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Conceptual Analysis of Film and Cinematography as Mass Communication

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Ijeh, N. P. (2011) Conceptual Analysis of Film and Cinematography as Mass Communication.
West African Social and Management Sciences Review. 2(2) Pp 21-39

Conceptual Analysis of Film and Cinematography as Mass Communication

Abstract
There is no doubt that and cinematography is a brand of mass communication. This conceptual analysis is
an attempt to strengthen this notion. The analysis of the concept of film and cinematography within the
context of mass communication, undertaken in this discourse borders on an examination of the extent to
which the basic features of mass communication apply to film and cinematography. The paper explores the
concept, planning, production, post-production processes, and dissemination of movies to identify how the
characteristics of mass communication such as lack of spontaneity; mediated message; technological
reliance; and specialized organizational involvement work out in the world of film and cinematography.
Other characteristics of mass communication examined against the backdrop of film and cinematography
are public/government regulation; self-regulation; mass, heterogeneous and widely-dispersed audience;
simultaneous reception as well as delayed feedback.

(Key words: film, cinematography, mass communication, audience, message)

Introduction
To further locate film as a form of mass communication, there is the need to first understand the attributes
or feature of mass communication and see how they relate to film. In other words, it calls for an
identification of elements that qualify a communication process as mass communication and see whether
or not such elements apply to the film medium.
Mass communication has been generally accepted to mean the initiation, sourcing and processing of
impersonal messages by organized information sources that satisfy certain statutory and regulatory
requirements, for simultaneous delivery to a mass, heterogeneous and widely-dispersed audience through
technologically assisted channels in manners that do not usually permit immediate feedback (Wikipedia.
2008: online; Tubbs and Moss, 1991: 368). A number of features are discernable from the above definition.
These are the lack of spontaneity in mass communication; mediated message; technological reliance;
specialized organizational involvement: public/government regulation; self regulation, mass,
heterogeneous and widely-dispersed audience; simultaneous reception, and delayed feedback.
The above features run through the mass communication process and a justification of the perception of
film as a form of mass communication is only to the extent at which these features are present in the film
industry.
Lack of Spontaneity
The absence of spontaneity in mass communication process stems from the fact that it is premeditated,
planned and systematic. This is very true of film. The process and activities of film production are
premeditated, planned and systematic. By this is meant that the films that are available for the film
audience to watch do not happen by accidents or spontaneously.
Advancing the argument of lack of spontaneity in film, Rea and Irving (1995: 23, 129 and 173) say that film
production is not spontaneous as it starts with an idea, an outline, a treatment or rough draft script which
lead to preproduction phase. At this preproduction phase, every aspect of the filming process is
preconceived and prepared for. Decisions made during this period are the most important of the whole film
production process because they provide the foundation on which everything else relating to the film
production endeavour is built. This preproduction phase usually involves relevant researches and
development of the film idea so as to build in all the elements that will be instrumental to the success of the
enterprise. Here deliberate effort is made to provide a firm foundation for the filming process, including
budgeting and sourcing of funds; designing what it should look like and exploring all the variables needed
to accomplish the set goals.
The preproduction phase is followed by the production phase. At this stage, the production machinery is
set in motion with the engagement of the director, who is entrusted with the responsibility of making the
film a reality. In pursuit of the objective of successful film production, the Director usually studies the film
script with a view to seeing how best to go about its interpretation. He may suggest modifications to it,
especially where there are ideas that are difficult or impossible to translate into filmic scenes and actions.
When the script is confirmed satisfactory to the Director, the process of engaging other personnel
necessary for the film production ensues. This embraces audition, casting and building of the film
production crew followed by rehearsal before the shooting proper. The shooting stage is the last of the
stages in the production phase, where all the planning, storyboarding and pre visualization that occur
during the preproduction phase and all preceding activities relating to the development and treatment of
the film script in the production phase are exposed before the film camera which is relied upon to translate
them into a finished product under the watchful eyes of the Director.
The last phase in the chain of activities involved in film production is the post production phase. It is
common knowledge that all films go through a number of post production procedures where the raw
materials (shots) accumulated during shooting in the production phase are processed by way of editing,
special effects and synchronizing of pictures and sounds among others. In other words, what the audience
perceives on the screen is created during the post production phase, which involves thousands of details,
a multitude of decisions and many technical steps.
The above excursion into the three basic phases of film production clearly marks the process out of
spontaneity. It is even safe to attempt a declaration that the film production process is the most elaborate,
complex and time consuming of all the forms of mass communication (television, radio, newspaper,
magazine and books) in terms of funding, personnel, logistics and technology among others. It is difficult, if
not impossible, to conceive an idea of a typical film and get through the pre production, production and
post production phases and release it in good shape into the market within a space of one month.
Impersonal and Mediated Message
The message sent and received in mass communication is impersonal. This implies that the message
generation, processing and dissemination are not restricted to any one particular person. According to
Wright, cited in Tubbs and Moss (1991: 368), the source of mass communication message works through
a complete organization rather than in isolation, and the message often represents the efforts and inputs of
many categories of different people. These people here, in mass communication media like television,
radio, magazine and newspaper, would include reporters, editors, proof readers, camera men, sound
engineers, printing machine operators and circulation/transmitter personnel.
The import of the above situation is that the responsibility for the content, nature and quality of the final
message that reaches the audience does not lie squarely on just one person. This explains why cases of
libel, sedition or unlawful disclosure of classified information against the mass media do not charge just the
information source but holds the reporters, editors and media houses equally responsible.
The situation is not very different in the film industry. The messages of films are impersonal even far
beyond the degree that obtains in the other mass media channels mentioned above. Films employ
numbers of persons far greater than any of its other cousins in the sphere of mass communication. The
number of persons needed to make a full-length feature film is quite high, made up of producer, director,
scriptwriter, actors/actresses and the crew at the least. Each of them, in one way or the other, influences
the final outcome of the filming process.
The interest here is not to say who is the most important in the filming process but to show that a number
of persons contribute to the making of the film to the extent that the final outcome represents the effort and
inputs of many different people, thus giving the message of film an impersonal characteristics. According to
Rea and Irwing (1995: 70, 129, 156 and 173), a lot of planning, storyboarding and pre-visualization occur
at the pre-production phase of film production. These are not activities for one person only.
At the production phase, the actors and actresses must be at the best of their talents to set aside their real
lives and assume the lives of the characters assigned to them by the film script, sometimes adding details
not originally in the script in their character depiction to tell the story better under the watchful eyes of the
Director. This is not forgetting that before the shooting proper, the actors and actresses are required to go
through audition and rehearsal sessions and most times are asked to repeat a scene over and over again,
all in a bid to get the performance that treats the film message best.
The Director also relies on the creation of boundless illusions and cinematic tricks through computer-
generated optical effects and miniature sets among others, to successfully interpret the script before him.
In this regard, the director and his sub directors are often perceived as magicians because of their abilities
to often create something out of nothing and make the story better appear from nowhere even if they are
not originally in the film script. The Director must also efficiently co-ordinate the crew (all the personnel
besides the actors and actresses, who are employed in the making of a film). The crew represents the nuts
and bolts of the production machine so much so that the success of the film process lie in their ability to
collectively carry out the Director’s vision of the script. To this extent, the best laid plans are only as good
as the talented people (cast and crew) who carry them out.
The post production phase, where the final product is shaped using the raw material garnered at the
production phase, equally involves thousands of details, a multitude of decisions and many complex
technical steps. The large number of persons needed to make a film, the multi-phase stages of film
production, the reliance on talents, skill and illusion as well as the thousands of details, multitude of
decisions and many technical steps, clearly mark the message of the finished film as impersonal and
mediated, since no one person can claim total responsibility for it. This strengthens the argument that film
is a form of mass communication.
Technological Reliance
For any communication process to be considered as mass communication, it must involve the use of
technological devices at all stages. It is not possible to rule out technological reliance at the stages of
initiating, sourcing, processing and presenting the messages of mass communication.
Film, as a form of mass communication, depends on technology, probably above other forms of mass
communication because of its heavy tendency towards fiction and illusions. The impact of technological
developments on the film industry runs through the three vital stages of production, distribution and
exhibition. This is corroborated by Baran (2004:186) in his observation that the convergence of film and
digital technology continually reshapes the production, distribution and exhibition practices in the industry.
The reliance on technology in film production is manifested as early as the conceptualization and
visualization stage. Here, the story and/or script writers’ imaginations run wild and may lead to some filmic
concepts, themes, actions and scenes that are almost impossible for a human being to depict. These
impossible concepts, themes, actions and scenes are so visualized and developed because film producers
know that with the right technological device, almost anything is possible. That is why cinematography has
been widely accepted as an illusion — a magic trick. Basically the illusion of film arose from the ability to
project twenty-four serialized still photographs through a stream of light per second to create the illusion of
moving images. When this process is synchronized with recorded sound and speech, it completes the
illusion of life on screen. Apart from these basic illusions made possible by technology, the illusions the
Director and other members of the film production crew can create are boundless. This is because almost
every aspect of film and video can employ a cinematic trick such as computer-generated optical and
auditory effects, miniature sets or the use of artificials like the use of paste jewels in place of real gems.
Another glaring evidence of the technological reliance of film lies in the use of the camera and all its
accessories such as trolleys, lights and special film microphones among others. Without the technological
devices of camera and its accessories, all the planning, storyboarding and pre-visualization that occur
during the pre production phase cannot be translated into a finished product. The camera and its
accessories are the technological tools through which the director realizes the script.
The fundamental need of technology in film production continues at the post production phase, which is
essential to the film and video industry. All films go through certain basic post production steps which
involve editing, graphics as well as audio-visual effects among others. Much of what the film audience
consumes on the screen is achieved during the post production phase where the raw materials
accumulated by the camera during shooting are transformed into the final product. The technological
reliance of this final phase cannot be over-emphasized as it involves thousands of details, a multitude of
decisions and many complex technical steps facilitated by technological devices (Rea and Irwing, 1995:
129 and 173).
In the realm of distribution and exhibition, the film story is useless until it is screened before an audience.
Here, the place of technological gadgets such as cinema projectors, loud speakers, cinema screens,
television sets, satellites, cable technology, video cassettes, video compact disc (VCD), digital video disc
(DVD), film reels, the computer unit and Internet facilities are indispensable. Today, finished film products
are available in video cassettes, DVD, satellites, pay-per view television, television broadcasts, VCD,
Internet and GSM phone formats (Baran, 2004: 191, Ijeh, 2008: 311).
Specialized Organizational Involvement
One major feature of mass communication that distinguishes it from other communication activities is the
fact that the source works through a complex organization rather than in isolation so that the message
often represents the efforts of many different people. The film industry is today dominated by a film culture
and practice that do not permit only a handful of persons to produce a full length feature film from scratch
to finish.
The involvement of specialized and structured organization in film production dates back to as far as 1908
when Thomas Edison, on foreseeing the huge amounts of money that could be made from movies,
founded the Motion Picture Patent Company (MPPC), which was made up of ten companies in form of a
joint venture also referred to as the Trust. The Trust, under Edison’s control, held the patents of virtually all
existing film making and exhibition equipment and ran the production and distribution of film in the United
States of America at the time with an iron fist in an atmosphere where anyone who wanted to make or
exhibit a movie needed its permission. Most times these permissions were hard in coming, especially
because the Trust imposed strict conditions for them. In defiance of MPPC, many independent film
companies began to emerge thus signaling the popularity of specialized and organized public companies
in film production, distribution and exhibition (Baran, 2004: 167-168).
Specialized and organized public enterprises in the film industry in Nigeria are at best involved in the
financing of the production of films and are technically referred to as producers. Sometimes, these
producers also double as exhibitors when they operate cinema houses for screening their films before a
paying audience. In the case of Nigeria where the cinema culture has almost completely given way to
home videos, producers double as marketers.
For the purpose of producing a film however, the producer needs to shop for the most appropriate cast and
crew, starting with the director. The usual practice is to first engage the film director, whose input is
essential throughout the production process including the engagement of the actors/actresses and the
crew. It is not a hasty conclusion to say that the director is the most important personnel engaged by the
producer to actualize a film production project, hence it is generally agreed that the hierarchy of the film
crew is a pyramid with the Director on top next to the Producer. Below is a typical film production flow
chart.

Producer

Director
Director of
Art Director Photography
Actors
Wardrobe Camera Operator
Props Gaffer

Assistant Camera Best Boy

Hair/makeup
Electrician
Set
Construction Continuity 2nd Assistant Camera
2nd
Assistant Director Electrician
Set Dresser
Sound Recordist
2nd Assistant
Director
Swing
Crew Boom
Extras
Production Assistant
Best Boy Key Grip
2nd Grip Grip

(Reproduced from Rea and Irwing [1995])

The above flow chart shows that the film process is an organized enterprise with distinct lines of authorities
all under the supervision of the Director, who is in turn, answerable to the Producer. The actors alone
cannot actualize a film production project, no matter how talented they are. The emphasis here is that the
crew is as important as the actors matter how talented they are. The emphasis here is that the crew is as
important as the actors in a film project and they must all work as an organized team for optical results.
The film crew, though not noticed in any way in the final film product, is indispensable in the film production
enterprise. By way of definition, the crew is all the personnel besides the actors, who are employed in the
making of a film. It is more or less the nuts and bolts of the production machines. The success of the film
production undertaking depends to a very large extent on their ability to collectively carry out the director’s
vision of the film script. No director can succeed in the interpretation of a film script without a responsive
film crew given the fact that the best laid out plans are only as good as the people who carry them out (Rea
and Irwing, 1995: 70, 118 and 121).
From the foregoing, it is clear that the success of any film or video production, distribution and exhibition
depends on proper management within a well defined organizational structure just as much as it depends
on availability of funds, storytelling, talents and skills.
Public/Government/Legal Regulation
Mass communication, by its nature, is an interaction between information sources and a mass audience
made up of members of the general public. By this singular feature, the process and elements of mass
communication are not private and must therefore be managed in such a way as to serve the common
good. In this regard, every society must find a way to control its mass communication activities either
directly or indirectly and in doing this, the responsibility rests on the government to initiate and enforce
regulatory measures that guarantee the interest of members of the public.
It is therefore not out of place to find that different governments have ways of regulating the mass
communication activities in different societies through the granting of licenses as preconditions for
establishing mass media organizations, registration of mass media organizations and allocation of air
waves frequencies for broadcasting or International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) or International
Standard Book Number (ISBN) for newspapers, magazines and books respectively. There is also the
enactment and enforcement of laws to guide mass media personnel in the discharge of their duties such as
laws bordering on libel, slander, sedition, copyright infringements as well as the disclosure of official secret
or classified information.
Basically, the essence of these statutory instruments of control such as Nigeria’s National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) is to ensure that mass communication is not allowed to degenerate to a level where
public taste is abused to the point of provocation. This is because when wrong signals are sent to a mass
audience through the operations of mass communication, a negative mass action or inaction may ensue
which is capable of bringing about social dislocation.
In the film industry, government control is felt across different societies. As Anyanwu (2001:159) notes,
governments set up films censors boards to see to it that every film released to the public accords with a
certain standard, which measures up to acceptable code of decency and taste in both content and theme.
In this regard, though the government is not expected to have a hand in film making, it can influence or
affect the contents of films by making and enforcing rules as those in film policies, operations of Nigeria film
and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) among others.
With particular reference to NFVCB, which is a government agency, the dimension of government
regulation is the mandatory submission of all films for scrutiny and rating of the content according to the
various audience categories. In addition, with reference to copyright, there are laws against piracy,
plagiarism and a government agency — Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC) — is charged with the
responsibility of dealing with issues of copyright violations. The bottom-line in the involvement of
government in the protection of copyright in the film industry is to guarantee the enjoyment of all possible
benefits derivable from the production of a film or the creation of a film concept and character (Rea and
Irwing, 1995:14).
Ethical Code and Self-Regulatory Mechanism
Outside government statutory control of the process and practice of mass communication, practitioners
have developed a set of self-regulatory codes of conduct or standards of behavior to moderate their
activities in the discharge of their duties. These internally generated rules are commonly referred to as
ethics.
Ethics are derived from self-assessment of a body of professionals and a self- prescribed standard of
expected behavior believed to be capable of arresting improper conduct that can expose the profession to
ridicule and disrepute. The enforcement of compliance to codes of conduct or ethics in mass
communication practice is not as formal and stringent as the enforcement of legal and other statutory
regulations. The penalties of violating the ethics of mass communication practice are meted out internally.
The underlying motive for the formulation of ethics is to make practitioners be at their best professional
behaviours. This in turn builds the image of an ideal practitioner to which all practitioners are to pattern their
behavior on the job. It is believed that practitioners in mass communication industry will hardly contravene
legal and statutory regulations if they respect their ethical codes because they are fashioned in such a way
to steer practitioners away from legal and statutory pit falls.
As pointed out earlier, self-regulations via ethics are products of professional bodies. In mass
communication practice in Nigeria, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Advertising Practitioner Council
of Nigeria (APCON), Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria
(BON), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) among others,
are familiar professional bodies that are working in many ways to improve on their respective practices.
One sure way through which these professional bodies are known to pursue the improvement of their
respective professions is through the formulation, adoption and enforcement of professional ethics.
In the area of film as a branch of mass communication in Nigeria, some common professional bodies in
pursuit of the improvement of the industry directly or indirectly, through codes of conduct include the
Nigerian Actors’ Guild, Independent Film and Video Producers and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Guild
of Nigerian Film Directors, Film Producers Association, Filmmakers Association of Northern Nigeria, and
The Motion Picture Practitioners Association of Nigeria.
Mass, Heterogeneous and Widely-Dispersed Audience
A communication activity is often classified based on the dynamics of the source, nature of message,
channel of delivery and destination. The description of a communication process as “mass’ communication
therefore, clearly draws from the nature of the audience, which is the destination. A communication activity
is regarded as mass communication when it involves and attracts huge numbers of recipients participating
in the activity from all parts of the community, of every age, gender as well as income and educational
levels. In other words, mass communication messages reception is difficult to restrict geographically
between cities and villages especially when they lie within the transmission or distribution radii.
The audience of mass communication has been generally accepted as mass, heterogeneous and widely
dispersed (Tubbs and Moss, 1991: 368; Adedina, Adeniyi and Bolaji, 2008: 299-30O; and Hanson, 2005:
34). Mass communication is seen as a society-wide information dissemination process that entails an
information source sending his messages, with the aid of technological structures and devices, to a large
mixed audience most of whose members he does not know personally. The audience of mass
communication can therefore be a mixture of different kinds of people such as a young man in prison, an
old woman in a nursing home or a toddler. It can also be a mixture of the rich and the poor, the highly
educated and the stark illiterate as well as the urban elite and the peasant rural dweller among others. Of
particular note here is that once the message is encoded in the appropriate mass communication form and
sent out, the message source has almost no control over who the receivers will be.
Communication scholars recognize the concept of audience segmentation which is an attempt to identify
most likely audience for a particular mass communication activity. At its best, audience segmentation is
based on expectations and logic which rely on the content of the mass communication message vis-à-vis
perceived peculiarities and information needs of a section of the larger audience. Audience segmentation
has therefore given birth to appellations such as “children’s programmes”, “women’s magazine”, “youth
television shows”, “business newspapers” and lots more. However, the actual audience for these mass
communication activities may not be entirely as defined by the name tags. Who says that adults do not
watch children’s programmes or that men do not read women’s magazines?
The basic fact here is that the nature of mass communication activity necessitates a mass, heterogeneous
and widely dispersed audience whose segmentation ends with message packaging and timing of
dissemination. Once the message is sent, anybody can end up in the audience.
Narrowed down to film, Pope Pius XI, in an endorsement of the Legion of Honours Code asserts that
cinema (film industry) speaks not to individuals but to multitudes (Ekwuazi, 1987:95). The point here is that
the message of film screened in a cinema hail is received by all in the cinema hail as at the time of the
screening. There is no way of differentiating message dissemination to the cinema audience once it is
composed. In essence, every member of the audience sees the different themes, scenes, depiction and
characterizations in the movie irrespective of their gender, age, social status and religious inclinations.
In societies like Nigeria, where the home video and cable movie channels appear to be pushing the cinema
culture out of fashion, there is little or no way of defining the audience for any particular film. In the home
video situation, anybody can slot in the home video cassette or disc and watch while access to a television
set connected to a cable network is all that is needed for anybody to view movie being offered by cable
television. Under these circumstances, the audience for a particular film can be a mixture of diverse kinds of
people widely dispersed over a large geographical area.
The best shot at audience segmentation in the film industry is through film ratings and enforcements of the
ratings at the entrance to cinema halls. Beyond that, especially in the light of the popularity of home video
and cable movie channels, there is no way of guaranteeing that under-aged people would not watch adult
movies or that the elderly would not watch kiddies cartoon.
Simultaneous Reception
The issue of simultaneous reception of mass communication message is best understood from the
broadcasting angle. As the term suggests, simultaneous reception of message in mass communication
process indicates the possibility of every member of the audience receiving it at the same time irrespective
of location, age, gender and socioeconomic status. Television and radio contents best fit into messages
that can be received simultaneously by members of the audience as they are being broadcast. Once the
television or radio signals are beamed into the electromagnetic spectrum, they are to be received instantly
by all who are tuned in to the specific frequencies at the same time.
This is not to say that the print forms of mass communication cannot be received simultaneously. It is very
possible, just that it is not automatic. By chance, a number of members of the audience for a newspaper,
magazine or book can be consuming a particular medium at exactly the same time at different locations.
The level of simultaneous reception of the content of a film is very much like that of the print medium,
unless the film is being screened by a television channel or cable. It is not impossible that several cinema
houses are screening a particular film at exactly the same time in different locations. It is also not to be
ruled out that several members of the film audience can, by chance, slot in the same film at exactly the
same time, in the comfort of their respective homes, offices, business places and public places for viewing.
Here, the message of that particular movie will be received simultaneously by the large, heterogeneous
audience separated in space.
Delayed Feedback
One notable feature of mass communication that distinguishes it from interpersonal or group
communication is the absence of immediate feedback. According to Hanson (2005: 4), mass
communication traditionally allows very limited opportunities for feedback due to its heavy tendency to be a
one way transmission of message. One possible reason for this is the fact that mass communication takes
place in the atmosphere of an interface of technology between the message source and the audience both
of whom are separated in space and time and are more often than not, unknown to each other.
That is not to say that feedback is impossibility in mass communication. The point is that, as Baran (2006:
7) puts it, mass communication feedback is delayed, inferential and indirect In other words, feedback in
mass communication is not a simple process. For instance, television programme producers may have to
wait for a long time to discover the ratings of their new programmes. In any case, the ratings when they do
become available, may at best show the number of television sets that tuned in to the programmes without
showing whether the programmes were watched or whether the audience liked them or not. In this
situation, the feedback is purely inferential.
The same applies to movies if not more. Films naturally take a longer time to conceive, produce and
exhibit/distribute than many other forms of mass communication. It should also be worthy of note that the
communication process in film begins with the conceptualization. However the originator of the film idea
must have to wait a long time for the movie concept to be fully developed, produced and screened before
the audience before expecting to elicit feedback. Sometimes, there are cases where the originator of the
film idea dies before the film gets to the audience.
Even when the audience watches the film, direct feedback mechanisms are more lacking in the film industry
than in broadcasting or newspaper and magazines where feedback can be monitored from phone-in
programmes, viewers/listeners comments via letter, emails or text messages and letters to the editor. Under
these circumstances, members of the film audience seem not to have a defined procedure for giving
feedback on the films watched. They express their reactions to the film but such reactions may not pull
much weight as there may not be avenues to address them directly to the film producers.
It is supposed that the box office proceeds or number of copies sold can serve as audience reactions to
movies. While not discountenancing this opinion, it is necessary to point out that not all who purchase a
ticket to see a particular movie in a cinema house actually make it to the cinema house and not all who
make it to the cinema house and watch the movie may like it. In the same vein, not all who watched a
particular movie actually purchased a copy of it. People watch movies on television and cable without
buying copies of the films. Others watch the copies bought by friends, family members and neighbours. No
thanks to video rental shops that have become very common in Nigeria these days, people simply rent films
and watch without a penny of the proceeds of such rents coming to the knowledge of the producers. These
situations cast doubts on the reliance of box office proceeds and sales of film copies as feedback devices.
Conclusion
The characteristics of mass communication are clearly visible in film and cinematography. This is a good
reason to uphold the notion that film and cinematography is a branch of mass communication. The other
branches of mass communication that share the most similar attributes and features with film are radio,
television and sound recordings (audio tape and audio compact disc channels). These most common
attributes include the adoption of sound and/or pictures in motion to disseminate information to a listening
or viewing audience. These branches of mass communication are grouped under electronic media of mass
communication which also has film as its oldest member.
The other more general attributes of mass communication which have been examined above are shared by
all the conventional media of mass communication in varying shades, dimensions and degrees. As a result,
newspapers, magazines, books, radio, sound recordings, television, advertisements and public relations
activities, in addition to film and cinematography lack spontaneity in their communication process. They all
also disseminate messages that are impersonal and mediated in addition to relying on one form of
technological interface or the other between the message sources and the audience.
All forms of mass communication are practiced by statutory organizations that are easily identifiable public
or private enterprises which are amenable to one form of government, legal or public regulation or the
other. In addition to these, they are some forms of internal self-regulatory mechanisms initiated by the
practitioners of mass communication in the different media industries to guide their practice. These are
usually contained in the respective codes of ethics available in the respective professions in the mass
communication industries.
All branches of mass communication, including film and cinematography, engage in the dissemination of
messages to mass and heterogeneous audiences usually widely dispersed in space and/or time. However,
the mass, heterogeneous and widely dispersed audiences can rely easily receive the mass communicated
messages simultaneously as a result of the technological interface between them and the message
sources. Incidentally, this very reliance of all the forms of mass communication on technological interface
makes immediate feedback difficult and even impossible in some cases.
Outside sharing similar attributes with other branches of mass communication, film and cinematography
can depend on them for greater efficiency. Newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, advertising
and public relations can be relied upon by film producers to promote their films and disseminate vital
information about their films to the general public such as previews of films-in-making, release dates, film
reviews, reactions to film criticisms and revelation on the successes recorded by respective films among
others. There have also been instances where film stories are adapted from books and vice versa. All these
go to show that film and cinematography is every inch a form of mass communication. It affects other
branches of mass communication and is affected in return by them.

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