COMM101
INTRODUCTION TO
COMMUNICATION
Instructor s
Assist. Prof. Dr. Nurten Kara (Group1)
&
Assist. Prof. Dr. Melek Atabey (Group2)
The Definition of Communication
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“Communication ranges from the mass
media (i.e. newspapers, magazines, radio
and television) and popular culture
(books, music, films), through language to
individual and social behaviour.” (J. Fiske)
The Definition of Communication
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As John Fiske says,
it ''is talking to one another, it is television,
it is spreading information, it is our hair
style, (it is the way we dress, it is literary
criticism.''
The Definition of Communication
Communication (n)
1. an act or an instance of
communicating
2. a verbal or written message
3. a process by which information is
exchanged between individuals
through a common system of
symbols, signs or behaviour .
(Longman Dictionary)
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The Definition of Communication
Communicate (vt)
1. to convey knowledge of or
information about; make known
2. to cause to pass from one another
(vi)
3. to transmit information thought, or
feeling so that it is satisfactorily
received or understood.
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The Definition of
Communication
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Communications:
4. 'a system (e.g. telephones) for
communicating
5. techniques for the effective
transmission of information, ideas etc.
The Definition of Communication
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Communication does not take place only
between human beings because as living
organisms animals too communicate with
each other. And this is called animal
communication. Here we will be
concerned with human communication.
Why do we communicate?
To survive.
To work with others (cooperation).
To satisfy our personal needs.
To be involved with other people, to form and maintain
relationships.
To persuade other people to think in the way we do or to act
in the way we do.
To gain/exert power or to rebel against power.
To give and receive information.
To gain economic benefits.
To make sense of the world and our experience of it.
To decide on what we think and what we do.
To express our imagination and ourselves to others.
Importance of communication
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As a social being one cannot not communicate.
Social = web of relations
communication networks
Through communication, and through the
relations of communication, we define individual
and collective identities  we become who we
are in and through communication.
Why is it difficult to define
communication?
As one of the vital features of human beings,
communication is experienced from the cradle to the
grave and includes all of the intentional and
unintentional dimensions in our relations with ourselves,
with others, and with our environment.
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Communication is as many-sided and complex
as life itself.
Therefore, the complexity of communication
defies a simple definition.
Why is it difficult to define
communication?
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In dealing with communication, we are confronted with a
seemingly overwhelming amount of data, together with
a number of competing academic perspectives.
Clearly, some choices have to be made in order to come
up with a definition.
At the same time, however, the process of selection will
always reveal the particular standpoint/viewpoint of
the individual theorist making the definition.
1 Communication
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Simplifying definitions: Models
A model of a communication process is “a
consciously simplified description in graphic
form of a piece of reality.”
Models are meant to provide “images of wholes”
which we might otherwise be unable to perceive.
1 Communication
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Simplifying definitions: Models
Harold Lasswell’s famous 5W formula of 1948
asks a number of simple questions that may be
applied to any communication act:
Elements (Factors) of
Communication
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a message
an initiator (sender) )source, transmitter,
encoder, addresser, author)
a medium (or media)
a mode/vehicle (channel)
a recipient (receiver) (decoder, decoder,
addressee, reader)
an effect
1 Communication
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Simplifying definitions: Models
Shannon & Weaver offer another model of
communication:
1 Communication
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Simplifying definitions: Models
Shannon & Weaver offer another model of
communication:
The concept of “noise” was offered as an explanation for
the external, mechanical interruptions and other
difficulties communication must face along its linear
route of transmission.
1 Communication
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Simplifying definitions: Models
However, communication mishaps are not only caused
when clear messages are distorted by external
interference, as the Shannon & Weaver model suggests.
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The message/signal itself, and the way in which it is
expressed, already carries the seeds of
misunderstanding.
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The polysemic nature of language, for instance, implies
that any and every understanding is at the same time,
and necessarily so, a misunderstanding.
1 Communication
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Simplifying definitions: Models
Dennis McQuail offers a more complex “simple”
model:
1 Communication
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Simplifying definitions: Models
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McQuail later revised his model’s unilinear flow:
1 Communication
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Simplifying definitions: Models
Models are simplified representations of reality.
We will discuss representations in general at a
later stage in class.
For now, let us reflect on the following question:
If what we want to study is a complex
phenomenon, and if we want to represent it as it
is, are we not doing it injustice by representing it
as simple rather than as complex?
Process of Communication
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Sender decides message
Sender encodes message (encoding)
Receiver decodes message (decoding)
Receiver returns a signal to let the
sender know whether the message has
or has not been understood.
(feedback)
Process of Communication
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The content of any message depends very
much on:
The intention
The available language or symbolic
forms
The context
The communicative possibilities or
discourses
Features of Communication
 It
is everywhere.
 It is continuous.
 It involves the sharing of meaning.
 It contains predictable elements.
 It occurs more than one level
 It
occurs amongst both equals
unequals.
and
Means of Communication
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Forms of communication (Visual
images, pictures, the spoken word, the
written word, body language, gestures are
different forms of communication)
Media of communication (telephone,
face to face communication, television,
radio, magazines, newspapers, books,
letters)
J. Fiske’s Categories of Media
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The presentational media (the voice,
the face, the body)
The representational media (books,
paintings, photographs, writing,
architecture, interior designing, gardening
etc. )
The mechanical media (telephones,
radio, television, telexes)
1 Communication
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Why is it difficult to define
communication? Why are there so many
different definitions?
Every definition—by definition—necessarily leaves
out and excludes some other aspect of our social
communication network by drawing the boundary
of communication in one way or another.
Also, new socio-cultural and technological
developments are—necessarily—not included in
older definitions.
Definitions, necessarily, give a limited perspective.
limit = boundary
1 Communication
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Why is it difficult to define
communication? Why are there so many
different definitions?
Definitions in social sciences and humanities—as in
all other sciences—reflect particular perspectives or
points of view.
Concepts in their respective disciplines can only be
defined within the frame of different and differing
approaches.
And in the field of communication studies there are
many approaches drawn from many disciplines with
different definitions of communication.
1 Communication
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Some different approaches to
communication
Communication as an art.
Communication as a linear process.
(Theories of transmission of meaning/content).
Communication as an exchange
(of meaning/content).
Communication as a collective/commonwealth
generation of meaning/content.
Differing definitions of the field of study
Inter-disciplinary
(interaction with outside disciplines;
individual disciplines are left intact).
However, note that the space of “inter” is already
a different space than the spaces of the distinct
disciplines that are brought together.
Multi-disciplinary
(more than one discipline in the field,
interaction that may or may not bring about mutual
transformation).
Transdisciplinary
Porous borders; disciplines are re-shaped again and
again.
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Varied forms and means of communication
Language
Discursive
/
Textual
(Speech / Writing)
Print (Mechanical mass reproduction) (“Gutenberg
galaxy”)
Digital (Irrelevant distinction between copy and
original)
Again, differing focuses give rise to differing
definitions.
Communication Studies as a field of study:
What is its aim, its reason for being?
Why do we study in this field?
•
Teaching/learning the art of communication.
•
Teaching/learning the making and
understanding of meaning

meaningful & significant
Teaching and learning not only the practical
skills but the frame of mind, or the intellectual
skills, to enable you to put these practical
skills to good use:

Ethical and political responsibility
•
1 Communication
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•
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Communication Studies as a field of
study:
What is its aim, its reason for being?
Why do we study in this field?
Practical/pragmatic reasons: to become effective
communicators as social beings, and as prospective
media professionals.
Ethical reasons: to be able to reflect on what we
are doing as social communicators and as media
professionals; to be able to evaluate and
distinguish good from bad.
To learn how to be self-reflexive and to consider
the wider consequences of our actions.
The etymology of the word communication as a
genealogical tool for understanding its meaning
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Common
Community
Communion
Communal
Communism
Excommunication
Municipality
Immunity
1 Communication
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The etymology of the word
communication as a genealogical tool for
understanding its meaning
All these words derive from both the Latin
communicare that means to make common, to
share
and
from muntare or munia that means mutual help,
exchange, and interaction among those who
belong to the same community.
1 Communication
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The etymology of the word communication as a
genealogical tool for understanding its meaning
“To communicate,” the verbal form of communication
means “to participate in collective life, to perform
service for a common purpose” from which one can
only be exempt under special circumstances
(immunis, immunity).
And if to communicate means to participate in
collective life, to be purged or excluded/expelled from
the community is described by the verb to be
excommunicated.
Hence, commonality has persisted as the semantic
core of the concept of communication.
1 Communication
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Informed by these insights, we will look at
communication not simply as the transmission of a
message/content by an individual to another individual,
but rather, as a commonwealth creation of
message/meaning/content.
We will also consider misunderstanding and
miscommunication as inherent and not external to the
process of communication.
Because of the ultimate undecidability of the truth of
communication, ethical responsibility becomes all the
more important.
Ethical considerations cannot be eliminated by
technical determinations of clarity or truth by only a
limited party partaking in a commonwealth
determination of what the communication is all about.
Fundamental qualities of
communication (Mortensen)
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dynamic (It is not static. It is a continuous
activity or change)
irreversible (incapable of being reversed)
proactive (not reactive)
interactive (there is an interaction between the
sides who join in, there is an
exchange
of
information)
contextual (It depends on the context in which
the communication occurs)
Communication
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the exchange of meaning between
human agents''. The exchange of
meaning between people has to take
place within a shared context.
(Price)
Aspects of Communication
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the
the
the
the
physical and temporal situation.
basic faculties all humans have.
discursive environment
overall social and structural context.
Communication
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an interaction which consists of the
action and reaction between two or
more individuals, or two or more social
groups.
Functions of Communication
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instrumental (to achieve or obtain something)
control (to get s.one to behave in a particular
way)
information (to find out or explain s.thing)
expression to express one's feelings)
social contact (participating in company)
alleviation of anxiety (to sort out a problem,
ease a worry about s.thing)
stimulation (response to something of
interest)
role-related (because the situation requires it)
Communication
 the
elements (factors) of communication
(its components parts)
 the process of communication (its
discourse of action, how it operates)
 the features of communication (its
characteristics)
Types (Categories) of
Communication
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Human communication is divided into two
main groups:
verbal communication
non-verbal communication
Types (Categories) of
Communication
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Communication can also be separated
into different types or categories:
Intrapersonal Communication
Interpersonal Communication
Group Communication
Extrapersonal Communication
Mass Communication
Intrapersonal
Communication
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It takes place within ourselves. It is our
reflections on ourselves, on our
relationships with others and with our
environment. Our inner monologs,
impressions, memories interact with
external or internal stimuli.
Interpersonal
Communication
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This refers to communication between
people, which is usually face to face, and
usually between two individuals.
It does not simply consist of written and
spoken communication, but also of nonverbal interaction.
Group Communication
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It refers to communication within clearly
identifiable groups, or between different
groups of people.
These groups can be formal committees
(tribunals, commissions) or informal (peer
groups, discussion groups, leisure groups)
Extrapersonal
Communication
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This type of communication is generally
described as that which takes place either
without human involvement
(communication between machines) or,
more loosely, interaction between human
beings and machines.
Mass Communication
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This category is often used to describe the
type of communications initiated by the
large institutions of the mass media.
Mass Communication: imitating
the personal mode
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Mass communicators use models of
interpersonal communication to make their
message effective
The mass media are not just one branch of
human communication; they are built upon and
continue to imitate human interaction.
All mass media forms depend on the use of
symbolic content (language, images, gestures,
intonation and so on.)
Differences between mass and
interpersonal communication
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Interpersonal
Communication
involves one transmitter
who communicates with
one or a few receivers
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Mass communication
involves one or more
transmitters who
communicate with a large
number of receivers.
Mass comm. is ‘mediated’
through a specific set of
technologies which stand
between the senders and
receivers.
The implications of these
differences
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There may be greater questions of
influence and power when the scale of
communication increases.
When this wider mode of communication
gives rise to technologies, the real
immediacy of interaction is lost.
Characteristics of Mass
Communication
 They
are complex formal organizations.
 They are directed towards large audiences
 They are public (content is open to all)
 Their audiences are heterogeneous
Characteristics of Mass
Communication
 They
can establish simultaneous contact
with very large numbers of people
 The relationship between communicators
and audience is addressed by
communicators.
 The audience is collectively unique to
modern society.
Mass Media
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'' the methods and organizations used by
specialist social groups to convey
messages to large, socially mixed and
widely dispersed audiences''. (Paul
Trowler, Investigating Mass Media, p. 1)
Dealing with Messages as a
Receiver
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To understand how we deal with many
different types of messages it is important
to look at the psychological process known
as perception.
Perception
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Perception may be defined as the
process by which the brain actively
selects, organises, and interprets stimuli in
order to produce an individual experience
of the world.
The physical and psychological factors
can affect our perception of the world.
Psychological Factors
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Expectation
Motivation
Occupation and special interests
Values and attitudes
Filtering, Distorting and
Blocking Messages
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Stereotyping
Prejudice
Projection
Poor listening skills
Communication Style
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The kind of personality we are, and the
profile of our various needs and
motivations may result in our having a
particular communication style.
Communication as a Skilled
Performance
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Flexibility
Self-knowledge
Empathy with an audience
Strategy
Sensitivity to feedback
Flexibility
a
willingness to admit personal weaknesses
and communication difficulties.
 a recognition of the importance of open,
effective communication
Self-knowledge
 an
awareness of any personal prejudices,
stereotypes, a tendency to project etc.;
 an awareness of our characteristic style of
communicating, e.g. do we have tendency
to manipulate, to dominate, to talk too
much, too little, etc. ?
Empathy with an audience
 an
ability to appreciate that our audience
may have different values, needs and levels
of background knowledge to ourselves;
 a willingness when communicating to
adjust our behaviour to suit the needs of
our audience rather than simply satisfying
our own egos.
Strategy
a
willingness to accept that the conscious
and deliberate adjusting of our
performance to suit both audience and
situation is neither artificial nor selfish.
 an ability and willingness to experiment and
to try alternative ways and styles of
communicating, e.g. listening more instead
of patiently trying to built in.
Sensitivity to feedback
 an
ability to recognise the language of
feedback, facial expressions, gestures,
position of body etc.;
 a willingness and an ability to respond
appropriately to feedback.
STUDENT ACTIVITY
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Here are some
possible stereotypes.
Do stereotypes exist
for each of these, if
so can you agree on
what the appropriate
qualities for each are?
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A librarian
A 'heavy metal' fan
A male model
A second-hand car
dealer
A school teacher
A lorry driver
Language, Communication and
the Media
Non-Verbal Communication
Non-verbal Communication
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Edward T. Hall, an anthropologist, claims
that 60 percent of all communication is
non-verbal.
We can use non-verbal communication
(N.V.C) instead of the spoken word or we
can use it at the same time as we are
speaking to reinforce our message.
Non-verbal Communication
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N.V.C. is the communication which
passes between individuals to replace
or reinforce the use of words.
Non-verbal Communication
This definition would include the following:
 The use of visual forms of communication
like drawing, painting, architecture,
sculpture, decorative art.
 Movement and dance. Ballet and mime
are forms of non-verbal communication,
and so is instrumental music.
 The use of time. The ways in which people
or organizations use time may give clues
about them.
Body language
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Bodily contact
Physical proximity
Orientation
Posture
Gesture
Facial expressions
Eye contact
Bodily contact
Physical contact between people is one of
the
most basic kinds of social act available to us.
Who
we touch, and when, and in what way is
determined by:
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Age
Sex
Relationships
Bodily contact
Touch is an especially important factor in the following
situations:
 Care of children, old people or invalids. Touch can be
used to bring comfort to someone we care for.
 Helping to establish friendly relationships.
 Aggression. Touch used to show aggression is frequently
strong and much more powerful, possibly involving
grasping, hitting or kicking.
We frequently make use of touch and the power of touch in
social situations, such as:
 Greetings and farewells.
 Congratulations.
 Gaining attention.
 Ceremonies and so on.
Physical proximity
The distance we feel necessary to keep
between ourselves and others. How
much space we expect to have around us
can be determined by:
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The occasion
The status/relationship
Culture
Personality
Orientation
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We need to be aware of where people
place themselves in relation to each other.
We call this orientation.
Posture
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The way in which an individual use and
move the whole body is called posture.
The following three factors may influence
a person’s posture:
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Cultural convention
Attitude to others present
Emotional state
Gesture
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Posture describes the way in which we use
and move our whole body, gesture refers
to the use of part of body to communicate
with others. Like posture gesture may be
conscious or unconscious.
Facial expressions
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Few other parts of the body can begin to
compete with the face when it comes to
non-verbal communication.
We send non-verbal signals using a wide
range of combinations: forehead,
eyebrows, eyelids, eye, nose, cheeks,
lips, tongue, chin.
Eye contact
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Most facial expressions are dominated by
what the eyes are doing.
It is said that the eyes are the mirror of
the soul, so we can tell a great deal
about a person just by looking into their
eyes.
Non-verbal Communication
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Other ways in which non-verbal
communication takes place:
Physical appearance
Use of objects
Physical appearance
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Non-verbal communication is perhaps at
its most obvious when we smile at a friend
or wave someone goodbye; body
movement used for the purpose of N.V.C.
is referred to as kinesic behaviour.
Physical appearance
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We can communicate a good deal about
ourselves without ever moving any body parts at
all:
Our clothes
Our use of cosmetics on face
Our hair
Even our physique
Social norms in the form of fashion
Group membership
Social status
The desire to be sexually attractive
Use of objects
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The possession or use of an object or
objects by an individual may also
communicate a message to those nearby
by non-verbal means. For some people a
car is more than a vehicle for moving
around it, but has a symbolic meaning. A
car may be a symbol of power or status.
Use of objects
OBJECT
USE OF OBJECT AS AN AGENCY OF N.V.C.
Cigarette
holder
May be used by men or women as a symbol of elegance or social
status.
Porsche sports May be used by men or women as a symbol of wealth and social
car
status.
Signs of Non-verbal Communication
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There are a number of parallels we can draw
between non-verbal communication and verbal
language. They are both what communication
scholars would refer to as codes. In particular, so
far it looks as if we might hypothesize that,
similarly to language:
there are a number of discrete units of meaning,
which we can refer to as signs
no sign's meaning is complete without knowledge
of the context in which it is used
the signs' usage is culturally conditioned
signs are arbitrary
Signs of Non-verbal Communication
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According to one of the foremost
researchers into NVC, Birdwhistell, the
average person speaks for only about ten
or eleven minutes per day. He estimates
that around two thirds of the social
meaning of an interaction is carried in the
non-verbal channel. If he's right, then we
would do well to pay more attention to
NVC than we do to linguistic exchanges,
which receive most of the attention in
Signs of Non-verbal Communication
Cultural change and cultural
differences
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Nowadays we may think of the singlefingered gesture at the top of the page as
virtually universal. It may be, I don't
know, but it has certainly in recent years
overtaken the British two-fingered
gesture. Just as verbal codes evolve, so, it
seems, do non-verbal codes and just as
verbal codes are tied to the cultural
contexts in which they are used and
evolve, so, it seems, are non-verbal codes.
Universal Non-verbal signs
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Are no non-verbal
signs universal then?
In fact, it seems that
some are. It's pretty
obvious all over the
world that the face on
the top signifies
happiness and that
the one on the bottom
signifies sadness.
Universal Non-verbal signs
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I guess we all have
a pretty good idea
of what his guy's
feeling.
7 Mass Mediated Communication
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The Mass Media
Although very recent in human history, they have become a
very influential force of our socialization.
Newspapers, periodicals, and journals in the West from the
early 1800s, but they were confined to a fairly small
readership.
Became part of the daily experience of millions of people,
influencing their attitudes and opinions, a century later.
American children spend the equivalent of almost a
hundred schooldays per year watching television.
7 Mass Mediated Communication
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There are few societies in current times, even among the
more traditional cultures, that remain completely untouched
by the media.
Electronic communication is accessible even to those who
are unable to read and write, and even in the most
impoverished parts of the world it is common to find people
owning radios and television sets.
With the development of so-called “mass society” of
uprooted individuals as a result of rapid urbanization, mass
media are able to influence people on a mass-scale.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What is the nature of
this influence—potential and actual?
7 Mass Mediated Communication
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A few examples to illustrate these potential and actual uses
of the mass media:
Nelson Mandela notes that upon his arrival in Canada he
was greeted by many Inuits who celebrated his arrival. They
had witnessed his release from prison in South Africa on
television. His freedom struggle connected with their own
struggles for land and political rights in Canada, but it was
television that had made possible the connection between
these different and geographically very distant peoples.
As Mandela said, “Television had shrunk the world and had,
in the process, become a great weapon for eradicating
ignorance and promoting democracy.”
7 Mass Mediated Communication
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On the other hand, the media can be seen as part
of a purely self-serving and profit-motivated
consumerist culture.
Eg., recently the Star Wars trilogy was heavily
promoted and packaged for re-release to a
generation that had not seen the film on cinema
screens. Huge amounts of money were spent
advertising and promoting it around the world.
This, combined with the system of film distribution
and release, made the re-release commercially
successful. Advertising, distribution, release
strategies, and other marketing tools combined to
make this re-release a veritable money-making
machine.
o
7 Mass Mediated Communication
The original Star Wars film can thus be seen as a long
advertisement for other goods. It was thus a form of
economic exploitation that preyed on children, who are a
very susceptible media audience.
o
o
Even worse, we have also witnessed how the Fascist and
Nazi (Nationalist-Socialist) regimes have used the press, the
radio, and film as their propaganda tools to manipulate the
masses for the purposes of the fascist regime, committing
atrocious crimes against humanity.
Indeed, it was these fears of the use of mass-media as
propaganda tools that led to the academic study of mass
media.
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o
o
o
The origins of the media studies can be traced back to the
1930s USA to two developments.
In both cases, we see research conducted on the
assumption that the “masses”—uprooted from their
families and close-knit village communities in the process of
rapid urbanization—were vulnerable to manipulation by
mass communication. The case of Nazi Germany, where
popular support for the Third Reich was won through the
use of press, radio, and film, strengthened this belief.
One line of research peaked in the 1940s when the Bureau
of Applied Social Research (BASR) was established at
Columbia University.
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o
Adopting a functionalist approach, Paul Lazarsfeld, one of
the founders of BASR, argued that media have
administrative functions and enforces existing social
forms.
Accordingly, the functions of the media were:
1. To confer status to the chosen few by choosing for
discussion and highlighting. Eg., selecting one or two
representatives of the various lobby groups for media
participation.
2. Exposing deviants and their activities to enforce what they
consider normal. This provides a conception of the Other
against which the self of society can be maintained.
3. Reduce active public action. People are too busy
consuming.
o
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o
o
This is very ironic if we consider that the press (the
principal medium of the time) was originally conceived as
the political watchdog or overseer of the political regime
and was referred to as the Fourth Estate at the time of
the French Revolution (1789). The judiciary, the
parliament, and the church were referred to as the
first, second, and third estates respectively.
The media, as the fourth estate, were conceived as a body
who can comment on, criticize, and investigate, through
free speech, what these other institutions do. This is
why “freedom of the press,” and freedom of speech in
general—free from government and owner interference—
is such an important principle.
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o
o
o
The paradox conveyed by this irony begins to make sense
in those instances, and to the extent, where the freedom
of speech (and other human rights) for all, that is the
practice of democracy and human rights, is limited and
effaced through ownership and/or control of the mass
media by a few to serve their particular political,
ideological, and cultural interests.
Hence the characterization for our times: “The freedom of
the press belongs to those who own one.”
For this very reason, “desktop publishing” was hailed as a
new development with the potential for breaking the
power of the giant publishing oligopolies.
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o
o
While the totalitarian fascist, and communist, states of the
1930s inspired the fears of those who took to studying
mass media at this time, politically and ideologically
interested uses of the media also occur in nominally
democratic societies, where advertising can be seen
as a form of propaganda and brainwashing that
supports capitalist consumerism.
Films and television shows are increasingly transformed
into program length advertisements for goods as the Stars
Wars example mentioned earlier illustrates. Much of
children’s programming are already nothing but programlength commercials. And these are shown in between
times allotted for other, “proper” commercials. Thus
children, in effect, watch nothing but commercials when
they watch “children’s TV.”
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o
o
It is often argued that controls should be placed over the
media so that they are not misused. Fear that the media
may be used for political and ideological interests of a few,
to the detriment of the many, is one reason why many
countries insist that the government should not own
and/or control the media.
Hence the break-up of government monopolies in media
ownership, and their privatization are offered as a remedy.
What we are beginning to see, however, is that the
resulting ownership structure consequent to such
privatization has been leading into even further
concentration of ownership such that, at the present time,
only a few transnational corporations own and control
much of our global mass communication media.
7 Mass Mediated Communication
o
o
As a result, these global media owners are able to
control who and what gets represented, and how
they are represented in the media even more
powerfully than the isolated governments could.
Eg., Australian media’s coverage of women in
sports:
o
In the period from 1980 to 1988, Australian newspaper
coverage of women’s sport rose from only 2% of total
sports reporting space to only 2.5%, while in space
devoted to sports results women’s sport actually fell
from 12% to 8% of all sports results, and there
continued to be 12 times as many photographs of
men’s sports than of women’s sports.
7 Mass Mediated Communication
o
Eg., American media coverage of East Timor (Chomsky):
o
o
o
During the 1970s the Indonesian government carried out atrocities
on the East Timorese that were equivalent to those perpetrated by
Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia, but the American
media did not report this equally. There were, for instance, 70
column inches of Index listings in the New York Times Index
referring to East Timor stories, compared to 1175 inches of Index
listings for stories on Cambodia.
This disparity in coverage can be explained by the fact that the
USA was involved with the Indonesian government and was
implicated in arms sale to Indonesia.
The church and other sources estimated about two hundred
thousand people killed in the conflict over East Timor. The US
backed it all the way. The US provided 90% of the arms
7 Mass Mediated Communication
for the conflict. Right after Indonesia’s invasion of East
Timor arms shipments were stepped up. There is no
Western concern for issues of aggression, atrocities,
human rights, abuses, and so on if there’s profit to be
made from them. As the atrocities reached their
maximum peak in 1978 when it really was becoming
genocidal, media coverage dropped to zero in the
United States and Canada.
When the media you rely on for information about the
world around you are owned by male corporation CEOs
who also happen to be a major armaments contractors, it
becomes easier to understand the reasons behind such
biased representations.
Unfortunately, without democratic safeguards, privatization
of the media has not served the actualization of the
democratic potential of mass communication.
o
o
o
7 Mass Mediated Communication
o
o
It has often led to further transformation of the
mass media into instruments for furthering the
political and ideological interests of a few—without
even the claim for serving the public interest
anymore, as the government media had to claim
for their legitimacy.
The seemingly well-founded fear about the
political and ideological use of the media lies
behind many of the debates about who has the
right to media ownership; about the public
ownership of radio waves; about whether the
decentralized, communal fabric of the Internet
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o
o
The second line of media research in the US in the 1930s
and 1940s is represented by the work of the Frankfurt
School of Critical Sociology, sometimes referred to
simply as “Critical Theory.” They were critical Marxists
based in Frankfurt, Germany, who analyzed the role of the
media in Europe and Germany in the 1930s but had to flee
from Hitler’s regime and sought refuge in the US. They
continued their work by analyzing American media in the
1940s and 1950s and returned to Germany after Hitler’s
downfall.
The two principal theorists of the school, Max Horkheimer
and Theodor Adorno, saw the media as a culture industry
that maintained power relations and served to lessen the
resistance standards of cultural aesthetics by the
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o
o
o
popularization and standardization of certain types of
culture. The values perpetuated by the media were
contradictory to the values of the radical Enlightenment
tradition.
They believed that the masses are “dumbed” by the
banality of the media. Their ability to function as citizens in
a democratic state is replaced by their ceaseless
consumption of culture or products, or both.
And they suggested that capitalist control of the mass
media was one of the reasons why capitalism survived in
the post-war period (via indoctrination and manipulation of
the masses and promotion of false consciousness).
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o
o
In the US most other media research was conducted by
sociologists and psychologists who were interested in
trying to measure media effects. These studies reflected
concern over, for example, the effect of screen violence
and crime on children.
Effects research is an industry onto itself that feeds from
and feeds the fear of media effects. And yet it has proven
most difficult to measure the effects of the media because
it is impossible to control intervening variables and
establish a causal relationship between the variables one is
interested in outside laboratory conditions—the only
context where one is able to control intervening variables
and claim a causal relationship. (Note also, however, that
laboratory conditions have been faulted for lacking
ecological validity—that “real life” conditions are different.)
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o




From the 1960s onwards, the media began to be examined
in terms of ideology. This was largely a result of the social
upheaval of the times. The anti-Vietnam war movement
and the strikes of workers and students led to a more
critical analysis. Effects studies were criticized for asking
the wrong questions. More specifically, it was argued that
the “effects model”
Tackled social problems backwards (it should start with
perpetrators of violence, not with mass media);
Was ignorant of the social reasons of the violence/crime;
Was based on faulty methodology (for example, it saw
correlation as causality);
Was based on conservative assumptions such as
attributing to the media the function of the preservation of
the status quo;
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




o
Was selective in its criticisms of media depictions of
violence;
Ignored the signification or meaning-making process of the
media;
Saw children as inadequate non-adults;
Saw the masses as infantile and inferior;
Was not grounded in theory.
One line of research that developed from this era has been
the Political Economy approach which basically argues
that the media will serve the interests of whoever owns
and controls them–whether this be private individuals
interested in profit or governments interested in political
control.
7 Mass Mediated Communication
o
The political economy approach involves conducting research into who
owns and controls the media and what government legislation is in
place relating to the media, in order to determine what effects this has
on media output.
o
Eg., George Gerbner: “It’s a paradoxical fact that while channels
proliferate, we have many more channels than ever before…at the
same time ownership shrinks; so what happens is fewer owners
own more channels and therefore can program the same materials
across many channels; therefore instead of more channels creating
greater diversity they seem to be creating greater homogeneity,
greater uniformity, greater standardization and greater
globalization…they can say to overseas channels we can sell you
an hour’s worth of programming for less money than it would cost
you to produce on your own…this proposition is economically so
attractive…it’s a standardized, marketing formula.
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o
o
The exclusive focus on the media output in much of this
research has been criticized for assuming that the
audience are passive receivers. It is argued that audiences
make choices of their own, and that by their decision to
consume certain products and not others they get to have
a big say in what gets produced and what doesn’t.
Additionally, audiences make their own meaning of texts.
They will not necessarily be brainwashed by what they
consume. This has given rise to a new line of research that
focuses on what the audiences do with the media products
that are offered them, a line of research that is called,
appropriately enough, audience research.
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o
o
There is one other aspect of the debate around
media power however: the idea that the way
media products are structurally organized affects
the way they present information. Two of the key
terms used in this context are “agenda setting,”
and “gate keepers,” terms most often used in
relation to the spread of news and current affairs.
The media are often drawn to give more weight to
the viewpoints of official institutions than to
“alternative” viewpoints. They allow or privilege
certain voices, the agenda setters, to come
through the media broadcasting gateway.
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o
There are various “practical” reasons for it: the
fact that “news” is deemed to happen in
parliament or the law courts; the reliance on
official spokespeople and experts to comment on
events; and the use of journalists themselves
(who select and present the news). Furthermore,
many broadcasters rely on news-gathering
organizations to supply their stories for them in
the interests of cheaper journalism. All these are
part of the gate-keeping process. The net result is
that “alternative” and often “relevant” voices are
selected out and can’t make it through the
gateways of the media.
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o
Consequently, audiences rarely receive a complex understanding of
events with explanations that cover long-term causes; the focus is on
what happened “today” and how the situation changes hour by hour
so that each new bulletin will have something more immediate. In this
“sound bite” era the use of striking headlines and good pictures
predominates. There is a stress on individuals to personalize stories,
which tends to simplify them.
o
o
o
o
See Tom Tomorrow cartoon on p. 14.
TV: Coming up next on the news: terrifying inexplicable
events occurring in far-away places, presented without
historical or sociological context.
Man: Geez. Looks pretty bad out there!
Woman: I’m certainly glad we’re safe here at home.
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o
o
We started by highlighting the fear of political and
ideological manipulation of the masses through the media
and discussed how this fear led to Media Studies.
There have been other fears that compelled some of the
people to study the media as well. These people feared
that the media would devalue a society’s culture because
what they produce is so worthless. This is best illustrated
in the debates around the relative importance of so-called
“high” and “low” culture. High culture is supposedly the
“great art” produced by a society—art that is morally
uplifting, complex, and serious. It is said to be found in
such cultural products as opera, painting, and “great”
literature. It is elitist because only the privileged,
educated, and rich have full and easy access to it.
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o
o
Low or “popular” culture, on the other hand, is what the
“masses” consume; it is found in magazines, mass-market
paperbacks, popular cinema, and television. Critics of low
culture deride it as morally degrading and simple.
Traditionally, low culture has been denigrated as inferior
and potentially damaging, and the fact that it was a
product of mass media was used to disparage it.
Such oppositions are partly the product of class-divided
societies—high culture is the province of the ruling and
middle class, the bourgeoisie; low culture is the province
of the working classes. But it is interesting to note
politically that both right-wing conservatives and left-wing
radicals have disapproved of low culture and the popular
mass media;
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o
the right wing seeing the media as offering a diet
of cheap, tawdry, corrupt entertainments, the leftwing seeing it as a political sweetener acting to
distract the workers from their political grievances.
Since the 1970s, with the advent of the “new left,”
there has been much study of popular culture in
media studies. This is partly because of its huge
audiences—if so many people are consuming it, it
is important to understand it—but also in an
attempt to validate it, to avoid seeing it as inferior
to high culture.
7 Mass Mediated Communication
Cultural Studies: Content Analysis vs Textual Analysis
o
Content analysis goes after the content/message/meaning
of communication by asking the question “what?” (Eg.,
“What is communicated?”) They count, for instance, the
number of times a word like “rose” occurs in the media
text, assuming that every time we come across the word
“rose” it means the same thing/identity/meaning/reality.
o
Textual analysis conducted in the field of cultural studies is
informed by poststructural linguistics, psychoanalysis, and
deconstruction, and points out that depending on the
particular textual weaving of the word into the textual
fabric, its meaning/identity/reality/truth may change. They,
therefore, look at how the word is used, how it is woven
into the textual fabric. They ask the question “how?”
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o
o
o
Content analysis originally developed in America alongside
effects studies by researchers who were mainly
sociologists and psychologists.
Cultural Studies originally developed in Europe. The Center
for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at Birmingham
University was particularly influential among English
speaking researchers. CCCS brought together literary and
historical approaches alongside Marxist, feminist, and
(post-)structuralist linguistic theories, combining a body of
critical theory with political concerns.
Like the political economy approach, it is interested in
questions of political power and the social role of the
media.
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o
A significant area of its work has been in understanding
popular culture and issues of representation, alongside
examination of the role and position of the audience, and
wider contextual studies.
Since the mid 1960s, media study has grown in Australia,
Europe, and America, in schools, colleges, and universities,
so that it now stands as an important and popular
academic area in its own right. It is possible to find a
variety of media courses: mass communications, media
studies, cultural studies, film and screen studies,
journalism, and so on. These are built, to different
degrees, on an interdisciplinary method, and present a
mixture of critical, practical, and vocational approaches.
The Media: Pro and Con

The media’s huge range
of cultural information
and entertainment
contributes to the
development of popular
knowledge. People are
more aware and better
educated through the
media than ever before

The media offer
people a repetitive
diet of worthless
trivia. Like bread and
circuses, they cater
to the lowest
intellectual abilities
and keep people
moronically content.
The Media: Pro and Con

The media can
inspire and develop
us, actively
encouraging us to
do new things in our
lives.

The media make us
passive observers—
“couch potatoes”—
and we thereby lose
the ability to think or
act for ourselves.
The Media: Pro and Con

The media are
truthful and
informative, and
they make a major
contribution to
democracy and
social accountability,
offering us a window
on the world.

The media are a
series of false
constructions serving
minority political
interests.
The Media: Pro and Con

The media are
democratic, allowing
all people a voice in
the world.

The media serve
commercial interests
and are totally
controlled by
multinational
corporations and
advertisers.
The Media: Pro and Con

The media enable
free thought and
speech to be
disseminated.

The media are in the
business of
controlling our
consciousness,
thereby controlling
who we are and how
we think. Access to
the media is limited.
The Media: Pro and Con

The media are
shrinking the globe,
uniting us and
bringing us closer
together, creating a
“global village.”

The media are
making us all the
same and destroying
minority cultures.
The Media: Pro and Con

The media give
space to the voices
of different social
groups and cultures.

The media are a form
of cultural
imperialism, whereby
dominant cultures
impose their values
on less powerful
cultures.
The Media: Pro and Con

The media are an
agent for social
change.

The media maintain
the status quo.
****