Overview of Theory of Mass Communication Course.

1. Overview
Baylor University
4320 Theory of Mass Communication
Mia Moody Ramirez

2. Influence of mass media on society
How much media do you consume?

3. Mass Media
Radio, television, film, and the other
products of media culture provide materials
out of which we forge :
Our identities; our sense of selfhood
Our notion of what it means to be male or
female
Our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of
nationality, of sexuality; and of "us" and
"them.”

4. Defining Theory
Stories about how and why events occur (Baran & Davis)
Theories begin with the assumption that the universe reveals certain basic
properties that explain the ebb and flow of events
Any organized set of concepts, explanations and principles of some aspect of
human experience

5. Media Culture
Media images help shape our view of the world and our deepest values
Determine what we consider good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil.
Media stories provide the symbols, myths, and resources through which we
constitute a common culture and through the appropriation of which we
insert ourselves into this culture.

6. Types of Theory (McQuail)
social scientific theory General statements about the nature, working and effects
of mass communication, based on systematic and
objective observation of media and other relevant
sources
Normative Concerned with examining or prescribing how media
ought to operate if certain social values are to be
observed or attained.
Operational Theory Refers to the practical ideas assembled and applied by
media practitioners in the conduct of their own media
work
Common-sense theory of
media use
Refers to the knowledge we all have from our own long
experience with media, which enables us to
understand what is going on

7. Questions and concerns
(McQuail)
Relations with politics and state Political campaigns and propaganda
Citizen participation
Influence on the making of foreign
policy
Cultural issues Globalization of content and flow
Social concerns Definition of reality and mediation of
social experience; links to crime,
violence, pornography to deviance
Normative questions Freedom of speech and expression
Class, gender and sexuality
Media norms
Economic concerns Degree of concentration
Commercialization of content
Global imperialism and dependency

13. Media-centric vs. Society-centric
•Media-centric attributes much
more autonomy and influence to
communication and concentrates
on the media's own sphere of
activity
•Society-centric - takes a view of
the media as so much a reflection
of political and economic forces
that theory for the media can be
little more than a special
application of broader social
theory

14. Themes and issues in Mass
Communication
Time: communication takes place in time and it matters when it occurs and how
long it takes
Place: communication is produced in a given location
Power: social relationships are structured and driven by power where the will of
one is imposed on another.

15. Concerns of communication
theory and research
· Who communicates to whom? (Sources and receivers)
· Why communicate? (Functions and purposes)
· How does communication take place? (Channels, languages, codes)
· What about? (Content, references, types of information)
· What are the consequences of communication? (Intended or unintended)

16. AlternativeTraditionsofAnalysis
The Structural Approach
Derives mainly from sociology but includes
perspectives from history, law and economics.
Its starting point is 'society-centric' rather than
'media-centric', and its primary object of attention is
likely to be media systems and organizations and
their relationship to society.
The approach favors the analysis of representative
aggregate data derived from surveys or complete
sets of statistics.

17. The Behavioral approach
The behavioral approach has its principal roots in psychology
and social psychology but is also represented by a sociological
variant.
In general, the object of interest is individual human behavior,
especially in matters to do with choosing, processing and
responding to communication messages (thus mass media use
and effect).

18. Psychological Approaches
Psychological approaches are more likely to
use experimental methods.
Individuals are classified according to relevant
variables of social position, disposition and
behavior, and the variables can be statistically
manipulated.
In the study of organizations, participant
observation is commonly adopted.

19. “A typewriter is a means of transcribing
thought, not expressing it. “
--Marshall McLuhan
THE MESSAGE

20. The Medium is the Message…
A sign of the times

21. Global Village:
The social organization that might emerge when instantaneous electronic
media is available.
The global village means that the world is made up of one social, political, and
cultural system.
Are we living in a global village?