Mass Communication: messages transmitted publicly, directed to large audiences
Media Convergence: coming together of services that have been separate, including the internet, TV, cable & telephone
4 goals of communication theory: 1. Explain the effects of mass communication. Informing the public 2. Explain the uses to which people put mass communication 3. Explain learning from the mass media 4. Explain the role of the mass media in shaping people’s values and views
Empirical school: Quantitative research & empiricism (basing knowledge on Observation & experiment). Effects of mass communication
Critical school: emphasizes broader social structure in which communication takes place, & focuses on the issue of who controls a communication system
Science: importance of replication, peer review, ethics, imagination, use of results to further political or social agendas, cumulative nature
Research methods
Survey Research: study of a portion or sample of a specific population
Content Analysis: analyzing message content (personality, attitude)
Experimental Designs: dealing w/question of causality. Controlling variables
Case Studies: Examine many characteristics of a single subject TV station, newspaper tries to learn all about the investigator is interested in for the specific case over a period of time
Laswell’s model: allows for many general applications in mass communication, who says what in which channel to whom with what effect.
Who: question of the control of the messages
Says what: content analysis
Channels: studies in media analysis
To whom: receiver & audience analysis
Effect: Communication credibility
Information theory: a theory of signal transmission. Telephone
Entrophy: uncertainty or disorganization of a situation
Redundancy: portion of the message that is determined by the rules governing the use of symbols in question or that is not determined by the free choice of the sender
Channel Capacity: info a channel can transmit or a channels ability to transmit what’s produced out of a source of info
Feedback, info: allow a system to make corrections in its own operation
Signal: the message as converted by the transmitter for the channel of the communication system in use
Osgood’s Model: Social nature of communication, each person can send/receive messages
Schramm: we communicate differently
Perception: our interpretation of data
Points model: Linear A to B
Subliminal: People can be influenced by stimuli of which they’re not aware of
Embeds: Hidden words & symbols
Schema: cognitive structure consisting of organized knowledge about situations & individuals that has been abstracted from prior experiences. Used for processing new info & retrieving stored information
Visual rhetoric: theory of how people process pictures
Dead- level abstracting: getting stuck at one level of abstraction
Two-valued Evaluation: thinking that there are only two possibilities when there are actually a range of possibilities
Unconscious projection: unknowingly projecting past experiences, purposes & biases on our perceptions (stereotyping)
Slanting: selecting details that are favorable/unfavorable to the subject being described
Inference: statement about the unknown made on the basis of the known
Judgement: an expression of approval or disapproval for an occurrence, person or object
Categorical thinking: failure to see distinctions between members of a category or class
Report: statement capable of verification & excludes inferences & judgements
Propaganda – seeks to influence behavior.. generally benefits the source but not the receiver.. the difference with persuasion is that it attempts to influence others, but the effect may have benefit to the person being persuaded
Laswell’s 4 major objectives of War Propaganda -
1) Mobilize hatred against the enemy
2) Preserve the friendship of allies
3) Preserve friendship and attempt to procure cooperation of neutrals
4) Demoralize the enemy
Seven Propaganda Devices –
1)