1. 1. Mass Communication and Mass Media
AL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
COMMUNICATIONS STUDIES
1. Mass Communication and Mass Media
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine
based on
DeFleur and Dennis’s Understanding Mass Communication

2. Structure of the Lecture
1. Mass communication in Contemporary Society
1.1 Problems posed by media
1.2 Explaining the process and effects of the mass media
2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
2.1 The Development of Language
2.2 Sharing Meaning with Verbal and Nonverbal Symbols
2.3 A Basic Model of Human Communication
2.4 Communicating Accurately
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3. Structure of the Lecture
3. The Mass Communication Process
3.1 Developing A Concise Definition
3.2 Which Media Are Mass Media
4. Comparing Face-to-Face and Mass Communication
4.1 The Consequences of Using Any Medium
4.2 The Consequences of large and Diverse Audiences
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4. 1. Mass Communication in Contemporary Society
1.1 Problems Posed by Media
People are concerned about how media content influences us both individually and collectively
Citizens want to understand
how media operate
what influences they have on both children and adults
whether they are ethical and responsible in what they present
How much control society actually have over their content
Portrayal of violence
Excessive sexual depiction
The use of vulgar language
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5. 1. Mass Communication in Contemporary Society
To understand the complex questions concerning the influences of the media, we should address three important questions:
1. How were present media shaped by events, trends and policies
2. How do media function today to select, process, and disseminate various categories of content
3. What assumptions and forecasts can we make about media we will have in the future and what they will offer to their audience in the coming yeas?
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6. 1. Mass Communication in Contemporary Society
1.2 Explaining the Process and Effects of the Mass Media
Media as they exist today have been shaped by a number of social, political, economic and cultural and technological influences from the past
Media were introduced into the society as innovations
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7. 1. Mass Communication in Contemporary Society
1.2 Explaining the Process and Effects of the Mass Media
Social scientists Everett Rogers and Eloyd Shoemaker have developed a very useful theory that describes and explains the process of the adoption of innovation
Adoption innovation Theory is important for the study of mass communication for two reasons:
1. Each of our major mass media was originally an innovation
2. The media are responsible for bringing new items to the attention of people , who eventually will adopt it
(Please read the summary in the Box in P.6)
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8. 1. Mass Communication in Contemporary Society
What is the Innovation Adoption Curve?
The innovation adoption curve of Rogers is a model that classifies adopters of innovations into various categories
It is based on the idea that certain individuals are inevitably more open for adaptation than others
It is also called: Multi-Step Flow Theory or Diffusion of Innovations Theory
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9. Innovation Adoption Curve categories
Innovators. Innovators are very important communication mechanisms
Early Adopters. Opinion leaders try out new ideas, but in a careful way
Early Majority. Thoughtful people accept change more quickly than average people do
Late Majority. Skeptic people will use new ideas or products only when the majority is using it
Laggards. Traditional people are critical about new ideas and will only accept it if the new idea has become mainstream
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10. 1. Mass Communication in Contemporary Society
Usage of Innovation Adoption Curve
The adoption curve of Rogers for innovation is useful
You should not try to quickly and massively convince the mass of a new idea
It is better to start first with convincing the innovators and the early adopters.
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11. 1. Mass Communication in Contemporary Society
1.2 Explaining the Process and Effects of the Mass Media
To trace the development of mass communication and the adoption of the several media
We should look at the fundamental process of human communication as it takes place between human beings at the impersonal level
Mediated communication is interpersonal communication aided by technology
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12. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
What are the fundamentals of face-to-face communication?
We communicate with some form of learned shared verbal and nonverbal language
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13. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
The Development of language
Language is a flexible system for storing, recovering and disseminating information
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14. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
Sharing Meaning with Verbal and Nonverbal Symbols
We still communicate by using verbal and nonverbal symbol
A symbol is a word, an action, or an object that “stands for” and arouses standardized internal meanings in people within a given language community
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15. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
A Basic Model of Human Communication
Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver developed a complex mathematical formulation, however it contained some very basic and linear view of human communication
The basic linear model is useful for analyzing the communication process, breaking it down into its distinct stages to understand what happens at each
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16. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
A Basic Model of Human Communication
What the basic linear model (BLM) did not include was the idea that communication has an effect
The BLM of the human communication oversimplifies what actually takes place
The human conversation that we engage in with people around us are transactional not linear
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17. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
A Basic Model of Human Communication
Communication is a simultaneous back-and-forth, or interactive process
People are not merely passive and linear senders and receivers
They respond to the content of others' meanings, ask for clarification, and indicate agreement
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18. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
2.4 Communicating Accurately
The meanings intended by communicators and those interpreted by receivers may not be perfectly parallel
In that case, the communication has suffered a loss of accuracy
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19. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
2.4 Communicating Accurately
Definition of accuracy
“The lower the level of correspondence between the intended meanings of the sender and the interpreted meanings of the receivers, the less effective an act of communication will be in achieving either mutual understanding or an intended influence“
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20. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
2.4 Communicating Accurately
In interpersonal communication there are two effective ways:
One is by the receiver’s providing feedback
The other by the sender’s engaging in role-taking
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21. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
2.4 Communicating Accurately
The Feedback Principle:
In such a face-to-face situation, the sender is ever alert to observable verbal and nonverbal signals coming back from the receiver
The communicator takes feedback into account to try to increase communication accuracy
Feedback leads to greater accuracy in communication
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22. 2. The Interpersonal Communication Process
2.4 Communicating Accurately
The Role-Taking Principle:
Role-taking can be defined as the sender’s use of feedback to judge which words and nonverbal cues will work best to arouse the intended meanings in the receiver
Some people are better at role-taking than others
Some situations are better suited for it than others
Role-taking can be most effective in close, personal and intimate situations where the communication parties know each other
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23. 3. The Mass Communication Process
Only human beings can transform meanings in their heads into such signals, or as receivers, decode them back into a similar internal experience
Using media that can reach huge audiences more or less simultaneously adds additional complexities
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24. 3. The Mass Communication Process
1. Do all the media operate according to the same underlying principles of communication or is each medium unique in some way?
2. In what ways are the principles underlying mass communication different from those for a face-to-face conversation between two people?
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25. 3. The Mass Communication Process
3.1 Developing a Concise Definition
1. Mass communication begins with senders who are “professional communicators”
They decide on the nature and goals of a message to be presented to an audience via their particular medium
2. The intended meanings are encoded by production specialists (a news team, a film company, a magazine staff)
The encoding process includes not only the selection of verbal and nonverbal symbols, but the special effects that possible with a particular medium (sounds, graphics, color)
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26. 3. The Mass Communication Process
3.1 Developing a Concise Definition
3. The message is transmitted as information through the use of specialized media technologies characteristic of print, film or broadcasting to disseminate it as widely as possible
4. Large diverse (mass) audiences of individual receivers attend to the media and perceive the incoming information, decoding it into message of conventionalized verbal and nonverbal symbols
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27. 3. The Mass Communication Process
3.1 Developing a Concise Definition
5. Individual receivers selectively construct interpretations of the message in such a way that they experience subjective meaning that are parallel to those intended by the professional communicators
6. As a result of experiencing these meanings, receivers are influenced in some way in their feelings, thoughts, or actions
That is, the communication has some effect
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28. 3. The Mass Communication Process
3.1 Developing a Concise Definition
Each of the six stages we have described must be part of succinct definition of mass communication
With these stages in mind, we can define the process in the following terms:
“Mass communication is a process in which professional communicators design and use media to disseminate messages widely, rapidly, and continuously in order to arouse intended meanings in large, diverse, and selectively attending audiences in attempts to influence them in a variety of ways”
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