M1 Introduction- Communication & the Emergence of Mass Media

                                          
    

  Let me guess. You enrolled in the Communication & Media program because you want to work in the
media, right?  Every year, students who come to us dream of working in the media after graduation.
There is nothing wrong about it. In fact, most of our activities and projects in the program aim to
prepare you to become good media practitioners whether in print, radio, Television, or digital media.
          But wait, there’s certainly more! Our field is broader than the mass media. Working in the media is
only one of the many opportunities waiting for you when you successfully finished this program. Our
contemporary world is in need of communication professionals and scholars, not only media
practitioners.
          We entered in a historical period which some scholars described as the ‘information society.’
Indeed, almost all of our industries today need communication experts who will gather, manage, and
disseminate information through their Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media, and other similar
departments.
          Now, you may wonder, how am I supposed to prepare for these jobs? Will my skills in media
production subjects sufficient enough to land on those jobs?
          This is one of the major tasks of the course. Before you embark on higher major subjects, you need
to fully understand the dynamics of human communication first. Without a complete understanding on
the complexity of human communication, its different types and elements, you will mostly like get lost
along the way in your journey to our program.
          Communication has its own paradox. The more you feel confident and tolerant about your
communication behavior, the more you are prone to miscommunication. The ability to connect well to
people demands us to make communication patterns visible. We need to constantly talk about
communication and analyze them. We need to continuously ask questions on how we interact with
other people, with the community, and society.
          Technically speaking, we need to problematize communication. Once you fully understood
communication, that's the time you move to an equally interesting field— the media. Mass media has its
own characteristics and dynamics. In this module, we will begin by talking of communication then the
media. We will further understand the media by looking at its history in context. You will notice that the
main focus is the context not the dates, places, and people. The media, old and new, are platforms we
use to communicate. Failure to understand the media will most likely result to failure in communication.