Mass Communication: Introduction, Meaning, Theories, Methods & Fields of Study

Introduction of Mass communication

Mass communication is the study of how individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time. It is usually understood to relate to newspaper, magazine, and book publishing, as well as radio, television and film, as these mediums are used for disseminating information, news and advertising. Mass communication differs from the studies of other forms of communication, such as interpersonal communication or organizational communication, in that it focuses on a single source transmitting information to a large group of receivers. The study of mass communication is chiefly concerned with how the content of mass communication persuades or otherwise affects the behavior, attitude, opinion, or emotion of the person or people receiving the information.

What is Mass Communication?

Ordinarily transmitting information to many persons is known as mass communication. But such a definition is not adequate enough to express what mass communication intended is really for. It is true that mass communication involves a large number of persons. But that is not all. Actually, mass communication is a process through which a message is extensively circulated among the persons who are far away from the source. Viewed in this sense, group communication and public communication involving many persons cannot be classified as mass communication, because the speaker and the audience here are not thus separated from each other by a great distance. What is needed for mass communication to take place is a large number of heterogeneous audiences, encompassing vast boundaries of space as well as some intermediary channels through which a message can be sent to the destination.

Sydney Head (1976) suggests that the term mass communication must imply at least five things:

1. Relatively large audience
2. Fairly undifferentiated audience composition
3. Some form of message reproduction
4. Rapid distribution and delivery.
5. Low unit cost to the customers.

Definitions of Mass Communications

1. Barker (1981) defines: Mass communication is the spreading of a message to an extended mass audience through rapid means of reproduction and distribution at a relatively inexpensive cost to the consumer. In each case, a message is transported from its original source to a widespread audience through an intermediary channel such as radio, television or newspaper.
2. In the opinion of Mehta: (1979) mass communication is concerned with transmitting information, thoughts and opinions, entertainments, etc. at a time to a large number of audiences of different characteristics.
3. Agee, Ault and Emery (1979) define mass communication as a process of sending a message, thought and attitude through some media to a large number of heterogeneous audiences.
4. Dominick (1994) offers a comprehensive definition of mass communication: 

Mass communication refers to the process by which a complex organization with the aid of one or more machines produces and transmits public messages that are directed at large, heterogeneous audiences. In his opinion, the source in the mass communication situation is a group of individuals who usually act within predetermined roles in an organizational setting. Dominick has resorted to a fine example to explain a mass communication situation (process) with the help of a newspaper: Reporters gather news; writers draft editorials. A cartoonist may draw an editorial cartoon; the advertising department lays out ads.; editors layout all of these things together on a sample page; technicians transfer this page to a master; which is taker to a press where other technicians produce the final paper; the finished copies are giver to the delivery staff who distribute them; and of course behind ass of these is a publisher who has the money to pay for a building, presses, trucks, paper, ink and so on.

By this time, we have an idea about mass communication. In the light of the above discussion, we can now define mass communication as a process in which professional communicators design and use intermediary channels (radio, television, or mews paper) to disseminate messages quickly at a time to a large number of heterogeneous but widespread and fairly undifferentiated audiences separated from a source by a great distance.

Major Theories 

Communication researchers have identified several major theories associated with the study of mass communication. Communication theory addresses the processes and mechanisms that allow communication to take place.

1. Cultivation theory, developed by George Gerbner and Marshall McLuhan, discusses the long-term effects of watching television, and hypothesizes that the more television an individual consumes, the more likely that person is to believe the real world is similar to what they have seen on television.[2] Cultivation is closely related to the idea of the mean world syndrome.
2. Agenda setting theory centers around the idea those media outlets tell the public “Not what to think, but what to think about." Agenda setting hypothesizes that media have the power to influence the public discourse, and tell people what are important issues facing society.
3. The spiral of silence, developed by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, hypothesizes that people will be more likely to reveal their opinion in public if they believe that they are of the majority opinion, for fear that revealing an unpopular opinion would subject them to being a social outcast. This theory is relevant to mass communication because it hypothesizes that mass media have the power to shape people's opinions, as well as relay the opinion that is believed to be the majority opinion.
4. Media ecology hypothesizes that individuals are shaped by their interaction with media, and that communication and media profoundly affect how individuals view and interact with their environment.
5. According to the Semiotic theory, communication characteristics such as words, images, gestures, and situations are always interpretive. All sign systems, entitled to be “read” or interpreted, regardless of form, may be referred to as “texts.” In the study of Semiotics, there is no such thing as a literal reading

Methods of Study 

Communication researchers study communication through various methods that have been verified through repetitive, cumulative processes. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in the study of mass communication. The main focus of mass communication research is to learn how the content of mass communication affects the attitudes, opinions, emotions, and ultimately behaviours of the people who receive the message. Several prominent methods of study are as follows:

1. Studying cause and effect relationships in communication can only be done through an experiment. This quantitative method regularly involves exposing participants to various media content and recording their reactions. In order to show causation, mass communication researchers must isolate the variable they are studying, show that it occurs before the observed effect, and that it is the only variable that could cause the observed effect.
2. Survey, another quantitative method, involves asking individuals to respond to a set of questions in order to generalize their responses to a larger population.
3. Content analysis (sometimes known as textual analysis) refers to the process of identifying categorial properties of a piece of communication, such as a newspaper article, book, television program, film, or broadcast news script. This process allows researchers to see what the content of communication looks like.
4. A qualitative method known as ethnography allows a researcher to immerse themselves into a culture in order to observe and record the qualities of communication that exist there.

Field of study

1. Advertising, in relation to mass communication, refers to marketing a product or service in a persuasive manner that encourages the audience to buy the product or use the service. Because advertising generally takes place through some form of mass media, such as television, studying the effects and methods of advertising is relevant to the study of mass communication
2. Broadcasting is the act of transmitting audio and/or visual content through a communication medium, such as radio, television, or film. In the study of mass communication, broadcasting can refer to the practical study of how to produce communication content, such as how to produce a television or radio program
3. Journalism, in this sense, refers to the study of the product and production of news. The study of journalism involves looking at how news is produced, and how it is disseminated to the public through mass media outlets such as newspapers, news channel, radio station, television station, and more recently, e-readers and smart phones.
4. Public relations are the process of providing information to the public in order to present a specific view of a product or organization. Public relations differ from advertising in that it is less obtrusive, and aimed at providing a more comprehensive opinion to a large audience in order to form public opinion.

Related Posts

Sandeep Ghatuary

Finance & Accounting blogger simplifying complex topics.

View full author profile →

Previous