Mass. Comm Chapter 1

Communication

• The process of using messages to generate meaning

• Process of creating SHARED meaning

• transmission of a message from a SOURCE to a receiver through a medium → produces an EFFECT

• when the receiver produces feedback, they become a source and the initial source becomes the receiver

Ways to describe communication

1. Who

2. says what

3. through which channel

4. to whom

5. with what effect

Mass Communication

• the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences

Interpersonal communication

• communication between 2 or a few people

• ongoing and reciprocal

decoding

• interpreting sign/symbol systems

• listening

• assigning meaning

encoding

• speaking

• translating ideas

• carried by a MEDIUM

Medium

• ways to encode a message

feedback

• receiver’s verbal and nonverbal response to the source’s message

culture

• learned behavior of members of a soical group

1. how people make sense of their lives and the ways in which they move through life with eachother

2. medium through which all life events flow

3. culture is learned

4. dominant culture: holds sway w/majority, normative/mainstream

5. co-cultures: groups w/ specific, but not dominant cultures, bounded-cultures (ex: lgbtq community)

6. culture and communication are inseparable

• common culture - result of mass comm

• moral distinctions: allows us to know how to behave w/out thinking about it

• can be limiting

-50% of 13 y/o American girls are unhappy w/their bodies

-disney movies- villains tend to be fat, protags. thin

BUT culture can be CONTESTED

• Differentiation v. Division

Media literacy

1. be a critical thinker

2. understand the process of mass comm. + how it impacts what you consume

3. understand the impact of the media on the individual _ society to not be controlled by it

4. analyze media and don’t allow the interpretation to fully be in the hands of the producer

5. understand media as a way to provide insight into our culture + lives

6. enjoy, understand, appreciate

• multiple points of access

7. create useful media messages

8. understand legality v. ethicality when it comes to the free will of producers of media

• third person effect- thinking others are influenced, but that you are not

• hostile media effect- thinking that media is always against your position