COMM 101 WCC CHAPTER #1 LUTHER

1. AGENDA:
*Real World Media Example
*Review Chapter One and
discuss its main concepts
*Chapter One Study Focus
Questions

2. Introduction to Mass
Communication:
Media Literacy and Culture
9th edition Stanley J. Baran
Chapter 1:
Mass Communication,
Culture, and Media
Literacy

3. FUNDAMENTAL COURSE THEME:
Media inform us, entertain us, delight us, annoy us – the
move our emotions, challenge our intellects, insult our
intelligence – media often reduce us to mere
commodities for sale to the highest bidder – media help
define us and shape or realities…BUT media does nothing
alone. It does it with us as well as to us through mass
communication, and it does it as a central – many would
say THE central – cultural force in our society.

4. What Is Communication?
COMMUNICATION =
The process of creating
shared meaning

5. What Is Communication?
Communication: the transmission
of a message from a source to a
receiver.
•All messages are encoded (transferred
into an understandable sign and symbol
system)
•Once received, all messages are
intended to be decoded (the signs and
symbols are interpreted)

6. What Is Mass Communication?
•Media plural of medium (the
means of sending mass
communication/many identical
messages to a mass audience)
•Mass Media communication
ALWAYS involves technology of
some kind

7. Mass Communication Definition
MASS COMMUNICATION =
The process of creating
shared meaning between
the mass media and their
audience

8. What Is Mass Communication?
(Interpersonal vs. Mass)
Interpersonal Communication
Message: Highly flexible
Between one person and
another (or a few people) in
direct contact
Feedback: Immediate and direct
Result: Flexible, personally
relevant
Mass Communication
Message: Inflexible,
mechanically produced
Between an organization
and a large audience
Feedback: Delayed and
inferential
Result: Constrained by
almost all aspects of the
communication situation

9. Communication Definition
“Communication is a
symbolic process whereby
reality is produced,
maintained, repaired and
transformed.”
– James W. Carey,
Media Theorist (1975)

10. Communication Definition
Communication and “reality” are
linked – communication informs
pragmatic “reality” by
impacting/forming the way we
perceive, understand and
construct our view of reality and
the world. Communication is the
foundation of our culture.

11. Communication Definition
“Communication is a symbolic
process whereby reality is
produced, maintained,
repaired and transformed.”
TED TALK EXAMPLE

12. STUDY FOCUS QUESTION #1
Describe a situation in which
you find that reality is
“produced, maintained,
repaired and/or transformed”
by mass media
communication

13. What Is Culture?
Culture: the learned behavior of members of
a given social group.
Culture as Socially Constructed Shared
Meaning = CULTURE IS LEARNED AND
MAINTAINED VIA COMMUNICATION
Functions and Effects of Culture:
Limits our options and provides guidelines
Culture’s limiting effects can be negative
Creates a Dominant/Mainstream Culture
and, in turn, Counter-Cultures

14. Mass Communication and Culture
•Our stories help define our culture – a culture’s
values and beliefs reside in the stories it tells –
these stories help shape the ways we think, feel,
and act. We use them to learn about the world
around us, to understand the values, the way
things work, and how the pieces fit together.
•Therefore, “storytellers” may have a responsibility
to tell their stories in as professional and ethical
way as possible…

15. Mass Communication and Culture
• ETHICS = The rules of conduct recognized in
respect to a particular class of human actions
or a particular group or culture. “Because
society says it is the right thing to do.”
• MORALS = Principles or habits with respect
to right or wrong conduct. While morals also
prescribe dos and don'ts, morality is ultimately
a personal compass of right and wrong.
“Because we believe in something being right
or wrong.”

16. Scope and Nature of Mass Media
•Mass Consumption of Media at all-time highs;
• TV viewing accounts for more than half of all the leisure-time
activity for Americans 15 years and older
• Americans spend 159 hours a month watch video of some
kind (including traditional TV, online, and mobile viewing)
• 97% of all U.S. homes own at least one TV set
• 42 million have their TV directly connect to the Internet
• 70% of viewers say they “binge watch” and watch three or
more episodes of a series in one sitting

17. Scope and Nature of Mass Media
•Mass Consumption of Media at all-time highs;
• On Facebook alone people watch more than 3 BILLION
videos a day
• If Facebook were its own country, its 1.4 BILLION users
would make it the largest country in the world
• Facebook alone accounts for 6% of all the time the world’s
Internet users spend online
• 59% of Americans play video games, with over half of all
U.S. homes own a video game console, averaging two per
home

18. Scope and Nature of Mass Media
Mass Consumption of Media at all-time highs;
On average, we listen to more than four hours of music
a day
We spend more than $10 BILLION at the movies
annually
Three BILLION people in the world are connected to
the Internet, 35% of the global population and a 566%
increase since 2000
88% of North Americans use the Internet
By 2018 nearly a MILLION minutes of video content
will cross the Internet every second and it would take
you more than 5 million years to watch all the videos
that cross the Net each month

19. Scope and Nature of Mass Media
•The role of technology
Technological determinism = machines and
their development drive economic and
cultural change
•The role of money
It shifts the balance of power; it tends to
make audiences into products rather than
consumers by adding Advertisers into the
communication mix and changing the
primary goal of the process from “shared
meaning” to making money

20. Mass Communication, Culture, and Media
Literacy
•Media Literacy = the ability
to effectively and efficiently
comprehend and use any
form of mediated
communication

21. Being Media-Literate
•Media-literate people develop an
understanding of media content as
a text that provides insight into our
culture and lives and they have an
awareness of the impact of media
on the individual and society.

22. STUDY FOCUS QUESTION #2
Who were your childhood heroes and
heroines and/or favorite characters
derived from MASS MEDIA? Why
did you choose them? What cultural
lessons did you learn from them?