Mass Communication
and Society
Bettina Fabos, Professor
FABOS
www.uni.edu/fabos
COURSE THEMES (4)
• Democracy
For a democracy to function properly, we need
a diverse, open, democratic media system.
COURSE THEMES (4)
• Democracy
QUOTE FROM CH. 1:
“At their best, our media reflect and sustain the
values and traditions of a vital democracy.”
COURSE THEMES (4)
• Democracy
“PUBLIC SPHERE”
COURSE THEMES (4)
• Democracy
“PUBLIC SPHERE”
FIRST AMMENDMENT
COURSE THEMES (4)
• Culture is an ongoing
process
Culture is never at rest.
COURSE THEMES (4)
• Culture is cyclical
COURSE THEMES (4)
• Culture is cyclical
We keep on having the same debates about
the media; content repeats itself; old
becomes new again.
COURSE THEMES (4)
• Media convergence
The story of technology is that it constantly
adapts to new formats.
Models of Communication
Models of Communication
Linear model vs. cultural model
Linear model
Linear Model
Sender
Message
Receiver
Linear Model
Culture = nutrition
You need the right kind of culture to
build a healthy society
Linear Model
Noise
Sender
Message
Receiver
Linear Model
Noise
Sender
Message
Feedback
Receiver
Linear Model
Noise
Sender
Message
Feedback
Receiver
Cultural Model
Cultural Model
We get messages through selective
exposure
Cultural Model
We get messages through selective
exposure
p. 11
“Audiences typically seek messages and
produce meanings that correspond to their own
cultural beliefs and values.”
Cultural Model
Story is important in communicating
culture.
Thinking about Culture
Thinking about Culture
• Culture as a
Hierarchy
Thinking about Culture
• Culture as a
Hierarchy
• Culture as a Map
Culture as
Hierarchy
p. 16
• Culture as a Map
Culture as a Map
•
•
•
•
Conventional
Recognizable
Stable
Comforting
•
•
•
•
Innovative
Unfamiliar
Unstable
Challenging
There are lots of reasons why certain kinds of culture resonate
Critical Process
•A formal process to make an
informed--not cynical-- judgment
Critical Process
•
•
•
•
•
Description
Analysis
Interpretation
Evaluation
Engagement
Critical Process
•
•
•
•
•
Description
Analysis
Interpretation
Evaluation
Engagement
Description
• Paying close attention,
taking notes,
researching the subject
Analysis
• Discovering significant patterns that
emerge
Interpretation
• Answering “What does it mean?”
or ‘So what?”
Evaluation
• Arriving at a judgment about whether
something is good, bad, mediocre, etc.
• Subordinate your personal tastes to
critical assessment.
Engagement
• Acting on what you know
Critical Process
•
•
•
•
•
Description
Analysis
Interpretation
Evaluation
Engagement
Look at Media literacy box, pp. 28-29
DISCUSSION: TV CULTURE
TV CULTURE
QUALITY
TRASH
IN DISPUTE
Culture as a Map
•
•
•
•
Conventional
Recognizable
Stable
Comforting
•
•
•
•
Innovative
Unfamiliar
Unstable
Challenging
THINK-PAIR-SHARE:
CLASSICAL MUSIC
DESCRIPTION:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is your image of a typical listener of classical music?
How is classical music experienced in our culture?
How is the music introduced or discussed on radio?
What are the major elements of a classical music concert?
What are the rituals and formalities?
What do people wear?
What is required of the audience, the conductor (if there is
one) and the musicians?
• What age group does the audience typically fit into?
ANALYSIS:
• WHAT ARE SOME PATTERNS IN YOUR RESEARCH?
• How does the way classical music is heard on the radio, in
concert halls, and the way it's packaged, differ from rock or
other music?
INTERPRETATION:
• SO WHAT?
• IF CLASSICAL MUSIC POSITIONED AS A CERTAIN
KIND OF CULTURE….IS IT BAD?
• Are there alternative ways to experience classical music
that you know of or can imagine?
• Is the packaging of classical music in part responsible for
its limited audience?
evaluATION:
• Do you think the gloss of high culture make the classical
experience more --or less--pleasurable?
• How might classical-music radio formats, concert
performances, and CD packaging change to appeal to
more people?
engagement:
• What could we do to bring a larger audience to classical
music?
BREAK
Five Eras of Communication
1. Oral tradition
 People communicated their ideas through
talking
 Socrates (470-399 BC) - public arguments and debates
 Socratic Method as form of inquiry
2. Written tradition
 Developed to complement oral tradition
A. Alphabet
 Plato (427-347 BC), Socrates pupil, sought to
banish poets (people who wrote things down)
Plato
B. Manuscript Culture
Illuminated manuscripts
 Opinions and knowledge could be
recorded and preserved.
 Knowledge became transportable.
3. Print tradition
 Johannes Gutenberg - developed movable
type
1440s
 Printing press
 Prototype for mass production
 More and more people could read.
 More and more people began to THINK
beyond what their religious leaders
were saying.
 This is the beginning of
INDIVIDUALISM
4. Electronic Era (Information
Age)
 Telegraph (1840s)
First electronic medium
From
to
Morse Code
Morse code demonstration
4. Electronic Era (information
age)
 Telegraph separated communication from
transportation
 Made information a commodity
 Easier to coordinate commerce and military
 Omen for future developments
4. Electronic Era (information
age)
 1876: Telephone
 1890s: Radio is invented (no longer need
wires to send morse code)
 1900: can transmit voice over the air
 1920s: TV is being invented
 ALSO: Sound recording, 1850s; Film, 1890s
4. Electronic Era (information
age)
 Shift from Producer to Consumer
society
 U.S. 1880s - 80% in farms, villages
 U.S. 1920s - 80% in towns, cities
5. Digital Era
 Analog - shapes or waves
correspond to image or
sound (like record grooves)
 Digital - binary code (0-1)
represents image or sound
(pits or rises on CD =
numerical value)
Five Eras of Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Oral Tradition
Written Tradition
Print Tradition
Electronic Era
Digital Era
The Media
and Democracy
What is democracy?
 1776: Declaration of Independence
 1787: U.S. Constitution
 1791: First Amendment
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof: or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of people
peaceable to assemble and to petition
the Government for a redress of
grievances.
First Amendment
 You can practice any religion you want
 You can SAY and PUBLISH anything you
please, and you can hold peaceful
demonstrations against the Government, and
Congress can’t do a darn thing about it.
 Free speech.
First Amendment
 1. Information is good for democracy
First Amendment
 1. Information is good for democracy
 2. U.S. Media is protected
First Amendment
 1. Information is good for democracy
 2. U.S. Media is protected
 3. U.S. Media is our public sphere
Public Sphere
In a democratic society, we should always work
on creating the most favorable
communication situation possible
 The idea of public rational-critical debate.
 Communication, not domination
 Communication=Democracy
Less Democracy
 Oligopolies
Less Democracy
 Oligopolies
 Entry to the industry is difficult
Less Democracy
 Oligopolies
 Entry to the industry is difficult
 The media is now BIG MEDIA (or Big
Business)
Less Democracy
Big Media=conflict of interest
 They want to make as much money as
possible.
 They want to increase the numbers of
things we buy, not increase how much
we know.
More Democracy
 Cable/Satellite
 Internet
--Abundance
--Control