1. Mass Communication: A Critical Approach
Chapter 1
Mass Communication: A Critical Approach

2. Media Play Key Roles in 2016 Presidential Election
Donald Trump has gained enormous media attention during the 2016 presidential race. Trump has received free air time on all the major TV networks. He has used social media to access large numbers of people, especially young voters.

3. Culture and the Evolution of Mass Communication
Communication is the creation and use of symbol systems.
Culture may be defined as symbols of expression that individuals, groups, and societies used to make sense of daily life and values.
Mass media are the cultural industries that produce and distribute:
Songs
Novels
TV shows
Newspapers
Movies
Video games
Internet Services

4. Eras in Communication Oral communication Written communication
Printed communication
Electronic communication
Digital communication

5. The Digital Era
Digital communication redefined news and social interaction.
Social media like Twitter and Facebook are key players in news and politics, and allow people worldwide to have ongoing online conversation.
has assumed some of the functions of the postal service.

6. The Linear Model of Mass Communication
Senders (authors, producers)
Messages (programs, ads)
Mass media channel (TV, books)
Receivers (viewers, consumers)
Gatekeepers (editors, executive producers, media managers)
Feedback (messages from receivers back to senders)

7. Cultural Model for Mass Communication
Recognizes that individuals bring diverse meanings to messages
Audiences actively affirm, interpret, refashion, or reject the messages and stories that flow through various media channels
Through selective exposure, people seek messages that respond to their own cultural beliefs

8. The Evolution of Media: From Emergence to Convergence
Emergence or novelty stage
Entrepreneurial stage
Mass medium stage
Convergence stage

9. Media Convergence Convergence Dual roles Media businesses
A term that media critics and analysts use when describing changes occurring in media content and companies.
Dual roles
Technological merging of content across different media channels
Cross platform, the consolidation of media holdings under one corporate umbrella
Media businesses
Companies like Google make money by selling ads rather than by producing content

10. Media Convergence and Cultural Change
Changes in how we consume and engage with media culture
Watch TV shows on Hulu and Netflix or DVR/On-Demand options
Make media choices based on social media recommendations
Upload our own media
Discuss programs as we watch them through “live-tweeting”

11. Stories: The Foundation of Media
Stories we seek and tell are changing in the digital era.
Reality TV and social media dominate.
Ordinary citizens are able to participate in, and have an effect on, stories told in the media.
Media institutions and outlets are in the narrative business.

12. The Power of Media Stories in Everyday Life
Euripides
Art should imitate life.
Plato
Art should aim to instruct and uplift.
Aristotle
Art and stories should provide insight into the human condition, but should entertain as well.

13. Contemporary Culture Cultural critics are concerned about:
The quality of contemporary culture
The overwhelming amount of information now available
How much the media shape society is still unknown.

14. Figure 1.1: Daily Media Consumption by Platform, 2015

15. Culture as a Skyscraper
Top floors are associated with “good taste” or high culture.
Ballet, symphony, art museums
Lower floors are associated with popular culture or low culture.
Soap operas, rock music, video games
Different media for each, but many people consume both

16. Figure 1.2: Culture as a Skyscraper

17. Culture as a Map Culture is an ongoing and complicated process.
Forms of culture are judged on a combination of personal taste and the aesthetic judgments a society makes at particular historical times.

18. Figure 1.3: Culture as a Map

19. Cultural Values of the Modern Period
Began with the Industrial Revolution and extended until the mid- twentieth century
Four key values:
Efficiency
Individualism
Rationalism
Progress

20. Shifting Values in Postmodern Culture
Postmodern period
From the mid-twentieth century to today
Four features:
Populism
Diversity
Nostalgia
Paradox

21. Critiquing Media and Culture
Media literacy is a critical process that takes us through the steps of:
Description
Analysis
Interpretation
Evaluation
Engagement

22. Benefits of a Critical Perspective
Allows us to participate in a debate about media culture as a force for both democracy and social progress
New, blended, and merging cultural phenomena challenge us to reassess and rebuild the standards by which we judge our culture.