1) The chapter discusses how communication and culture have evolved through different eras from oral to digital. 2) It outlines the key developments in each era such as the printing press in the print era and television in the electronic era. 3) In the current digital era, media has converged across platforms and users are able to access content anywhere through devices, leading to more individualized and on-demand consumption compared to the shared experiences of mass media.

1. Mass
Communication:
A Critical Approach
Chapter 1

2. Shared Cultural Experiences
• Shared experiences are not as prevalent in
media anymore
• “Mass” media may become a thing of the past
• More individual experiences with media and
new generation
• Similar experiences and the hashtag ‘#’

3. Culture and the Evolution of Mass
Communication
• Communication:
Creation and use of symbol systems that
convey information and meaning
• Culture:
The symbols of expression that individuals,
group and societies use to make sense of daily life
and to articulate values
• Mass Media:
The cultural industries (channels) of
communication that produce and distribute
products to the masses

4. Eras of Communication
I. Oral
II. Written
III. Print
IV. Electronic
V. Digital

5. Oral and Written Eras
(1000 BC to Mid-15th Century)
• Oral communication—Information passed
on by poets, teachers, and story tellers
• Socrates and Plato famous for oral debates
– Believed the written word would threaten
public debate
• Critics of modern media: TV, phones and
Internet mean that we are once again silencing
public debate and discouraging face-to-face
communication

6. Written Era
• Creation of alphabets and words brought
about the Written Era n
• Became popular, causing a class division
among the literate and illiterate…people put
their fate in the literate

7. The Print Era --Mid 15th-19th Cenury
• Print Revolution began with the invention of
moveable type and the printing press,
Gutenberg
• Books were only available to wealthy, literate
due to size and expense, but eventually
became affordable to everyone, making
books the first mass-marketed media
• The Print Era encouraged the Industrial
Revolution, social and cultural revolutions, the
Protestant Reformation, democratizing
education, and the rise of a consumer culture

8. Gutenberg’s Printing Press
Gutenberg’s Printing Press

9. Electronic Era
19th Century-20th Century
• The move from print to the Information Age
began with the development of the telegraph
(1840s)
• Film and radio were significant media
introduced in this era, but the invention of
television in the 1950s dramatically
enhanced the Electronic Era and our daily
lives.

10. Digital Era---20th Century-present
• Digital communication—Images, texts , and sounds are
converted into electronic signals (binary numbers) that reassemble
as a precise reproduction of a TV picture, magazine article, song, or
telephone voice
• With new media like cable TV and Internet, network news lost
audiences to blogs, cable channels
• E-mail is replacing Postal Service (especially defying border
boundaries, like International mail) and also controlling/censoring
messages
• Social media: Reinvented oral communication (Twitter, Facebook)
• The media user is more in control (Once had to watch program at
scheduled airtime vs. now, options: Hulu, DVR, and On-Demand)
• Viewing videos and pictures (digitally) from friends and family
(YouTube, Movie Maker, Snapchat, FaceTime)

11. Changing Communication Models
• The models of communication are shifting in the Digital
Era
I. Linear Model: Outdated model; says senders transmit
messages through a mass media channel to a large group
of receivers
• In this process, gatekeepers functioned as media filters
II. Cultural Model: recognizes how individuals bring diverse
meanings to messages
• Audiences affirm or reject messages and stories flowing through
various media channels
• Selective Exposure: People seek messages responding to their
own cultural beliefs

12. Linear Model
Noise
--------------------------------------------------------->
Sender Receiver
<---------------------------------------------------------
Feedback (Tweets, Texts)

13. Cultural Model

14. Media Convergence in the Digital Era
Two definitions (Technology and Business)
1. Technological merging of content across
different media channels
(ex. TV broadcast streamed on Internet)
2. Cross platform: businesses delving into
various media (ex. Disney)
• Companies like Apple, Facebook, Amazon,
and the most profitable, Google, are the
results of media convergence
(Google is more profitable with ads that
accompany search results)

15. Media Convergence and Culture
• Social media and the Internet have led to significant
changes in the way we consume and interact with
media culture
– In pre-Internet days, we would watch TV programming at the original
aired time, but now we rely on Hulu, Netflix or DVR to watch
programming on our time.
– We are now making media choices on the recommendations of our
friends on social media
– We also upload photos/videos of our lives for social media “friends”
rather than relying on traditional media for entertainment
• While we have more options and can connect with friends,
also ridding our culture of weekly get-togethers to watch
shows
• Media experiences are more “individual”, but we still may
get together with family or friends to “binge-watch” shows

16. Media Multi-Tasking
• The ability to access different forms of media in one place
is also changing the way we consume and interact with
media
– In the past, we read newspapers in print, watched TV on television
sets, and played video games on a console, but now we can do all
these things on a single device (computer, tablet, smart phone),
making multitasking very easy and tempting
– Media multitasking has resulted in more media consumption,
particularly among young users
– Critics say that while we are consuming more media, we are paying
less attention to one particular medium’s content and are giving
more attention to the device in our hand rather than the person
sitting next to us
– Also resulted in “live-tweeting”, “trending” topics and real-time
discussions via social media

17. Stories: The Foundation of Media
•Stories we seek and tell are changing
in the digital era.
• Reality TV and social media dominate.
• Ordinary citizens are able to participate in,
and have an effect on, stories told in the
media. (Citizen Journalism)
• Media institutions and outlets are in the
narrative business.

18. Daily Media Consumption by
Platform (2017)