INTRODUCTION TO

MASS COMMUNICATION
  In its simplest form, communication is the transmission of a
message from a source to a receiver.
 For over 60 years now, this view of communication has been
identified with the writing of political scientist Harold Lasswell
(1948). He said that a convenient way to describe communication
is to answer these questions:
 Who?
Communicatio  Says what?
 Through which channel?
n Defined  To whom?
 With what effect?
  The simplest definition of mass communication is “public
communication transmitted electronically or mechanically.” In
this way messages are transmitted or sent to large, perhaps
millions or billions of people spread across the world.
 They are sent through different forms of mass media such as
newspapers, magazines, films, radio, television and internet.
Media is the plural for the word medium or ‘means of
Mass communication’.
Communicatio  Over the past hundred years, mass communication was associated
to the size of the audience.
n Defined
Mass Communication
Defined  That made a lot of sense back then. From the mid-nineteenth
century onward, new technologies such as high-speed newspaper
presses, radio, movies, and television provided access to the huge
“masses” of people. Not only were those audiences very large,
they were dispersed geographically, quite diverse (that is, made
up of different types of people), and typically anonymous to the
companies that created the material.
 This perspective on mass communication worked well until
recently when the key aspects of the traditional definition of mass
communication as reaching huge, diverse groups no longer fit. The
reason is that the arrival of media channels—including the
growing number of radio and TV stations, the multiplication of
cable networks, and the rise of the Web/internet—led to audience
fragmentation
Group Discussion:

Explain the change of

mass communication
definition based on the
figure!
Mass Communication  As we will see, what really separates mass communication from
Defined other forms of communication is not the size of the audience—it
can be large or small. Rather, what makes mass communication
special is the way the content of the communication message is
created.
 Mass communication is carried out by organizations working
together in industries to produce and circulate a wide range of
content—from entertainment to news to educational materials. It
is this industrial, mass production process that creates the
potential for reaching millions, even billions, of diverse,
anonymous people at around the same time.
 And it is the industrial nature of the process—for example the
various companies that work together within the television or
internet industries—that makes mass communication different
from other forms of communication even when the audience is
relatively small and even one-to-one.
Mass Communication
Defined
And so we come at last to the definition of mass communication
that we have been building:
 MASS COMMUNICATION is the industrialized production and
multiple distribution of messages through technological devices.
The industrial nature of the process is central to this definition of
mass communication.
 As the definition suggests, mass communication is carried out by
mass media industries. Mass media are the technological
instruments—for example, newsprint, the internet, televisions,
radio. Mass media outlets are companies that send out messages
via mass media—for example, Time magazine, foxnews.com, and
the NBC television network
  Messages—collections of symbols that appear purposefully
organized (meaningful) to those sending or receiving them.
 Source — the originator of the message, which may be a person,
several people, or an organization.
The Elements  Encoding — the process by which the source translates the
of Mass thoughts and ideas so that they can be perceived by the human
senses—primarily sight and sound, but may also include smell,
Communicatio taste, and touch.
n  Transmitting — the transmitter performs the physical activity of
distributing the message.
 Channels — the pathways through which the transmitter sends all
features of the message, whether they involve sight, sound, smell,
or touch
The Elements of  Receiver — the person or organization that gets the message.
Mass Communication
 Decoding — the process by which the receiver translates the
source’s thoughts and ideas so that they have meaning.
 Feedback — when the receiver responds to the message with
what the sender perceives as a message.
 Noise — an environmental, mechanical, and semantic sound in the
communication situation that interferes with the delivery of the
message.
 Environmental noise comes from the setting where the source and
receiver are communicating.
 Mechanical noise comes from the medium through which the
communication is taking place.
 Semantic noise involves language that one or more of the
participants doesn’t understand.
  People use the media in four ways: for enjoyment,
Group companionship, surveillance, and interpretation.
Discussion  Discuss, explain, and give examples of each media use!
  People use the media in four ways: for enjoyment,
companionship, surveillance, and interpretation.
How Do We  ENJOYMENT.
 The desire for enjoyment is a basic human need. Watching a
Use the television program, networking on Facebook, or even reading an
Mass Media advertisement can bring this kind of gratification to many people.
 Ignite everyday talk with friends, relatives, work colleagues, and
in Our Daily even strangers. This process of using media content for everyday
interpersonal discussions is called using media materials as social
Lives? currency or coins of exchange.
 Another way people can bring mass media material into friendly
conversation is by experiencing the content together.
How Do We Use the Mass
Media in Our Daily Lives?
 COMPANIONSHIP
 Mass media bring a sense of camaraderie to people who are lonely
and those who are alone.
 Sometimes, media can even draw out people who feel troubled
and in need of friends. The term parasocial interaction describes
the psychological connections that some people establish with
celebrities they learn about through the mass media—typically
feeling a sense of bonding with those celebrities. Facebook pages
and Twitter tweets created by an actor’s publicity firm around
their screen personality might lead fans to feel a special
knowledge of and relationship with the person.
How Do We Use the Mass
Media in Our Daily Lives?
 SURVEILLANCE
 Using the media to learn about what is happening in the world
around us. We all do this every day, often without realizing it. We
turn on the TV each morning to find out the news? We read
classified ads in print or online to look for a job, movie tickets, or
sale furniture? All these activities are illustrations of using the
mass media for surveillance.
 Of course, our surveillance can be more global. Many people are
interested in knowing what is going on in the world beyond their
immediate neighborhood.
How Do We Use the Mass
Media in Our Daily Lives?

 INTERPRETATION
 Using the media to find out why things are happening—who or
what is the cause—and what to do about them.
 Some people who are genuinely confused about some topics find
mass media to be the most useful sources of answers. Preteens,
for example, may want to understand why women and men
behave romantically toward each other but may feel too
embarrassed to ask their parents.
  Multiple Use of Mass Media Content
How Do We Use the Mass
Media in Our Daily Lives?  An important point about the four uses that people make of the
mass media: the uses are not linked to any particular medium or
genre.
 Communication researchers point out, however, that individuals
can get just about any gratification they are seeking from just
about any program—or any kind of mass media materials.
 You might find, for example, that you use the NBC Nightly News
for enjoyment, surveillance, and interpretation. Enjoyment might
come from the satisfaction of watching reporters’ familiar faces
day after day (is a little parasocial interaction working here?);
surveillance might be satisfied by reports from different parts of
the globe; and interpretation might flow from stray comments by
the reporters and those they interview about what ought to be
done to solve problems
How Do We Use the Mass
Media in Our Daily Lives?
 In thinking about the multiple uses of mass media content,
consider too that the application of computer codes to mass
media materials allows audience members to carry out
enjoyment, companionship, surveillance, and interpretation in
ways that did not exist before computer-centered mass
communication. With the right tools, users can often manipulate
the print, audio, or audiovisual materials to suit their needs and
interests. This sort of manipulation and response—which is much
easier in digital than in analog technology—is known as
interactivity.
 Interactivity: the ability to track and respond to any actions
triggered by the end user, in order to cultivate a rapport
  Culture: ways of life that are passed on to members of a
society through time and that keep the society together
 Identifying and Discussing Codes of Acceptable
How Do the Behavior
 Learning What and Who Counts in Our World—and Why
Mass Media  Determining What Others Think of Us—and What People
Influence “Like Us” Think of Others
Culture?  Criticisms of Mass Media’s Influence on Culture
 Stereotypes predictable depictions that reflect (and sometimes
create) cultural prejudices
 Political ideologies beliefs about who should hold the greatest
power within a culture
 Deception in mass media
Product placement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cgVR7YZuVU

Subliminal messages: A subliminal message is a technique used in marKEting

and other media to influencE People without theiR bEing Aware of what the
messenger is DoING.
This may involve the use of split second flashes of text, hidden images, or
subtle cues that affect the audience at a level below conscious awareness .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGCZyv26kDk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbzb_4ThBNI

◦ Targeting audience
(Online ads for example)
Deception- Commercials
Raising the volume
Celebrity endorsements
False advertising- the use of false or misleading statements in advertising, and
misrepresentation of the product

Dannon's popular Activia brand yogurt lured consumers

into paying more for its purported nutritional benefits --
when it was actually pretty much the same as every other
kind of yogurt.
 Deception in magazines and ads
Photoshop/ Advertisers’ Tricks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRRUgI_iUXI
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

Swayed news Contents

Conservative
Living in a Media World: Fake News
By 2018, the term fake news was so commonly used to refer to so many things that it became hard to know what it
means. But there were least five common usages:
Satire—Fake news as an ironic term refers to stories that stretch the facts in order to make a joke or cultural criticism.
Mistakes and fabrication—Sometimes news stories have errors in them that eventually get corrected. Sometimes stories
are actually fabricated by unethical reporters.
Clickbait—Sometimes websites make up sensational stories designed specifically to attract readers to their pages so that
the readers will see the ads that appear with the fake articles. Oftentimes, if you dig deeply enough into these pages,
you will see a mention that the stories are “fictional and presumably satirical news.”
Political manipulation—The Russian intelligence agencies have planted and amplified stories throughout the United
States and Europe in order to try to manipulate elections. Some of these stories are made up while others are simply
manipulated to appear more important and popular than they really are.
Media criticism—Politicians and others often use the term fake news to refer to new outlets they don’t like as a general-
purpose media criticism.
Back in the 1730s and 1740s, the British
Parliament passed a law making it illegal for
journalists to report on the debates and actions
of the government. So Edward Cave,
publisher of the Gentleman’s Magazine, started
running columns that were supposedly
accounts of the fictional “Parliament of Lilliput”
but were really thinly disguised accounts
of the real British government, largely written by
that great man of British letters, Samuel
Johnson.
Foto tersebut diambil
dari potongan video
yang sudah ada sejak
Desember 2018 saat
FPI membantu korban
tsunami Selat Sunda.
Sementara itu Gunung
Tangkuban Perahu
mengalami erupsi pada
26 Juli 2019.
Communication
 A Mix of Levels
The distinctions among the various levels of
communication are useful, but don’t assume
that every instance of communication can
automatically be placed in one category or
another. In reality, there are frequent
crossovers in the levels of communication.
Consider online communication.
Discussion 3
Explain and give examples of a mixed level of communication!