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9: Mass Communication and Social Media

  • Page ID
    108047
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    Littlejohn and Foss define mass communication as “the process whereby media organizations produce and transmit messages to large public and the process by which those messages are sought, used, understood, and influenced by the audience” (333). McQuail states that mass communication is, “only one of the processes of communication operating at the society-wide level, readily identified by its institutional characteristics” (7). Simply put, mass communication is the public transfer of messages through media or technology-driven channels to a large number of recipients from an entity, usually involving some type of cost or fee (advertising) for the user. In this chapter, we will define mass communication and discuss mass media, social media, globalization, and the ethics required.  Images throughout this chapter are licensed by Pexels

    • 9.1: Mass Communication - A definition
      Introduction to Mass Communication and Social Media and the effect on society and culture. We define communication as the process of generating meaning by sending and receiving verbal and nonverbal symbols and signs that are influenced by multiple contexts.
    • 9.2: Quick Look- Mass Communication and Media
      “Well, how did I get here?” a baffled David Byrne sings in the Talking Heads song, “Once in a Lifetime.” The contemporary media landscape is so rich, deep, and multifaceted that it’s easy to imagine American media consumers asking themselves the same question.
    • 9.3: Social Media and Web 2.0
      There are many different types of social media available today, from social networking sites like Facebook to video-sharing like YouTube and TikTok to blogging services and microbloggers like WordPress.com and Twitter. All these sites bring something different to the table, and a few of them even try to bring just about everything to the table at once.
    • 9.4: The Effects of the Internet and Globalization on Popular Culture and Interpersonal Communication
      It’s in the name: World Wide Web. The Internet has broken down communication barriers between cultures in a way that could only be dreamed of in earlier generations. Now, almost any news service across the globe can be accessed on the Internet and, with the various translation services available (like Babelfish and Google Translate), be relatively understandable. In addition to the spread of American culture throughout the world, smaller countries are now able to cheaply export culture, news, en
    • 9.5: Ethics of Mass Media
      In this section, we discuss ethical issues, such as stereotypes, prescribed roles, and public perception within mass media. We will also look specifically at the ethics of the "gatekeepers" in mass media.

    References

    • Littlejohn, Stephen W., and Karen A. Foss. Theories of Human Communication. 10th ed. Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland, 2011. Print.
    • McQuail, Denis. (1994). Mass Communication: An Introduction (2nd). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Print.

    This page titled 9: Mass Communication and Social Media is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lisa Coleman, Thomas King, & William Turner.