PowerPoint Presentation - Explorations in Mass Communication

CMNS-130 C.A. Murray

Explorations in Mass

Communication: Issues and

ControversiesCatherine Murray

Fall 2003


Course TeamDiana AmbrozasDoris BaltruschatWei GaoNatalie Tkachev


Course ObjectivesTo provide a map to navigate the field

history & political economyPopular culture & media analysisSociety and technology

Locate contemporary controversies


Course SkillsDevelop the Four stages of

critical thinking:DescriptionAnalysis, Framing of Arguments and ProofInterpretation & DebateEvaluation/Originality


The Alchemy of GradesDescription

C+Basic facts mastered and patterned

AnalysisB rangeMeaning of patterns probed, knowledge applied. Hierarchy of patterning proofs

InterpretationHigh BComparisons and analogies. Judgement. Argument and Illustration.

EvaluationA-A+ rangeValues. UnderstandingIf creative originality or thought leadership an A plus


Course ToolsFraming argumentsOrganizing proofWriting persuasively

Developed in tutorial debatesShort essay paper


Lecture & Tutorial SupportNotes for lectures available from TA: Friday

Lectures are audiotaped and available in libraryREAD before lecture

TutorialsAttend each tutorialParticipate in debateEssay assignments: start by week 4EXAMS

• Mid Terms are Pop Quizzes in Tutorial• Workshop for final exam available


The Big PictureCommunication is a battleground of powerHistorically, allied with state or business corporations ( & now entertainment corporations)Central to institutions of democracy and capitalism130 outlines how media work, how they are shaped by and shaping the economic, political and social worlds around usDo the Media create critical citizens or consumers?


Recent Issues & Controversies


Key Concepts Media & Communication definedMass Communication definedModel of the Communication ProcessMapping the Flow


The Definition of MediaBroadly, what enables communication to take placeMay be interpersonal and one on one( speech, writing, facial gesture) which is beyond scope of CMNS 130May be technical/broader in scaleSpecifically, a technological development that extends the channel, range of speed of communication among large groups of people


Media of “Mass” Communication

PrintNewspapersMagazinesBooks

AudioRadioMusic/Sound Recording

VisualFilmTVVideogames

DigitalInternet


The Definition of Communication

From Latin CommunicareVerb: to share, impart, to make meaning commonTo give or receive information, signals, messages in any wayUsing talk, gestures, writing or other meansDefinition: Fleras page 36

“ a meaningful exchange of information”


Origins of CommunicationPart of human search to transcend time and spaceOne of the oldest of human practices:

Essential for social survival, economic organizationFormal study rooted in classical politics from times of Ancient Greece and Rome under a different title: rhetoric, literary criticism, persuasion (humanities)Development of the study of Mass Communication allied with rise of social sciences and mass marketing WW2


Mass CommunicationCommunication from one person, group or institution through a transmission system or medium to large audiences or marketsFrom one ( or few) to manyImplies concept of gatekeeper: controller of transmission/message designImplies concept of effectiveness and efficiency: is messaging achieving what it intended?


Transmission Model of Communication

Sender….Message….ReceiverBased on Harold Lasswell’s model ( 1948)Helps identify the stages through which communication passes so each one can be properly studiedModern models recognize networks are more complex, no longer one way and there is more interaction and feedback between sender and receiver


Transmission Model IICentral Questions:

Who says what to whom with what effect? ( transmission model)Useful in early study of propaganda, and advertising ( stimulus response assumption)Sees mass communication as a process of transmitting intentional messages for the purpose of social control, or marketingImplies the study of state or government policies, economic processes of advertising and commodification of popular culture


Characteristics of Mass Communication

1. Message produced in complex organizations2. Message fixed in some form with information

and symbolic content ( either in digital bits or commodity form)

3. Message is sent/transmitted or diffused widely via a technological medium

Newspaper, magazine, CD or videocassette, radio, television, satellite or Internet

4. Message is delivered rapidly over great space5. Message reaches large groups of different people

simultaneously or within a short period of time6. Message is primarily one-way, not two way


Transformation of ‘Mass’ Communication

Arrival of computers and switched two-way interactive technology …digitizationInternetFrom one to one, … from many to many--almost infinitelyRise of transactional media ( pay per bit) Resistance of media piracy:swapping and downloading


Nature of the Mass Communicator/Sender

Mass communication is produced in complex formal organizationsWith multiple gatekeepersUsing a great deal of moneyIncreasingly in private sector institutions in the WestExisting to make a profit In a highly competitive market, working to reduce risk by merging and oligopoly


7 Trends in Communication

1. Compression of space and time• Larger and larger territories covered: networks of networks

emerging (www)• Mobile, wireless untethered access: ubiquity• Communication across borders virtually instantaneously

2. Commodification• Spread of private and not public enterprise, interpenetration of

marketing, consumption and media• Widespread ideology of consumption/consumer “sovereignty”

3. Deregulation and Concentration and Conglomeration• Withdrawal of public sector, less regulation, more role for market• Trend to mergers and acquisitions• Multi media holdings


7 Trends Cont’d4. Globalization :

• Growth in international trade in cultural products, rise of 6 or 8 main companies dominating markets and merging industries

• AOL Time Warner;Disney;Vivendi, Viacom, Sony, News, Bertelesmann

5. Digitization and Convergence Conversion of sound pictures and text into computer readable formats by

representing them as strings of zeros and ones Now, telecommunication providers involved in TV and cable Digitization enables the production, circulation, manipulation and re-

purposing or storage of information on unprecedented scale

6. Specialization ( part of “demassification”) Narrowly “casting’ or “targeting” communication to particular interests…

shrinking share of general interest TV

7. Personalization The “daily me”: personal tailoring of media diet/media products Ideal type: MP3 downloading of custom music


A Different Approach: the Cultural Model

Encode meaning-----decode meaningInvolves Creation of the Text, design of the sign. symbol or codes and signification or interpretationFleras, p. 36:

Communication is much more than message exchange.. The enrichment that communication brings in terms of culture, cohesion and connectedness is widely acknowledged.


Cultural Model IICentral Question:

How does communication construct a map of meaning for people in everyday life? (cultural model)How do people negotiate common meaning and are bound by itStarts from the assumption that:

Any attempt to understand the power of the media requires us first to understand how these products are located within and work to construct meaning in everyday life (Grossberg et al, p. 237).

Embraces ideology/belief systems and ritual: mass communication is the representation of shared beliefs where ‘reality’ is produced maintained, repaired and transformed


CMNS 130Looks at issues of policy and political economyInteraction of technology, organization of cultural industries and cultural powerText: Augie Fleras, Mass Media and Communication in CanadaFleras a sociologist

His agenda: This text intends to “out” the mainstream media as a persuasive dynamic that manipulates and conceals even as it enlightens and informs. Contradictions prevail: to the one side the media reflect, reinforce and advance the interests of the powerful. To the other side, there are sufficient “openings” for oppositional forces to transform the media…vii.


Next Week: Media and Modernity

Read FlerasTutorial: Introduction to the Media

BACK TO LECTURE NOTES

BACK TO INDEX

http://webdav.sfu.ca/web/cmns/130d1

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PowerPoint Presentation - Explorations in Mass Communication