What is Mass Communication?

Mass Communication is a means of disseminating information or message to large,

anonymous, and scattered heterogeneous masses of receivers who may be far removed
from the message sources through the use of sophisticated equipment. In other words,
communication is the sending of message through a mass medium to a large number of
people.
Mass Communication represents the creation and sending of a homogeneous message to
a large heterogeneous audience through the media. Mass communication studies the uses
and effects of the media by many as opposed to the study of human interaction as in other
communication contexts.

Stanley Baran defines Mass Communication as the process of creating shared meaning
between the mass media and their audience. Also, John Bittner defines Mass
Communication as messages communicated through a mass medium to a large number of
people.
One needs to underscore the underlying fact that what is common in every definition of
mass communication anywhere in the world is that it is communicated through a mass
medium. In other words, for any message to be regarded as being mass communicated, it
must be disseminated through a mass medium like Radio, Television, Newspaper and
Magazine.
Mass Communication can also be defined as a device by which a group of people
working together transmits information to a large heterogeneous and anonymous
audience simultaneously. It is a process by which information originates from the source
to the receiver, having been thoroughly filtered and transmitted through a channel
(Sambe 2005:29).
Features of Mass Communication
Mass Communication is distinguished from other kinds of communication by a number
of features or characteristics. They are:
1. Mass Medium
2. Presence of Gatekeepers
3. Delayed Feedback
4. Limited Sensory Channels
5. Impersonal Vs Personal Communication
Mass Medium
For a medium to be regarded as mass in communication it must have acquired fifty
million adopters (Kaye & Medoff 2005). Radio, Television, internet etc are examples of
media which are regarded as mass media because they can reach out to no fewer than
fifty million audience at a time. In mass communication, messages reach far beyond the
immediate proximity of the sender and could even get to the uttermost part of the world.
Presence of Gatekeepers
In mass communication, sent messages do not reach the audience in raw form. Messages
are usually ‘treated’. The implication of this is that there is usually no guarantee that what
the message receivers get is exactly the message sent by the source.
In mass media organizations, the gatekeepers are usually the reporters, sub-editors,
editors, producers, writers, etc. The concept of gatekeeper was first coined by Kurt Lewin
who describes gatekeepers as individuals or groups of persons who govern the travels of
news items in the communication channels.
Gatekeepers could also be defined as any person or formally organized group directly
involved in relaying or transferring information from one individual to another through a
mass medium. A gatekeeper can be a film producer who cuts a scene from the original
script, a network censor who deletes a scene from a prime – time show because it is
perceived as being too sexually explicit, a director who determines what segment of film
to use in a documentary, a newspaper executive who determines the topic for an editorial,
or any other individual in the processing or control of messages disseminated through
mass media (Bittner 1989:12).
In actual sense, a gatekeeper does three major functions:
1. Limiting the information through editing before dissemination.
2. Expanding the amount of information by injecting additional views or angles.
3. Reorganizing or Reinterpreting the information gathered before disseminating it.

Delayed Feedback
Unlike in interpersonal communication where reply/feedback is made almost instantly,
the feedback in mass communication is always delayed, say for a day, week or month.
Burgoon et al 1978 cited in Folarin 1994 says “Feedback is often limited, delayed and
indirect”.
Mass Communicators are usually subject to additional feedback in form of criticism in
other media, such as a television critic writing a column in a newspaper (Baran 2004:7).
In other words, feedback in mass communication is not instant. It is mostly through
letters to the editor or telephone calls or personal calls on the media.
Limited Sensory Channels
This feature has to do with the fact that mass medium limits the number of sensory
channels upon which audience can draw. In other words, mass communication only
enables one to use his or her sense of sight and hearing since one can only see the visual
picture and hear the voice of the speaker on the broadcast station. This is unlike in a face-
to- face communication where the audience can shake hands or hug the politicians and as
such, have no limitation to the sensory channels.
Impersonal and Personal Communication
Unlike in face – to – face communication where communication is personal, participants
in mass communication are usually strangers and, hence messages are more impersonal.
Between Mass Communication and Human Communication
Simply put, Human Communication is a dynamic process of sharing information between
individuals. It encompasses all kinds of communication that involves man. It must be
pointed out that mass communication is part of human communication. It is one of the
three major parts of human communication. The other parts being interpersonal and
intrapersonal communication.
The easiest way to distinguish mass communication from other parts of human
communication is to highlights the unique features inherent in mass communication,
which had been discussed earlier in this unit.
Nature of Mass Communication
Mass communication got its origin from the fundamental process of human
communication that enables man-to-man discussion and communicative interactions.
This was done chiefly through verbal and written cues. With the emerging trends in
electronic engineering, people are increasingly aware of how to communicate to many
people at the same time – ‘one to many’. This ‘one-to-many’ concept is the peculiar
nature of mass communication. A man in the broadcast studio somewhere in Lahore,
Pakistan can communicate to billions of people across the globe simultaneously. This is
mass communication in practice. Broadcast journalists cast news to an audience of
millions at the same time; newspaper editors write on issues of public importance to be
read the next day by all concerned. These are all mass communication in practice. This
unique way of communicating to countless number of people at the same time is a unique
nature of mass communication. It is very peculiar because no other form of
communication has this attribute.

This brings us to distinguishing feature of mass communication.

That is:
Nature of Audience
By nature, mass communication audience has four peculiar features.
They are:
a) Large
b) Heterogeneous
c) Anonymous
d) Simultaneous
Large
The large nature of the audience of mass communication makes it very difficult to
address mass communication messages to specific audience or group of people. This
presupposes the fact that messages that undergo mass communication process must be
directed to very many people, like the ones sent through mass media of radio, TV,
newspapers etc.
It must be pointed out that messages meant for very few people or specific individuals are
not regarded as mass communication. For instance, a love letter sent from a boy to his
lover girl; a GSM conversation between two or more people (as in conference call) or
telegrams do not belong to the mass communication family. This is because such
messages could be regarded as either one-to-one or one-to-few as against mass
communication which is one-to-many.
Heterogeneous
By heterogeneous, we mean mass communication messages cannot be segregated. It
cannot be directed towards certain people without others hearing it. Every human being,
irrespective of age, creed, sex, wealth and affluence get the messages at the same time.
Biblically speaking, mass communication message is not a respecter of any man. It does
not have regard for positions, and class. It is for all.
Anonymity
Messages sent in mass communication are not to be received by a named receiver. It is
addressed as “to whom it may concern”. In other words, he who receives the messages is
not known to the sender. It is assumed that messages in mass communication are sent to
nobody, everybody and somebody.
Simultaneity
This holds that messages of mass communication are at the disposal of the audience at
the same time or simultaneously, or instantly. The word ‘disposal’ is used because,
even though the message is available to one, the audience might decide not to expose
himself to the message almost immediately, the audience might delay his exposure to
such messages for different reasons. This message is often associated with the print
media of mass communication like newspapers, magazines and books. A reader might
decide not to read the pages of a book almost immediately. The same way someone who
got the delivery of fresh news on a daily newspaper early in the morning might delay
reading such news till bed time.
Hence, the simultaneity in mass communication audience is mostly applicable to
messages sent via the broadcast media, but the fact is that everybody is disposed to such
message instantaneously.

Characteristics of Mass Communication

Although some scholars tend to mix characteristics of mass communication with features
of mass communication but painstaking attempts have been made here to bring out
specific characteristics of mass communication. They include:

a) Impersonality
b) Portability and mobility
c) Transportability/proximity
d) Fidelity
e) Permanency
f) Cost
g) Universality

Impersonality
Messages of mass communication have remained impersonal since there is no “personal”
touch or warmth of a medium. The impersonality of mass communication is informed by
the need to reach large, diverse and scattered audiences almost at the same time.

Portability and Mobility

These two terms are mostly used interchangeably to describe the character of mass
communication. Portability has to do with the fact that messages of mass communication
are handy and that the medium through which the messages are passing could be carried
from one place to another.
Mobility refers to the ease with which a medium’s paraphernalia (facilities) of production
can be moved from one place to another. One way of distinguishing between the two
terms is to note that portability concerns the receiver and the geographical location of
message consumption while mobility relates to the source and place of production.
Transportability/Proximity
By proximity, we mean the power of the medium of mass communication to carry the
recipient over to the scene of an event. For instance, people in a place like Sydney,
Australia could watch live cricket match in far away Mumbai, India. In other words, the
medium of mass communication is able to “take” a recipient to the scene of an event
without the recipient stepping out of his bedroom.

Fidelity
One good advantage of today’s electronics especially, TV is hi-fidelity. Most times, the
logo Hi-fi is printed on electronic products to show that the electronics device is capable
of giving the audience a near the original form of the figure that is being transmitted
Fidelity refers to the exactitude with which a medium reproduces the original physical
dimensions of images of the messages being sent across.

The original dimension includes:

a) Verbal symbols
b) Picture symbols
c) Color
d) Sound and
e) Motion.

Cost
Every medium of mass communication requires one to pay before sending messages
through it. A full color page advert in an average Pakistani newspaper costs no less than
Rs. 150,000 while a 60 second slot in PTV costs one an average of Rs. 250,000.
Depending on the medium being used, the cost of mass communication messages is on
the relatively high side. This is solely because of the reach of the medium.
Universality
This refers to the extensiveness or commonness of a medium. A person does not need to
be literate in a particular language before he listens to a radio program or watch television
program in that native language.

Permanency
This refers to the period for which a medium can hold its message thereby making the
message reviewable. Unlike in the electronic media which are transitory in nature, a
reader of a book, newspapers and magazines can read and re-read what is there, because
what is in the print media products may be there for a long term if not permanent.