Basics of Mass Communication

• To start, let’s discuss why we’re even here. I mean, a class about media? How do we study ... by watching TV or surfing the Web? Could we have been studying for years and not even known it!?

• Well to answer that question, consider this:

• Researchers at Ball State University determined how much time we spend exposed to all kinds of media.

• Can you guess what percentage of time you spend with media?

• 10 percent?

• 20 percent?

• 30 percent?

68.8 percent!!!!That means we spend two out of every three waking hours

exposed to media of some kind

• Considering how much of our lives are spent with media, what do we really know about them?

• How does the media work?

• How do they have such control over our lives?

• That’s why this class is here – to answer these questions.

Most people think of this.

Let’s start by asking a simple question:What is media?

• For the purpose of this class, though, we’re going to give a slightly different definition:

• Mass media – The vehicles through which messages are sent to mass audiences.

• Medium – A singular means of communication.

• Therefore, a medium can be:– Television

– Internet

– Radio

– Newspaper

– A billboard

• We’ll cover these and others this semester.

• Mass communication – A process assisted by technology where messages are sent to large audiences

• Our old definition of media (you know, reporters and newspapers and CNN), we’re going to change to:

• News media – A form of media that carry current news and information about the world.

• Sometimes media can bring us together.

• Unification – When media bring people of a community together over shared interests.

• A unifying event would be a time when people come together through media.

• That can include something tragic, like Sept. 11 or Hurricane Katrina.

• But perhaps the most popular unifying event each year is the Super Bowl.

• We also bring our differences to the media.

• We argue values and beliefs in an effort to reach a moral consensus as a nation.

• In the past, media were used to find consensus around issues like slavery, women’s rights.

• Now they’re used for issues like abortion, gun rights, health care.

• Fragmentation – Trend in media to focus on niche, or narrower, markets.

• Many fragmented media focus on one segment of the overall audience, like ESPN for sports fans or Wired magazine for computer users.

• The opposite would be media for general audiences, like The New York Times or CBS.

To conclude, here’s another definition that will be the goal for you to achieve in this class...

Media literacy – Competence or knowledge about the mass media.