Definition of Mass Media
The Mass
Media
Defining the Mass
Media
Defining the
Mass Media
The focus of this opening section is an examination of different explanations of the relationship between ownership and control of the mass media and, in order to do this, we need to begin by thinking about how the mass media can be defined. Breaking down the concept of a ‘mass media’ into its constituent parts...
A medium is a ‘channel of communication’ - a means through which people send and receive information. The printed word, for example, is a medium; when we read a newspaper or magazine, something is communicated to us in some way. Similarly, electronic forms of communication television, telephones, film and such like - are media (the plural of medium). Mass, as you probably realise, means
‘many’ and what we are interested in here is how and why different forms of media are used to transmit to – and be received by – large numbers of people (the audience).
Observations
Mass media, therefore, refer to channels of communication that involve transmitting information in some way, shape or form to large numbers of people (although the question of exactly how many a “large number” has to be to qualify as a
“mass” is something that’s generally left undefined - it’s one of those things that we know when we see it...).
A mass medium (such as television) is generally classified as
‘one-to-many’ communication - ‘one’ person (such as the author of a book, the creators of a television programme or a film director), communicates to many people (the audience) “at the same time” in a way that is largely impersonal; that is, the communication is one-way, in the sense that those communicating a message to an audience don’t receive simultaneous feedback from that audience (you can shout at a politician on the television but they can’t hear you...).
Dutton et al (1998) suggest that, traditionally (an important qualification that will be developed further in a moment), the mass media has been differentiated
Media
Defining the Mass
Media
Defining the
Mass Media
The focus of this opening section is an examination of different explanations of the relationship between ownership and control of the mass media and, in order to do this, we need to begin by thinking about how the mass media can be defined. Breaking down the concept of a ‘mass media’ into its constituent parts...
A medium is a ‘channel of communication’ - a means through which people send and receive information. The printed word, for example, is a medium; when we read a newspaper or magazine, something is communicated to us in some way. Similarly, electronic forms of communication television, telephones, film and such like - are media (the plural of medium). Mass, as you probably realise, means
‘many’ and what we are interested in here is how and why different forms of media are used to transmit to – and be received by – large numbers of people (the audience).
Observations
Mass media, therefore, refer to channels of communication that involve transmitting information in some way, shape or form to large numbers of people (although the question of exactly how many a “large number” has to be to qualify as a
“mass” is something that’s generally left undefined - it’s one of those things that we know when we see it...).
A mass medium (such as television) is generally classified as
‘one-to-many’ communication - ‘one’ person (such as the author of a book, the creators of a television programme or a film director), communicates to many people (the audience) “at the same time” in a way that is largely impersonal; that is, the communication is one-way, in the sense that those communicating a message to an audience don’t receive simultaneous feedback from that audience (you can shout at a politician on the television but they can’t hear you...).
Dutton et al (1998) suggest that, traditionally (an important qualification that will be developed further in a moment), the mass media has been differentiated
References: 4 Dutton, Brian, O’Sullivan, Tim and Rayne, Phillip, 1998, Studying the Media: Arnold Design and words: Chris. Livesey © Sociology Central, 2011 www.sociology.org.uk