15.1: Defining Mass Communication

Learning Objectives

• Define mass communication
• Identify key functions of mass communication

Imagine you’re in class, scrolling Instagram and listening to music, when the instructor begins speaking. She welcomes everyone, points to the course webpage, and explains that the syllabus will only be available online. Students are expected to read it before the next class. In addition to lectures and discussions, you’ll need to follow the news, read assigned articles, and watch videos to understand key concepts. After a quick reminder to silence phones, she assigns the first textbook chapter and explains that the textbook includes a passcode for accessing an online database of articles for your semester project. Once questions are answered, class ends.

As you leave, you hear music from the campus radio station. You grab lunch while watching TV in the student union, then listen to a baseball game on the car radio. Driving home, you notice a billboard ad. Later, at your computer, you check course updates, news, sports scores, and email—deleting spam and annoyed by pop-up ads. Finally, you relax with a movie on Netflix, moving aside a pile of magazines to set down your drink.

This example shows how much mass communication surrounds us daily. In the U.S., much of what we know about the world comes through media. Early 20th-century scholars began asking questions that still matter today: How does mass communication affect us? How do we access and interpret it? Are we active or passive participants? This chapter explores these questions by looking at the evolution, functions, theories, and role of mass communication in society.

Figure 15.1.1 Global Communication Network

Defining Mass Communication

To understand mass communication, one must first be aware of some of the key factors that distinguish it from other forms of communication. First is the dependence on a media channel to convey a message to a large audience. Second, the audience tends to be distant, diverse, and varies in size depending on the medium and message. Third, mass communication is most often profit driven, and feedback is limited. Fourth, because of the impersonal nature of mass communication, participants are not equally present during the process.

Mass communication continues to become more integrated into our lives at an increasingly rapid pace. This metamorphosis is represented by the convergence occurring (Fidler) between ourselves and technology, where we are not as distanced from mass communication as in the past. Increasingly, we have more opportunities to use mediated communication to fulfill interpersonal and social needs.

Note

O’Sullivan refers to this new use of mass communication to foster our personal lives as mass-personal communication. This is where (a) traditional mass communication channels are used for interpersonal communication, (b) traditionally interpersonal communication channels are used for mass communication, and (c) traditional mass communication and traditional interpersonal communication occur simultaneously. Over time, more and more overlap occurs. “Innovations in communication technologies have begun to make the barriers between mass and interpersonal communication theory more permeable than ever” (O’Sullivan). Sites such as Facebook, X (formally known as Twitter), TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are great examples of new mass communication platforms we use to develop and maintain interpersonal relationships.

As more mass communication mediums develop, Marshall McLuhan states that we can understand media as either hot or cold depending on the amount of information available to the user as well as the degree of participation. A hot medium “extends one single sense in high definition” (McLuhan). Examples of hot media include photographs or radio because the message is mostly interpreted using one sense and requires little participation by participants. An audience is more passive with hot media because there is less to filter. Television is considered a cold medium because it contains a large amount of multisensory information.

Perhaps we are turning into a global village through our interdependence with mass communication. Suddenly, across the ocean has become around the corner. McLuhan predicted this would happen because of mass communication’s ability to unify people around the globe. Are you a player in what Habermas calls the “public sphere” that mass communication creates by posting information about yourself on public sites? If so, be careful about what you post about yourself or allow others to tag you in, as many employers are Googling potential employees to look into their personal lives before making decisions about hiring them. As we continue our discussion of mass communication, we want to note that mass communication does not include every communication technology. As our definition states, mass communication is communication that potentially reaches large audiences.

Functions of Mass Communication

Mass communication doesn’t exist for a single purpose. With its evolution, more and more uses have developed, and the role it plays in our lives has increased greatly. Wright characterizes seven functions of mass communication that offer insight into its role in our lives.

Surveillance

The first function of mass communication is to serve as the eyes and ears for those seeking information about the world. The internet, television, and newspapers are the main sources for finding out what’s going on around you. Society relies on mass communication for news and information about our daily lives; it reports the weather, current issues, and the latest celebrity gossip and even start times for games. Do you remember the Boston Marathon bombing that happened in 2013? How did you hear about it? Thanks to the internet and smartphones, instant access to information is at the user’s fingertips. News apps have made mass communication surveillance instantly accessible by sending notifications to smartphones with the latest news.

Correlation

Correlation addresses how the media presents facts that we use to move through the world. The information received through mass communication is not objective and without bias. People ironically state, “It must be true if it’s on the internet.” However, we don’t think that in generations past, people must have without a doubt stated, “It has to be true because it was on the radio.” This statement begs the question, How credible are the media? Can we consume media without questioning motive and agenda? Someone selects, arranges, interprets, edits, and critiques the information used in the media. If you ask anyone who works for a major reality TV show if what we see is a fair representation of what really happens, the person would probably tell you no.

Sensationalization

There is an old saying in the news industry, “If it bleeds, it leads,” which highlights the idea of sensationalization, which is when the media puts forward the most sensational messages to titillate consumers. Elliot observes, “Media managers think in terms of consumers rather than citizens. Good journalism sells, but unfortunately, bad journalism sells as well. And, bad journalism—stories that simply repeat government claims or that reinforce what the public wants to hear instead of offering independent reporting—is cheaper and easier to produce.”

Entertainment

Media outlets such as People magazine, TMZ, and entertainment blogs such as Perez Hilton keep us up to date on the daily comings and goings of our favorite celebrities. We use technology to watch sports, go to the movies, play video games, watch YouTube videos, and stream music on a daily basis. Most mass communication simultaneously entertains and informs. We often turn to media during our leisure time to provide an escape from boredom and relief from the predictability of our everyday lives. We rely on media to take us places we could not afford to go or imagine, acquaint us with bits of culture, and make us laugh, think, or cry. Entertainment can have the secondary effect of providing companionship and/or catharsis through the media we consume.

Transmission

Mass media is a vehicle to transmit cultural norms, values, rules, and habits. Consider how you learned about what’s fashionable in clothes or music. Mass media plays a significant role in the socialization process. We look for role models to display appropriate cultural norms, but all too often, we do not recognize their inappropriate or stereotypical behavior. Mainstream society starts shopping, dressing, smelling, walking, and talking like the person in the music video, commercial, or movies. Why would soft drink companies pay Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift millions of dollars to sell their products? Have you ever bought a pair of shoes or changed your hairstyle because of something you encountered in the media? Obviously, culture, age, type of media, and other cultural variables factor into how mass communication influences how we learn and perceive our culture.

Mobilization

Mass communication functions to mobilize people during times of crisis (McQuail). Think back to the Boston Marathon bombing. Regardless of your association to the incident, Americans felt the attack as a nation, and people followed the news until they found the perpetrators. With instant access to media and information, we can collectively witness the same events taking place in real time somewhere else, thus mobilizing a large population of people around a particular event. The online community Reddit.com is a key example of the internet’s proactivity. While the FBI was investigating the bombing, the Reddit community was posting witness photos and trying to help identify the culprits. People felt they were making a difference.

Validation

Mass communication functions to validate the status and norms of particular individuals, movements, organizations, or products. The validation of particular people or groups serves to enforce social norms (Lazarsfeld and Merton). If you think about most television dramas and sitcoms, who are the primary characters? What gender and ethnicity are the majority of the stars? What gender and ethnicity are those that play criminals or those considered abnormal? The media validates particular cultural norms while diminishing differences and variations from those norms. A great deal of criticism focuses on how certain groups are promoted and others marginalized by how they are portrayed in mass media.

Figure 15.1.2 Functions of media Image Spaynton is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Given the power of the various functions of mass communication, we need to be reflective about its presence in our lives (McLuhan and Fiore). We will now turn our attention to the study of mass communication by looking at what mass communication scholars study and how they study it.