Mass Media
History of Mediated Communication
PR 203 - Intro to Communication
Dr. P.M.G. Verstraete
WEEK 10
Mass media
• channels of communication that involve transmitting
information in some way, shape or form to large
numbers of people
• mass or “one-to-many” communication
(as opposed to interpersonal, “one-to-one” communication)
• “mass’’ in mass communication is defined as a large,
heterogeneous, assorted, anonymous audience
Significance in our lives
Media literacy
= The ability to effectively and efficiently
comprehend and use any form of media / mediated
communication
- This involves understanding the effect media can
have on you and on the society around you.
- It is the difference between being victimized by and
being in control of media’s influence.
What we already know about
mass media
• Lasswell’s model: Who says What in Which Channel to Whom with What Effect?
• Who has access to the media? (Gerbner, means & control)
emotive function (Jakobson)
• What? editor-communicating function filters (Westley & MacLean)
poetic function
• Which Channel?
include also context (referential function): how a reality can be constructed by
means of communication
include also code (metalingual function): broadcast code for mass reception /
according to Umberto Eco, aberrant decoding is the rule
• What Effect?
reproduction of myth
target audience (cf. profiling, advertisement)
conative function
Perspectives on mass media
• Technological
• Operational
• Functional
• Cultural / Critical
• Historical
(cf. second part of this class)
• + next week: media studies perspective
Today’s Aim
Look at functions of mass media and media criticism (part one)
Look at technological developments (second part)
• From Verbal Tradition to Printed Tradition. Emergence of
Printing Press = history of printing press
• From Telegraph, Photograph to Digital Technology and
Communication = history of ‘photography’
• From Gramophone, Telephone, Tape to Digital Audio
(CD, Mp3, Mobile Phone)
= history of ‘phonography’ & ‘telephony’
But also: look at the cultural effects of media
TV: a ‘window on the world’?
Plato’s Cave Allegory
Functions of Mass
Media
• Organization
• A Functionalist Perspective
• Uses and Gratifications Model
- Macro-analytical view
- Micro-analytical view
Organisation of Mass Media
Print Media:
books
newspapers
magazines
pamphlets
comics
Broadcast
Media:
Electronic/D
igital Media:
radio
TV
film
recorded
music
Internet
mobile phone
video game
Outdoor
Media:
billboards
signs
plackards
+ Public Communication: lectures, speeches, rallies, convocations, religious services
Information
function
Education
function
Functions of
Mass Media
Entertainment
function
Persuasion
A Functionalist
perspective
Mass media play a vital role in the integration, adaptation of a society.
•
The media gathers and disseminates information (‘the town
crier’).
• It socializes us into the on-going social order. It transmits cultural
heritage, and basic norms and values.
• It provides pleasure and entertainment: Stress management (chill
out and watch the tube).
• It reinforces shared ideals, justice, democracy, respect for the law
amidst freedom and individualism.
• It provides social integration, surveillance, reproduces a moral
order (Durkheim).
Functions of mass
media
According to western media scholars like Harold Laswell, mass
media have the following functions:
1. Surveillance of the environment (‘watch dog’ function)
2. Transmission of heritage (bridge between past and present)
3. Interpretation of information
4. Catalyst for Development
5. Prescription for conduct
Macro-analytical View
= how society uses the mass media
Surveillance role
• Warning surveillance (beware of threats)
• Instrumental surveillance
Interpretation viewpoint role
Linkage connective role
Transmission of Values socialization role
Entertainment diversionary role
Micro-analytical view
= how individuals use the mass media
Cognition
Diversion
• Stimulation
• Relaxation
• Emotional release (catharsis)
Social Utility
•
Conversational currency
•
Parasocial relationships
Withdrawal
A cultural criticism
• Freedom of the press / media
• Interest fields, ethics, censorship
• Cross-media: convergence
• A Marxist critique of ideology
• In the viewer’s mind:
dominant – negotiated – oppositional decoding
Freedom of Press?
Interests, Ethics &
censorship
• The technology constitutes a technical context (mediated
by the technological means): it is structured along dominant
policies and interests
• Broadcast deregulation (in the US): from media freedom as
libertarianism to social responsibility = media must be free
of government control, self-regulatory but must serve the
public
• Therefore: media ethics are important! (vs. censorship):
regarding truth/honesty, privacy, confidentiality, conflict of
interests, profit vs. social responsibility, offensive content
• Possible conflicting interests: moral agents, media
practitioners/professionals, financial supporters, the
institution itself (loyalty to the company)
Power of the
media
Global Media Corporation =
concentration of media ownership
Cross-media
= ‘convergence’ of
- Industries
- Technologies
- Content
(as opposed to ‘divergence’)
the idea of distributing the same message
through different media channels
Marxist
Ideology Critique
• Mass media are an instrument of the bourgeoisie / a capitalist
tool of exploitation.
• The wealthy and the powerful utilize media to maintain the
hegemonic status in the social order. The dominant class owns
the media (only a few corporations).
• Mass media disseminate ideology
= a body of assumptions, ideas, and values the combine into
a coherent world view
• Ideology is top-down: ideas by the ruling class = mass
deception, the ‘status-quo’.
• The bourgeoisie suffer from `false consciousness’ =
production and consumption of commodities (‘commodity
fetishism’).
Cultural / Critical Studies
Stuart Hall
• Dominant or preferred code/decoding conveys the
dominant values, the preferred readings of the society.
• Negotiated code/decoding accepts the dominant values and
existing structure, but is prepared to argue that a particular
group’s place within that structure needs improving.
• Oppositional code/decoding rejects the dominant version
and the social values that produced it. The oppositional
decoder recognizes the preferred reading but rejects it as
false. He or she locates the message in a meaning system
that is radically opposed to the dominant one, and therefore
negotiates a radically opposed reading of the text.
The History of Mass media
Technological
Advances
• of carriers vs. recorders of communication
• of capacity
• of size (portable, moveable)
• of durability
Remarkable is the speed of technological advances in the
last decades…
Some More concepts
• Remediation (by Jay David Bolder & Richard Grusin)
= each new medium adopts the content of older media
within it (in the history of media)
• Hypermediacy vs transparent immediacy depends on
the focus on/visibility of the medium
Evolution of Mass Media
over nearly 170 years
• The age of Print
• The pre-Cinema Period 1839-1895
• Arrival of Cinema 1895
• Arrival of Radio 1901
• Arrival of TV 1926
• Arrival of Internet 1990
Changing Popularity
• By the 1960s Radio and Television surpassed the
Newspaper.
• By the 2000s Radio and TV were being surpassed
by the Internet.
Next Week
• History of Mediated Communication
• McLuhan: the ‘Gutenberg’ revolution – relation
between media and the senses (effect)