AHSS*1060 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Prosumer, Mass Communication, Digital Divide
Mass Communication - AHSS 1060
Chapter 1: Defining the Field
Media in an Ever-Changing Communication Universe
-Affects us on an individual (relationship, family, careers), societal (characteristics
of society, how we communicate) and global level
-Communication technology shrinks space (reduces time to accomplish certain
tasks, globe feels smaller)
-Concerns:
I. Privatization + Commercialism: a company buys and sells for the sake of
profit (can create monopolies which exploit consumers). Privatizing media
allows for more biases + show stories for readership rather than
importance
II. Privacy - increase in surveillance, invasion of privacy
III. Digital Divide: difference in development + use of info and comm. tech b/w
rich and poor countries and the haves and have-nots within a society
Communication: the act of making a message common b/w 2 people
Shannon and Weaver Mathematical Model of Comm.
-Too simplistic; Does not consider social variables of comm. (ex. language,
culture, education, ethnicity)
Social Model of Comm.
-Emphasizes social and media variables throughout each process of comm.
-Sees comm. as structured and dependant on social elements
Concepts + Ideas of Mass Communication
-Communication addressed to large #s
-Large amounts of messages being sent + received
-Audiences of mass comm. are unsophisticated (media is “dumbed down” so
everyone can understand it, not challenging people to question content)
-Mass comm. by one mass audience vs. aggregate (each audience watching the
same media from phone, T.V, website forms one mass audience)
-Mass comm. from traditional corporate media (ex. movies, newspapers,
broadcasting)
-Decentralized mass comm. w/ the advent of the web
A. Mass communication: transmission and transformation of info on a large scale
Dimensions of Mass Comm.
1. The production and dissemination (spread out) of mass info and
entertainment, mostly state regulated (ex. film, magazine, books, radio,
T.V, ads)
2. The decentralized production and wide accessibility of info and
entertainment, intended for small audiences (ex. Blogs, podcasts, print,
audio, public performances)
3. The interactive exchange of info to a # of recipients (networking) includes
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Affects us on an individual (relationship, family, careers), societal (characteristics of society, how we communicate) and global level. Communication technology shrinks space (reduces time to accomplish certain tasks, globe feels smaller) Privatization + commercialism: a company buys and sells for the sake of profit (can create monopolies which exploit consumers). Privatizing media allows for more biases + show stories for readership rather than importance. Privacy - increase in surveillance, invasion of privacy. Digital divide: difference in development + use of info and comm. tech b/w rich and poor countries and the haves and have-nots within a society. Communication: the act of making a message common b/w 2 people. Too simplistic; does not consider social variables of comm. (ex. language, culture, education, ethnicity) Emphasizes social and media variables throughout each process of comm. Sees comm. as structured and dependant on social elements. Audiences of mass comm. are unsophisticated (media is dumbed down so.
