacy includes these characteristics:
1. An awareness of the impact of media.
2. An understanding of the process of communication.
3. Strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages.
4. An understanding of media content as a text that provides insight into our culture and our lives.
5. The ability to enjoy, understand, and appreciate media content.
6. An understanding of the ethical and moral obligations of media practitioners.
7. Development of appropriate and effective production skills
Media Literacy Skills
1. The ability and willingness to make an effort to understand content, to pay attention, and to filter out noise.
2. An understanding of and respect for the power of media messages
3. The ability to distinguish emotional from reasoned reactions when responding to content and to act accordingly.
4. Development of heightened expectation of media content.
5. A knowledge of genre conventions and the ability to recognize when they are being mixed.
6. The ability to think critically about media messages, no matter how credible their sources.
7. A knowledge of the internal language of various media and the ability to understand its effects, no matter how complex.
Oral or preliterate cultures are those without a written language. Virtually, all communication must be face-to-face, and this facts help to define the culture, its structure, and its operation.
The following are its characteristics;
• The meaning in language is specific and local
• Knowledge must be passed on orally.
• Memory is crucial.
• Myth and history are intertwined.
Literate Culture
With the coming of literacy – the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use written symbols – the social and cultural rules and structures of preliterate time began to change. People could accumulate a permanent body of knowledge and transmit that knowledge from generation to another. Among the changes that brought writing were these:
• Meaning and language became more uniform.
• Communication could occur over long distances and long periods of time.
• The culture’s memory, history, and myth could be recorded on paper.
Media Literacy
Television influences our culture in enumerable ways. One of its effects, according to many people, is that it encouraged violence in our society.
Media literacy is a skill we take for granted, but like all skills, it can be improved. And if we consider how important the mass media are in creating and maintaining the culture that helps define us and our lives, it is a skill that must be improved.
Elements of Media Literacy
Media scholar Art Silverblatt (1995) identified five fundamental element of media literacy. Media literacy includes these characteristics:
1. An awareness of the impact of media.
2. An understanding of the process of communication.
3. Strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages.
4. An understanding of media content as a text that provides insight into our culture and our lives.
5. The ability to enjoy, understand, and appreciate media content.
6. An understanding of the ethical and moral obligations of media practitioners.
7. Development of appropriate and effective production skills
Media Literacy Skills
1. The ability and willingness to make an effort to understand content, to pay attention, and to filter out noise.
2. An understanding of and respect for the power of media messages
3. The ability to distinguish emotional from reasoned reactions when responding to content and to act accordingly.
4. Development of heightened expectation of media content.
5. A knowledge of genre conventions and the ability to recognize when they are being mixed.
6. The ability to think critically about media messages, no matter how credible their sources.
7. A knowledge of the internal language of various media and the ability to understand its effects, no matter how complex.
Reference
Introduction To Mass Communication
Media Literacy and Culture 4th edition
by Stanley J. Baran
This page offers an Online Learning Center Web site , www.mhhe.com/baran4, includes additional content and learning tools
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