INTRODUCTION

AHMC1094
LECTURE 1
 DEFINING AND REDEFINING MASS
COMMUNICATION
Grand Theory: theory designed to describe and explain all aspects of a given
phenomenon
Mass communication: when a source, typically an organization, employs a
technology as a medium to communicate with a large audience.
Mediated communication: communication between a few or many people that
employ a technology as a medium.
Interpersonal communication: communication between two or few people,
typically face-to-face.
 SCIENCE AND HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
• Social scientists: scientists who examine relationships among phenomena in the human or
social world.
• Causality – when a given factor influences another, even by way of an intervening
variable.
• Causal relationship: when the alterations in a particular variable under specific conditions
always produce the same effect in another variable.
• Scientific method: a search for truth through accurate observation and interpretation of
fact.
• Hypothesis: a testable prediction about some event.
• Empirical: capable of being verified or disproved by observation.
• Third-person effect: the idea that “media affect others, but not me”
 DEFINING THEORY
• Theory: any organized set of concepts, explanations, and principles of
some aspect of human experience.
• Ontology: the nature of reality, what is knowable.
• Epistemology: how knowledge is crated and expanded.
• Axiology: the proper role of values in research and theory building.
 POSTPOSITIVIST THEORY
• Pospositivist theory: theory based on empirical observation guided by
the scientific method.
• Intersubjective agreement: when members of a research community
independently arrive at similar conclusions about a given social
phenomenon.
 CULTURAL THEORY
• Cultural theory: theory seeking to understand contemporary cultures
by analysing the structure and content of their communication.
• Hermeneutic theory: the study of understanding, especially by
interpreting action and text.
• Text: any product of social interaction that serves as a source of
understanding or meaning.
 CRITICAL THEORY
• Critical theory: theory seeking transformation of a dominant social
order in order to achieve desired values.
• Structure: in critical theory, the social world’s rules, norms, and
beliefs.
• Agency: in critical theory, how humans behave and interact within the
structure.
• Dialetic: in critical theory, the ongoing struggle between agency and
structure.
 NORMATIVE MEDIA THEORY
• Theory explaining how a media system should be structured and
operate in order to conform to or realise a set of ideal social values.
 THE MASS SOCIETY AND MASS CULTURE
TRENDS IN MEDIA THEORY
• Elites: people occupying elevated or privileged positions in a social
system.
• Mass society theory: perspective on Western, industrial society that
attributes an influential but often negative role to media.
• Penny press: newspapers that sold for one penny and earned profits
through newsstand sales and advertising.
• Yellow journalism: newspaper reporting catering to working and other
lower social class audiences using simple, often sensational content.
 THE LIMITED-EFFECTS TREND IN MEDIA
THEORY
• Limited-effects theory: view of media as having little ability to directly
influence people. The dominant effect of media is to reinforce existing
social tends and strengthen the status quo.
 THE CRITICAL CULTURAL TREND IN MEDIA
THEORY
• Neo-Marxists: advocates of the social theory asserting that media
enable dominant social elites to maintain their power.
• Critical cultural theory: an integration of critical theory and cultural
theory first attempted by British cultural studies scholars.
• Cultural criticism: collection of perspectives concerned with the
cultural disputes and the ways communication perpetuates
domination of one group over another.
THE LINEAR MODEL OF COMMUNICATION
THE INTERACTIONAL MODEL
THE TRANSACTIONAL MODEL
 THE VALUE OF UNDERSTANDING
COMMUNICATION THEORY
1. It cultivates critical thinking skills
2. It helps you to recognize the breadth and depth of research.
3. It helps to make sense of personal life experiences
4. It fosters self-awareness
 References:
Baran, S.J. and Davis, D.K. (2021). Mass Communication Theory:
Foundations, Ferment and Future (8th ed.). Canada, Wadsworth.
West, R. and Turner, L.H. (2018). Introducing Communication Theory:
Analysis and Application (6th ed). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.