Mass Communication, Culture, and Media Literacy Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards defining fundamental concepts, theoretical models, culture types, media literacy skills, and historical figures from Chapter 1.

Communication

The process of creating shared meaning, more than just moving a message from point A to point B.

Source

The party that encodes an idea into a message.

Feedback

The receiver's response, such as a reply, a laugh, or a click, which makes communication two-way and ongoing.

Noise

Anything that interferes with communication, such as a weak signal, loud room, confusing jargon, or a receiver scrolling their phone while you talk.

Wilbur Schramm's Model

A communication model demonstrating that both parties are interpreters encoding and decoding at the same time, succeeding where their fields of experience overlap.

Mediated Communication

Any communication conveyed through a technological medium, regardless of how small the audience is.

Mass Communication

Communication to a large audience via messages disseminated by mass media.

Mass Media

Organizations using technological channels to distribute messages and to create and maintain audiences.

Culture

The learned behavior of a group of people, which is the socially constructed and maintained world of shared meaning in which we live.

Dominant Culture

Also known as mainstream culture, it is the culture that appears to hold sway with the majority and whose values and behaviors are treated as the norm.

Bounded Cultures

Groups with distinct identities inside the larger culture, also referred to as co-cultures.

Media as a Cultural Forum

The concept that mass communication acts as the public space where society defines and debates its shared meanings.

Medium

A single channel of communication, representing the singular form of media.

Media Literacy

The ability to effectively and efficiently access, analyze, evaluate, and create media messages.

Access

The media literacy element defined as the ability to find and use content across platforms.

Analyze

The media literacy element defined as breaking messages down to determine who made them, why, and how.

Evaluate

The media literacy element defined as judging credibility, quality, and point of view.

Create

The media literacy element defined as producing your own messages responsibly.

Johannes Gutenberg

A German metallurgist whose movable-type printing system in the 1400s helped make books commonplace across Europe.