Mass Communication, Culture and Media Literacy Guide

Chapter 1 - Mass Communication, Culture and Media Literacy Key Terms communication: the process of created shared meaning feedback: the response to a given communication interpersonal communication: communication between two or a few people encoding: transforming ideas into an understandable sign/symbol system decoding: interpreting sign/symbol system noise: anything that interferes with successful communication medium: (plural media) vehicle by which messages are conveyed mass medium: (plural mass media) a medium that carries messages to a large number of people mass communication: the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences inferential feedback: in the mass communication process, feedback is typically indirect rather than direct, that is, it is inferential cultural definition of communication: communicate is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed; from James Carey culture: the word made meaningful; socially constructed and maintained through communication, it limits as well as liberates us, differentiates as well as unites us, defines our realities and thereby shapes the ways we think, fell, and act dominant culture: the culture that seems to hold sway with the large majority of people; that which is normative; also called mainstream culture bounded culture: groups with specific but not dominant cultures; also called co-cultures binge watching: watching five or more episodes of a TV series in one sitting technological determinism: the idea that machines and their development drive economic and cultural change media literacy: the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and utilize mass communication literacy: the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use written symbols multiple points of access: ability of media-literate consumer to access or approach media content from a variety of personally satisfying directions third-person effect: the common attitude that others are influenced by media messages, but we are not genre: a form of media with a standardized, distinctive style and conventions conventions: in media content, certain distinctive, standardized style elements of individual genres hostile media effect: the idea that people see media coverage of important topics of interest as less sympathetic to their position, more sympathetic to the opposing position, and generally hostile to their point of view regardless of the quality of the coverage fake news: intentionally and verifiably false internet news stories designed to be spread and to deceive confirmation bias: the tendency to accept information that confirms one’s beliefs and dismiss information that does not production values: media content’s internal language and grammar; it’s style and quality What Is Mass Communications - - - - - Communication is the transmission of a message from a source to the receiver Harold Lasswell (1948) said that a convenient way to describe communication is to answer the questions - Who? Says what? Through which channel? To whom? With what effect? Communication occurs when a source sends a message through a medium to a receiver producing some effect Communication requires the response of others, therefore, there must me sharing or correspondence of meaning for communication to take place Response or feedback is also a message Communication is a reciprocal and ongoing process with all involved parties more or less engaged in creating shared meeting A message is first encoded, that is, transformed into an understandable sign and symbol system. Speaking, writing, printing, and filming a tv program is encoding. Once received the message is decoded, the signs and symbols are interpreted. Decoding occurs through reading, listening, or watching. Noise is anything that interferes with successful communication Encoded messages are carried by a medium, that is, the means of sending information Internet carries text, sounds, and images and radio conveys the sound of news and music - we call it a mass medium Each medium is the basis of a giant industry, but other related and supporting industries also serve them and us - advertising and public relations is an example We use media and mass media interchangeably to refer to the communication industries themselves Mass communications is the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences. Inferential feedback is indirect rather than direct Mass communications is also subject to additional feedback, usually in the form of criticism in other media, such as a tv show critic writing column in a newspaper Interpersonal communication is often personally relevant and possibly even adventurous and challengings, while mass communications tends to me more constrained and less free Media theorist James Carey wrote communication is a symbols process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed Communication and reality are linked, communications is a process embedded in our everyday lives that informs the way we perceive, understand, and construct our view and reality of the worlds Communication is the foundation of our culture What Is Culture? - Culture is the learned behavior of members of a given social group All definitions of culture recognized that culture is learned - - - - Creation and maintenance of a more or less common culture occur through communication, including mass communication Culture serves a purpose: it helps us categorize and classify experiences; it helps define us, our world, and our place in it A culture’s learned traditions and values can be seen as patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling and acting Culture limits our options and provides useful guidelines for behavior Culture provides information that helps us make meaningful distinctions about rights and wrong, appropriate and inappropriate, good and bad, attractive and unattractive Through a lifetime of communications we have learned what culture expects of us Cultures limiting effects can be negative though, such as when we are unwilling or unable to move past patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, or when we entrust our “learning” to teachers whose interests are selfish, narrow, or otherwise inconsistent Dominant culture or mainstream culture - the one that seems to hold sway to a majority of people - is openly challenged often in out democratic society People do meet, find attractive, like, and love people who do not fit the standard image of beauty Within large national culture there are many smaller bounded cultures/co-cultures (ex Italian American, I’m a Southerner) These smaller cultures unite groups of people and enable them to see themselves as different from other groups around them, thus culture also serves to differentiate us from others Through communications with people in our culture, we internalize culture norms and values- those things that bind our many diverse bounded cultures into a functioning, cohesive society Culture is what makes the world meaningful; it is socially constructed and maintained through communication. It limits as well as liberates us; it differentiates us as well as it unites us. It defines our realities and thereby shapes the ways we think, feel, and act. Mass Communication and Culture - - - Together we allow mass communication not only to occur, but also to contribute to the creation and maintenance of culture Everyone has an obligation to participate responsibly People working in media industries, this means professionally and ethically creating and transmitting content For audience members it means behaving as critical and thoughtful consumers of that content Two ways to understand our opportunities and our responsibilities in the mass communication process are to view the mass media as our cultural storytellers and to conceptualize mass communications as a cultural forum The media’s stories - real, imaginary, an intentional or unintentional mixture of the two become the material for our cultural conversations. Therefore the “storytellers” have a responsibility to tell their stories in a professional and ethical way as possible Mass communication has become a primary forum for the debate about our culture Scope and Nature of Mass Media - - We spend an enormous portion of our lives spent interacting with mass media A large majority of TV viewers admit to binge watching, watching 5 or more episodes of a series in one sitting To some it is machines and their development that drive economic and cultural change, this is referred to as technological determinism Those who believe in technological determinism would argue that these changes in the cultural landscape were the inevitable result of new technology Others see technology as more of a neutral and claim that the way people use technology is what gives it significance. This perspective accepts technology as one of many factors that shape economic and cultural change; technology's influence is ultimately determined by how much power it is given by the people and cultures that use it Technology at the very least changes the basic elements of communication, what it does not do is relieve us of our obligation to use mass communication responsibly and wisely. Money too alters communication, it shits the balance of power it tend to make audiences products rather than consumers (ex newspapers charging less then production cost but selling ad boxes) Two Revolutions in Mass Communications - This skill is media literacy - the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use any form of mediated communication The advent of the print is the key to our modern consciousness because literacy - the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use written symbols The print opened literacy to all; it allowed for mass communication With the spread of printing written communication was available to a much larger portion of the population, and the need for literacy among the middle class frew The ability to read became less of a luxury and more of a necessity; eventually literacy spread, as did education AS more people learned to read, new ideas germinated and spread out, and crosspollination of ideas occurred Industrialization reduced the time necessary to complete work, and this created something previously unknown to most working people – leisure time Combine leisure time and expendable cash with the spread of literacy, and the result is a large and growing audience for printed information and entertainment. By the mid 19th century, a mass audience and the means to reach it existed Media Literacy - Elements of media literacy - A critical thinking skill enabling audience members to develop independent judgments about media contents - An understanding of the process of mass communication - And awareness to the impact of media on the individual and society - Strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages - And understanding of media content as text that provides insight into our culture and our lives - - The ability to enjoy, understand, and appreciate media content - Development of effective and responsible production skills - And understanding of the ethical and moral obligations of media practitioners Media-literate consumption requires a number of specific skills: - The ability and willingness to make an effort to understand content, to pay attention, and to filter noise - An understanding of and respect for the power of media messages - The ability to distinguish emotional form reasoned reactions when responding to content and to act accordingly - The development of heightened expectation of media - A knowledge of genre conventions and the ability to recognize when they are being mixed - The ability to think critically about media messages, no matter how credible their sources - A knowledge of the internal language of various media and the ability to understand its effects, no matter how complex