Mass Communication Study Cards
Terms
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- Mediated communication
- communication that involves a process by which a message, or communication, is transmitted via some form or medium.
- Intrapersonal communication
- communication within an individual
- Interpersonal Communication
- communication between two or more individuals, usually in a small group, although it can involve a live speaker and an audience
- Public Communication
- the more people, the more “noiseâ€
- Mass Communication
- communication to a large group or groups of people that remain largely unknown to the sender of the message
- Multimedia
- a combination of different types of media in one package; thus film or video with sound is a type of multimedia because it combines video and audio elements. Web pages that combine text, animation, audio or graphics are another type of multimedia
- Gatekeepers
- an aspect of communication theory in which experts, or editors, serve as content filters of mass mediated communication for others in deciding what is more or less important and what an audience sees
- Interactivity
- Three elements 1) A dialog that occurs between a human and a computer program 2) a dialog that occurs simultaneously or nearly so 3) an audience that has some measure of control over what media content they see and in what order they see it
- Cookie
- Information that a Web site puts on a user’s local hard drive that it can recognize when that computer accesses the Web Site again. Cookies allow for conveniences like password recognition and personalization
- Oligopoly
- An economic structure in which a very few large, very powerful, and very rich owners control an industry or series of related industries
- Media Fragmentation
- A lot more channels and choices today
- Convergence
- the coming together of computing, telecommunications and media in a digital environment. Convergence and the changes it is bringing are fundamentally changing many aspects of mass media and communication.
- Bit
- Short for binary digit, it is the smallest unit of digital information. A bit has a single binary value, either 0 or 1.
- What are the characteristics of mass communication?
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-communication flow is largely one way, from sender or source to receiver or audience
-communication is from one or a few to many ( i.e. one or a few sources generate and distribute content to a large audience)
-communication is anonymous (sources don’t know audience and vice versa, except at a general level)
-audiences are largely passive receipiants of the messages distributed by the media, with little opportunity for feedback and practically no opportunity for immediate feedback - What are the elements of the Shannon-Weaver model of communication?
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-Information source
-Transmitter
-Channel
-Receiver
-Destination - Why is the Schramm-Osgood model of communication better than older models?
- It is better because Schramm-Osgood asserted that communication is not a one way process. The participants exchange roles of source/encoder and receiver/decoder. Other models say that communication is a one way process.
- What scholar adopts the “cultural view†of communication?
- James Carey
- What are the definitions of the four functions of communication? What are the weaknesses of each of these four?
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Surveillance – primarily the journalism function of mass communication, which provides information about the processes, issues, events and other developments in society
WEAKNESS: Too much news about disasters, murders, or other unusual events can skew the audience’s perception of what is normal in society.
Correlation – primarily the interpretations of aspects of society as a function of mass communication, and the individual to society, including how journalism, advertising, and public relations shape public opinion through comments or criticism or propaganda
WEAKNESS: The media can thwart social change or block minority views from being disseminated to a mass audience
Cultural Transmission – primarily refers to the transference of the dominant culture as a function of mass communication, as well as its subcultures, from one generation to the next or to immigrants. This function includes socialization, which the media perform in helping persons learn society’s rules or how to fit into society
WEAKNESS: It creates a homogenized, stagnant culture in which people learn to think, dress, and speak the same way through countless hours of exposure to the media.
Entertainment – Performed by all three of the above activities but also involves the generation of content designed specifically and exclusively to entertain.
WEAKNESS: Critics argue that mass media encourages lowbrow entertainment at the expense of fine art, encourages escapism, and does not help raise the cultural level of society. - What is the only information that computers can process?
- On or off states, or the presence or absence of information, which are represented by either a 1 or a 0, called bits.
- What is digital media? Know some examples
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Those that have been created in or transformed into machine-language or computer-readable form
EXAMPLES: movies, television shows, songs - What types of media are affected by digitization?
- All kinds – telephony, broadcasting, motion pictures, recorded music, books, newspapers and magazines
- What are the characteristics of “interactivity�
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1)a dialog that occurs between a human and a computer program (this includes e-mails, online chats, and discussion groups, as at either end of the communication flow it is a human interacting with a computer program, with the Internet simply the channel.)
2)The dialog occurs simultaneously or nearly so (i.e. response time should not be more than a few seconds)
3)The audience has some measure of control over what media content they see and in what order they see it (getting personalized information, magnifying an image, clicking on a hyperlink and so on.) - What fundamental shift in mass communications occurred because of digitization?
- Organizations of all types now have direct access to individuals they once could only reach effectively through traditional media.
- Because of digitization, why would the audience likely grow?
- Because of lower costs in distribution and because digital media allows for the flowering of diverse ideas, art, and creativity that is not dependent on major companies
- What are the major problems in digitization?
- Erosion of privacy, uneven access to the news and information across social groups, easy access online hatred and pornography, and threats to national security from terrorists who might use the Internet to hack into and vandalize media and military web sites
- What are the major implications of convergence?
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1)the content of communication
2)the relationship between media organizations and their publics
3)the structure of communication organizations
4)how communication professionals do their work - What troubles did AOL – Time Warner have with convergence?
- They did not first figure out a good business model and their stock plummeted in 2002.