Mass Communication
Introduction
•Communication has always been the heartbeat of
human connection, and mass communication is its
most powerful extension.
•In a world increasingly shaped by information and
technology, understanding mass communication is
more critical than ever.
•From ancient storytelling to digital media, mass
communication has evolved to become a pillar of
modern society. Imagine a message reaching millions
across the globe instantly - that is the power of mass
communication.
•Every day, consciously or unconsciously, we are
influenced by mass communication. Let’s explore how
and why.
•The media we consume shapes our views, beliefs,
• Before newspapers, radios, and the internet,
messages traveled slowly. Today, with mass
communication, ideas move at the speed of light.
• To understand society, culture, politics, and even
personal identity today, we must first understand
mass communication.
• Let's embark on a journey to understand how
information flows from one to many - and how it
impacts our lives.
• This is a field of study that explores how information
is transmitted to large audiences through various
media.
• Mass Communication is the process of conveying
information from a sender to a large, diverse, and
often anonymous audience, typically through various
media channels like television, radio, social media,
• It involves creating, sending, receiving, and
analyzing messages to a large audience via verbal
and written media.
• The process is facilitated by mass media, which are
technologies capable of reaching many people
simultaneously.
• Stress the importance of mass communication in
shaping society, culture, public opinion, and even
government policy.
• The media through which messages are being
transmitted include radio, TV, newspapers,
magazines, films, records, tape recorders, video
cassette recorders, internet, etc. and require large
organizations and electronic devices to put across
the message.
• Mass communication is a special kind of
1–5
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?
• Communication involves:
• Creating a shared meaning between people
• Reaching a common understanding of an idea
or concept
• Person-to-person
• In a small group
• In a meeting
• In an organisation
• In the mass media
• Improving efficiency and job satisfaction
THE COMMUNICATION 1–6
PROCESS
1–8
SENDING AND RECEIVING
• Factors affecting the sender and receiver:
• Feelings
• Attitudes
• Values
• Experiences
• Culture
• Self-esteem
1–9
SKILLS OF A GOOD
COMMUNICATOR
• Good communicators:
• Speak and write clearly
• Listen actively
• Give feedback
• Make eye contact
• Avoid interrupting
• Respect the views of others
• Ask questions
• Use appropriate non-verbal behaviour
FEATURES OF MASS
COMMUNICATION
• We require a sender, a message, a channel and
a receiver for communication to occur.
• Further there is feedback, which is the response
or reaction of the receiver, which comes back to
the sender through the same or some other
channel.
• Another element, which plays an important role
in communication, is noise or the disturbances.
• In addition to the above mentioned common
characteristics of the process, mass
communication often have the following
special features :
1. Large audience
2. Fairly undifferentiated audience
composition
3. Some form of message reproduction
4. Rapid distribution and delivery
5. Low cost to the consumers
6. Gate keeping
Pervasive Media in Our Lives – The Media
Saturated Environment
Other Characteristics of Mass communication:
1.Directs messages toward relatively large,
heterogeneous and anonymous audience.
2.Messages are transmitted publicly (no privacy).
3.Short duration message for immediate consumption.
4.Feedback is indirect, non-existent or delayed
5.Cost per exposure per individual is minimum
6.Source belongs to organization or institutions
7.Mostly one way
8.Involves good deal of selection that is, medium
chooses its audience (newspaper for literates) and
audience choose media (poor, illiterates select radio)
9.Communication is done by social institutions which
are responsive to the environment in which they
operate
Effects of Mass
Media?
Two views:
1) Non literate
peoples have
benefited as
television and radio
make for a more
democratic flow of
information- John
Fiske
2) Those who control
television and radio
gained more control
over society by
duping consumers
• Media operate in the context of other media and we are
aware that they are not neutral in conveying messages.
• In terms of information… a documentary on the JFK
assassination is very different from Oliver Stone’s JFK,
which we may know is staged, but still may influence our
perception of the historical event.
• The way we rank media is
based on where that media
stands in relation to older
and new media - and
whether they are primarily
oriented toward
entertainment, news or
information.
• For example, news on the
internet has come to be
associated with speed of
transmission and a global
scope.
• The original sense of mass audience was an
undifferentiated vast audience of people with
• little
Mass individuality.
media is also
synonymous with the
rise of television.
• Of course, now we have
a much more
fragmented audience….
• A range of
multidirectional media
and choices for
communication have
replaced an older model
of mass media.
• Media, both news and fiction, facilitate the social
sphere for public debate and action.
• We are also aware that the broadcast media pitch
their shows to viewers with buying power. Middle
class youth 13-26 are sought after…
• Thus we are influenced -and we influence -
broadcast media in the ways we use it.
• The computer and Web
allow anyone to become an
author/producer, thus
giving rise to international
subcultures.
• Satellite technology gave
rise to global
communications and the
end of narrowcasting for
some 20 years, until
community television rose
again in the form of
“minority” networks
appealing to narrow
demographics/cultures,
especially through cable
television.
• There is no longer a single
• Critiques of Mass Media
• Critics argue that the new electronic technologies are powerful
new tools for mass persuasion (or propaganda) allowing for
political oppression and control.
• Viewers, they fear, are gullible recipients of media messages.
• There is one example of modern propaganda, Leni Reifenstahl’s
Triumph
• The of is
point thethat
Will,this
a documentary
film account of a Hitler rally in
Sept 1934. overt
encourages
nationalism and idolatry of
a political leader.
• This film, along with the Nazi’s
introduction of television as
something to be viewed
collectively in public spaces,
helped forge a collective
ideology.
• The collective practice of
looking was a major tool in
Josef Goebbels’ propaganda
ministry in Hitler’s Germany.
• Guy Debord understood
the effects of collective
practices of looking.
• His group Situationist
International, noted how
the social order of the late
20th c global economy
exerts influence through
representations.
• Thus, the spectacle, ie, the
image and the practice of
gazing
The as central,or
Situationists, becomes
the instrument
Situs, of
were the first
unification. group to
revolutionary
analyse capitalism in its
current consumerist
form.
• Debord noted that experience has been reduced to
representation.
• Jean Beaudrillard continued his theory, believing that
simulation transcends the real. (Simulacra are copies
without originals)
•• Debord noted that experience has been reduced to
Jean Beaudrillard
representation.
continued his theory,
believing that simulation
transcends the real.
(Simulacra are copies
without originals)
• This allows for a
replacement of the real in
every relationship.
• For example, the virtual
worlds of Disneyland,
A spin-off of this was the
realization that TV was a
narcotic that was, by
unifying and consolidating
masses under a single
political belief, was
replacing actual
participation in organized
politics, hence leading to
more and more
disaffection.
• The Frankfurt School (Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno,
Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse) criticized post WW2
capitalist and consumerist orientation of popular media forms.
• The culture industry creates and caters to a mass public that
cannot distinguish between reality and illusion.
• They found the culture industry generates a false
consciousness, encouraging consumers to buy into the belief
system that allows capitalism to thrive. (They were strongly
influenced as victims of the rise of Nazi Germany in the 30s)
• As universalists, the Frankfurt School used Marxist
ideology to explain how the dominant class who own the
media, control the content and sell the masses ideas
that perpetuated the domination and oppression
inherent in a capitalist economy.
• They were concerned with the effects of the media on the
masses, not vice versa.
• They believed consumers of “high culture” (classical music, art
in museums, an educated viewer) stood above those of “low
culture” whom they considered mindless dupes of culture
industry and industrial capitalism. (who loved popular music,
“kitsch” art, and had low education)
• Frankfurt School’s belief in
top-down culture is weak in
its universalizing tendency
and failure to note how
consumers of culture
have distinct
negotiating patterns
and are part of many
cultures.
• In short, there is no unified
mass culture and a singular
media industry.
• The culture industry
realizes this and produces
products for niche
audiences, including a
counter-hegemonic
approach to challenge
• The Mass Media and Democratic Potential
• Will new media serve as a promising tool for democratic
ideals?
• With such a diversity of programming possible how can
we be sure about “public” culture?
• Marshal McLuhan believed that media were simply
extensions of our natural senses, helping us to connect
with distant communities and bodies.
• McLuhan, as a technological
determinist, was not as
concerned with the content of a
message as the medium
through which it was received.
• This empowers individuals,
whose own body is extended
throughout the world.
• In the late 60’s this meant
guerilla TV was possible, and
lots of people could become
producers.
• And he anticipated the power of
instant circuitry where nothing
in the world is any longer
remote in time or space.
• McLuhan was a harbinger of
cyberculture.
• Television and the
question of sponsorship
• Broadcast advertising has
been the US paradigm for the
media of radio and TV from
the earliest years, and serving
the corporate sector’s interest
was the route preferred, not
vice versa even though
“regulation” was allegedly in
the public’s interest.
• The consumer was to be
exposed to the medium as
advertisement more than
entertainment.
• Television delivered people
(audiences) to the sponsors….
• In early years of TV in the US, corporate sponsorship was
explicitly part of program and sponsors closely controlled
what viewers saw.
• This ended in the early 50s with shows getting longer and
out of the reach of one sponsor; this put shows back
into the hands of the networks.
• After quiz show scandals of the late 50’s (sponsors rigged
shows) the sponsors no longer programmed shows.
• When networks laid down coaxial cable in the 50’s, this
linked 600 stations to the three major networks, thus
ending possibilities of local programming and creating
national network programming.
Since the 70’s explosion of
cable systems may have
multiplied the number of
network and program
choices ie, specialty
channels, but it has
given rise to media
globalization as is seen
by the reach of CNN as a
world wide casting of
news.
Britain’s government
launched the BBC in the
30’s and had a monopoly
on TV until the mid 50s
with the introduction of
commercial TV.
BBC [which charges
viewers a viewing license
fee annually GE] contracts
with producers.
Public broadcasting model
was also adopted in Canada,
France and Germany.
In US the PBS network tried
to be non commercial and
allowing for minority
viewpoints, but corporate
sponsorship is today very
important for its survival,
even though voluntary
viewer support is there too.
• Media and the Public Sphere
• Viewers often experience interpellation, ie they see themselves
as members of a national audience.
• This is a reflection of what Jurgen Habermas called ‘the public
sphere’ which in the 19th c was a physical place where middle
class men assembled to discuss matters of public interest, but in
the late 20th c this sphere is truly public, involving women,
• Is this a single
minorities, the public or aand involves many media.
poor, etc.
multiplicity of publics?
• TV helps create the idea of a
national culture even though it
moves images around the planet.
The TV talk show has gained
inordinate power in influencing
public debate.
• Authors fail to mention that the
level of debate and discussion
tend toward the lowest common
denominator, not to the educated
mind. This is often referred to as
“the dumbing down of the
• New Media Cultures
• Traditional distinctions
among media are less
definable; media can be
less monolithic and
centralized as we see
with uses of the WWW
(web).
• There are now many
local and national
responses to what is
seen as American
cultural imperialism.
• Protest, media
appropriation and
mediated debate are
now the opposing
polarities to the old
Our Job in Consuming the Contents of
Mass Media
•Media is never purely neutral - it shapes how we think,
feel, and even what we believe is "normal" or "true.“
•As consumers of information and views mass media
present, exercising critical look is essential to navigate
misinformation, bias, and manipulative tactics. Here
are key cautions to observe:
1.Verify Before Sharing
•Check Sources: Prefer content from reputable outlets
(e.g., BBC, Reuters) over unverified social media posts.
•Fact-Check: Use tools like Snopes, FactCheck.org, or
Google Reverse Image Search to confirm claims.
•Watch for Red Flags: Sensational headlines, lack of
author/byline, or odd URLs (e.g., ".lo" instead of
2.Recognize Bias and Framing
• Identify Slant: No media is entirely neutral. Ask:
Whose perspective is highlighted? Whose is
omitted?
• Compare Coverage: Read multiple sources (e.g., Al
Jazeera + Fox News) to spot differing angles.
• Emotional Manipulation: Be wary of content
designed to provoke outrage or fear (e.g.,
clickbait).
3. Guard Against Mis/Disinformation
• Deepfakes & AI: Scrutinize suspicious
videos/images (look for unnatural shadows/voices).
• Conspiracy Theories: Question claims lacking
evidence or relying on "secret insider" narratives.
• Context Matters: A viral clip may be edited—seek
full footage.
4. Understand Algorithms’ Role
• Echo Chambers: Social media feeds show content
aligning with your views. Actively follow diverse
voices.
• Addictive Design: Limit screen time; platforms
exploit dopamine-driven engagement (e.g., infinite
scroll).
5. Protect Privacy
• Data Harvesting: Avoid oversharing personal
details; apps/media track behavior for targeted
ads.
• Cookie Policies: Reject non-essential cookies to
reduce surveillance.
6.Ethical Consumption
• Support Quality Journalism: Pay for subscriptions to
credible outlets.
• Boycott Harmful Content: Avoid platforms/channels
spreading hate speech or falsehoods.
7. Teach Media Literacy
• Educate Children: Teach them to question ads, spot
fake news, and understand influencer marketing.
• Community Dialogues: Discuss media literacy with
family/friends to build collective resilience.
• Quote to Remember:
"The media’s power is fragile. It depends on
audiences believing without questioning. Be the
exception."
• Action Step: Next time you see a viral post, pause
and ask "Who benefits if I believe this?" before
THANKS
