Communication Process/Media
History
Comm I
• Receiving and transmitting information
contained in sounds, images, and
sensations of everyday life
Communication Environment
• The way we communicate acoustically and
visually
• Communication Behavior
• Communicating with those around us
(limited audience)
• Interpersonal Communication
• Communicating with an extensive
audience via mass media
(tv/newspaper/radio/internet)
• Mass Communication
Shannon-Weaver Communications
Model
• Sender
• Information
• Medium
• Receiver
• Feedback
• Noise
• Anything that interferes with the
communication between sender and
receiver
– Examples?
• Symbol
– High-correspondence symbol
– Low-correspondence symbol
• Referent
• Ex’s of symbols/referents?
• Used movable type; allowed books to
become first mass medium
• Printing press
• Sound-producing machine invented by
Edison; precedes record player
• phonograph
• A transparent film invented by Goodwin
• celluloid
• Decorated or illustrated text
• Illuminated manuscript
• An early paper similar to parchment,
invented circa 2400 BC
• papyrus
• Introduced in 1983, followed cassette
tapes as the preferred method for music
recording
• CD
• Roman method of book binding, used
cords to tie sheets of parchment between
wooden boards
• Codex
• Invented in 1844, transmits messages and
signals using electric pulses, allows
communication across great distances;
precedes telephone
• telegraph
• Allows instant access to information,
news, music, and people
• Internet
• Introduced in 2002, a subscription service
similar to cable TV; two major providers
merged in 2008
• Satellite radio
• First typesetting machine invented by
Mergenthaler in 1880
• Linotype machine
• Followed records as preferred medium for
music recording, used from mid 1970’s to
mid 1980’s, now obsolete
• cassette
• Introduced at the 1939 World’s Fair, has
become most popular and accessible form
of mass media; used for information,
entertainment, and escape
• television
• Introduced in 1996, capable of storing 7x
more information than a CD, followed VHS
as the preferred method of film recording
• DVD
2400 BC-1453
• Oral communication
• Papyrus
• 1st known alphabet
• Writing materials advance from clay
tablets to wood-pulp paper
• codex
1453-1840
• Gutenberg’s printing press, movable type
• Books become 1st mass medium
• Free press as foundation for democracy
• Colonial newspapers
• 1st magazine
1840-1900
• Telegraph
• Phonograph
• Linotype machine
• Celluloid
• Literacy rates boom
• Books, newspapers & magazines become
vital part of American society
1900-1940
• Industrial revolution
• WW I
• Great Depression
• Radio becomes a full-fledged mass
medium (Golden Age of Radio)
• Public relations spurs U.S. into WWII
• Muckraking journalists focus on social
issues and big business
1940-1980
• FCC sets TV starndards
• Television networks promote shared culture and
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social movements
Social issues take the forefront in broadcast
television
Popularization of VCR
Expansion of cable
Defense research leads to communications
satellite technology and beginnings of Internet
1980-2014
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Cable TV explodes
The Internet becomes mass medium
Computers become common in most homes
Email
MTV and CNN introduced
Mass media are deregulated (media
fragmentation occurs)
Telecommunications Act of 1996 discards most
ownership limits- corporate media dominate
Social media – facebook, instagram, etc.