Chapter One: Mass Communication

Images, texts, and sounds are converted (encoded) into electronic signals (represented as varied combinations of binary numbers-ones and zeros), which are reassembled (decoded) as a precise reproduction, of, say, a TV picture, a magazine article

Cultural industries--the channels of communication--that produce and distribute songs, novels, newspapers, movies, Internet services, and other cultural products to large numbers of people.

By 2007, the electronic and digital eras had fully ushered in the age of media convergence. It means two different things-firstly, the technological merging of content in different mass media ex. magazine articles and the radio are accessible on the Internet. (also occurred when the Victrola could play records and the radio) (second type see cross platform)

A particular business model that corporate interests use. Convergence is about consolidating various media holdings- such as cable connections, phone services, television transmissions, and Internet access under one corporate umbrella.
(bundling) Better manages resources and maximizes profits.

Audiences shape media messages to fit their own values and viewpoints. Audiences also typically seek messages and produce meanings that correspond to their own cultural beliefs, values, and interests. In the process of mass communication, audiences are actively interpreting, refashioning, or rejecting the messages and stories that flow through various media channels.
Ex. of Selective Exposure: Response to "Sicko"-Some saw it as an indictment of capitalism, while the majority saw it as a comprehensive plan to offer the nation universal healthcare.

Ballet, the Symphony, Art Museums, and Classic Literature, has "good taste" and is supported by wealthy patrons.

Video games, Rock Music, Radio Show jocks, MTV shows. Low culture is aligned with the questionable tastes of the "masses," who enjoy the commercial "junk" circulated by the mass media.

Scholars have traced the meandering route of cultural values through this period (to the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century)

1950s-Present

1st- Duplication, or machine copying, replaced the tedious manuscript system in which scribes hand-copied a text several times to produce multiple copies. 2nd- Duplication could be done rapidly, producing mass quantities of the same book.
3rd- The faster processing of multiple copies brought down the cost of each unit, making books more affordable to less affluent people. This offered the impetus for the Industrial Revolution, assembly- line production, and modern capitalism

Whereas oral and writing societies featured decentralized local governments, the print era marked the ascent of more centralized nation-states.

1st- It separated communication from transportation, making media messages instantaneous. 2nd- the telegraph, in combination with the rise of mass-marketed newspapers, transformed "information into a commodity, a 'thing' that cold be bought or sold irrespective of its uses or meaning. Civil war time, news was a valuable product. 3rd- The telegraph made it easier for military, business, and political leaders to coordinate commercial and military operations, especially after the installation of the transatlantic cable in the late 1860s. 4th- The telegraph foreshadowed its own demise in future technological developments, such as the cell phone

The Editors and Producers who decide what goes online, in the radio, and on records.

Critics are concerned the pop culture in the form of movies, television, and rock music distracts students from serious literature and philosophy, thus ruining their imagination and undermining their ability to recognize great art. The assumption is that because popular forms of culture are made for profit, they cannot be experiences as valuable artistic experiences in the way more elite art forms are.

The theory suggests that people are so addicted to mass-produced media menus that they have lost not only the will to challenge social inequities but also their discriminating taste for finer fare. Art and commerce have been blurred, restricting the audience's ability to make cultural distinctions.

(1800s-1950s)

1st-Face to face communication
2nd- Mediated interpersonal communication ex. Communication Creater>>>>media (middle)>>>Communication receiver ex. through email, text
3rd-Mass mediated communication, the process by which a complex organization with the aid of one or more machines produces and transmits public messages that are directed at large heterogeneous and scattered audiences.

The power lies with the receiver not the sender, to decide the meaning of a message. ex. text, or verbal meaning could be taken a different way

1. Sender-Decides on the message
2. Sender- Encodes the intended meaning
3. Transmitting information
4. Receiver-Receives the message
5. Receiver-Decodes and interprets the message-can they hear you?, world view, religion, education. Factor in on how the message is interpreted.

People born around 1990, Generation Media. Born at a time when media was omnipresent, television, internet. Generation before did not have the same access.

Is designed for large audiences, has popular rather than elite content. Dumbs down media, seeing low culture instead of high culture. Watches "pimp my ride," not going to the Louvre. Impersonal/non-interactive

Tell stories, get stories passed down.

Creates a national identity, scattered, but media helps us decide who we are as a nation. 9/11 put flags everywhere. Defines our place in the world, boys learn how to be boys by watching what the media tells them it means. Same for girls.