Communication and Mass Communication Güven Selçuk

What is Communication?  The transmission of information, ideas, attitudes, or emotion from one person or group to another (or others) primarily through symbols (Theodorson and Theodorson 1969)  In the most general sense, we have communication wherever one system, a source, influences another, the destination, by manipulation of alternative symbols, which can be transmitted over the channel connecting them (Osgood et al. 1957)  Communication may be defined as “social interaction through messages” (Gerbner 1967)

Thus, in the most general terms, communication implies a sender, a channel, a message, a receiver, a relationship between sender and receiver, an effect, a context in which communication occurs and a range of things to which “messages” refer.

Communication can be any or all of the following:  An action on others  An interaction with others ...and a reaction to others

Sometimes the originators of models point to two additional processes, that of “encoding” (at the sender end of the model) and that of “decoding” (at the receiver end).

What is encoding???

Encoding means that the message is translated into a language or code suitable for the means of transmission and the intended receivers.

What is decoding?

Decoding refers to the re-translation of the message in order to extract meaning.

In a conversation between two person, the encoding function is performed by the speech mechanism and (for non- verbal communication) muscles making possible gestures, etc. In such a case, the senses of hearing and sight, perform the decoding function.

In mass communication, encoding can refer to technical transformations necessary for the transmission of signals and also to the systematic choice of words, pictures and formats according to established procedures and the expectations held about audience experience.

As we have seen, many of the basic terms in communication take different meanings when they refer to mass communication and we need to have a different characterization of the latter. A frequently cited definition is as follows:

Mass communication comprise the institutions and techniques by which specialized groups employ technological devices (press, radio, films, etc.) to disseminate symbolic content to large, heterogeneous and widely dispersed audiences (Janowitz 1968)

Who is the “sender” in mass communication?

The “sender” in mass communication is always part of an organized group and often a member of an institution which has functions other than communication.

…and who is the “receiver” then??

The “receiver” is always an individual but may often be seen by the sending organization as a group or collectivity with certain general attributes.

The channel no longer consists of the social relationship, means of expression and sensory organs, but includes large scale technologically- based distribution devices and systems.

The message in mass communication is not a unique and transitory phenomenon, but a mass produced and infinitely repeatable symbolic structure, often of great complexity.