CHAPTER ESSENTIALS

• Mass media are the industries that create and distribute songs, novels, newspapers, movies, Internet services, TV shows, magazines, and other products to large numbers of people. Mass communication is the creation and use of symbols (such as languages, motion pictures, and computer codes) that convey information and meaning to large and diverse audiences through all manner of channels (The Evolution of Mass Communication).

• In the oral and written eras (1000 BCE to the mid-fifteenth century), information and knowledge circulated first through spoken traditions (oral) and then through manuscripts (written) commissioned by elites (The Oral and Written Eras).

• In the print era (beginning in the mid-fifteenth century), wide dissemination of manuscripts became possible, thanks to the emergence of movable type and the printing press. Mass production of books spurred four significant changes: an increasing resistance to authority, the rise of new socioeconomic classes, the spread of literacy, and a focus on individualism (The Print Era).

• In the electronic and digital eras (the late nineteenth century to today), the telegraph, radio, and television (electronic media) made messages instantaneous and reshaped American life. Digital communication, whereby images, texts, and sounds are converted into electronic signals and reassembled as a precise reproduction of an image, a piece of text, or a sound, has changed the rules about who controls the dispersal of information (The Electronic and Digital Eras).

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• The electronic and digital eras also ushered in media convergence, which can refer to the technological merging of media content (such as the availability of a magazine article in print and online form) or to a business model used by media companies that consolidate media holdings to reduce costs and maximize profits (Media Convergence).

• A new medium goes through three stages on its journey toward mass medium status: the development (or novelty) stage (inventors and technicians try to solve a particular problem), the entrepreneurial stage (inventors and investors find a marketable use for the new device), and the mass medium stage (businesses figure out how to market the new device as a consumer product) (The Evolution of a New Mass Medium).

• Human beings have long debated the media’s merits and dangers. Some people today are worried that the media are overly commercial and sensationalistic, that they cause violent behavior, and that they have too much financial power (Debating Media's Role in Everyday Life).

• One approach to media literacy—the attempt to understand how the media work and what impact they have on our lives—is the linear model. According to this model, senders (authors, producers, organizations) transmit messages (programs, texts, images, sounds, ads) through a mass media channel (newspapers, books, magazines, radio, television, the Internet) to large groups of receivers (readers, viewers, consumers). Gatekeepers (news editors, TV and movie producers) filter those messages. Citizens and consumers return feedback, or messages, to senders or gatekeepers through letters, phone calls, e-mail, Web postings, tweets, or talk shows. The linear model doesn’t capture certain complexities of the mass communication process (The Linear Model).

• The cultural model of media literacy views media content as part of culture and recognizes that different people assign different meanings to media content. Adherents believe that even as we shape media content, it shapes us (The Cultural Model).

• The social scientific model seeks to test hypotheses about media’s effects by gathering and analyzing measurable data. Politicians and businesses often use survey research to formulate strategies (The Social Scientific Model).

• Cultural researchers of media have offered several metaphors to describe how people judge different media content. The “culture as skyscraper” metaphor holds that some people associate high culture with “good taste,” higher education, and fine art, and low or popular culture with the “masses” and commercial “junk” (A Closer Look at the Cultural Model: Surveying the Cultural Landscape).

• The “culture as map” metaphor holds that culture is an ongoing process that accommodates diverse tastes, and that various media can satisfy human desires for both familiarity and newness (The "Culture as Map" Metaphor).

• Cultural researchers trace changes in values that accompany changes in mass media. The modern era saw the rise of four values: efficient work, celebration of the individual, belief in a rational order, and rejection of tradition and an embracing of progress (in particular, during the Progressive Era). The postmodern period witnessed the emergence of its own values: celebration of populism, a revival of older cultural styles, an embracing of technology, and an interest in the supernatural (Tracing Changes in Values).

• Social scientific media researchers ask different types of questions about media than cultural researchers ask. In a comparison of studies analyzing news coverage of cancer, a study informed by the cultural model explored how coverage of Betty Ford’s mastectomy informs news coverage of cancer today, including an emphasis on women’s need to maintain their femininity. A study informed by the social scientific model reported findings based on data, such as the percentage of news stories that included content about how to prevent cancer (Comparing Analyses of Cancer News Coverage).

• Social scientists use content analysis to gather data—they code and count the content of various types of media. They also conduct experiments to generate data, and gather data through surveys (Gathering and Analyzing Data).

• Citizens can examine the findings of cultural and social scientific research on media to follow a critical process consisting of describing, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and engaging with mass media. Both models have strengths and limitations (Evaluating Cultural and Social Scientific Research).

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• To conduct our own critiques of specific media, we must acquire a working knowledge of each medium we want to study, as well as transcend our own preferences or biases regarding the media we’re studying (Conducting Our Own Critiques).

• A critical perspective on the mass media is valuable because it enables us to take part in debates about the media’s impact on our democracy and culture (Benefits of a Critical Perspective).

1. Question 1.1

   Explain the interrelationship between mass communication and mass media.

2. Question 1.2

   What are the stages a medium goes through before becoming a mass medium?

3. Question 1.3

   Describe the skyscraper model of culture and the map model of culture. What are their strengths and limitations?

4. Question 1.4

   What are the major differences in how the linear, cultural, and social scientific models approach the study of media?

5. Question 1.5

   Why is the critical process important?

• DESCRIBE the experience of giving up all media for one day—including television, radio, movies, books, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet (even connections on a mobile phone).

• ANALYZE the patterns you discover. Which media were the most difficult to avoid using? Which were the easiest?

• INTERPRET what these patterns mean. For example, what missing elements (news, social contact, entertainment) affected your daily life the most? Did the deprivation experience open up new possibilities for you?

• EVALUATE the role of the media in your life and in your social circle. What is good and bad about it? Is it too easy to demonize all media as “bad”? Is it too easy to overindulge in media content?

• ENGAGE with the community by sharing your story with local news outlets, on a social networking page, or on a relevant Web site. Or ask your instructor to collect your entire class’s media deprivation outcomes for public presentation.