Mass Communication Artifact Paper

The term "mass communication" is a term used in a variety of ways which? despite the potential for confusion? are usually clear from the context. These include (1) reference to the activities of the mass media as a group? (2) the use of criteria of a concept? "massiveness?" to distinguish among media and their activities? and (3) the construction of questions about communication as applied to the activities of the mass media. Significantly only the third of these uses does not take the actual process of communication for granted.

"Mass communication" is often used loosely to refer to the distribution of entertainment? arts? information? and messages by television? radio? newspapers? magazines? movies? recorded music? and associated media (Beniger? 15). This general use of the term is only appropriate as designating the most commonly shared features of such otherwise disparate phenomena as broadcast television? cable? video playback? theater projection? recorded song? radio talk? advertising? and the front page? editorial page? sports section? and comics page of the newspaper. In this usage "mass communication" refers to the activities of the media as a whole and fail to distinguish among specific media? modes of communication? genres of text or artifact? production or reception situations? or any questions of actual communication. The only analytic purpose this use of the term serves is to distinguish mass communication from interpersonal? small-group? and other face-to-face communication situations. A second use of the term involves the various criteria of massiveness which can be brought to bear in analyses of media and mass communication situations (Beniger? 15).

These criteria may include size and differentiation of audience? anonymity? simultaneity? and the nature of influences among audience members and between the audience and the media.

Live television spectaculars of recent decades may be the epitome of mass communication. These may include such serious events as the funerals of John Fitzgerald Kennedy or Martin Luther King? Jr.? and such entertainment spectaculars as the Olympic games? the Superbowl? and the Academy Awards. These transmissions are distributed simultaneously and regardless of individual or group differences to audience members numbering in several tens or even a few hundreds of millions. Outside of their own local groups? these audience members know nothing of each other. They have no real opportunities to influence the television representation of the events or the interpretation of those representations by other audience members (Beniger? 15).

By contrast the audience for most cable television channels is much smaller and more differentiated from other audience groups. The audience for newspapers? magazines? and movies is less simultaneous? again smaller and more differentiated? and there is the potential for a flow of local influences as people talk about articles and recommend movies. But compared to a letter? phone call? conversation? group discussion? or public lecture all of these media produce communication immensely more massive on every criterion.

All of the criteria used in defining mass communication are potentially confused when one is engaged in a specific research project or critical examination (Blum? 27-31). The most confounding problem is ...