Intro to mass media Flashcards
What is a medium?
A channel of communication used to send and receive info
What does mass mean?
Many
What’s examples of a medium?
- Printed words: magazines and newspapers
- Electronic forms: TV, telephones, film etc
What is the aim of studying mass media?
How and why different forms of media are used to transmit to and be received by large numbers of people
What is mass media then?
Channels involving communications with large numbers of people
Who are the 2 sociologists that define mass media:
Dutton (general/old mass media) and Crosbie (new mass media)
What did Dutton say about mass media?
Mass media differentiated from other types of communication in terms of 4 essential characteristics
When did Dutton speak about mass media?
1998
What are the 4 essential characters according to Dutton?
- Distance
- Technology
- Scale
- Commodity
What did Dutton mean by distance?
- Emotional distance
- Traditional mass media: impersonal, lacks immediacy and one way (producer to audience)
What did Dutton mean by Commodity?
May not apply to other societies but applies to ours
- Mass communication comes at a price
- Subscriptions, TV license and buying the tech
What did Dutton mean by technology?
Mass communication requires a vehicle that allows messages to be sent and received
What did Dutton mean by scale?
Involves simultaneous communication with many people
What did Crosbie say about mass media?
New mass media have characteristics that combined make them very different to other forms of mass media
What are problems with mass media?
- Interpersonal (one to one) communication VS Mass (one to many) communication
- computer networks = (many to many) communication
= mass medium based on interpersonal communication
When did Crosbie talk about mass media?
2002
What did Crosbie mean by technology?
Mass media cannot exist without the appropriate means (computer)
What did Crosbie mean by personalization?
Individualized messages can be simultaneously delivered to vast numbers of people
- tailored to particular needs of those receiving them or having the appearance of being constructed
What did Crosbie use as an example of new mass media?
Newspaper website
- Each reader sees an edition simultaneously individualized to their interests and generalized to their needs rather than each reader seeing the same edition
