Appendix B: Understanding Mass and Mediated Communication

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Today’s teens experience more media on a daily basis than their parents did in an entire week. Gary S Chapman/Getty Images

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IN THIS APPENDIX

  • The Nature of Media
  • Understanding Mass Media Messages
  • Effects of Mass Media
  • Converging Media Technologies
  • Becoming a More Mindful Media Consumer

Sandie and Chris fell in love during the 1980s, while spending late evenings together watching Late Night with David Letterman. Twenty or so years later, their teenage daughter, Abigail, sits in front of a laptop on a Saturday morning, watching streaming clips of Jimmy Fallon sitting behind Letterman’s old desk at NBC. She’s also monitoring her Facebook page to see if anyone has commented on the picture she created of herself with heartthrob actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There are dog-eared copies of her favorite Hunger Games books on her bed, and she’s reading and posting comments on her blog about the latest film version. Later, she texts her friends to make plans to go to the movies, but not before checking out a few trailers online.

After you have finished reading this Appendix, you will be able to

  • Define mass and mediated communication
  • Describe how the business of media and the principle of free speech shape the kinds of media content you encounter
  • Provide two explanations for the effects of mass media
  • Articulate how media exert influence on your attitudes and behaviors
  • Describe how the convergence of media technologies can enhance or hinder your participation in the social and political process
  • Practice five skills for becoming a more mindful and media literate consumer

That afternoon, while babysitting her ten-year-old brother, Harry, Abigail spends an hour playing the latest Legend of Zelda game with him on their Xbox. Abigail lets Harry play Minecraft on her iPhone while she rewatches her favorite webisodes of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on her laptop. After dinner, she’s off to the movies and conscientiously turns off her cell phone—it’s the first time she’s been disconnected all day.

By the time Abigail goes to sleep, she’s experienced more media than her parents did in a week when they were her age. Meanwhile, Chris and Sandie pull up last night’s Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on DVR, grateful that they no longer have to stay up to watch late night television.

Most of us, like Abigail and her family, spend a great deal of time with these interconnecting media technologies, often using two or more simultaneously (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010; Voorveld & van der Goot, 2013). In this chapter, we look at mass and mediated communication and discuss the blurred lines between the two. We explore the forces that shape how media messages are made, such as the economics of the media industries and the attempts at government influence, and we discuss the potential effects that media have on us as audience members. Finally, we examine the benefits and difficulties that the ever expanding array of media technologies presents for American society, as well as what we can do to cope effectively with our media experience.