before we cover theories, we must review the communication process: information originates with a...
TRANSCRIPT
MASS COMMUNICATION THEORIES
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
Before we cover theories, we must review the communication process:
Information originates with a SOURCE…...who sends a MESSAGE...…using a CHANNEL to send
information...…to a RECEIVER……who provides FEEDBACK to the source
COMMUNICATION MODEL
Source Message Receiver
(speaker, (verbal, (listener, sender, nonverbal, decoder) encoder) mediated )
Feedback Receiver attaches meaning to message then replies to Sender through Feedback
channel channel
channel
channel
SOURCE
Is where communication originates. Needs to know who the receivers are. Needs to be seen as credible. Needs to know what kind of message is
best suited to a particular audience.
Source MessageReceiver
(speaker, (verbal, (listener,
sender, nonverbal, decoder)
encoder) mediated)
Feedback Receiver attaches meaning to message then replies to Sender through Feedback
MESSAGE
Is the content of communication. Confronts a serious challenge: getting
people to pay attention. Must be relevant. Must be understood.
Source MessageReceiver
(speaker, (verbal, (listener,
sender, nonverbal, decoder)
encoder) mediated)
Feedback Receiver attaches meaning to message then replies to Sender through Feedback
CHANNEL
Is the medium (or media) used to transmit the message (talking, email, TV, radio, newspaper).
Must be seen as relevant. Must be seen as credible.
Source MessageReceiver
(speaker, (verbal, (listener,
sender, nonverbal, decoder)
encoder) mediated)
Feedback Receiver attaches meaning to message then replies to Sender through Feedback
RECEIVER
Is the person, persons or group for whom the message is intended.
Is most receptive to messages that specifically target the receiver’s interests and values.
Source MessageReceiver
(speaker, (verbal, (listener,
sender, nonverbal, decoder)
encoder) mediated)
Feedback Receiver attaches meaning to message then replies to Sender through Feedback
FEEDBACK
Is the receiver’s reaction, as interpreted by the source, to the message.
Communication is an on-going, continual process of feedback.
Source MessageReceiver
(speaker, (verbal, (listener,
sender, nonverbal, decoder)
encoder) mediated)
Feedback Receiver attaches meaning to message then replies to Sender through Feedback
5 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
INTRAPERSONAL
thoughts, ideas, dialogue with one’s self
INTERPERSONAL
between people, usually in PAIRS, but can be more
GROUPshared identity, can have common goal; also called family or organizational communication
PUBLIC
when one person has the floor; speaker and audience; examples teacher/lecture class, to send information political conventions/audience of delegates, musical band, singer/audience
MASS journalism, print or electronic media; the sender communicates through mediated system, receiver mostly watches or listens to the message
MASS COMMUNICATION Communication to the masses takes place when a
messages is sent to an audience (or receiver) through a specialized communication channel (or medium).
Units of analysis for mass communication: MESSAGE
(usually mediated, such as an article, news report, radio announcement)
CHANNEL (or medium, such as TV, radio, newspaper, website)
AUDIENCE(or receiver, such as reader, viewer, consumer)
Source MessageReceiver
(speaker, (verbal, (listener,
sender, nonverbal, decoder)
encoder) mediated)
Feedback Receiver attaches meaning to message then replies to Sender through Feedback
SOME MASS COMM THEORIES
Magic Bullet Theory
THE MAGIC BULLET THEORY
Mass Media
Public
BULLET THEORY / HYPODERMIC NEEDLE
The message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head".
The hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message.
Hypodermic Needle Theory
History
The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change.
Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including:* the fast rise and popularisation of radio and television*the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda
FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTE :
Speedy increase of popularized media (Radio and Television).
Industries Persuasion by (Advertising and Manipulation of Public opinion)
Impact of motion pictures on children Hitler's Nazi party ( by the monopolization of the mass
media during WWII)
THE MAGIC BULLET THEORY
. Media stimuli were assumed to operate
like magic bullets that penetrated people’s minds and instantly created associations between strong emotions and specific concepts.
The theory views people as powerless to consciously resist manipulation; as ones who could be conditioned in whatever way a master propagandist wanted.
“The magic bullets of propaganda can penetrate the people’s defences and transform their thoughts and actions despite their social status and educational backgrounds.”
According to this theory, the mind, incapable of resisting powerful messages. The messages penetrate to people’s subconscious minds and transform how they think and feel.
THE MAGIC BULLET THEORY
The theory suggests that the mass media
could influence a very large group of people directly and
uniformly by ‘shooting’ or
‘injecting’ them with appropriate
messages designed to trigger a desired
response.
They express the view that the
media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or
audience is powerless to resist the impact of the
message.
People are seen as passive and are seen as having a
lot media material "shot" at them. People end up
thinking what they are told because there is no other
source of information.
Example of the hypodermic needle theory being successful
In 1938 a science fiction novel 'war of the worlds' by HG Wells was performed like a contemporary new broadcast, as audiences listen to this news broadcast as it occurred every 40 minutes some people concluded that it was in fact a real account of an invasion from Mars, headed to the roads, hid in homes and loaded their weapons in an attempt to defend themselves against the supposed imminent attack.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE THEORYSTRENGTH The use of numbers and statistics can
be effective and reliable way of seeing trends.
Effect studies often involve a large numbers of participants and sometimes extend over long periods of time.
WEAKNESS Has little place in contemporary
analysis of audience reception, although it is possible that audiences revert to such thinking from time to time, these types of instances are rare, and don’t carry a great deal of momentum, if anything audiences today tend to be a lot more sophisticated and aware of how media messages are constructed.
Too simplistic, changes to attitudes and beliefs are not always observable or easily measured inn the way physics; changes are. Audiences interpret media differently
PROPAGANDA
- To change the way people act and to leave them believing that those actions are voluntary, that the newly adopted behaviours are their own.
The secret of effective propaganda: Simplify a complex issue
Effective propaganda is covert and it – Persuades people without seeming to do so Features massive orchestration of
communication and Emphasises tricky language designed to
discourage reflective thought J. Michael Sproul
PROPAGANDA
Propagandists saw mass media as an effective mass manipulation tool for controlling large populations so that the dominant majority came to have and act on certain beliefs and attitudes. They thought people to be so irrational, so illiterate and so inattentive that it was necessary to coerce, seduce or trick them into learning bits of misinformation.
PROPAGANDA
“White Propaganda” Intentional suppression of potentially
harmful information and ideas, combined with deliberate promotion of positive information or ideas to distract attention from “problematic” events.
The technique spills over to the post World War II era in the arenas of Advertising and Public Relations.
THE PREMISE
Black Propaganda Deliberate and strategic transmission of
lies Grey Propaganda
Transmission of information and ideas that might or might not be false.
THE PREMISE